A friend recommended this book to me, and I was glad that she did. I found the whole book to be easy and enjoyable reading, and I learned a lot about Jewish girls' lives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I am going to start giving this book as a gift for bat mitzvas and graduations, since I think that Jewish girls today will get a real kick out of reading the diary excerpts that the author included, as well as the author's analysis and interpretation.