age discrepancy

The Ever-After Bird by Ann Rinaldi
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Challenge: A-Z (title)
Review: One of Rinaldi's better recent efforts. A somewhat transparent look at the evils of slavery, but a convincing one. My biggest problem about this book was that the main character, CeCe, was said to be 13-going-on-14, but was treated throughout the book at much younger. Especially when dealing with a time period when childhood was much shorter than we're accustomed to, it seemed odd that a girl of that age would be treated as needing so much protection. Other than that, the book seemed realistic and would definitely be good for middle school-age children to learn about slavery. And, of course, I loved all the references to Oberlin!