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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
More pointed than the 'a little' rating suggests
Language
None
Common Sense Media records language as not present
Sexual Content
Barely any
Very little: Georgie describes Billy as 'well made,' feels an attraction she calls 'cozy,' and proposes marriage; her sister kisses one man while engaged to another
Substance Use
None
Common Sense Media records drinking, drugs and smoking as not present
Emotional Intensity
A lot
A child processing a presumed death by refusing it, then travelling alone through frontier country to disprove it
What this book is about
Wisconsin, 1871, in the year of the last great passenger-pigeon nesting: Georgie Burkhardt attends a funeral for a corpse wearing her sister Agatha's gown and immediately sets out with a mule and a borrowed rifle to prove the identification wrong. Common Sense Media rates the 272-page Newbery Honor mystery 10+ with violence at 'a little' — but the specifics have teeth. The opening funeral describes a decomposing body in some detail, including that the victim was shot in the face; Georgie hunts small game, meets a cougar, falls from rocks, and in the confrontation 'Georgie shoots one man's thumb off and Billy is tied up and badly hurt.' Language is recorded as not present. Romance is slight — Georgie finds Billy 'well made,' proposes marriage, and her sister kisses a man while engaged to another.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A decomposing gunshot corpse described at the opening funeral
Georgie shoots a man's thumb off; a character is beaten and bound
A child travelling alone and armed
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