Heart of Gold

"Heart of Gold" by Ruth Brown MacArthur is a story set in the early 1900s about an energetic young girl named Peace Greenfield, who sees the world through the eyes of a child filled with dreams as she learns to live and overcome problems. The story is about Peace's relationships with her friends and family, showing how childhood innocence, the strength to keep going, and being kind can make a difference. At the beginning, we meet Peace as a happy and busy child who has a hard time paying attention in school, often getting lost in her thoughts while her teacher is teaching a lesson. We learn about her fun but sometimes messy life, as she deals with schoolwork and thinks about the people who are important to her, like the Lilac Lady, whom she remembers fondly. This part of the story shows how much Peace loves to imagine things and how much she wants to go on adventures, which prepares us for what's to come, including a big accident that will change her life in a big way and how she deals with her feelings and what's happening around her, suggesting bigger ideas that will appear later in the book.