Thee, Hannah!

I loved this story! I'd be happy to read it to any small child of 8-10. The message is clear; while Hannah spends much of the time focused on the pretty things she can't have, her patient mother tells her, “you aren't ready yet...you don't know what the bonnet means.” So while her sisters dress in prettier colors and her best friend next door puts flowers in her bonnet, Hannah has to stay in plain clothes and figure out the meaning of what her mother said. Eventually she learns—it's not about the clothes or the vanity; it's about what our dress says to the world we live in.

A background of antebellum Philadelphia and of the Quaker duty to quietly help slaves escape north lends a colorful background to the story.