Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster, 110 pages

I've been re-reading some of the amazing children's fiction that was written around 100 years ago, especially those featuring spunky female characters. Jerusha (Patty) Abbott was an orphan girl, who at 17 was given the chance to go to college to become a writer through the beneficence of a anonymous donor. Patty got a glimpse of "Mr. Smith", and titles him Daddy Long Legs in the monthly letters she writes him. Patty grabs hold of each and every experience, gathering happiness after what has been a long drought in the orphanage. She is determined to gain all she can through college, and become a self sufficient writer as soon as possible. Her letters to Daddy Long Legs soon start to alter his hands off approach, and Patty's enthusiasm for life and those around her works it's magic on him. This is yet another classic that leaves the reader smiling, and serves as a good example of the wonderful literature dating from the early twentieth century.