Main Characters Mattie Benson-the daughter of Mrs. Benson and twin sister of Matt Benson Matt Benson- twin brother of Mattie and son of Mrs. Benson Mrs. Benson- Mattie and Matt’s mother Toni Douglas – Mattie’s best friend Angel Higgley- Mattie’s enemy/ bully Charlene- Angel’s best friend and follower Mrs. Rausch- Mrs. Benson’s boss Mrs. Stamps-neighbor/ close friend of the family Mrs. Grover – sales lady
This book is about a girl named Mattie Benson. She lives in Chicago Illinois with her mother Mrs. Benson and her brother Matt Benson. Her mother became a widow when her father died in a car accident . Mattie is also a very talented singer and writer. This leads her to write an essay about her mother for a contest to win $50 to buy her mom a Gold Pearl Pin. She also has a best friend named Toni Douglas. But on top of all that she has an enemy or bully named Angel Higgley who gets angry because Mattie doesn’t let her cheat off her paper on a test.
Angel has a “best friend” named Charlene who is mostly her follower. Later in the story, Angel accuses Mattie of stealing her pearl birthday bracelet. But it turns out to be Charlene because she was tired of Angel always being mean to her because she was less fortunate than her. Mattie also ends up winning the writing contest but she didn’t get a chance to buy the pin because her deposit time was up. But the editor in chief bought the pin for her considering the fact that she wrote about it in the letter.
Then when her mother received the pin she absolutely loved it even though she said she didn’t want a gift at first. Also throughout the story there was a lady named Mrs. Stamps who was a great friend of the family and she gave Toni and Mattie good advice about everything from—Angel to the pin Mattie wanted to buy for her mom. The setting of the story is in Chicago Illinois in Mattie’s apartment building which is where most of the story takes place. It also takes place in Mattie’s school. Also, at Mrs.
Stamps house where they get advice from her. Some of the story also takes place at Stern’s which is the store where Mattie is trying to buy the pin for her mother. There were many major events in the story but the most major is when Mattie finally won the writing contest and got a chance to give that pin to her mother even if it wasn’t fully from her. My favorite character in the story has to Mattie because even when she’s been through so much because of her dad dying and all she still remains to be strong and calm.
She also didn’t give up on her mother even though she was being mean to her at times. My least favorite character is Angel Higgley because she is a horribly mean person and a huge liar. She always tries to get Mattie in trouble and in the end she was the one who lost long run Mattie was the one who won because she never gave up on anything. I chose this book because it’s very interesting and it has a lot of meaning to it. It teaches you to never give up on anything.
If you read the book you’ll see that Mattie didn’t give up on anything she did. She didn’t give up on proving she didn’t steal Angel’s bracelet or she didn’t give up on her mother, the writing contest, or buying her mom that pin. She is a very strong and determined young lady and you really see her grow and mature throughout the story. I also really liked the way the story ended because it was a happy ending and everything worked out for the better. I wouldn’t change anything about this story because it was brilliantly written by the author.
