1. Both Kate Douglas Wiggin and her character Rebecca attended small-town schools in mid-nineteenth-century Maine. Was Rebecca's school typical of most schools at that time? How did those schools differ from schools today?

2. Rebecca Rowena Randall was named for the two heroines of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. In what ways does she resemble each of these heroines?

3. The orphaned or fatherless young girl who wins the affection of a coldhearted relative or guardian appears frequently in novels of the early 1900s.

Compare Rebecca with another such heroine, perhaps Anne Shirley of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908) or Elnora Comstock of Gene Stratton Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost (1909).

4. Rebecca's best friend is Emma Jane.

How is Emma Jane different from her?

Why does Wiggin make the two girls so different? Why are they friends?

5. Rebecca gradually wins the heart...