Interesting story- I had never heard of Opal Whiteley prior to this book. I am still not sure what I think about the controversy surrounding her writing, but I find it fascinating that she was considered so brilliant as a child because the plants and animals talked to her- to the extent that she traveled all over the US to talk about nature- and it was later discovered that she had Schizophrenia. I wish more had been written about her as she aged.