The key to a great first person novel has got to be the voice of the narrator, and Mattie Ross is among the greats. The ultimate straight man, Mattie is alternately hilarious and humorless, naive and knowing, radical and conservative, ahead of her time and a product of her time. Through her eyes, so determined to tell everything like it was, her traveling companions Rooster Cogburn and La Bouef shine through larger than life.

The story is simple--satisfyingly so. It's hard to imagine any story starring Mattie including any unnecessary subplots. She's come to get her man and everything she does is toward that purpose. So it's even more entertaining when other people show up and insist on playing out their own problems before her so they become part of the narrative. Mattie's views of the men she meets in the wild west are wonderfully unromantic--though of course Mattie herself has her weak spots when it comes to certain qualities that are best summed up in the title: True Grit.

This book would make a great read aloud for young people, I think. I'm sure Mattie would agree.