Though Louisa May Alcott is best known today for the March Family Trilogy, her lesser works haven't gone out of print since their first appearance and are equally as enjoyable. Set probably in 1878-9 (it was published in 1880), it tells the story of 12-year-old Jack Minot and his constant companion Janey Pecq, known to one and all as Jill, and what happens after an ill-considered sled coast down a steep hill breaks Jack's leg and threatens to cripple Jill for life.

Like most Victorian writers, Alcott had a certain tendency toward religiosity and didacticism, but probably less than many of her contemporaries, which may be one reason she has remained popular for more than a century; though she occasionally inserts moralisms about obedience, "temperance", and the like into the story, mostly by way of Jack's well-to-do widowed mother, she doesn't do it often.

Her main focus is Jill's slow recovery, the trials of Jack and his older brother Frank as they work their way toward manhood, and the attempts of Jill's two particular friends, Merry Grant and Molly Bemis, to improve their own homes and families.