This is a wonderful book with almost nothing to worry about. However, we always strive to share everything a parent may want to know so here we will show what we saw here.
The biggest item that you may want to talk with your reader about comes in the overall setup and context of the book. The main character (Olive) and her siblings have a father off at war in India. The interesting thing, and the thing many families will find odd is that Mom is off in India with him while the kids live at home for years on end. While families find themselves in all types of situations and challenges, we are never told a good reason why Mom is not with the children. It comes across as totally normal. This would be a good time to share with your children that there are often differences between times and cultures, but that doesn’t mean all are equal in value. God is the ultimate good and He decides what is good and right, not our culture. Great discussion topic.
In a similar vein, this story falls in a time where there is very strict Sabbath observance. We believe our culture has certainly fallen far too much away from the rest that God modeled for us from the very start, but there have been times and cultures when this was taken to an unhealthy extreme. Satan is happy with error on either side. Again, another topic to discuss.
For less mature, more sensitive readers, the story does involve a house file when the kids are sleeping. A man is said to have been “burnt to death” and the body was all “burned and charred” (but even this transitions to Mom to a heartfelt call to her two oldest children to salvation in Jesus, with the kids wondering where they would have been if they had perished in the fire).