"The Warden's Daughter" will definitely appeal to the oldest elementary school students (in my school, that is 5th grade) and middle schoolers. Its message of kindness and sympathy will go a long way and is reflected in a life that has its ups and downs. It tells the story of Cammie who is the daughter of the warden of a prison in PA, and of a mother who died protecting her infant daughter from an oncoming milk truck. Her yearning of a mother figure and intense feelings of loss permeate the book as do the experiences of being exposed to prisoners who have committed crimes and are behind bars for their missteps, These bars are right on the grounds where she lives.
Spinelli hits upon many life experiences for the mature reader--suicide,, death, crime, punishment and more. He deals with it sensitively and resolves the story in a reflective, positive light. As always, he masters his subject matter.

It's actually hard to know if I liked this book or not. I mean, I did want to read it till the end, but during that point, there was mostly skimming involved. I wanted to know how Cammie O'Reilly turned out, but I didn't want to hear about all the mayhem she caused before it. I felt as if someone should have been there for her a long time ago, that she got away with way too much just because she's the Warden's daughter and the tragedy that surrounded her. At times, I really did feel for her, but at others, I kind of wanted someone to just tell her no, so she can learn what it means.I was basically wondering "where did all the rational thinking adults go? I felt that the treatment she was receiving was not the proper response in raising a child. It's not that her father didn't do the best that he could, but there were hints that there relationship wasn't the most communicative. I also wanted more interaction between Cammie and others. That girl was more stuck inside her head that outside with the rest of the world. For good reason, too, she was the protagonist and it was her personality. It was probably what the author was going for anyways, seeing as Cammie does refer to herself as an isolated person. I just didn't like it so much because all you saw was her being mean to people. And while I did like her maturity at the end, I didn't like how it developed: out of nowhere. Overall, this book had its ups and downs, making it more of a 3 star rating than a 4 star one.

Cammie is a really interesting character, but the story line is really sad-her mother is killed before the story starts in a terrible accident, her dad (who loves her very much) is the warden of a jail, so most of the women she knows are inmates, each with their own set of issues. Cammie is looking desperately for a mother figure and finds one.

Stargirl was one of my favorite (if not favorite favorite) book that I’ve read, and I read that one when it first came out in 2000. I was eleven, and made me fall in love with reading. Because that book has always had a special place in my heart, I was super excited to read The Warden’s Daughter, by the same amazing author, Jerry Spinelli. I hoped that it would have all of the magic and fun that Stargirl possessed. Even though I’m an adult now, I still love middle grade novels, and this book right here is no exception – it was purely a wonderful and powerful read.

“Other kids had mothers. Cammie O’Reilly didn’t. End of story.”

Cammie O’Reilly doesn’t have a mother. Her mother died when she was a baby – she was struck by a car, and right before she was hit she managed to push Cammie’s baby carriage out of the way to safety. Now Cammie has had to spend her life without a mother, as the prison warden’s daughter. While she loves her father, she has been missing out on the kind of love and affection that only a mother can provide.

While Cammie is well cared for – her father has “trustees” from the women’s section of the prison come up to their apartment and help clean, cook, and look after Cammie, especially during summer vacation when there is no school, Cammie still longs for a mother. So, one day, she decides that she wants the current trustee, Eloda, to be her mother. She spends her entire summer doing her best to get Eloda to pay attention to her, scold her, comfort her – anything that mimics the behaviors of a mother, so she wouldn’t feel so alone.

However, Eloda doesn’t seem to be giving Cammie the kind of attention she is looking for, which is driving her mad. She just wants Eloda to be her mother – and she savors the time she has each day with her while she braids her hair.

Cammie also spends time with her friends, as well as down in the prison yard with the female inmates, where she has the chance to interact with them. She becomes especially close to one inmate, named Boo Boo. While she doesn’t believe that Boo Boo would give her the type of mother figure that she needs in her life, the two quickly become fast friends,and Cammie finds herself spending a lot of time with her, while still trying to get Eloda’s attention.

Cammie spends a lot of time riding around on her bike, playing baseball, and hanging out with her group of friends, especially her best friend Reggie, who is obsessed with getting on Bandstand.

While Cammie acts tough, she is really falling apart inside. After all, she has never really had the chance to mourn her mother, because she never got to know her. All she knows is that there is a void in her life that a mother should fill, but a mother is one thing that she doesn’t have. It’s really painful to sit back and watch her ride out her emotions, especially when you can tell she’s hurting, and she just tries to brush it off and use anger as a way to get over it.

Cammie’s character was quite mean in several spots in the book, and the anger she felt about so many things in her life not going right is easy for many to relate to. After all, she has been robbed of having her mother in her life, her father is often quite busy with work, and she’s usually left on her own. You can tell that Cammie’s emotions were coming from a very deep place within her. There were times when her character was simply unlikable. This made the book even better, in my opinion, because we got to see her real emotions and watch her go through difficult times, struggling in a way that isn’t portrayed in a lot of books. Many books have main characters who deal with their pain, but don’t often express too many feelings about it. That wasn’t the case in The Warden’s Daughter – instead, it seems that the author made the character true to herself and her own feelings.

The ending of the book, especially the last third, made me an emotional wreck, and because of all the different things that I felt while reading this book, I was able to develop a deep connection to it.

Cammie turns 13 in the summer of 1959, and it’s a time of pain and growth as the grief, isolation and anger Cammie feels over growing up motherless come to a crisis point ; her mother died in an accident when Cammie was an infant, saving Cammie’s life in the process. Setting the novel in a prison (as the title indicates, Cammie’s father is the prison warden, a caring but vaguely distant presence) adds unique interest to what might ordinarily be a routine “coping-with-grief / coming-of-age”story. Exploring the stark prison setting and Cammie’s relationships with female inmates, including Boo Boo and caregiver Eloda, hold readers interest and may encourage them to stick with such a prickly protagonist. Spinelli’s in as fine form as ever, writing with uncluttered simplicity that searingly expresses Cammie’s anguished need for a mother figure: “How do you look for somebody you never knew?...How do you find someone you cannot remember?” However, it’s hard to tell whether young readers will emotionally connect with Cammie; the closing chapter with now-adult Cammie visiting the prison generates far less emotional impact than the chapter revealing Eloda’s 1959 diary entries. It’s quite possible that Eloda will be the character readers remember most from this novel. Give this novel to fans of contemporary historical fiction and pop culture and who won’t be put off by a complicated, somewhat tortured protagonist.