Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Ok, so this is one of my favorite books.  I don't remember how I got it, but I think I owned it before I read it... anyway, for some reason, it's basically my comfort book... like a security blanket.  :D

I don't even know how many times I've read it!  So, has anyone else read it?  Do you like it, love it, hate it, couldn't care less???

So, my favorite part, and this is kinda silly, is the bit where she's really sick, and Susan takes her home, and she's put to bed, but she feels like she has to go back, because she's delirious with fever and thinks AN ADMIRER will think she's gone for good and not very polite, so she sneaks out of the school, climbs over the wall, but then realizes she is too weak, and should have stayed home, but is now too tired to climb back over, and goes to the cottage, and ends up passing out because she is so sick, and AN ADMIRER comes and rescues her on horseback, and she goes to stay with him and his family.  For some reason, I like it when people pass out in movies and books, it's nice and dramatic.  And sometimes romantic. *blushes*  It's kinda embarrassing to admit this, seeing as last time I did, my dad made fun of me for it....

Anyway, the book, for those who haven't read it, is about an orphaned girl who grew up in an orphanage (heh), or maybe it's a boarding school, I'm not sure, and discovers an empty cottage in the forest behind the back garden wall.  Feeling like she needs to have something she can take care of by herself without all of the other kids knowing about it, not even her best friend, Susan, Mandy (the girl) takes it on as her project, and slowly makes the cottage her own, by fixing it up and growing a garden.  But there are some things she feels she must have for the cottage that she can't get with her small allowance, or by asking, and she ends up stealing, or as she puts it, borrowing, some items from the school until she can buy her own.  But the Matron notices these disappearances, and how often Mandy herself goes off without a word, and figures it must be Mandy, and tells her she needs to stick closer to the school, or she will have privileges taken away.  Mandy is devastated, and becomes very depressed.  I don't want to give away too, much, though I see I already got a bit carried away....

Anyway, I'd like to hear your views on the book!!!