“It was the last day of our old lives, and we didn’t even know it.”

Rosie Beckett narrates from a point in time that is at least several years later than the events of the novel. This allows the narrative to filter the events from a more mature and knowledgeable first-person perspective than Rosie would have had at the age of 13.

“I could be a little bit spunky if I had occasion to.”

At the novel’s start, Rosie’s personality is somewhat unfixed. She mentions having gotten into schoolyard scraps, but she is also timid at times. As the main character of a novel for young people, she can be expected to grow and change. In Rosie, Richard Peck deliberately creates a character who will be tested and transformed by the bustling World’s Columbian Exposition.

“We couldn’t imagine such a place, though there was a steel engraving of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 hanging in the schoolhouse.”

Chicago is a symbol of American optimism and aspiration in the novel. By 1893, much of the city had been built back up again since the Great Chicago Fire burned through a third of the city. The rebuilding led to some of the city’s new architectural marvels, a great source of pride for its citizens.