True Grit - By Charles Portis

True Grit takes place in Fort Smith, Arkansas around 1900. Fourteen year-old Mattie Ross seeks revenge on the blood of her father, who was killed by a man named Tom Chaney, who also robbed him of his money and two gold pieces. Going to Fort Smith, hiring two brave officers to help her and traveling abroad,  searching for Tom Chaney and his followers (not to mention, in the dead of a cold, brittle winter) is only some of what this teenage cowgirl can do. Throughout the book Mattie Ross and the characters show what each of them possesses... true grit.