Katherine Paterson's historical novel Lyddie is told in the third-person limited point of view. The story's main character is Lyddie Worthen. She is thirteen years old when the tale opens, and she lives in a cabin on a Vermont farm with her mother and siblings. We see the story's events through Lyddie's eyes even though Lyddie herself is not the narrator.

For example, in the novel's first chapter, a black bear manages to get inside the cabin. Lyddie looks up and sees the animal, but she does not panic. She calmly directs her mother, brother, and sisters up into the loft as she holds the bear back through her authoritative stare. Then Lyddie carefully climbs up behind her family. The bear eventually gets his head stuck in the oatmeal pot and dashes off, but this incident is a turning point for Lyddie and her family.

As the story progresses, the narrator follows Lyddie through her time working at the tavern and then to Lowell, Massachusetts, where she works in a textile mill. We see all of this from Lyddie's perspective, and we hear about her thoughts and feelings as she struggles to cope with her mother's mental illness, her hard work in the mill, and her strong desire to save her family's farm. Eventually Lyddie has to come to terms with her life as it is rather than as what she wants it to be, and she sets out on a brand new adventure as the novel ends.