Customer Reviews

Classic Starts: Little Women (Classic Starts Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Little Woman is a book that everyone must read. I really love the characters and everything about it! My favorite character is Jo, who seems a lot like me because she loves books and isn't a really girlie girl. I also like Beth because she is so nice. I really recommend reading this book.
(by an 8 year old reviewer)

Most children have probably seen one version or another of this wonderful classic so this is a great way to read it. It is abbreviated and short enough to hold interest. When I was a child I wore out a copy ,of what would be called these days a graphic version ,with wonderful illustrations. I wish that the illustrations in this version were better drawn and more colorful.

This book was set in the civil war about four sisters and their mother. They also had a friend named Laurie. Their father was taking care of hurt and Ill soldiers. Then one day they were sent a telegram that said that their father was very ill, but he was cured and their father was luckily home in time for Christmas. One of the sisters, Beth, became ill also from helping a poor sick family.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read because it is filled with interesting things that happen! But my favorite part was when Laurie joined their busy bee society and when their mother leaves them by themselves for the entire day just to play a trick on them!

This is a must have if your daughters are into chapter books. My daughter who is 10 loves to read and has always love to read. I can't remember if I bought this when she was 9 or 10 but it is a great book and after she read it we watched the movie together. Another great book she loves is Anne of Green Gables and every year for Christmas she gets a new book in the series. She loves them and really loved this. It is easy to read and hard cover, it didn't take her very long but she will sit and read for over an hour at a time some times.

Today I thought I would write a little about some favourite books of mine which I have loved from a young age.

The first is Little Women, a novel written by Louisa May Alcott which was originally published in two volumes and later turned into one book.

The story follows the lives of four sisters all living together with their mother (they call her Marmee) during the Civil War. The sisters' names are Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, and are apparently loosely based on Louisa's own sisters and herself from childhood.

The girls' father Mr March is away at war and is hardly ever home. Because of the war, the March family suffers through poverty but tries to find happiness in the small and simple things in life.

Their wealthy next door neighbour Laurie falls in love with one of the March girls, Jo, who is the family tomboy. The elder daughter Meg is a governess who wishes she were rich, Beth is Jo's pet and is a quiet, shy homebody who loves music, and Amy is the youngest, a selfish artist who often fights with Jo.

The story unfolds to reflect the course that each of their lives takes them through, and the struggles and hurdles they overcome to eventually attain what they all want and need.

During the novel, Meg turns from being an engaged girl to Laurie's tutor John to eventually getting married and having twins. Beth is recovering from a terrible illness which she contracted from a poor family whom she was trying to help, Jo has dreams of writing a great novel and Amy is starting to mature and grow more into a woman every day.

The story is more than 150 years old and yet still resonates with modern issues facing young women today. It explores issues of personal growth through constraints of domestic duties focusing on the conflict that takes place in any young girls' life, namely whether to pursue a career or else look after the family home.

At the time the novel was composed (America in the nineteenth century), women's status in society was slowly increasing however progress toward gender equality was limited. Although Alcott doesn't suggest that one model of womanhood is better than the other, she does recognise that one is simply more realistic.

Gender stereotypes are another major issue explored within the novel. The character Jo at times doesn't really want to be a female and is much more like a boy. Likewise, the character Laurie doesn't want to be a conventional man. He wants to pursue music, which at the time was a very feminine pursuit and he prefers his nickname Laurie to the much more masculine sounding Theodore.

The book questions the validity of gender stereotypes to a high degree and warrants that our conventional duties of gender expectations are rarely ever recognised. I find this just as fascinating in today's times as it was then. Perhaps even more so, simply because our perceptions of feminine and masculine traits have become so interwoven with one another that it's hard to judge anymore what we deem to be correct. And yet, the issue still exists and is one of our most controversial debates.

Alcott focuses on other issues as well throughout the novel to draw the story out. The necessity placed on work and the personal satisfaction we attain from doing it is highlighted, the importance of being genuine is also looked at, particularly in the context of coming from humble beginnings and comparing ourselves with well to do people, she looks at music and the interesting relationship we all have with it, and she writes about the concept of teaching, reinforcing the idea that the novel is didactic and we are meant to learn something from the story's lessons.

Ultimately touching upon themes of love, innocence, marriage, illness, ambition but above else family Little Women truly is a wonderful epic tale filled with heartfelt emotion and memorable characters. An absolute must read, for both children and adults alike.

Coming up next in my childhood classics series is a review of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Read more of my book reviews at Storybook Love Affair - [...]