Gr 4-7-This novel is based on diaries, journals, letters, and biographies, and covers six months of the Alcotts' life in 1844. Louisa May is almost 11, and her family is moving again. Her father is anxious to share his ideals and thoughts with like-minded thinkers, create a community, and spread his philosophy about a better way to live. Now strict vegetarians, Louisa and her sisters miss the butter, eggs, cheese, and the small amount of meat that they used to eat. They wear linen clothes that itch, avoiding the cotton that comes from the labor of slaves, and they use no animals for work or products that come from them. Life at Fruitlands is a constant struggle with the elements. Louisa uses her free time to run through the small orchard and climb her favorite apple tree to write down her thoughts and stories. Her father is constantly journeying throughout New England with his friend Mr. Lane to spread the word about the "Newness," leaving his wife and children to run the farm. Emaciation and illness begin to debilitate the family, and Louisa's mother knows that she must take her daughters elsewhere or they will die. The plot moves along well and one gets a real sense of the frustration at having to live such an austere life and of the extreme devotion to a man obsessed with a dream. This story could be used as a stepping stone to Cornelia Meigs's Invincible Louisa (Little, Brown, 1995) and Alcott's own Little Women.
Patti Gonzales, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. In her first novel, picture-book author Atkins imagines what life must have been like for Louisa May Alcott on her father's famous experimental farm, Fruitlands. Like her famous alter ego, Jo March, Louisa is smart, quick-tempered, and easily frustrated. She loves her father and believes in his abolitionist views, but she has trouble adjusting to the rigid new way of life on the communal farm. Atkins presents Bronson Alcott as a good man, perhaps too concerned with the ideal and not sufficiently aware of the needs of family, and she does a good job explaining some his more radical beliefs concerning clothing and food and their connection to slavery. Kids who have read Little Women will enjoy the allusions to the famous book, and a few who know something about the history of the time may even catch the slyly dropped references to "Mr and Mrs. Emerson" and "Mr. Thoreau." A reader's note at the end ties up the story. Excerpts from Louisa May Alcott's journals are woven into the text. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
