A Little Princess Discussion

I think several of us have recently read or reread A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I thought I would start a discussion thread.

Warning: There will probably be spoilers!

I have said it in another tread, but this is the book that really made me a reader. My fourth grade teacher read The Secret Garden to us, which I really liked. I decided to read another book by the same author. It was wonderful!

Has anyone else read Sara Crewe? Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote it before A Little Princess, it is a shorter version of the story.

edited because it won't touchstone right

I actually have a copy, but I never read it. Is it worth the time? I guess the story was just a play before the Sara Crewe book.

It's basically the same, it was just expanded for A Little Princess. It's a good book if you want something shorter.

I just gave that to Missie to read. She's now reading chapter books and I really liked A Little Princess when I was younger. I'm just hoping it's not too depressing for a six year old. 8)

Well, the part about the girl's dad dieing was sad, but other than that I personally don't remember being very depressed when I read it. Then again, I forget how old I was when I first read it.

i feel like this book is best for children who are already recognized as precocious, or for teens/adults who were seen as such when they were children... otherwise, they'll resent Sara rather than identifying with her. does that make sense?

I don't remember how old I was, but my mother actually read The Little Princess to me, so I must have been rather young. I loved it, and didn't feel it was too sad - after all, it seems like a lot Disney movies start with parents dying! I hope that your daughter enjoys the book.

I never read this book till very recently. My mom tried to help me read many times, but the only book I can remember the title of is If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

#2 rissa:
I read about that in the intro of my A Little Princess book. :)

#5 MEM:
I'm gald you can get her into chapter books. My kid sister will never be a reader. Hope she enjoys it! :)

#7 aglaia:
It makes sense to me. :)

8 Lex: It is funny what you said about Disney movies. The thing I didn't like about both Hollywood versions I have seen is they bring the Dad back. Do they think we can't comprehend that she could be happy otherwise?

they also change the reason she's left at the school in the first place.

Spoiler Alert

#10 compski:
I thought they brought the Dad back! It was driving me crazy when I was reading the book because I kept thinking, 'it's going to get better! She'll have her father back!' Well, she never did. What a sad ending it was not knowing those movies had changed it.

12 K: I can see where that would make the book ending sad. Thank goodness when I read it I never associated it with the Shirley Temple movie. This is aweful of me, but I was just happy Miss Minchin got her come-upance.

I bought A Little Princess today so I can catch up. I confess the movie was my introduction to the story but somehow I knew that he was not alive in the book.

Perhaps it was because I'd read and reread The Secret Garden so many times and no one comes back in that.

On thing I did like about the film was that they had actors who played her parents in the story she told about Sita and Rama which puts them in an epic love story which felt right.

#7 I do think Burnett's books speak to precocious children or perhaps to children who spend a lot of time in books or in their own heads.

I'll comment on the book when I have actually caught up.

Maren, I liked that part of the movie as well. I do admit, even before I read the book, I found the movie ending somewhat contrived. I think the book ending was more realistic.

15: The fact that her father's friend was looking for her and had her restored fortune is more realistic, but the fact that he ended up living next door may be considered a bit contrived. I wouldn't change it, though. Sara would say it was part of the "Magic"! If he lived somewhere else, it would take away my favorite part when the dream comes true.

14: I don't know if this part spoke to me as a kid, but it does now:

"Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling or irritaion which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage."

I used to run a gift store that was very quite in the winter. I read books for a while, but I had to give it up. I would get so mad at customers when I had to put one down!

I just finished reading it for the first time last night which is odd considering how I adored The Secret Garden that I never found it on my own when I was a child.

It is lovely. In some ways it is a Job story. I love that being a princess relies on how you behave and that Sarah takes care of all the people she was trying to help when she is suddenly rich again. Becky, the girl outside the bun shop.

I was also stuck in reading it how British Colonialism plays into both books (this is the adult reader in me) I realized how some of that is romanticized given the troubling history of the British in India but as I child I found it very exotic and romantic- as Sarah did.

I love the protective power of storytelling. I think that may be the best aspect of the book. Once when I started Grad school I was saying how I loved the Harry Potter books and someone was sort of snarky and said "aren't they sort of popular, I didn't think there was anything in those" and I launched into a defence of Harry Potter I wish I had recorded. Much of my argument had to do with how children need to shelter in books. Because children all discover the world is not fair and is often hurtful and until they can make sense of it and to help them make sense of it and as adults change it they need books as a protective place to noursh them.

Sarah is nourished by her stories and that may be my favorite part the power of stories to protect and create change.

okay I am done yammering on.