I didn't expect to like this book because the bits of the movie I've seen seemed saccharine and preachy--and it is, but the characters are so well described that I really liked a lot of it despite that. It gets pretty heavy handed and tedious in parts of the second half, though. ( )

This is a great adapted retelling of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" done by Monica Kulling. Kulling does a great job of retelling the classic story in a way that children will be able to grasp, and they can appreciate the story at a young age and then read the original when they are a little older. Little Women is the story of four very different sisters, Meg, Beth, Amy, and Jo, and their lives of fun and dreams while their father is away at war. The family does not have much money, so the reader gets to experience the creativity of the girls as they still find ways to do everything they want and to love on each other when the times get hard. They fight like any other sisters, they laugh, they share, they cry, and they grow together. They do not let one another fall away, and they stand together through anything. I read this book first as a young girl of grade 3 or 4 I think, and thought it was a lovely tale. Consequently, I read the original then I was in grade 9 and loved it too, and I think that this is a great introduction to the story for young children, most especially girls.

Themes: family, sisters, relationships, growing up