A Little Princess
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
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Read in July, 2007
Downloaded this one in audio form from Librivox as well.
This is one of my all time favourite books. I first read it when I was thirteen years old and a bit of an outcast at my school and it gave me strength to move on. Her way of pretending things was very familiar to me and I got so sucked into the magic of the story.
Hearing it now, I was afraid it would prove childish, as childhood favourites often do. But to my delight it didn't. Sarah was a bit naive at times, which doesn't con...more
This is one of my all time favourite books. I first read it when I was thirteen years old and a bit of an outcast at my school and it gave me strength to move on. Her way of pretending things was very familiar to me and I got so sucked into the magic of the story.
Hearing it now, I was afraid it would prove childish, as childhood favourites often do. But to my delight it didn't. Sarah was a bit naive at times, which doesn't con...more
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Read in March, 1987
recommends it for:
Readers with a Taste for Sentimental Girls' Fiction
That one should never see a film adaptation of a book, without first having read the original, is an idea so unconsciously accepted in my circle of family and friends that it usually admits no debate. But for every rule there are exceptions, and happily for my childhood, Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess was one of them. I had little taste for sentimental fiction as a child (oh, the irony!), and might have remained indifferent to Burnett's work, had I not seen the brilliant Wond...more
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Read in January, 1994
My mother thought it completely foolish of me to buy a hardcover book and then finish it in one night (these were the days before Harry Potter and we had enough books in our house, in her opinion). But I loved owning this edition with its gorgeous images and, when I gave it to my younger cousins in Singapore, believing myself ready to part with my childhood attachment to a book I couldn't forget my mother's resented my buying, I did mourn its loss, though I was a teenager by then and studying t...more
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Read in November, 2007
Written by Francess Hodgson Burnett, published by Aladdin Classics, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division. Cover photo by Lady Clemetina Hawarden. Foreward by Nancy Bond, copyright 2001.
Grade level recommendation: 4th and older
Summary: Sara Crewe is a young girl who began her life as a pampered daughter of a rich man. However, when he dies very poor, she is at the mercy of her boarding school mistress, wo treats her very badly and turns Sara into a servan...more
Grade level recommendation: 4th and older
Summary: Sara Crewe is a young girl who began her life as a pampered daughter of a rich man. However, when he dies very poor, she is at the mercy of her boarding school mistress, wo treats her very badly and turns Sara into a servan...more
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I read this when I was a munchkin, loved it, and I still love it. No matter what the form, I love it. It's like a love story without the icky romance and it's like a rags-to-riches story, except that it's more like a riches-to-rags-to-raggier-rags-to-riches. It makes me laugh and cry and go into fits of unexplainable rage when I read about Ms. Minchin.
But, oh, the light of the story is Miss Sara Crewe and her ever-faithful friend, Becky. They make the story come alive and in my favor...more
But, oh, the light of the story is Miss Sara Crewe and her ever-faithful friend, Becky. They make the story come alive and in my favor...more
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I first read this book very, very early in my career as a reader in an abridged form called "Sara Crewe". It was one of those Dover Thrift type editions, and it was dog-eared before I ever touched it. I was completely and utterly enthralled by the garret room and all it's happening. I sat behind my bedroom door, in the little nook there, and read on the floor for a kid's eternity. I'm pretty sure I spent a lot of time pretending I was Sara Crewe. She was pretty much my hero, and r...more
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Read in September, 2007
Book downloaded from gutenberg.org
The other night I was thinking of movies and remembered loving the Shirley Temple movie about a little orpan girl and I wanted to watch it again..I couldn't for the lift of me remember the name of the movie so I spent some time googling and realized that not only was it a movie I wanted to see but a book I would probably enjoy as well. When I saw the publication date was more than 70 years ago I decided to see if gutenberg.org had a copy of it while I wait ...more
The other night I was thinking of movies and remembered loving the Shirley Temple movie about a little orpan girl and I wanted to watch it again..I couldn't for the lift of me remember the name of the movie so I spent some time googling and realized that not only was it a movie I wanted to see but a book I would probably enjoy as well. When I saw the publication date was more than 70 years ago I decided to see if gutenberg.org had a copy of it while I wait ...more
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Read in January, 1980
Like Walt Disney, Burnett is deeply interested in transformation. The Secret Garden, another wonderful book, is a more linear transformation from a sour girl into a loving one by virture of the English countryside and its denizens. But A Little Princess has more going for it. A start in colonial India, the pain of losing the only surviving parent, and the challenge not to transform, but to stay true. But Sarah Crewe is more than a Penelope at her loom. She believes in magic--and really, the kind...more
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This is a story about a different kind of princess than one might imagine; a princess that is an orphan - lonely, cold, hungry and abused. Sara Crewe begins life as the beloved, pampered daughter of a rich man. When he dies a pauper, she is thrown on the non-existent mercy of her small-minded, mercenary boarding school mistress. Stripped of all her belongings but for one set of clothes and a doll, Sara becomes a servant of the household. Hated by the schoolmistress for her independent spirit, Sa...more
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Read in April, 2006
recommends it for:
all girls - they need to know they're princesses!
I enjoyed this story, but unfortunately I had seen the movie first and so I was disappointed that the book was not quite as encouraging as the movie. Still enjoyed it though! 04/02/2006
Quotes:
"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 of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is on...more
Quotes:
"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 of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is on...more
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recommends it for:
Kids
I liked this one better than Secret Garden. I can still remember the story vividly. It was awesome how she would go to sleep and wake up and her room had been transformed. Just like magic.
However as an adult, the hints of Orientalism found in this book are somewhat disturbing.
At this time, Europe was obsessed with this exotic idea of the East, which included everything from Palestine to China. If you look at the ballet, music fashion and art from this period you will notice it too. Lot...more
However as an adult, the hints of Orientalism found in this book are somewhat disturbing.
At this time, Europe was obsessed with this exotic idea of the East, which included everything from Palestine to China. If you look at the ballet, music fashion and art from this period you will notice it too. Lot...more
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This was one of my top favorite books as a child -- there was the romantic setting (India! boarding school! a garret!) and the wonderful upstairs-downstairs worlds explored, but more than anything, I think Burnett masterfully showed us Sara's fall from grace and its many facets. It could have been entirely depressing, or entirely whitewashed, but instead we see Sara having good times and bad, having moments where she harnesses her inner strength and moments where she thinks she will crumble. Mos...more
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I read this when I was about 12, but I loved it so much I read it again three more times. Sara Crewe is a character that I would want as a friend. Her imagination was like mine as a child. Her ability to mentally transform her austere room in the attic into a room fit for princess enthralled me, and reminded me of the days I would create whimsical worlds within my own room. Imagination is one of the most beautiful gifts we are given, and Sara uses her imagination in a way to uplift and inspire t...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
all little girls
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recommends it for:
Young Girls 7-18 years old
Absolutely beautiful, and wonderfully heart-felt and imaginative. I love this book because it has the message that no matter who you are, or where you come from, you are who you want to be, no matter what anyone might say to you. Sarah knew she was a princess in her mind, even if she wasn't living the high life, and even if she thought her father was dead. I also loved the firndship Becky and sarah had, because it showed how two very different cultures could come together and be friends, even th...more
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Sarah Crewe, who always tells herself she should act like a princess and be kind, is a young girl who enters a boarding school for girls. When tragedy hits, her world is thrown into turmoil. As she toils, Sarah learns exactly what it means to be a princess: not station or wealth, but an act of being. I personally liked the movie better. It was more colorful. In the book, you don't get to hear what Sarah is imagining, and I don't like that. It is rather old, so you have to read it in context of t...more
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Read in August, 2007
This really is a beautiful story. I read it outloud to my 7 year old (LOVED IT) and my 4 1/2 year old (enjoyed it - but got a bit bored). Sarah Crew is such an admirable character - so full of the values I want my own daughter to have. The scene with the buns and the "beggar girl" were absolutely heart-wrenching and even my 7 year old understood how much strength it took.
The middle did get a bit long - even for me. But the last 1/3 really picked up and even though I know it would a...more
The middle did get a bit long - even for me. But the last 1/3 really picked up and even though I know it would a...more
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Read in January, 1994
I also loved the Shirley Temple Movie and have since seen a couple of other good versions. Read the book when I was about ten, whay too long ago to be listed here, but I read it to my daughters in the 90's I think. They both love it too.It is one of three Frances Hodgson Burnett books I read and continued to read into adulthood. Love those plucky orphan stories!!!
If you loved it you would also love Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden. Ironically, FHB as a writer was so busy being ...more
If you loved it you would also love Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden. Ironically, FHB as a writer was so busy being ...more
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Read in April, 2005
"A Little Princess" is a beautiful book about a young rich girl named Sara Crew. Sara is a girl sent from India to a Boarding School in England. She is intelligent, very close to her father, loves to tell stories, has a wonderful imagination, and has a heart of gold. Even when her life turns upside down, she is able to keep who she is and remember that no matter what happens in her life, she can still behave like the Princess she imagines herself to be. An inspiring and heartfelt story...more
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