Christmas Dreams

Portraits of Little Women

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Each of the girls has a choice to make about the beautiful brooch.

Meg's Christmas Meg would gladly exchange it for a gift for her father....

Jo's Christmas Jo behaves like a total scrooge and must learn the true spirit of Christmas.

Beth's Christmas Beth discovers what her sisters' and parents' lives would have been like without her.

Amy's Christmas Always happy to receive presents, Amy surprises everyone when she bestows a gift to a poor little girl.

This quartet of Christmas stories captures the joyful spirit of the holiday season.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christmas, Childrens, Fiction, Holiday, Middle Grade

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 1998

About the author

Susan Beth Pfeffer was an American author best known for young adult and science fiction. After writing for 35 years, she received wider notice for her series of post-apocalyptic novels, officially titled "The Life as We Knew It Series", but often called "The Last Survivors" or "Moon Crash" series, some of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Reviews

[Debbie Channell]

I read Little Women to my little girl and she loved it.

This book has stories based on the Alcott’s characters. The reading level was appropriate for her to read aloud to me and the content was enjoyable.

[Katy Lovejoy]

love these sisters

[Mary Ni]

i read this book over christmas break. since it was a dew days before christmas, i thought i should get myself into the christmas mood, so i picked this book. this book is about what four little girls would do with a beautiful brooch. it is very interesting to read about the different actions people take during christmas. after reading this book, i realized i might have be acting like a scrooge during this christmas season.

[Tarissa]

Meg's Christmas Dream:
Meg spies a beautifully bound Bible in the bookshop in town. The Bible would make the perfect Christmas gift for the 4 sisters to give to their father. It also is expensive. Meg comes up with a plan on how to buy it, but will it pan out in the end?

Jo's Christmas Dream:
Jo learns an important lesson about controlling her anger, as shown to her by characters not unlike Dickens' own Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. A very moving tale! I enjoyed the similarities to A Christmas Carol.

Beth's Christmas Dream:
Beth recieves a Yuletide visit from a special guest who has brought a message just for her. She learns how different the March family would have turned out, had she never been there. Oh, the horridness she sees! It is but an encouragement though to see what a difference you've made in the lives of your family members.

Amy's Christmas Dream:
A tidy (or in Aunt March's opinion, slightly horrendous) ending to this Christmas collection. Amy finds herself at the center of the story, with the chance of a lifetime to accompany Aunt March to New York. Amy has been brought up by caring parents though, and this may prove too much for end March to bear.

[Joan]

Very well written, homey story. Definitely patterned to read like Louisa May Alcott wrote it.

[Anjali Gupta]

Mostly good and nostalgic, but Jo and Beth’s short stories were so outta pocket Idek what to think

[Eve (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤ (Semi-active)]

An amazing story about sisterhood. I know I will read this every Christmas from now on.

[Ruth E.]

I liked each of the four stories was connected to the brooch. I also liked the tie-in with other Christmas stories, like the Christmas Carol.

[Jes]

I love Little Women and this captures the spirit of the original tale. Cute children's Christmas story.

[Lauren Zaglifa]

In my opinion, you just can't hate Little Women, and this book is the tip of the iceberg. My favorite story was Beth's. When I read the part when everyone was fighting and Marmmee let then beat the crap out of each other I was SHOCKED!!
I still can't stand Aunt March so I am always glad to have Jo go and visit her because she shouts at her at least once.
Amy is really sweet in her story. Getting to go to New York for the holidays is amazing even if you are stuck with an old hag that doesn't like anything but her own way. Amy was only taken because she was given a special brooch, but when she sees that poor girl in the freezing outside she goes against her Aunt's anger and gives it away. That was extremely big of her. And going against Aunt March's anger is A LOT!!!
I am going to make this a Christmas tradition read it every year. Hope y'all like it to.

[Kathy]

I really wanted to love this book, but they just didn't feel like MY little women.

[Dalaina Renee]

If you love a good classic christmas tale this one is for you! I loved every page. Also included is a little recipe in the book which is so sweet!