Talk about a beloved children’s story! This one’s a classic…
When a well-loved book wears out at the library, providing it still enjoys frequent circulation, it gets reordered—and for a time it enjoys “New Book” status. I frequent the “New Books” shelf in the children’s section looking for fresh yummy books to recommend to you. Last week I saw this beloved title: A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett—originally published in 1905! (FYI, Peter Pan and Wendy came out in 1911.)
I can’t remember when I first read this fine book… I know it was after I read The Secret Garden—another of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s amazing stories, and one of my all-time favorites in children’s literature. It was a combination of The Secret Garden and C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia that had me searching everywhere in my childhood home for a nook or cranny that would open to reveal a magical place of my very own.
That same attraction to a magical place of one’s own tugged at me when I began Piper Pan and Her Merry Band. The Neverland, typically reserved for children, pirates, and a diva fairy named Tinker Bell, perfectly filled the bill. A place with space to make choices, have adventures, and grow into oneself without the (well-intentioned) restraining hand of an adult.
A Little Princess, like The Secret Garden, takes place in Great Britain. Both books feature little girls whose well-off British parents raised her in India. Both girls are orphaned and their social circumstances suddenly change. A Little Princess strikes me as more of a morality tale. At its heart is the message that our intrinsic qualities (kindness, compassion, cleverness, imagination, and the ability to make friends, for example) make us who we are far more than our monetary circumstances. Little Sara goes from wealthy, to poor, to wealthy once again, and throughout she remains worthy of the title “Little Princess.”
I’m always warmed, amazed, perhaps awestruck, when I realize that a book has been so well loved by so many for so long. What a fine thing to create such a lasting story! I was interested to read in the forward that this story began as a shorter book—which was so well loved, Ms. Hodgson Burnett turned it into a play—and the play so beloved, it was turned into a longer book: A Little Princess.
I hope you’ll be inspired to go to the library and relive this sweet solemn story along with any memories it sparks for you.
Happy Reading!