“A Little Princess” – Classic for young reader

Posted by: serene13 on: October 31, 2014

• In: About Parenting | What I've Read
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Though this is a an adapted version of France Hodgson Burnett’s “A Little Princess” (written way back in 1905) which I got from Popular a month back, it is just nice for young readers. It is easy to read and with beautiful illustration.

It tells story about Sara Crewe, a motherless child who has been raised in India by her wealthy, doting father. It all started when Sara’s father sent her to boarding school in London. She was enrolled in Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Girls. Sara is the happiest girl at Miss Minchin’s school. Her father sends her lavish gifts from India and her kindness makes her a favorite with the other pupils, and some call her “princess”; while there are few who are bitterly jealous of her. But when her father dies,  Sara is suddenly left penniless and Miss Minchin turns against her. She is relegated to the life of a servant in a cold, lonely attic room, but her courage and her always brilliant imagination becomes her saving grace. Throughout, she remains a magnanimous “princess,” who feels best when she is helping others; the wonderful stories she invents, and her kind heart, earn her true friends and eventually lead her to a new home.

 

It is a good story for children. On one hand, it depicts the ugly side of the society with those snobbish people like Miss Minchin, and on the other, it shows that with her born nobility, richness doesn’t stop Sara from seeing that we are all the same;

(there’s one scene where Becky the servant fell asleep on Sara’s chair being too exhausted over those cleaning work, and when she opened her eyes and saw Sara:

 )

and poverty doesn’t stop Sara from giving buns to a beggar child whom she spotted “with eyes even hungrier than her own”.

From one reviewer: “Sara may be a rich heiress, but she lacks the sense of entitlement that many privileged people have even today. Her sense of compassion makes her acknowledge the humanity of everyone she interacts with. ”  Ya, some attitude I would like my children to have as well, even though we are not rich.