- a young girl falls to poverty from great riches upon the death of her father
- the school headmistress is cruel, hateful and coldhearted*
- convo: mysticism, spiritualism, naturalism, Buddha mentioned once, people turning into angels upon death (they don’t, by the way), “Magic”**
- language: x9 stupid, a girl is called fat, x2 G*d, x3 “laws”
Type: chapter book
Ages: 7-12
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
*She threatened a whipping and boxed someone’s ears, but her worst behavior is the emotional abuse toward certain girls. In black and white, that sounds worse than it came off while reading. Both of my sensitive children were not bothered by her–possibly because we chatted about the book in between readings.
**The main character, Sara, certainly loved talking about “Magic” (with a capital M), but it was almost always in place of simply using her imagination. For example, she asked her Magic for an idea, and she came up with one. Other times Magic was mentioned are when the nice neighbors helped her out anonymously.
If we are comparing A Little Princess to The Secret Garden, we much preferred the former; however, Burnett’s personal religious views still pop in now and again (it’s much worse in The Secret Garden, which was chock full of her Eastern pantheistic worldview). But the majority of the book was kept clear of that. We really started empathizing greatly with little Sara as the tension climbed toward the climax, and we felt such relief when she was relieved of her miserable conditions.
Her imagination is what ultimately saves her, with the help of only a couple friends. The ending made all the angst worth reading. See if you like it!