256 pages
Publisher: Robert Brothers (1868)
ISBN:1492859990
Reading Level/Lexile: 7th grade and up/1300L
Genre: Coming of Age
Annotation/Teaser: This is the story of 4 sisters during the Civil War growing up while their father is away serving the troops as a minister. This is the story of their struggle to make ends meet as they pass from childhood into womanhood.
Plot Summary: The March Sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are growing up in a world of poverty during the Civil War. This book is a chronicle of life for fifteen years for the March family. Their father is away serving as chaplain for the Union Army. Their mother, known as Marmee is kind and encourages the girls to count their blessings even in the hardship of poverty. Marmee finds out her husband is ill and must leave to nurse him. Upon regaining his health, Mr. and Mrs. March return to their home and he becomes a minister. Meg, the oldest daughter of the four, struggles with her want for wealth and the way life used to be before the family lost their fortune. She chooses to marry the very poor, John Brooke and they have twins. Jo, the second daughter is the tomboy and has a bad temper. She is a writer and writes to help earn extra money for the family. Jo eventually marries a German professor, Mr. Baur. Beth is a quiet and selfless daughter and seeks to help anyone in need. While helping a neighbor, she contracts Scarlett Fever and eventually dies. Amy, the youngest of the 4 daughters, is spoiled. She is asked by a wealthy aunt to go abroad and studies art while she is there. She struggles with the decision to marry the very wealthy, Fred Vaughn, even though she doesn't love him. Mr. Lawrence (Laurie) talks her out of it and then they eventually fall in love and marry. As the four girls struggle into womanhood, there is never a lack of adventure. They learn to appreciate each other and the importance of family and hard work.
About The Author: Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May, were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.
Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at "Hillside" (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").
Like her character, "Jo March" in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy. "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, "and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences ..."
For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays --"the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens."
At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"
Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa determined, "... I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world." Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.
Louisa’s career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book Flower Fables was published. A milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches (1863), based on the letters she had written home from her post as a nurse in Washington, DC during the Civil War.
When Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher in Boston, Thomas Niles, asked her to write "a book for girls." Little Women was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868. The novel is based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age and is set in Civil War New England. "Jo March" was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality --a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype then prevalent in children’s fiction.
In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories. She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
Louisa May Alcott Bio (n.d) Retrieved from www.louisamayalcott.org
Critical Evaluation: Little Women is a story of journeys and travels, both metaphorical and literal. There are several literal journeys to speak about. One is the journey that Jo takes to New York to run away from the feelings that Laurie has for her. Another is the journey their mother takes when she must go to nurse her husband back to health. Amy's trip to the Paris to see the art and Laurie's trip to Paris to get over Jo.
As the story develops, we see that each of the sisters have a burden of their own that they must carry and obstacles that they must overcome. This is where the metaphorical journeys start. Amy is beaten at school and Alcott describes her process of dealing with this as going through the "valley of humiliation". The literal journeys in this story also have a deeper meaning. Amy goes all the way to Paris for her artistic talent and ends up marrying the man who lives next door to her in her hometown. Louisa May Alcott sends a message of journeys and what they mean in this novel. She means for the reader to see that sometimes no matter where you go you can't get away from yourself and you may have to travel a long way to see what you had all along. Little Women is a novel that has stood the test of time. It is and has been one of my favorite books.
Curriculum Ties: English, Language Arts
Book Talk Ideas: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy struggle to cope with society's expectations for women. They are challenged with their desire for their own personal growth vs. family obligations.
Controversial Issues: N/A
Defense:
There are no apparent challenge issues in this book. If it were to be challenged I would do the following:
*I will keep
the library's selection policy on hand and memorized with a good
understanding of the standards and
policies to show that the selection meets the standards.
*I will keep
good and bad reviews (both electronic and print) and make sure they are from
reliable and respected sources such as School of Library Journal, Booklist, and
YALSA. I will have copies of these reviews to give away.
*I will confirm
the library's position to provide intellectual freedom as stated in the Library
Bill of Rights and keep a copy of this.
*I will keep
a written rationale to justify the reasons this material is included in the
collection, such as educational significance and curriculum ties.
*I will be
respectful and calm and practice "active listening".
*I will make
sure I read the material and are very familiar with it.
* I will keep a reconsideration form on file
in the event that my other strategies don't work.
Why I Chose This Book? This book has always been one of my favorites and is a classic. I included this book because I love the contrast of the struggles of women during the 19th century as opposed to the struggles women face today.
No comments:
Post a Comment