Author: Louisa May Alcott

Publisher: Puffin in Bloom

Little women follows the lives of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as they journey from childhood to womanhood. Readers old and young have fallen in love with this tale across generations. Loosely based on her own childhood, Alcott writes of these women's struggles of survival in New England during the Civil War. The girls live with their mother, Marmee, whilst their father serves as an army chaplin during the Civil War. The grandson of the wealthy man next door, Laurie, becomes friends with the girls but Laurie has a special interest in Jo. During the novel, readers see the eldest daughter Meg marry Laurie's tutor, John Brooke and start a family of their own; Beth becomes extremely sick and dies from scarlet fever; Amy, the artist of the family marries Laurie after Jo denies his advances; and Jo, the tomboy of the family and whom the book centres around, marries a Professor who she meets during her stay at a boarding house, the two go on to set up their own school for boys.

A time-less classic. The lessons learnt from the characters of the novel are as true today as they were in Alcott's day. As adolescents move into adulthood, they learn of their strengths and weaknesses and begin to navigate through social barriers. The reader will learn that the resolution to these conflicts is to be true to oneself whilst upholding faithfulness to others; a resolution that occurs through growth obtained by often painful experiences.

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