A Book A Week

"A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett is my all time favorite children's novel, but only if the illustrations were done by Tasha Tudor. This is the chapter book that I remember reading the most when I was a girl. We had this old hardcover version (probably an old library cast-off) with Ms. Tudor's illustrations. It was beautiful. I could read it over and over without ever tiring of it, poring over the pictures endlessly, and always feeling anxious for the characters. {Of course, maybe part of why I loved this so much as a child was that the heroine and I share the same first name!}

Regardless, this is a classic in my mind. The heroine goes from riches to rags to riches again, and does her best despite the terrible curves that life throws her. She befriends the helpless and lives in her imagination, I love it. I love how the author makes Miss Crewe human. You feel as if she really lived, and could quite possibly {if you were lucky enough}, meet her one day.

So here's my advice, for what it's worth. Skip the various movies. Read this one out loud to your kids, but only the Tasha Tudor edition, trust me on that, and you'll {I hope} find yourself sucked into the book as well as your sweet children.

In my opinion, this one would interest ages 5 and up for listening to, 8 and up for reading for themselves.