Brilliant, reflective, and kind, a motherless seven-year old Sara Crewe leaves India to face a dreaded boarding school experience in England. Both in times of triumph and trial, Sara proves to be one of the greatest heroines in all of literature. Her integrity, creativity, and innocence come alive in a magical story of what it really means to be a princess.

Anyone, honestly, but especially young girls, age 8 - 108

The development of Sara Crewe's character. I've never met anyone like her and I would aspire to have her imaginative mind and giving heart.

...that the book had an ending, after which there was no more story.

...read it again, of course. And be kind to others. And get a pet monkey.

Hope in humanity, and humility, and admiration for such creative talent as Frances Hodgson Burnett possessed.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

It represents the best literature of its era -- a classic tale that is neither laborious nor boring at all.

The less you know about the book when you sit down to read it, the better. Misconceptions abound about A Little Princess, not the least of which is that it's a boring, old-fashioned children's book with pink lace on the cover. Blechk! Who'd want to read that?


My great Aunt and Uncle gave me this book, along with The Secret Garden (another fantastic book by the same author) on my 10th birthday. Although I was a voracious reader, I pre-judged those books based on their sickly-sweet appearance, and they sat on a shelf, unread, for six years.


I don't remember how or why I finally decided to read the books; I just remember being absolutely stunned at how well-written and captivating they were -- even for a jaded Gen-X teen like I was at the time.


Oh, and if you've seen the Shirley Temple movie very loosely based on the book, please try to forget it. There's no comparison. In fact, I've yet to find any movie version of this story that even begins to approach its brilliance and heart.