Little Women: Penny R

Little Women is an internationally known book written by Louisa May Alcott that discusses the lives of four sisters in 1860s Massachusetts, during the Civil War. It’s pretty easy to read and is good for comfortable, easy reading. It was made into a movie in 2019 and is generally considered a classic book.

Little Women begins when the girls are just starting their teenage years. Their names are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, ranked from oldest to youngest. They each have unique personalities and hobbies, and they always find ways to spend time with each other. The family is pretty poor and tries to make money while their father is fighting in the Union. At the beginning of the book, Jo meets a young rich boy named Laurie who lives across the street. Laurie spends a lot of time with the family and becomes one of their best friends. As the book continues, the characters grow and change, going to parties with Laurie, and getting letters from their father who is in the war.

Each character has a couple of specific traits and hobbies that define them as people. Meg, the oldest sibling, takes care of everyone and dreams of a fancier life. She’s very kind and responsible and wants to be a mother when she’s older. Jo is a writer and the most chaotic member of the group. She has written books and tries to get them published, to no avail mostly because she’s a young woman. Because it’s set in the 1860s, she is  suppressed a lot and told to become a good young lady, which she refuses the idea of. Beth is the most quiet girl, and she kind of holds the family together. She has no aspirations really, but she loves playing music and animals. Amy is the youngest and probably the most immature in the beginning. She loves painting and she’s generally considered very talented. She's very opinionated and unwilling to admit when she's wrong, so she and Jo fight a lot throughout the book. I would say it mostly focuses on Jo, but the book covers all four perspectives.

Overall, I found this book very adorable and surprisingly easy to read. I liked that it gave each girl a complex personality and plenty of positivity, because it makes the book more interesting. It’s definitely the type of book where you don’t have to expect anything, but there’s plenty of drama. I wasn’t expecting it to be such an easy read. It focuses a lot on themes of sexism and the struggles of women in that time period. It isn’t a book where you’d have to read the whole thing to find out what happens, because it doesn't really have a climax of sense of direction other than sisters growing and becoming more mature. I would definitely recommend it for a light read if you've read some classical literature before. If not, I'd say this is a good place to start!

8/10