A Little Princess

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A masterpiece of Victorian children's literature, this novel demonstrates kindness, resourcefulness and resilience. Similarly to the 1978 adaptation, this version focuses more on the saddest aspects of the story and on the bullying, although in a more mildly and less violent way. No beatings for Sara although the little girl in the next attic room was hit several times near the end of the story.

This a beautifully told story of a young girl, who's life is destined to take some dramatic turns of fortune. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.Then her father dies and his wealth disappears, and Sara has to learn to cope with her changed circumstances. Lavinia as well, from saying she knew Sara was always just a servant to jerking her arm to make it look like Sara deliberately spilled food on her. Many newspapers and magazines were interested in her private life and wrote about her, much like they do about celebrities today. Compare the 1858 French novel Malheurs de Sophie with a similar Riches to Rags and Rags to Riches premise affecting a little girl from the aristocracy. Becky becomes Sara's personal servant and, with her newfound wealth, Sara makes a deal with a baker, proposing to cover the cost of food given to any hungry child.

When Sara Crewe is brought from India to attend Miss Minchin’s boarding school for girls in London, she arrives looking rather like a princess, with trunks full of the finest clothes. Alternately the Victorian standards of brown and dark could be referring to her just being tanned from growing up in India (it would be another few decades before tanned skin would become fashionable). Children will love adding stickers to the pages of this colourful sticker book to help her play card tricks with the Prime Minister, make balloon animals with the Admiral and pull a rabbit out of a hat with the Gardener. When she wakes up that morning with a nasty, snuffly cold, she is determined not to let it spoil her fun - even if it means bending the rules a little! A sequel by Hilary McKay was published by Hodder Children's Books in September 2009: Wishing For Tomorrow: The Sequel to A Little Princess.Death by Adaptation: When Sara's father is revealed to be alive, it's explained that his business partner died and was mistaken for him. How this exceptionally intelligent girl uses the only resources available to her, imagination and friendship, to overcome her situation and change her fortunes is at the centre of this enduring classic. Sara's grim circumstances don't fully hit home until a child mistakes her for an actual beggar, at which point she realizes that she really is one step above a beggar. Her husband s medical practice did not do well, and the family relied on Frances writing to stay out of debt.