Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

My wonderful friend Christy recommended that our Relief Society book group read this treasure. I remembered it only vaguely from when I read it as a young girl. I loved the cover of my book which had a painting of a girl sitting in a big comfy chair reading a book. Now that I think about it, I wonder if it was an abridged version? Because when I found this book in a used bookstore, I was astounded at the length of it! 537 pages! Could I have really read that hefty of a book as an eleven or twelve year old? Perhaps!

I was a little dismayed at first at the tone and the dated feel of it...but I quickly overcame that and found it sweet. It didn't take me long to get swept into the story again and to admire the girls and especially their mother.

There were many, many parts that I wanted to highlight and save...but there were too many. I need to save the whole book!

Parts to add: the position of the father, and how he's an ANCHOR to the family. Very much like God.

How Jo's role in society and in the family was a call for independence and new roles for women. This is modeled after Louisa herself, apparently.

In our discussion, April shared that she had experienced and also knew families whose sibling relationships were as positive as those portrayed in this book. The comment had been made that this was unrealistic.