Little Women and Me

Little Women and Me
Genre(s)
Age Range
12+
Release Date
November 08, 2011
ISBN
1599905140
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Emily March is sick and tired of being a middle sister. So when she gets an assignment to describe one thing she'd change about a classic novel, Little Women is an easy choice. After all, if Emily can't fix things in her own family, she might as well bring a little justice to the other March sisters. Perhaps she can--spoiler alert!--keep Beth from dying? Or maybe she can prevent the boy next door from winding up with Amy instead of Jo?

But when Emily gets mysteriously transported into the 1860s world of the March sisters, she discovers that righting fictional wrongs won't be as easy as she thought... especially when she develops a crush on the very boy she planned to save for Jo. After being immersed in a time and place so different from her own, Emily--and not the March sisters--may be the one who undergoes the most surprising change of all.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted's winning confection is a journey of self-discovery that will appeal to fans of Little Women as well as anyone who enjoys time travel or a modern twist on an old favorite.

Emily March is sick and tired of being a middle sister. So when she gets an assignment to describe one thing she'd change about a classic novel, Little Women is an easy choice. After all, if Emily can't fix things in her own family, she might as well bring a little justice to the other March sisters. Perhaps she can--spoiler alert!--keep Beth from dying? Or maybe she can prevent the boy next door from winding up with Amy instead of Jo?

But when Emily gets mysteriously transported into the 1860s world of the March sisters, she discovers that righting fictional wrongs won't be as easy as she thought... especially when she develops a crush on the very boy she planned to save for Jo. After being immersed in a time and place so different from her own, Emily--and not the March sisters--may be the one who undergoes the most surprising change of all.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted's winning confection is a journey of self-discovery that will appeal to fans of Little Women as well as anyone who enjoys time travel or a modern twist on an old favorite.

User reviews

2 reviews
Overall rating
 
3.0
Plot
 
3.0(2)
Characters
 
3.0(2)
Writing Style
 
3.0(2)
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
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Cute Concept
Overall rating
 
3.0
Plot
 
N/A
Characters
 
N/A
Writing Style
 
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Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
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What made me keep turning the page?

To discover Emily’s purpose in Little Women
The time traveling concept
Emily’s wit and personality
Reading Emily’s psychoanalysis of all the March sisters
Seeing how Emily could change the story
Watching Emily learn about herself
Observing Emily accommodate to the 1800s and all it had to offer (or not offer)

Any complaints?

There was a lot of repetitiveness throughout the story regarding the daily life of the March family

Recommendation:

Fans of Little Women
Fans of time travel
Final Thoughts…
Little Women and Me was a cute book. I love Little Women, so it was fun to see a different take on the classic story. While I wasn’t always eager to pick this book up and read it, I always had a hard time putting it down once I started.

Emily was a fun character that I really liked. She made me laugh out loud on several occasions with her wise cracking personality. I think the other March characters were portrayed as even more annoying than in the original, but it made the story more entertaining.

I love time travel books, and this was a light, non-confusing version of time travel. This is a perfect book for light reading, especially if you are a big fan of Little Women.
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Neat concept, could have been better
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First Impressions: When I was a kid, one of the first books I fell head over heels in love with was Little Women. I must have read it at least a hundred times and will even pick it up now and then for a quick re-read. It’s one of my favorite classical novels! I am obsessed with spin-offs of stories that I love, so I was really excited to see a book about Little Women in the young adult category.

First 50 Pages: When I started to read this book, I noticed that pacing seemed a little bit off. It moved very quickly and didn’t quite explain things very well. However, the first few chapters weren’t bad so I am jumping ahead of myself. I liked the beginning of this book. I enjoyed Emily’s interaction with her crush and the whole premise of her writing assignment. Who wouldn’t love to go into a story and change a part that you didn’t like? I loved this book up until Emily got sucked into her copy of Little Women. So much went downhill from that point.

Plot: I’ll start with what I really liked about this book. Like I already said, the whole idea of being sucked into a book and being able to change parts that you didn’t like. It’s a really unique idea. I like this book’s concept of time traveling. For Emily, there were some parts she was totally unprepared for and some parts of the book were hilarious. For example, what does 18th century Emily do when she gets her period? It’s in there!

Emily herself was a very interesting character. Some of my favorite parts of this book were when she was psychoanalyzing all the March sisters. She was a really funny character and had this snarky attitude. Her adjustment to live in a completely different world from hers was really entertaining. I liked how she grew throughout the book and how she discovers exactly why she was sucked into Little Women in the first place. She becomes a much more self-dependent young lady, who figures out that…well, I can’t tell you!

Now for the not so good stuff. The pacing of this book was uneven. The plot itself and the dialogue were repetitive. Once Emily was inside of Little Women, she all of a sudden had “story amnesia” and was forgetting what would happen in the story. That was odd to me and I couldn’t understand why she would all of a sudden forget what was supposed to be, one of her favorite stories. The entire middle section of this book should have been cut in half. It almost became boring to read and I had to push myself to keep going.

I did like the ending. It wrapped everything up nicely and I was pleased with the final outcome of the story.

Final Thoughts: This wasn’t my favorite book by this author. I think it could have been done a tiny bit better then it was. It wasn’t a bad read, it just dragged on somewhat too much for me. I think a younger audience will like this book, especially for fans of Little Women.
Good Points
Interesting concept
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