The best part though is the writing. It made the book so easy to get into and get through with it until the end. It tells how company and imagination comfort during such difficult times. And also, there are a lot of times Sara stood up for herself and spoke her mind. It's liberating!

A Little Princess is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published as a book in 1905. It is an expanded version of the short story "Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's", which was serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine from December 1887, and published in book form in 1888. According to Burnett, after she composed the 1902 play A Little Un-fairy Princess based on that story, her publisher asked that she expand the story as a novel with "the things and people that had been left out before". [4] The novel was published by Charles Scribner's Sons (also publisher of St. Nicholas) with illustrations by Ethel Franklin Betts and the full title A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Being Told for the First Time. [1] Plot [ edit ] The London Children's Ballet performed ballet adaptions in 1995 (Choreographer: Harold King), 2004 (Choreographer: Vanessa Fenton) and 2012 (Choreographer: Samantha Raine).

Her father always said she was a Little Princess, and she knows exactly what it means to be a princess: to be kind, understanding and polite. The parting of Sara and her father is very hard to witness. As the time for him to return to India grows closer it’s decided that Sara will be given a new doll, but not just any doll. Her name is to be Emily and she will be Sara’s friend. If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that—warm things, kind things, sweet things—help and comfort and laughter—and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.”

Miss Minchin, aka the headmistress, is described as rude, acid, harsh, domineering, hard-hearted, mean, vulgar. Also, she doesn't know French and doesn't try to learn it, being the headmistress of a top school for young ladies in XIX England. Hmmm... version: Amelia Shankley as Sara and Maureen Lipman as Miss Minchin. One of the most faithful adaptations, quoting many dialogues from the book and adding only a few new scenes, including a prologue set in India.Then he went with Sara into her little sitting-room, and they bade each other good-bye. Sara sat on his knee and held the lapels of his coat in her small hands, and looked long and hard at his face. During this time Mr. Carrisford moves into the house next to the seminary. He is an extremely wealthy invalid come from abroad and retains Mr. Carmichael, a solicitor who lives nearby. Sara has often observed Mr. Carmichael's big and loving family, whom she has dubbed the “Large Family” - while they are equally curious about her and call her “the little girl who is not a beggar.” She was such a little girl that one did not expect to see such a look on her small face. It would have been an old look for a child of twelve, and Sara Crewe was only seven. The fact was, however, that she was always dreaming and thinking odd things, and could not herself remember any time when she had not been thinking things about grown-up people and the world they belonged to. She felt as if she had lived a long, long time.