Review: Little Men (Little Women #2) by Louisa May Alcott

I read Little Women for the very first time back in February and I fell in love with the March family. It had been on my book bucket-list for years and I had received the other two books in the series as presents. I picked up Little Men this month not expecting to love it like Little Women and although I did find that to be true, it was still a lovely book.

This story takes place some years after the end of Little Women and follows the school that Jo and Fritz created for young boys (and, by the end, girls), called Plumfield. It follows the cast of characters over the course of a summer and each chapter usually holds one or two adventures that end in a lesson on morals. It was very reminiscent of Little Women in that way. It was a very simple book but the character and setting development really brought me into the world and was much more in depth than I expected in a book with so many characters.

I've heard some criticism about Little Women in it being too sugary and sweet and the idea of "being good" was unrealistic and really disliked by some. I can absolutely understand where these critics are coming from and I would definitely not recommend this book to those people because it really is the exact same brand of lessons. I, however, found both Little Women and Little Men refreshing in it's innocence and simplicity. Because both were written in the late 1800s, I took that into account as well and just purely enjoyed them for what they are and what they were trying to be for that time. I love that so many of the lessons were to be kind to each other, to work hard, and to think of others before yourself. A lot of these "lessons" are important in today's world and it was truly pleasant to read about kids who wanted to do the "right" thing. However, there were ideas and teachings that would be considered archaic and even inappropriate in society today. The last chapter occurs during Thanksgiving and one of the children gives a quick "history" lesson on where the celebration came from. I had to shake my head and just move on from that paragraph because so much discrimination was poured into those sentences that I definitely wouldn't want my child to learn about Thanksgiving from this book. But I personally could put those things aside and just enjoy the sweet moments the book held.

I love the March family and the simplicity of this world and I do enjoy coming back to visit every now and then.

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