This is a "what if Little Women were about a Black family?" fanfiction.
It's not Little Women, obviously. It doesn't have the length of the original, or the episodic pace, or spend as much time on whimsical one-off adventures or Pilgrim's Progress.
Things it DOES have include:
• A similar regularly-sermonizing style. This time the sermons are mostly about abolition and post-bellum injustices, as I'm sure you can imagine. There is some Christianity sprinkled in there as well, but not nearly as much.
• GOOD and accurate family vibes. Honestly, the sisters in this are a lot less annoying overall than the Little Women sisters. Less realistic? Probably. But it still conveys a powerful, loving bond among the whole family in the same way the original does.
• Very good Jo and "Lorie" vibes. This is one of the most uniquely standout things about the original, and this book does quite a good job of spinning its own thing off in a way that's new but still preserves the feeling of the Laurie/Jo bond.
• Historical details! It took me, as a kid, a LONG time to figure out what time period Little Women was even set in. Sure the dad was away at war, but which one? This book certainly doesn't have that ambiguity, and we get to learn about the lives of people freed from slavery and the challenges they still had to face in a way that my history books, at least, did not cover very much.
• Growing pains. This book is a lot less painful, too, than the original, which honestly is kind of nice. I prefer my fanfiction not to hold me down and take a scalpel to my soul. But there are still those themes of transition, growing up, and finding your place in the world.
Overall, this book does a lot of things differently, of course. But it really did give me the feeling that you know, this IS pretty much what the March family would end up doing if they WERE born into this situation. I enjoyed it a lot.
It's not Little Women, obviously. It doesn't have the length of the original, or the episodic pace, or spend as much time on whimsical one-off adventures or Pilgrim's Progress.
Things it DOES have include:
• A similar regularly-sermonizing style. This time the sermons are mostly about abolition and post-bellum injustices, as I'm sure you can imagine. There is some Christianity sprinkled in there as well, but not nearly as much.
• GOOD and accurate family vibes. Honestly, the sisters in this are a lot less annoying overall than the Little Women sisters. Less realistic? Probably. But it still conveys a powerful, loving bond among the whole family in the same way the original does.
• Very good Jo and "Lorie" vibes. This is one of the most uniquely standout things about the original, and this book does quite a good job of spinning its own thing off in a way that's new but still preserves the feeling of the Laurie/Jo bond.
• Historical details! It took me, as a kid, a LONG time to figure out what time period Little Women was even set in. Sure the dad was away at war, but which one? This book certainly doesn't have that ambiguity, and we get to learn about the lives of people freed from slavery and the challenges they still had to face in a way that my history books, at least, did not cover very much.
• Growing pains. This book is a lot less painful, too, than the original, which honestly is kind of nice. I prefer my fanfiction not to hold me down and take a scalpel to my soul. But there are still those themes of transition, growing up, and finding your place in the world.
Overall, this book does a lot of things differently, of course. But it really did give me the feeling that you know, this IS pretty much what the March family would end up doing if they WERE born into this situation. I enjoyed it a lot.