Review: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I’m not sure why I waited so long to read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but I’m kicking myself! Sara Crewe is up there with the most enchanting characters ever created. She reminded me so much of Anne Shirley, who has always been a favorite of mine. They were both orphans and both used their imaginations to help them get through difficult situations. They were also both old souls, and this aspect of Sara’s personality is actually pointed out on the first page of the book:

She sat with her feet tucked under her, and leaned against her father, who held her in his arm, as she stared out of the window at the passing people with a queer old-fashioned thoughtfulness in her big eyes. 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.