Too much "OMG there are no computers or anything, Victorian people are so weird", too little sympathetic engagement. And too little integration of the plot device into the story. ( )

A beloved classic retold with a uniquely captivating twist!

Little Women and Me by Laura Baratz-Logstead is a refreshing and creative story. The author captured and portrayed , the angst of being a middle sister and the challenges of growing up. The storyline of Emily transporting back to the 1860's and living life with the March family is a unique and fascinating twist to a well known classic!

So yes, I have to share that I really enjoyed reading this book! I also was relieved and grateful that this lovely classic was not morphed into a darker version of the original, which is so prevalent in today's re-telling of classics.

Little Women and Me is a must read for fans of Louisa May Alcott's timeless classic, Little Women! ( )

If you're not familiar with the basic plot points of Little Women and you want to avoid spoilers, you shouldn't read this book. However, if you've read the book, or at least seen the movie, there are probably a couple of things you'd like to change, just like Emily March in Little Women and Me. Emily is a middle child, with an older sister, Charlotte, and a younger sister, Anne. (Ring any bells?) An English assignment has her thinking about a book that she would change in some way. As she's thinking about Little Women, she suddenly finds herself surrounded by Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, and Marmee in the 1860s. How did she get here? And what does she need to do to find her way home?

This lighthearted story does have a moral or two for young readers, but it's not heavy-handed in its delivery. I'm sure a lot of us have imagined ourselves inside the world of a favorite book. It's fun to read this extended imagining and to view a classic of children's/YA literature in a new way. While there isn't any foul language in the book, there are occasional innuendos that some parents of tweens might find inappropriate, depending on their child's maturity level. If the book was a movie, I'd rate it PG. Readers who enjoy this book's premise might want to try Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series beginning with The Eyre Affair. ( )

It took me a little while to get into this book, but I did find it enjoyable in the end. Emily receives an assignment at school: choose a favorite book and select one thing that you would change about it. She decides to change Little Women, but can't quite decide whether she'd stop Beth from dying or if she'd make it so Jo ends up with Laurie rather than Amy. Apparently, this indecision results in her being transported back to join the lives of the March girls, as the new, middle March. I enjoyed how she was clueless about the background information -- if it didn't specifically happen in the book, she knew nothing of it. So when time advanced (three years in one example) she was completely caught off guard and had to ask Beth what important things had happened during that time. It was fun reconnecting with the March sisters, and also fun reading her reactions to some of the outdated amusements they occupied themselves with. Sadly, Beth does still have to die, but Emily manages to engineer it so Jo ends up with Laurie, and when Emily returns to her modern life she learns that the change stuck. Girls who liked Little Women might enjoy this. ( )

Cute premise and set up, but I didn't love it. The idea of being inserted into your favorite work of fiction sounds fun though and Emily's adjustment to 1862 was well done. ( )