transparentsy

I picked up a paperback copy of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women at a thrift store recently.  I thought I’d keep it around for my girls’ reading list next year. After all, fourth grade is when I read Little Women. Or, rather, fourth grade is when I didn’t quite finish Little Women.  I am a voracious reader and I always finish any book that I start, so not finishing Little Women in fourth grade has loomed as a failure. Now that I’m a grown-up, I read the introduction to every book.  This introduction was very interesting and I assumed I would finish this time victoriously.  Not so. This book is exhausting!  Of course it is– a book about four young girls is bound to be wordy and hyper! That must be why I didn’t finish it 28 years ago in Mrs. Yarbrough’s class.  I remember lounging on the living room sofa on grey chilly days, covered in an afghan trying to read this classic.  I can’t tell you at what point I gave up, I’ve always known that I have.  But, I want to read it before my girls get their chance next year.  I think it’s teaching me to cherish those precious girls.  I have such sweet 8 year-old daughters who are growing so quickly I can hardly keep up. This book reminds me to enjoy being a mother to girls.