The four sisters, each with a striking and strong character, between them represent any girls growing up at any time. Meg, the eldest, is sixteen and very pretty; fifteen year old Jo is a tomboy who loves reading; delicate, thirteen year old Beth plays the piano beautifully while twelve year old Amy, is pretty but a little bit selfish and indulged. How their sisters fill their time with creative activities and good work and how they all fall in love in their different ways with the boy next door is full of period charm as well as being totally topical and applicable for modern readers.
Meg is the eldest and on the brink of love. Then there's tomboy Jo who longs to be a writer. Sweet-natured Beth always puts others first, and finally there's Amy, the youngest and most precocious. Together they are the March sisters. Even though money is short, times are tough and their father is away at war, their infectious sense of fun sweeps everyone up in their adventures - including Laurie, the boy next door. And through sisterly squabbles, their happy times and sad ones too, the sisters discover that growing up is sometimes very hard to do.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is one of the twelve wonderful classic stories being relaunched in Puffin Classics in March 2008.