What age for Little Women please?

[IDontWantToBeFatAnymore]

DD has been asking for it for a while but DH says she is too young. I was going to look in the classics section and maybe get Black Beauty as well. I have already boiught a small Ladybird version but not sure if she has read it yet. She is 8 and an excellent reader but I know it is about understanding rather than just being able to read the words.

I have have been thinking about this too for my eight year old. I don't think she would be able to manage Beth dying as she is incredibly sensitive. She loves the Usbourne versions of Little Dorrit and the Secret Garden and things like that.

I have got my copy of the Secret Garden, priced at 95p! and have offered it to DD but I can't remember if she has read it as she reads so many books at once and a week.

I saw the title and thought "8". I was 8 or 9 when I read it (my Good Wives is dated the year I turned 9 and obviously read Little Women before it).

I don't remember being that bothered about Beth dying, tbh, think that is more upsetting for adults.

What is Good Wives?

DD has read The Little Princess as well.

I read it at 8. Beth dying is sad, but manageable unless you're particularly sensitive.

If she's read Little Princess I think your DD should cope.
Good Wives, Jo's Boys and (I think?) Little Men are the sequels.

I would say much older than 8 tbh. I would say nearer 12 or thereabouts. They may be able to read it but not really understand the difficult topics it deals with.

My dmum read it to me when I was younger (maybe 10 or 11) and we chatted about it and then I read it myself when I was a little bit older. The impact of some great books can be lost by reading them too young.

I see I am in the minority though.

Good Wives is the sequal to Little Women althought the copy i have (very very old ) has them as one book.

NOT Black Beauty, for the love of Heaven!

Little Women is a read aloud rather than a read yourself in my opinion- there is too much to explain and too many unfamiliar words. I have to say dd loved it when read it to her at about 7 or 8- and she wanted me to read Beth's demise again because she thought it was so funny watching me in floods of tears!

I was 8 or 9 when read it and loved it. Cried at Beth dying but didn't take away from a very engrossing book.

Beth doesn't die until Good Wives as far as I remember. Also Good Wives goes on about love and marriage and things more whereas Little Women is rather more interesting. Can't remember when I first read Little Women - definitely in primary school although maybe about 10 or so?

Think I've got them on my Kindle so may re-read. Always felt it was wrong that the order was Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and then Jo's Boys as felt Boys should have been about younger ones but it is that way round

I was going to say all the films are based on Little Women and Good Wives.

Little Women and Good Wives were released in America as one book called Little Women, but split into two books in the UK - hence the confusion whenever people start talking about them on here!

I had no idea there were other books!

DD is adamant she is not getting married and is only adopting a child!

I will wait a bit I think as dd is senstive.

There are also Little Men, and Jo's boys as sequels to Little Women.

I first read it at 8 or 9 and loved it, but didn't really 'get' lots of the ideas about marriage/social position or the backdrop of the Civil War. Reread it when I was about 12 and got more out of it that time round I think.

I think you need to be old enough to be upset by Beth dying but also old enough to be able to process it.

Dd is 10 and read my old copy of Little Women about a year or so ago. Beth gets ill but recovers, she doesn't die until Good Wives which she hasn't read yet.

I used to read anything I could find on my parents bookshelves. How could anyone be too young for Little Women? Unless you're trying to protect your child from death? Oh, that's a novel idea actually...

I can't get my 12 and 10 yo dds interested in Little Women at all. It's one of my old favourites which they just don't go for (along with Swallows and Amazons, Noel Streatfield, and various others). They would be fine with lingering tragic death and illness, but I think they find it just too wordy.

When I look back I think I read many, many books at too young an age.

So many books that I thought were blah or a huge yawn are a revelation upon re-reading them as an adult with a bit of experience of life. Ds recently read "The Curious Incident..." and pronounced it "Ok." Well, I read it after him and I could immediately see that it is not aimed at children at all. The spare prose is a red herring. I thoroughly enjoyed it but that was because I could see the desperation and tribulations of the parents, which of course by-passed ds!

Personally I think the film version of Little Women (1949 with June Allyson) is the way to go. Yes, Beth dies, but the film focuses much on the early years of the girls. It's not a substitute for the book, but at 8 years old it's a worthy introduction.