So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix

Gr 7 Up–In this skillful retelling of Little Women, Morrow reimagines the lives of the Alcott sisters through multiple lenses. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are four Black sisters rebuilding their lives after the Civil War. Meg wonders if her dreams of a husband and home are out of reach. Jo needs to find the courage to use her voice to further the cause of saving the colony built by the newly emancipated. Beth’s health issues may require an unimaginable trip, and Amy simply wants to chart her own course through the medium of dance. The bonds of sisterhood are tested amid the backdrop of a country trying to forge a new path forward. Although the chains of slavery have been removed, the sisters find that they are still operating under a system that considers them not up to the task of governing their own lives. The constraints of class, race, gender, and the fragile nature of emancipation affect all four sisters in different ways. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy support one another as they summon the courage to continue rebuilding and forging a new future. Readers learn about the tenuous nature of Reconstruction, clashes between the newly emancipated and those born free, and the repatriation efforts of the American Colonization Society. The fragility of the hope held by emancipated Black people is palpable in this narrative.