Little Men

I had not read this as a youth and thoroughly enjoyed reading/listening to it now. I recommend it to both young and old, very entertaining.

The story, "Little Men" is a touching, inspiring story you won't soon forget and Louisa May Alcott is an absolute treasure. This book is definitely worth the read and if I'm honest, I think I liked it slightly more than even "Little Women." That said however, the publisher, "Mint Editions" fell a bit short. I cannot even count the number of misspelled words that were scattered throughout the book or just wrong words used altogether. For example, "am" would be "an," "came" would be "cam," etc., etc. Do they not have an editor??? This hardcover edition is rather simple and plain for a collector anyway but regardless of that, it loses so much more integrity, in my opinion, when the time isn't even taken to make sure the story is as-it -should-be. Just very sloppy. If you don't care about all that however, the story makes it worth it.

I read Little Women over and over when I was a youngster and never knew there were lots of other books by Alcott! So it was with pleasure I found this and others on the Kindle, and free no less, well into middle age.Before I say more, I want the reader to keep in mind the dates and setting of these books. Younger kids (tweens these days) might find the books naive and perhaps boring and stiff. But families stayed close, entertainment WAS spending time with your family and friends; sewing and needlework, painting, reading aloud, teaching the youngsters,playing games etc were what people did in the evenings, and without benefit of electric lights most people rose early and took themselves off to bed not long after the sun went down. Cooking etc and shopping were chores and not something done for pleasure by most folks. Visiting, attending church and civic functions and entertaining visitors were simple but important aspects of life. Time was slower because it was impossible to do anything fast!Caste was very important. Try to look at these books as a slice of life in the era not long after reconstruction, important in history as well as literature.The adventures of Jo in LW were warm and funny, and she as a character has a long legacy from Mary in The Secret Garden to Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, all the way to Bella in Twilight.Now we have Jo several years later, married and matronly, all grown up into a gentlewoman with children of her own, and a school for boys. And a few little girls.Her sisters and their families show up from time to time, but the focus is on Mother Jo and her dozen or so boys as well as varied friends and neighbors, and extended family. Alcott manages to get into children's heads, how their little personalities manifest themselves, and the comical yet tender things they do.Jo and her husband have a lot on their hands yet manage to fill their house and school with love and acceptance, guiding the children with a firm but loving hand. Jo often remembers her own youth and how headstrong and willful she was which helps her to help even the toughest little man.The stories are fun and gently amusing. The characters are fleshed out and she avoids being preachy or overly dramatic, in comparison with the likes of Elsie Dinsmore, another popular series of the time.As I say, children might find these books tame and slow, but by reading these books to children they will learn life lessons that still apply and always will. Adults will find in these books a haven of peace from our hectic and overbooked lives.

What I received was some kind of on-demand printout. It does not look or feel like a published book. The paper is inexpensive, the indentations are very strange, there are no page numbers, some of the characters didn’t render correctly. This is serviceable, but it is like something a university print shop would produce for a lit course if no edition was available. Perhaps it is a printout of the Kindle version?

This is a sequel to the 19th century classic children's book, Little Women. The book is structured as a series of episodes, focusing on different children at a private residential school run by Jo, the main protagonist of Little Women, and her much older, German, professor husband. There is no main protagonist who has a story goal that arches throughout the book, unlike Little Women, in which Jo March is the clear main protagonist. However, as an extended epilogue of what became of Jo after the events of Little Women, she is definitely the glue that holds the book together as a mother figure to all of the children at the school.The narration of the audiobook version that I got through Whispersync is well done.

Written in a more innocent time. The newest of the young men made quite an addition to the home. With the loving care they received, they blossomed. Enjoyed the book.

The book is compact and the print is very small. There are multiple typo and grammar errors in the reprint. That was disappointing. The story is very good and a work you would expect from Miss Alcott. The publishing, however, is less than satisfactory and reduced the rating.

I never read Louisa May Alcott's works as a child or young adult and am giving them a first go-around at 62. They are enjoyable and fun. Very much a product of the time and place in which they were written. I'll probably not re-read her works as I have Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters', as I don't see a lot of depth or complexity in her works, but I've enjoyed them.

'Little Men'. pubished in 1871, is a sequel to 'Little Women' and 'Good Wives' and tells the story of Jo Bhaer and the children at Plumfield Estate School. It is said to have been inspired by the death of Alcott's brother-in-law and in one of the last chapters a beloved character from Little Women dies.Jo inherited Plumfield estate from her aunt March at the end of Little Women and now runs a school there with her husband, Professor Bhaer. This book describes six months at the school. Nat Blake arrives at the school, shy, orphaned and accustomed to earning a living playing his violin. We see the rest of the school through his eyes. There are only ten boys at the school until Nat, and later Dan, join them. The only girls are Daisy and Nan, not really pupils, and Jo's young sons, Rob and Teddy are present but not old enough to be pupils.Nat learns that this is an unusual school, with each child having his own garden and pets, and they learn to run their own businesses, too. Fun is encouraged and each child is an individual whose character needs wise and kindly guidance.Daisy is Meg's domestic, doll-loving daughter, while Nan is a girl after Jo's heart - a wild tomboy. Dan is the wild-child, leading his schoolmates into drinking, fights, etc. Of course, he redeems himself eventually.This is another lovely story, laying down principles of child-guidance while lovingly displaying the vulnerabilities and strengths of the leading characters and the lessons they learn. It has the same moral and religious foundation as the other books, focusing on sturdy individuality, enterprise and personal growth as the basis of relationships and of society - the American Dream, in fact. I loved its idealism and its lack of fear of sentiment and became completely involved with its characters, when I first read it many years ago.

I read this as a teenager, loved it, but this kindle version appears to somehow have been badly translated from another language (why?) so it barely makes sense. In the first couple of pages Demi is reading 'an e book', not once but twice. Sample gobblygook sentences:'Demi returned to his liked ebook, while his sister led the brand new-comer into a lower back room, where a stout gentleman changed into frolicking with two little boys at the sofa, and a skinny girl became simply completing the letter which she seemed to were re-reading''So that is my new boy? I am satisfied to see you my pricey...'..'back Demi, who turned into fascinated just now in an e-book on Greenland. He become approximately to offer to reveal Nat the photographs....'I promise you, these are faithful copies of the sentences in the book, it is unreadable gobbledygook. I will be contacting Amazon to ask them to remove this version. I subsequently bought the classic version, Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys, which so far seems OK

Struggling a bit with this one having got to the half-way stage. It is not to my mind as readable as Little Women, as pages are filled with detailed descriptions of children's games and stories rather than plot. It glosses over big events like Meg's husband's death and is heavy with information on natural history so in my opinion it just doesn't fit together as well as Little Women which I first read in youth. I doubt if today's youngsters would enjoy this much.

There seems to be a problem with the kindle version of this book. It seems to be in a bold typeface which I managed to adjust a bit. But there appear to be random words incorporated into the text eg “skool” “but” in places where it makes no sense, and words missing. What has happened?I’ve only tolerated this for a few pages so don’t know whether it’s an issue all the way through the book.I’ve now bought a different kindle version which is fine.

This is the third book in the "Little Women" series, following on from Good Wives. It focuses on Jo's school for boys and introduces a range of new characters that continue into the fourth book, available elsewhere on Amazon as  Jo's Boys . There are occasional typesetting errors but they are restricted to the fonts - typically where a poem has been quoted. It does not mar the enjoyment of a classic story, though, and I'm very pleased to have it in my library. Jo's Boys