The Sequel to A Little Princess
by Hilary McKay
ages: 9+
First sentence: “Once upon a time, there was a city.”
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There are very few people who could get away with a sequel to a classic like Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. Thankfully, Hilary McKay is one of those people.

Charming, quaint, and oh-so-Hilary McKay, this book follows the story of everyone else at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies after Sara Crewe leaves them. Ermengarde is mourning the loss of her best friend, resentful that Sara has escaped into a new life. She’s not the only one trying to adjust to the change: Lavinia has met the new boy next door, Tristram, and is suddenly more interested in learning than she is in gossip, which puts her best friend, Jessie, into a snit. Miss Minchin is becoming increasingly suspicious: she believes she sees Sara everywhere, and that means Sara is out to get her. The girls have to adjust to the new maid, Alice (since Sara took Becky with her), who just does everything wrong. And Lottie, the littlest, has become increasingly wild since Sara left.

The question is: will they find a way to survive?

I haven’t read the Burnett original recently, so I’m not really being overly picky here, but this book charmed me to pieces. Everything — from Ermengard’s earnestness and longing for her friend to Lottie’s impish behavior — was just right. McKay even managed to squeeze in a bit of A Little Princess for those of us who haven’t read it in a while (or haven’t at all), but did so in a way that felt natural. There were fun little letters back and forth from Ermengarde to Sara, as well as delightful little snippets of late 19th-century life. Not much happens over the course of the book, but it really didn’t matter; McKay’s writing is so captivating, and the characters so likable, that it doesn’t matter that the plot is pretty thin.

Now I suppose I should go reread the original.