
In Little Women, Little Men, and other beloved books, Louisa May Alcott recounted the triumphs and tragedies of the March sisters. Jo's Boys is a sequel, published some years later, that continues the heartwarming story, depicting the careers and marriages of the sisters' children and their schoolmates.
Jo, the irrepressible heroine of Little Women and later the maternal Mrs. Bhaer in Little Men, now welcomes her former students back to Plumfield, and enjoys their reunion with the young ladies of the March clan. Nat, the orphaned street musician, has become a music student in nearby Boston; business-minded Tommy is studying medicine; Dan, a troubled but good-hearted boy, is still restless, having tried sheep ranching in Australia and gold mining in California. The original "little men" have grown up and scattered, but they are still -- and probably always will be -- Jo's boys.
Enhanced with seven illustrations by Natalie Carabetta, this delightful story -- carefully abridged to retain the flavor and charm of the original -- will captivate new generations of readers and listeners and delight Alcott fans of all ages.
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1832–1888
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May, were educated by their father, philosopher and teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May. Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at "Hillside". Like her character, "Jo March" in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy. "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, "and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences ..." For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays --"the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens." At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write -- anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!"
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