Louisa Learns to Write is an illustrated book that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. It tells a story, but not in a manner that elementary school audiences are used to. It operates on two levels without audiences realizing it until the end of the book. As the titular character is growing up, she’s learning deeper life lessons that translate to anyone, regardless of age. Louisa Learns to Write: Louisa May Alcott Creates Little Women isn’t so much about the creation of the seminal piece of literature, as it is about the things that shaped Alcott’s life.
Adults are the totality of the sum of their choices. Life is not a straight line. There will always be curves, stops, cul-de-sacs, railroad crossings, potholes, wrong turns and times when you’ll have to put the car in reverse. Louisa May Alcott’s life was like that, minus the actual presence of cars. However, the non-fiction struggles of people, especially women, growing up in the 1800s, were a major factor in forging Alcott’s character.
She was one of four children, born to a family that moves often. Her father was a teacher and her mother worked hard caring for them. When Louisa was twelve her mother received an inheritance which allowed the family to buy a house and pursue their respective passions to an extent. This space during their formative years introduced them to local like Ralph Waldo Emerson or Nathaniel Hawthorne and expanded the family’s beliefs. Because the house was in Massachusetts, they also established their residence as a stop along the Underground Railroad.
Times were tough for everyone in the late 1800s and Alcott’s family was no exception. By the end of Louisa Learns to Write, readers discover that it was the summation of her family experiences that shaped her stories.
As her life’s chapters are progressing, young audiences will see various words is very large, title-sized font on some pages. Play, Read, Experiment, Fail, and Persevere are just a couple of them. At the end of the book there’s a run-down of all of those words and how those ten habits can help you become a writer. Wait, did I miss something? That’s what I first thought when I saw that page.
It made me want to look back through the book at where those ten habits were listed. When you look at what those words are associated with, in regards to how the book tells Alcott’s life story it has a universal power. You don’t have to be a woman in the 1800s or want to become a writer to dig into the motivation that the book is pushing. Her life is summarized in a timeline, as well as, a fact vs. fiction page on her life when compared with her characters, a bibliography, and author’s notes.
One of the pages simply has a quote extolling the importance of creative thinking. The page opposite it has doodles that a tween would create. You’re not expecting a book like Louisa Learns to Write, and that’s ok. You might come to the book because you’re a fan of Little Women. Those young audiences will enjoy the book because they’ll see traces of its characters in her family. Young audiences that don’t know Little Women will still enjoy the creative arc Alcott had to create the classic book, even if there’s no chance of them reading it. This is a fine example of a non-fiction illustrated book that tells a story, or in this case, the characteristics behind the person who wrote the story, that didn’t think you’d find interesting, but do.
Louisa Learns to Write: Louisa May Alcott Creates Little Women is by Kate Hannigan with illustrations by Sofia Moore and is available on Calkins Creek, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers.
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