Invincible Louisa

Redo due to corrections

Summary

Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Megis is the story of Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women. The story is about Louisa’s life experiences and the challenges she faced growing up and then as a woman. The story also delves into the people she knew and how her many pieces of literature were written and published. Louisa had a love of family and always put that first in her life. Her family was the basis for the March family in Little Women and she was the model for Jo. Her father, Bronson Alcott, always had to struggle to provide for his family. The schools he tried to start and keep afloat never succeeded, but the family never wavered from respecting him. He would leave for many months of the year to work elsewhere to support his family. The entire family moved many times to go where the jobs were available. Louisa lived only until age fifty- six, but what a life she lived. She knew many famous authors and poets and even was a nurse in the Civil War. She had the same birthday as her father and died two days after her father died the same year. Louisa May Alcott had many sorrows in her life, but she was a strong and determined woman who enjoyed life to the fullest.

Impressions

I enjoyed this book very much because it gave insight into a beloved author of mine. I will always remember sitting with my mom and sister while we read LittleWomen together. Invincible Louisa gave me details into her life and showed me how she overcame the odds as a female and became an author. It was interesting to find out that she knew Walt Emerson and many more famous authors and poets. This was a very good book and I would recommend it to any child or adult.

Review from Amazon.com by A 10 Year Old Reader

I think that Invincible Louisa is a wonderful, well written book. No offence meant to the other reviewers of this book, but I think that Invincible Louisa did not drag along slowly at all. It is a wonderful book for 11, 12, and 13 year olds, or 10 year olds who are advanced in reading. However, to like this book, you have to like Little Women, or any other of Louisa's books. If you like books about American History, around the time of the Civil War, you will also probably like this book. It is a vivid account of Louisa May Alcott and her family’s life. It tells how they struggled through poverty and other hardships that would have destroyed any other family’s life.

Review from Amazon.com by A. LEJEUNE

I have to agree with the majority of the other reviewers. This book does read rather slowly. It is a good account of the life of Louisa May Alcott, from birth to death but it is somehow flat. Every now and again, there would be a description that could paint a vivid picture but for the most part, it just reads like a listing of colorless facts.

I think the problem lies primarily in the reader's expectations. The book description says this book is for anyone who loved "Little Women" and wants to find out what really happened to Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy but the author doesn't show an actual comparison until the very end, when she concludes the book. Technically, the book does tell you what happened to each member of the family but I think it would have been more enjoyable if she'd shown how the real life events of Louisa were reshaped into the parts of the story, comparing as she went along. As it is, I feel like I got a better sense of Louisa May Alcott from reading "Little Women" than I did from this book.

Lesson

I would use this book with a reading group of fourth or fifth graders who wanted to be in a book club. The members would read a chapter or two a week and then we would discuss the chapters in groups. I would also use this book to demonstrate a timeline if students have biographies to do.