Jo's Boys

Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 542K words
Chapters: 55

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Jo's Boys by Louisa May AlcottAuthor: Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 1, 2002

Editor's review

Jo's Boys is Louisa May Alcott's follow-up to Little Women, continuing the life of Jo and Professor Bhaer as they run a school at Plumfield and centering on the growth of a group of boys. The book is made up of fairly self-contained chapters, each focusing on one child's character flaw and change, so it works both as a continuous read and in short sittings. Alcott never preaches when writing about education; instead she lets discipline, affection and responsibility emerge naturally from concrete events, which still offers food for thought to today's parents and educators. The language is of moderate difficulty, suited to readers with some grounding in English. One caveat: the educational views reflect a nineteenth-century context, so readers would do well to read with a critical eye and treat the book as a window onto the tradition of children's literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read Little Women and want to know what happens next
Parents and teachers interested in children's education and growing up
Teenage readers at intermediate English level who want to read a full original book
Enthusiasts studying nineteenth-century American children's literature and educational ideas

Not a good fit for

Readers who have never read Little Women and don't want to catch up on the background
Beginners whose English is too basic for a full-length original text
Readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced storytelling

Reading tips

Read Little Women first; the relationships and emotional threads will then be much clearer.
Read chapter by chapter, and after each one reflect on which boy and which quality it portrays, keeping brief notes.
When reading with children or in class, pick chapters to discuss whether the book's discipline methods would work today.
For English reading, read through once without worrying about details, then go back a second time to look up words and map out the characters.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this without having read Little Women?

Yes, but the characters carry over directly from Little Women, and Jo's school and the family members' backstories are set up in the earlier book. You'll lose a good deal of the pleasure without that background, so it's best to read Little Women first, or at least learn the main character relationships.

How is this book related to Little Women?

It is one of the sequels to Little Women, focusing on the growth of the boys around Jo and her husband after they start their school. It doesn't simply repeat the earlier book but shifts the perspective to an educational setting, so it can be seen as another set of stories in the same character world.

Is it suitable as English reading material for children?

It suits teenagers with some foundation in English. It is a full-length original text with sentence structures more complex than children's picture books, so start with the shorter chapters, use a dictionary and a character map, and don't expect to finish the whole book right away.

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About the author

Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888 Author

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) was an American writer best known for Little Women. The novel follows the four March sisters as they grow up, portraying their joys and sorrows in family life and their individual aspirations; its warm, plain style and finely drawn characters won wide readership, and it became a classic of American children's literature and family fiction. Her writing often drew on her own family experience and surrounding life. Besides Little Women, she wrote works such as Little Men, which continue her attention to the growth and education of children and young people. The collection here holds 54 of her works, including various editions and foreign-language translations of Little Women and a compilation of her life, letters, and journals, showing how widely her work has circulated. Public information is limited, so details of her life are not elaborated here.