Mini Reviews: The Little Prince || The Secret Garden (I Apologize For Hating Your Childhood Favorites)

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Genre: Middlegrade classic science fiction / fantasy

Pages: 113

Publication Date: April 1943

One day, the author reminisces, when his plane was forced down in the Sahara, a thousand miles from help, he encountered a most extraordinary small person. "If you please," said the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And thus begins the remarkable history of the little prince.

The little prince lived alone on a tiny planet no larger than a house. He owned three volcanoes, two active and one extinct. He also owned a flower, unlike any flower in all the galaxy, of great beauty and of inordinate pride. It was this pride that ruined the serenity of the little prince's world and started him on the interplanetary travels that brought him to Earth, where he learned, finally, from a fox, the secret of what is really important in life. 

Likes: The Little Prince is (mostly) a cute story about a little dude who leaves his planet and explores the galaxy. He eventually ends up on Earth and develops a friendship with a pilot who has crashed his plane in the desert. For an adult reader, this book is quick to get through. It’s a very short novel with illustrations.

As Prince travels, he discovers the absurdity of adulthood. Mostly, this book is a critique of modern society. On his journey, Prince discovers a man who makes maps but never goes anywhere, a guy who follows pointless orders and never asks why, a man who demands praise for doing nothing, and a king with no subjects. My favorite person Prince encounters is a guy who wants to own all of the stars, even though he doesn’t appreciate them and can’t do anything with them. He just wants them. Prince’s journey is a humorous allegory. And a grim portrait of adulthood.

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” – The Little Prince

Dislikes: The rose is a whiny witch and the fox needs a dictionary, but since I’m writing a book review and not a philosophy essay, I’ll skip all that.

I know that The Little Prince is a beloved childhood classic, but I didn’t like it. I disliked it for the same reasons that I disliked A Wrinkle in Time. The plot is weird, and it’s somehow both repetitive and random at the same time. Most of the plot consists of Prince asking the same questions over and over as he bounces around the universe. The moral is the story rather than being something that you learn from the story. (The main lesson: Adults should spend their time on relationships and experiences, not on possessions and work that makes them miserable. It’s a straightforward moral. Why do we need 113 pages of weirdness about it?)

The Bottom Line: Even as a kid, I didn’t enjoy moral-heavy books. I struggled to stay interested in The Little Prince as an adult. I don’t think I would have had the patience for it as a child.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Genre: Middlegrade classic

Pages: 331

Publication Date: 1911

The plot centers round Mary Lennox, a young English girl who returns to England from India, having suffered immense trauma by losing both her parents in a cholera epidemic. However, her memories of her parents are not pleasant, as they were a selfish, neglectful and pleasure-seeking couple. Mary is given to the care of her uncle Archibald Craven, whom she has never met. She travels to his home, Misselthwaite Manor, located in gloomy Yorkshire, a vast change from the sunny and warm climate she was used to. When she arrives, she is rude, stubborn and given to stormy temper tantrums. However, her nature undergoes a gradual transformation when she learns of the tragedies that have befallen her strict disciplinarian uncle whom she earlier feared and despised. Once when he's away from home, Mary discovers a charming walled garden which is always kept locked. The mystery deepens when she hears sounds of sobbing from somewhere within her uncle's vast mansion. The kindly servants ignore her queries or pretend they haven't heard, spiking Mary's curiosity.

Likes: For most of this book, I was completely onboard with it. The main characters are brats, but I understand why. They’re rich kids who are constantly surrounded by servants and used to having their demands met. The kids make you cringe sometimes, but I didn’t mind reading about them. They’re realistic.

After Mary’s parents and servants die from cholera, she’s sent to live with her uncle. Her uncle’s house has 100 rooms and massive gardens. Most of these places are off-limits because Uncle is a secretive dude. Since Mary doesn’t understand “No,” she gleefully starts opening doors and exploring the gardens. I enjoyed the plot. Exploring a huge, mysterious estate with no parental supervision seems like every kid’s dream. It’s a fun plot for a children’s book.

My favorite aspect of this story is that the children find happiness in small things. They get excited when their seeds grow and when birds lay eggs. The environment is important to them, and they want to take care of it. This would be a good book for modern kids to read. You don’t need YouTube to find happiness.

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” – The Secret Garden

Dislikes: Well, it’s definitely dated. The dialect will be difficult for some modern readers to decipher. The book has all the racism, sexism, and ableism you’d expect from a Western classic. It contains ideas such as “Black people aren’t human,” and “Women with bad attitudes deserve to be punched,” and “Sick, ugly people need to get healthy and beautiful before they can be loved.” The characters just accept these gems and don’t question them.

Despite the -isms, I was actually enjoying the plot . . . and then the last 50 pages happened. Ug, why?! There’s a point where the story very clearly ends. It’s over. The plot is done. The horrible children have stopped abusing the staff and malingering in the house. They’ve learned the power of prayer and positive thinking. They’re healthy and beautiful and loved. Everyone is happy. The book is finished.

Except, it’s not! For the last 50 pages, the characters become mouthpieces for the author. The fun story becomes a boring mystical/religious sermon. I realize that moralizing was all the rage in Victorian/Edwardian children’s literature, but as a modern reader, that level of authorial intrusion annoys me. It’s one of the things that make classics tedious. I can figure out the moral for myself, thank you very much. I’d trust children to figure it out for themselves, too.  

The Bottom Line: I liked the story about kids building a secret garden. When the book became a heavy-handed Sunday school class, I skimmed to the end and dropped the book in my “donations” box.