Reviews

Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott

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annelisenogue's review against another edition

4.0

J'ai lu ce recueil de contes dans le cadre du Parcours victorien (et aussi parce que je l'avais acheté pendant ma visite de la maison de Louisa May Alcott à Concord).
Comme en parallèle, j'ai lu le deuxième tome d'ACOTAR, je me dis que ça a probablement rendu ma lecture des Flower Fables un peu pâle en comparaison.
MAIS replacé dans son contexte historique, ce recueil a été écrit par une adolescente de seize ans au XIXè siècle. Il y a des histoires de fées qui aident les humains ou de fées qui s'entraident. Il y a aussi tout un monde invisible à nos yeux de mortels où les fées sont responsables du réveil des fleurs au printemps, de souffler le vent qui transportera les graines, de soigner les insectes et les oiseaux et de faire pousser le corail.
Bref, c'est poétique, très mignon et pas du tout négatif. Tout le monde est plein de bonnes intentions et c'est très doux et très chou.
Je conseille cette lecture aux enfants parce que même si on y parle d'être gentil et patient (et qu'il n'y a que des petites filles dans ce rôle actif, qui s'explique par le fait que Louisa n'avait que des sœurs), il n'y a aucune mention de religion chrétienne puisque les petit.e.s dieux et déesses ici, ce sont les fées de ces contes!
C'était un joli moment de magie et je ne le regrette pas!

cestsibon's review

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3.0

reading this felt like being transported into your childhood daydreams and coming out of them inspired by touching moral lessons and feeling fully at peace and content. but alas, one can only dream and dream and dream

phoenixs's review against another edition

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2.0

While I'm sure this is a delight for children, especially the religious children of civil-war era America, I found this children's book saccharine and strangely uninspiring. Even the darker moments (if you can really call them that) of these fables come off as anti-climactic and shallow, and I feel that the moral lessons of each tale have had their impact lessened because of a sort of forced censorship. It seemed like any consequences the protagonists of each tale suffered for not heeding the moral lesson being taught them was rather harmless, as it was assured that nothing (not even death) could be final. Just as long as they worked hard, they could even resurrect the dead, which again felt rather trite to me. Not to sound harsh, but I feel that giving children the idea that you can bring back someone who's died just by wishing for it hard enough a little false. Even though it'd be a lot harder to include a tale like this in a set of fables, I would've rathered that in some instances they taught the audience of the story that in some cases, you will not be able to get what you want, even when you work long and hard. Or perhaps discuss how change will come to everyone and that it is better to accept change and learn to adapt than to endlessly toil and wish for things to go back to the way they were. I feel I might be asking too much of a set of fables that are meant to teach good values to children. Oh well. At least it was a quick enough read once I realized each of the fables was nearly the same in its essentials. Work hard and be kind and patient.

I wonder if this was an early work of Alcott's because even Little Women had more of a balance between its sentimentality and realism. I prefer Alcott's gothic stories, and shall stick to those and the sequel (sequels? Can't remember) to Little Women.

brieniverse's review against another edition

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3.0

bamandia's review against another edition

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2.0

A little heavy too on the morals for me and the writing was a bit overwrought.

lizzye33's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wish I read this growing up; it made my inner child happy.
I would love a copy one day, should I find one.
I would love to share this with children and experience their whistful imaginations spark.