Are there girls or boys in your school like that?
If so, why do you think that is?
The Mother-Daughter Book Club means a lot to each of the girls and their mothers by the end of the story. Does it make you want to join a mother-daughter book club?
Do you think there is one in your area?
If not, would you start one?
If you had to compare your favorite character in the book to one of your favorite celebrities—who would it be?
What do you think is the turning point of the book?
The mothers and daughters have a lot of disagreements in the book—should Cassidy be a hockey player or a figure skater?
Should Megan be a designer or a scientist?
Should Jess’s mom come home from New York City or follow her dreams?
Do you agree with the daughters or the mothers in each of these situations?
Why?
Each of the four girls have specific personality traits: Why do you think Jess is so shy?
Why do you think Emma is self-conscious?
Why do you think Megan is eager to be popular?
And why do you think Cassidy has trouble getting along her mother and a lot of her peers?
Did you believe that everything would work out well as it does in the book?
Would you change anything about the ending?
At the Christmas party, Emma receives a bookmark with a quote from Louisa May Alcott on it: “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” Emma says, “Somehow I don’t think she’s talking about sailing. She’s talking about life.” What storms have the members of the Mother-Daughter Book Club weathered in their lives? In what ways are they learning how to “sail their ships”?
How about you—have you weathered any storms in your life?
And in what ways are you learning how to “sail your ship”?
At their book club meetings, the girls often learn “fun facts” about Louisa May Alcott. Which of these did you find most interesting?
Can you think of a few “fun facts” about Emma, Jess, Megan, and Cassidy?
And if someone were to list “fun facts” about you, what would that list include?
Author’s Note
Seven of the happiest years of my childhood were spent in Concord, Massachusetts, just down the road from where Louisa May Alcott and her family once lived at Orchard House. Like Louisa, I spent hours exploring the woods and meadows behind our home and around town. Like Louisa, my sisters and I often put on plays for our family and friends. And like Louisa, reading books and writing stories were two of the main passions of my life. Every summer I would ride my bike over to Orchard House and take the tour (it cost about thirty-five cents back then!), and dream of being an author just like Louisa someday.
Fast-forward several decades. To her own astonishment, the young dreamer has indeed grown up to be an author, with books of her own on the shelf. One day her editor asks if she’d be interested in writing a story set in her old hometown, about a mother-daughter book club that’s reading Little Women.
How could the dreamer-turned-author say anything but, “Yes, of course!”?
Then came one of those ironic quirks with which life abounds. In one more “like Louisa” coincidence, I discovered that just as my editor had asked if I’d be interested in writing this book, so a century and a half ago Louisa’s editor had asked if she’d consider writing the book that eventually became Little Women. At that point in her career, Louisa was quite content penning her “blood and thunder” tales, as she called them—thrillers aimed at an adult audience—and wasn’t so sure about writing for girls. “Never liked girls or knew many, except for my sisters,” she grumbled to a friend, “but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.”
Fortunately for the world, Louisa eventually agreed to give it a try. She wrote Little Women in the spring and summer of 1868, seated at the half-moon desk her father had built for her between the two front windows of her bedroom at Orchard House. The book struck an instant chord with readers, and its universal themes of love, home, and happiness have continued to resonate down the years, for as Cyrus Bartol once said of Louisa, “She unlatches the door to one house and … all find it is their house which they enter.”
The Mother-Daughter Book Club is my modest homage to this talented writer and her enduring tale, my gift of thanks for the inspiration she provided me in childhood.
I also want to thank my brilliant editor, Alyssa Eisner-Henkin, not only for the spark of this story but also for entrusting me with it, and for her unflagging encouragement and enthusiasm all along the way. Thanks, too, are due to my stellar agent Barry Goldblatt for his wisdom, counsel, and care, and to my always-game-for-an-adventure sister Lisa Carper, with whom I spent a delightful day tramping about our childhood haunts. Dear friend Jonatha Wey likewise generously chauffeured me around Concord and brought me up to date on the changes in the town since I’d lived there. Helen Quigley and her family (husband Mark and children Samuel, Neil, and Lucinda) instructed me in all things hockey (any errors that remain are entirely my own); Arthur Wheeler guided me through many of Concord’s historic byways; Roz Ault and the wonderful staff of Orchard House provided an informative tour and patiently answered many questions; Ann Carper fortuitously shared Geraldine Brooks’s sublime “March” when inspiration flagged. Last, but first and foremost in my heart, deepest thanks to my cherished husband, Steve, and our sons Ian and Ben for providing me with companionship, laughter, and love always.
About the Author
When Heather Vogel Frederick was in the sixth grade, she used to ride her bike past Louisa May Alcott’s house in Concord Massachusetts, and dream of being a writer. Today, the award-winning author of the Patience Goodspeed books and the Spy Mice series lives in Portland Oregon, with her husband their two teenage sons, the family’s beloved Shetland sheepdog, and three fun-loving chickens.
Heather Vogel Frederick, The Mother-Daughter Book Club
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