Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of)

A new take on Little Women that brings the events into the modern day. Jo is a thirteen-year-old girl in middle school who uses her secret blog to work out her feelings about her family and her life. The characters are readily recognizable even as their day-to-day lives diverge widely from the original novel and LGBTQ+ themes are explored.

This is very good, but has the misfortune to follow closely on the heels of the similar but slightly better Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Graphic Novel: A Modern Retelling of Little Women. Still, Jo is certainly worth reading, and since it only gets through retelling about a quarter of the original book, I have hopes we'll get a follow-up in the near future.

Two side notes:
All the kids have had or get show more chicken pox. Are the March and Laurence parents anti-vaxxers?
The kids play cribbage in one scene. Do any children play cribbage nowadays? show less

"I think who we pretend to be says a lot about who we are."

When I first read Little Women (sooooo long ago) I always liked Jo and Laurie together, but this has a queer spin for a new generation. Cute artwork and a simple plot. It’s a loose interpretation, so it doesn’t follow everything closely but manages to keep the same spirit.

Sn: sorry but the name Marmee was dumb. I get maybe one March girl saying it, but no way would the older ones join in.

Over the course of a school year, Jo and her sisters challenge themselves and grow, whether that is by making new friends, joining the newspaper club, tutoring younger children, or picking up a new instrument to learn, just to name a few.

This was a sweet story that was short enough to read relatively quickly. I think the author sticks close enough to the original source when it comes to characterizations to satisfy Little Women readers but makes the story enough of her own (and modernized) to entertain those readers who are unfamiliar with Little Women. As it takes place over a shortened time span and while the girls are mostly all in middle school (with the exception of Meg, who just entered high school), it avoids marriage and show more motherhood plotlines. But otherwise it covers a lot of what happens in the first half or so of the classic novel.

The reason I rate this book a little lower than I might have is that the illustrations aren't the best. If there were just sporadic pictures accompanying text, perhaps that wouldn't matter as much; however, for a graphic novel, images are doing at least half the work so they should be excellent. The background details in particular are disappointing; one that was so bad it almost made chuckle is that Jo -- whose big character trait is that she's a writer -- has a framed printed poster above her computer that is just the alphabet. Black-and-white letters with no illustrations or anything interesting about it. We get that she's a writer; she doesn't need to decorate her space like it's a kindergarten classroom.

All in all, this was an interesting enough read that I think middle schoolers will enjoy as it touches on common topics and concerns for that age, such as identity, friendships versus crushes, and more. show less

This graphic novel is a retelling (sort of) of Little Women. Kathleen Gros brings Jo March straight into the modern age as she begins the eighth grade.

The mood is gentle, and warm reminding readers why the March family has been beloved for so long. The heroine here is a white 13-year-old blogger who faces mild challenges with the support of her sisters and Marmee; the girls chat on video with their deployed father. Another had a crush on classmate Freddie, a kind Black girl. Beth is recovering from leukemia and Jo comes out. Jo is concerned her family and friends would be disappointed in her, but quite the contrary. Marmee is instantly receptive to Jo’s news as is her father who simply want her happiness.

Although I read his show more adaptation in one sitting, I felt as if a whole school year had passed as we experience the holidays, events, and traditions that occur during a typical school year.

This is just a happy comforting novel where it’s impossible not to root for Jo and family, and to celebrate their victories, even though they are easily won.

A great choice for your gentle readers. show less

Just as wholesome a rendering as the classic "Little Women" but with a fully contemporary lens that today's youth will recognize and appreciate. Well done.