The Little Prince

I've been looking forward to writing my first blog post about a book. I'm warning you this isn't from the list I previously posted. If you know me well or you continue to follow this, you will learn I'm not very good at following lists of books. I am generally reading around 5 at once and many I never intended to read yet. So here I am presenting a lovely book that I have previously not mentioned. It's a children's book called The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. If you have never read it- PLEASE DO. I feel like too often we feel like we get to an age that children's literature is no longer for us. I will shamelessly admit that it is my favorite genre. Sometimes I want to pretend I like other genres more (after all I AM in college where everyone has big dreams and aspirations, what kind of person prefers to read children's books and just wants to open a bookstore? ME) but I can't lie, children's books are without a doubt my favorite. One of my best friends gave me this book for Christmas last year with a great inscription in it. (Aren't inscriptions the best??) But anyhow, he asked me recently if I'd read it yet and I realized I hadn't! So for the past week it has been my bubble bath/bedtime read. Here are three things you should know about the book...

(1.) It is a children's book all about childhood. It has the same feeling as Where the Wild Things Are except it is more eloquent, was written a number of decades earlier, and it is much longer.

(2.) The illustrations are BEAUTIFUL


"In order to make his escape, I believe he took advantage of a migration of wild birds."

(3) It was originally written in French by a pilot for the French air force who was shot down over the Mediterranean ocean a year later by a German plane.

Lastly, allow me to leave you with the dedication in the book. It just makes me smile and shows the heart of Saint-Exupéry's work...

"TO LEON WERTH
I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (but few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:
TO LEON WERTH
when he was a little boy..."

Absolutely beautiful. If you never have... PLEASE go pick this up. Find a quiet place where you can allow yourself to think like a child and soak up this wonderful story...