Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women

by Rey Terciero, Bre Indigo (Illustrator)

Overview

2018 marks the 150th anniversary of the classic Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Join Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as they are reenvisioned as a blended family living in modern day NYC in this beautiful graphic novel.
With their father away in the military and their mother working two jobs to support the family, the March sisters have to rely on one another to make it from day to day. Whether they're arguing over the bathroom, struggling with homework, fighting off bullies, understanding their crushes, or battling cancer, there's one thing the four sisters keep questioning--will everything turn out okay?
Join modern young women, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy in a new narrative that follows four sisters and their struggles in growing up, dealing with racism, discovering themselves, and following their dreams.
This beautiful (full-color) story is a must-read for fans of Raina Telgemeier's Smile and Sisters, Mariko Tamaki's This One Summer, Svetlana Chmakova's Awkward, and Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316522854
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	02/05/2019
Series:	Classic Graphic Remix , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	805,854
File size:	87 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Rey Terciero has always been a fan of strong female protagonists, especially in classic literature. Rey lives in California, spending life lost in stories, both in reading and writing them. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy is Rey's debut graphic novel.

Bre Indigo is a lover of astronomy, salmon sashimi, and open minds. She tells stories of gentle boys, tough girls, and those in between, with a focus on tolerance and the many faces of love. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy is Bre's debut graphic novels.

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2019

This graphic novel retelling of Little Women reimagines the March sisters as a blended family—Meg and her father are black, Jo and her mother are white, and their younger siblings, Beth and Amy, are biracial—in a modern-day Brooklyn setting. With their father in the military, fighting in the Middle East (“making the world a safer place” for “my little women,” he writes), and their mother struggling with the emotional and financial stress of single parenthood, the girls vow to think beyond themselves to help their mother and “be strong,” like her. Readers familiar with the original will find the sisters’ personalities familiar, but Terciero and Indigo give the sisters timely concerns. Eldest sister Meg must make serious decisions about her future, youngest sister Amy faces racist bullying at school, and Jo is hiding her queer identity from her family and friends, including neighbor Laurie. And for shy budding musician Beth, recent tiredness hints at an illness that can’t be ignored. Journal entries and emails to their father give readers a deeper understanding of the siblings’ inner emotions and turmoil while adding dimension and realism to comfortable sibling banter. Smart and thoughtfully rendered, this modern retelling will resonate with today’s readers.Ages 9–12. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"[...] this tale offers a contemporary vision of sisterhood that will appeal to a diverse audience."—Kirkus

"Smart and thoughtfully rendered, this modern retelling will resonate with today's readers."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2019-02-17

In this modern, graphic retelling, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are all offspring of a blended, interracial family that lives in a New York City apartment.

It works surprisingly well, both in Terciero's colloquial dialogue and Indigo's clean, well-paced sequential panels (her pencils were inked and colored by a team), and lovers of the classic will enjoy seeing how the reboot corresponds to the source text. Their white mother struggles, working double shifts while their father, who is black, is deployed in the Middle East. Both Meg, who is black, and Jo, who is white, were born to their parents prior to the marriage. Beth and Amy are the biracial younger sisters of the family. Dispersed throughout the story are entries from Jo's journal and emailed exchanges between the girls and their dad, who affectionately refers to his daughters as "little women." Wealthy Laurie and his grandfather are their Latinx neighbors. Meg and Jo take on the responsibility of the household, caring for their younger sisters. Meg works as a nanny, while Jo works as a personal assistant for her aunt. The March sisters squabble over chores, tease one another, and tackle school, where Amy silently endures racist bullying by white girls who tease her about her nose size and hair texture, even calling her "Africa" and hitting her. While the elder sisters navigate boys, fragile Beth is diagnosed with leukemia, spawning the best scene, in which the sisters all shave their heads when Beth loses her hair during chemo. It is regrettable that the racism Amy endures is resolved far too easily and is sidelined by other events in the book.

Sticking to the original storyline, this tale offers a contemporary vision of sisterhood that will appeal to a diverse audience. (Graphic fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews