You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Hilary McKay, author of children’s bestseller Saffy’s Angel, has written a sequel to the classic children’s story A Little Princess.
The book, Wishing for Tomorrow, will be published by Hodder in hardback in September.
McKay said: "I loved A Little Princess as a child and it is a book I have always returned to because there are some parts in it that are magical. As a writer it appealed to me because it is a very limited world and sometimes it’s nice to be in a small world."
The original story was written in 1905 by Frances Hodgson Burnett who also wrote The Secret Garden. It describes how Sara, a wealthy pupil at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies in London, is forced into drudgery after the death of her father. While there is a happy ending for
Sara, it is not known what happens to the other pupils. The sequel does not follow Sara’s fortunes, but those of the characters left behind at the school.
McKay said: "The book begins with the character Emengarde’s 13th birthday. Emengarde is a lonely little girl who loses her best friend when Sara leaves. I wanted to know what happens to her so that is the story; does Emengarde’s wish to leave the school come true?"
The author has retained the tone of the original story, but not the style because she feels it would not appeal to a modern child. "I have tried to make the children in my story sound more childish than in the original and I’ve included a few more jokes and also tried to explore what has made the
characters behave as they do."
McKay admits that she found writing this story easier than writing about modern children. "Today’s children have so little parental freedom whereas in the world of A Little Princess, children were left in the hands of teachers and maids who didn’t really care for them so there was very little
adult supervision unlike today’s children.
"It was a pleasure to write the book and I hope that children pick it up."