Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery
A talkative orphan arrives on Prince Edward Island by mistake, where an older brother and sister expected a boy, in a warm, funny classic.
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Books like Little Women
Little Women follows the four March sisters growing up in Massachusetts during the Civil War, with Jo dreaming of becoming a writer. These seven books bring more spirited girls, close families and coming-of-age stories.
Books to read next
Daddy-Long-Legs
Jean Webster
An orphan sent to college by a mysterious benefactor writes him spirited, funny letters, in a 1912 classic told in letters.
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A lonely orphan sent to a large house on the Yorkshire moors finds a hidden garden, in a classic children's story.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Five sisters in Regency England, among them the sharp-tongued Elizabeth, face pressure to marry well, in a witty romance.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
A bookish girl grows up poor in Brooklyn in the early 1900s, in a moving classic that includes hardship, alcoholism and sexual danger.
March
Geraldine Brooks
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel imagines the Civil War experience of the March girls' absent father, in a serious book with violence.
The Penderwicks
Jeanne Birdsall
Four sisters and their father spend a summer in a cottage on a grand estate and befriend the owner's son, in a modern family story for younger readers.
How to choose
Little Women mixes comedy with hardship, so choose by the mood you want. For more spirited heroines in warm stories, Anne of Green Gables and Daddy-Long-Legs are the closest, and both are funny. The Secret Garden and The Penderwicks are children's stories that adults enjoy too, and The Penderwicks is the more modern. Pride and Prejudice swaps the war years for Regency England and a witty romance. For the harder side, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn deals with poverty, alcoholism and sexual danger, and March goes to the Civil War itself, with violence and the cruelty of slavery. Check content notes first for those two.
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- Books like Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice is a witty novel of manners about love, money and first impressions among the English gentry.
- Books like RebeccaRebecca follows a shy young bride who moves into her husband's grand estate, Manderley, where the memory of his first wife still dominates the house.
- Books like Harry PotterHarry Potter pairs a lonely young hero with a hidden world and a school full of friends and rivals.