Wishing for Tomorrow is Hilary McKay's charming and insightful sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved classic, A Little Princess. Wisely choosing not to write about the continuing adventures of Sara Crewe, McKay focuses on the question that plagues many readers after Sara is restored to her riches and departs for her happy ending: What happened to the rest of the girls who were left behind in Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies?
Loyal Ermengarde, mischievous Lotte, and snobbish Lavinia all return, along with Miss Minchin, who seems utterly undone by Sara's return to good fortune. McKay captures Burnett's vivid descriptive style and deft characterization through dialogue while deepening the characters and their story with a psychological insight all her own.
Ermengarde, who is described in Burnett's original as being chubby and rather dim, carries the sequel. Where Sara had a gift for stories—for making things up in order to transcend her difficult circumstances—it turns out that Ermengarde has a gift for seeing into the heart of things. After it is revealed that some of her learning difficulties are the result of a need for glasses, Ermengarde learns that she has a gift for writing. Much of the book is told through the letters she writes to Sara about the changes that occur at Miss Minchin's after Sara leaves.
Lavinia, it turns out, was not merely jealous of Sara taking her place as star pupil, but is a scholar in her own right, hungry for knowledge far greater than what is offered at Miss Minchin's finishing school. Miss Minchin's own scholarly ambitions were once thwarted, leaving her in charge of a school where young women are groomed to be society wives, not to develop minds of their own. Lavinia turns her ambition toward getting a better education, and her machinations to learn Greek and Latin under the guise of piano lessons is one of the many humorous and heartening subplots in the book.
Meanwhile, Lotte continues to ask impertinent questions. She is able to restore a sense of fun to the remaining girls at the school and ultimately reveals herself to be the character most capable of forgiveness. Her fierce determination to bring out the best in everyone means that even Miss Minchin gets the happy ending that even unhappy people deserve.
McKay adds a new character to Miss Minchin's: Alice, the maid who is hired after Sara leaves. A no-nonsense girl from the country, reminiscent of Burnett's Martha in The Secret Garden , Alice will not tolerate Miss Minchin's bullying and encourages the girls to learn practical skills in addition to aiding them with their schemes to create a more fulfilling life for themselves.
While a clear homage to the original, McKay's sequel not only provides happy endings for the remaining characters in A Little Princess, but redresses some of the wrongs of Burnett's original. The girls left behind at Miss Minchin's need not wait for a mysterious benefactor to rescue them from their situation, but strive to take steps towards the life they most want to live. Each of the characters—even Miss Minchin—is revealed to have unique talents of her own, well worth developing. Ultimately, Sara's legacy is not just fantastical stories to escape impossible situations, but the ability for each of the girls to imagine a better future for herself, along with the strength and fortitude to see those plans through.
I am always hesitant when encountering sequels written for well-loved titles. Hilary McKay's Wishing for Tomorrow not only added new depth to Frances Hodgson Burnett's original A Little Princess, but helped me to appreciate it more. This is a girlhood book, the kind one wants to share with best friends, teachers, daughters, complete with the kind of happy ending we wish for all the women in our life, even the Miss Minchin's in the world.
What are sequels to favorite titles that you've enjoyed? How have they changed or shaped the way you have looked at favorite stories or books?
Sarah Wood, a reviewer for Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com since 2003, is a lifetime reader and writer. She refuses to accept that there are people who don't like to read and stubbornly believes this is only because they have not met the right book yet.
