All is not lost: she has friends, courage and imagination – maybe that’s all she really needs.Ī collection that will be coveted by children and adults alike, this list is the best in children’s literature, curated by Virago. Forced to work from dawn until dusk as the school’s unpaid servant, she looks over the rooftops from her damp attic room and dreams of a better life. Then, the tragic news arrives that her father has died penniless and, without wealth or a guardian, Sara is at the mercy of Miss Minchin. But although her toys and clothes are the envy of the other girls, Sara’s kindness and gift for storytelling soon win her lots of friends.

When Sara Crewe is sent to Miss Minchin’s school for young ladies, her indulgent father provides for her as if she were a little princess. ‘It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.’ The sunshine continues when impoverishment and drudgery befall her and she relies on her private fantasies to preserve her natural zest for life’ GUARDIAN She is intelligent and good humoured with an infectious warmth that embraces the lowliest of her new acquaintances. ‘I’d read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden and loved it – so I tried A Little Princess and liked it even more!’ JACQUELINE WILSON

A heartwarming tale that champions the power of imagination. A timeless Cinderella story, A Little Princess is one of the best-loved children’s classics of all time.

A little princess frances