3. Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on
November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May,
were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and
raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.
4. Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts,
where she visited Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, went on excursions
into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and organized theatricals in the
barn at "Hillside".
5. Young Louisa was a
tomboy. "No boy
could be my friend till
I had beaten him in a
race," she claimed,
"and no girl if she
refused to climb trees,
leap fences ..."
6. For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich
imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and
her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the
"lurid" parts in these plays --"the villains, ghosts, bandits, and
disdainful queens."
7. At age 15, troubled by the poverty that plagued her family, she
vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew,
act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and
happy before I die, see if I won’t!“ Whether as a teacher, seamstress,
governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work
she could find.
8. Louisa’s career as an author
began with poetry and short
stories that appeared in popular
magazines. In 1854, when she
was 22, her first book Flower
Fables was published. A
milestone along her literary path
was Hospital Sketches (1863),
based on the letters she had
written home from her post as a
nurse in Washington, DC during
the Civil War.
9. When Louisa was 35 years old,
her publisher in Boston, Thomas
Niles, asked her to write "a book for
girls." Little Women was written at
Orchard House from May to July
1868. The novel is based on Louisa
and her sisters’ coming of age and is
set in Civil War New England.
10. Louisa published over 30
books and collections of
stories. She died on March 6,
1888, only two days after her
father, and is buried in Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
13. MEG JO BETH AMY
was always quite
and content
felt awkward being
a teenager
was very attractive
had an expressive
face
was comfortable
spending time alone
was delicate-
looking and polite
thought very
highly of herself
14. interrupted
loose/flowing
strong
moving her body
old and useless
growing fast
arms and legs
not thin
cheered up
talking
limbs
plump
fly-away
cut indecisive
carrying herself
rapidly shooting up
brightened
lecturing
worn out
15. who is very polite
leaving it
she rarely lost
a typical pale beauty
bothered her/made her
feel awkward
quite a few paintings
which were very much in
her way
a good picture or two was seldom disturbed
venturing out
a regular snow-maiden
mindful of her manners
16. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES
dark hair dark-haired
green eyes green-eyed
long legs long-legged
broad
shoulders
broad-
shouldered
18. Complete the table with words from the text
Name hair facial characteristics body/build
Meg
Jo
Beth
Amy
19. Complete the table with words from the text
Name hair facial characteristics body/build
Meg
soft, brown large eyes, sweet
mouth
plump
Jo
long, thick comical nose, sharp grey
eyes, decisive mouth,
fierce, funny
tall, thin, long limbs,
round
shoulders, big hands and
feet
Beth
smooth-haired rosy, bright-eyed,
sweet mouth, peaceful
expression
Amy
curling,
yellow
blue eyes slender