A modern take on “Little Women”

WINTER GARDEN Laura Schaefer never imagined rewriting a literary classic, but when her publisher called with a pitch, she knew she couldn’t turn down the opportunity. 

Her book, “Littler Women,” is a retelling of the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott - with a modern twist.

“It was a huge honor to get that call,” said Schaefer, who lives in Winter Garden. “I was extremely excited. My hope is that if readers read ‘Littler Women,’ they’ll be drawn to the original.”

After publishing two books though Simon and Schuster for elementary- and middle-school aged children, Schaefer knew she could write a version of “Little Women” for that age group.

“The idea was to make the story accessible to young readers,” Schaefer said.

For Schaefer, the timing for this book was perfect.

“I didn’t know what I was doing with my writing career, so I needed that push,” she said.

Before she started writing, she first re-read the original to determine what would work for her retelling. It didn’t take long for her to decide to focus on the fun whimsy of the first half of the book rather than the deeper and sadder second half.

From there, she began outlining the book chapter by chapter.

“It was like a real fun puzzle,” Schaefer said. 

One of the easiest parts of writing “Littler Women” was piecing together the relationship between Jo and Laurie, Schaefer said.

“I love writing dialogue, and I found that easy to write because there’s a lot of fondness there,” she said. “I found it easy to make them sweet without making it flirty.”

On the other hand, the most challenging chapter was adapting Beth’s illness with scarlet fever.

“In this day and age, if a child gets sick, they go the the emergency room,” Schaefer said. “I wanted the emotion to be there but not the scene of her hooked up to equipment in the ER.”

So instead, Schaefer gave Beth the flu - a more modern and manageable illness than scarlet fever, she said.

Schaefer spent the summer of 2016 writing “Littler Women.” She had a daily goal of writing 1,000 words, which aided in her mission of completing the book by the end of the summer, she said. Although it only took a few months to write, the editing and publishing process took a year to complete before the book could be released.

Of all the characters in her book, her favorite is Jo.

“You’ve got to love Jo,” Schaefer said. “Jo is the character who kind of sparkles. She’s so fierce.”

But what surprised Schaefer was her fondness for Amy - one of the least popular characters in “Little Women.”

“I ended up liking Amy, because in my book, she’s kind of funny,” Schaefer said.

In addition to creating a modern story of “Little Women,” Schaefer added recipes and craft projects at the end of each chapter for the readers to try. Each recipe or craft relates to something in each chapter, Schaefer said.

“It really is a book for creative kids,” she said.

As “Little Women” is set to celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2018, Schaefer said it’s time to let “Little Women” have its moment in the spotlight.

“Jane Austen is so part of our culture, and “Pride and Prejudice” is so huge, but now it’s time for “Little Women” to have that,” Schaefer said.

“Littler Women: A Modern Retelling” can be found at Barnes and Noble, Target and amazon.com.