A Gift for Meg

Portraits of Little Women

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

After being presented Belgian lace to be used for her wedding day in the future, Meg stores it away, yet Jo's desire to have it leads to a bitter feud between the sisters

Genres: Middle Grade, Historical Fiction, Historical

112 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 1999

About the author

Susan Beth Pfeffer was an American author best known for young adult and science fiction. After writing for 35 years, she received wider notice for her series of post-apocalyptic novels, officially titled "The Life as We Knew It Series", but often called "The Last Survivors" or "Moon Crash" series, some of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Reviews

[Sierra Abrams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these books SO much when I was younger! :)

[My Hidden Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one kind of made me mad. Meg is gifted a beautiful batch of lace that Aunt March says is for her wedding. Immediately, Jo gets jealous and demands her share. Meg is rightfully like what are you talking about, and Jo accuses her of not loving her if she won't cut in four pieces to be even. This was so wrong of Jo. Yes, Meg could have done that, but it was a gift for her, and their father even said Jo has to learn not to have everything her own way, and if there was an issue with Jo not getting anything, she should have taken it up with Aunt March.

Instead, Jo finally flips out and ruins the lace with jam and rips it in half with Meg's help (she's trying to get it out of Jo's stained fingers) after her family accuses Meg of being selfish and Marmee says she doesn't want to deal with either of them. In the end, Meg feels like this whole thing is her fault because she wasn't a proper lady, and it's maddening when it wasn't entirely her fault. In the end, of course, everyone is fine, and Aunt March realizes that if you get one child something, you have to get every child something.

Still a great book, I just felt for Meg.