The Little Prince (1943) is a short novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry originally published in French and English. The book has been translated into over 505 different languages, making it one of the most translated books ever published, second only to the Bible.
The story is framed quite like a children’s book, and it was said to exist on both adult’s and children’s literature levels. This may be because it critiques multiple aspects of society by showing them through the eyes of a child. This child is known in the book as the “little prince.”
A great example of this duality is one you may be familiar with: the snake eating an elephant.
The narrator in The Little Prince uses this example to illustrate the differences between the mind of a child and that of an adult. The drawing looks like a hat to the narrow-minded adult. To someone with a more open mind it would look like the intended “boa constrictor digesting an elephant.”
Though children will certainly enjoy this book, adults will derive deeper meanings from it. Thus its audience is either ages 7-13 or 14+, depending on your purpose.
For its perfect depictions of clashing adults’ and children’s worlds, and its ability to really make the reader think, I give this book a five star rating.
More Books Like This
If you like The Little Prince, you may also like Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by Jonathon Swift or A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens.
– by Abbie Call
Read next: Very Scary Book Review.
Abbie Call – Cannonville/Kirksville, Missouri
Abbie Call is a journalist and editor at The Byway. She graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. Her favorite topics to write about include anything local, Utah’s megadrought, and mental health and meaning in life. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with family, quilting and hiking with the dog she’s getting soon — fingers crossed.
Find Abbie on Threads @abbieb.call or contact her at [email protected].