A SECRET PRINCESS

Mary Lennox, Sara Crewe, and Cedric Errol all in the same book?

Having riffed on Little Women in Jo & Laurie (2020), the co-authors now create a mashup with characters from several Frances Hodgson Burnett classics. When 16-year-old Sara arrives in England in 1865 to attend the Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Gentlemen, her brown skin has everyone talking. Sara has Irish, German, Spanish, and Filipino ancestry, and the racist treatment begins immediately. Sara, hurt by the constant remarks, nevertheless holds her head high even after she becomes a servant following her parents’ deaths and the disappearance of her wealth. Luckily, she is supported by her friends, two other school outcasts: Mary, 15, is an imaginative girl who wants to be a writer, and Cedric, 16, is an artistic boy with a condition that affects his legs. The trio escapes from the school after Mary is told she must go stay with an uncle in Knoxville, Tennessee, after her father dies. Following a failed attempt to run away to Paris, Cedric reveals that he is Lord Fauntleroy, and his lawyers help them reach his Yorkshire estate, where events play out along the lines of The Secret Garden. The writing and the characters (most of whom present White) are engaging, and there are some romantic interludes; as with the original stories, the dramatic plot at times encourages readers to suspend disbelief.

Readers nostalgic for Burnett’s Victorian world will enjoy this adaptation.