Little Reads: The Little Prince

Over the past week and half, Isla and I have been reading The Little Prince. She wasn't too into it, but liked for me to read it as she was falling asleep. Me on the other hand? I was definitely into it. The Little Prince is such a beautiful story! So simple, with just gorgeous language... I loved it. I never read it as a child and I was excited to finally read this classic.

For the only other person out there, like me, who never read this book, The Little Prince is the story of a little prince (obviously) who lives on a planet just bigger than he is. He takes good care of his planet, tending to his volcanoes and removing the baobabs until one day a beautiful flower grows out of the blue. The little prince continues to care for the flower, but she is very vain and demanding, so he takes off. He visits a few other planets, meeting a few other grownups, before landing on Earth. He's not impressed with grownups. A pilot crashes his plane in the Sahara Desert and finds the little prince who has been searching for a friend. The little prince tells him a few stories and asks him a lot of questions and finally decides that he needs to go home, back to his flower.

It really is a beautiful story and I can absolutely see why it's such a classic. I will definitely revisit this when Isla gets a little older.

We picked it up from the library because I've been seeing ads for the movie that was just released on Netflix a couple of weeks ago. We were reading in order to watch the movie. 

Yesterday we watched it. Or, I watched it. Isla watched it for about 15 minutes, then she was moving on to other activities. I think the book was a little over her head, and I was hoping the movie would hold her attention a little more, but I feel like both would be better for older kids (she's 3 for frame of reference.)

The movie was completely different from the book. The book was more of a story within the story of the movie. The movie is about a very serious little girl who happens to move in next door to the pilot from the book (he's an old man by now.) They get to know each other and he helps her loosen up and be a child again. He has worried about his little prince since they parted ways so many years before, so the little girl goes searching for him. What she finds is pretty surprising, so I won't give it away. 

The movie itself was just beautiful and it was very interesting to see the angle they took with the classic book. It's definitely worth a viewing - and I would highly recommend doing both: read the book, then watch the movie.

Have you read this classic or seen the new movie? What did you think?