# Little Women

**Author:** Louisa May Alcott
**Lexile:** 1300L
**Grade range:** Grades 7–10
**Age range:** 12–16
**First published:** 1868
**Page count:** 449
**Genre:** Classic Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780147514011`
**ISBN-10:** `0147514010`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/little-women
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

The four March sisters — practical Meg, tomboyish and aspiring-writer Jo, gentle Beth, and artistic Amy — come of age in Civil War-era New England. Alcott's novel explores family, ambition, womanhood, and self-reliance, and appears on the Common Core Appendix B grades 6-8 exemplar list. Its 1300L measure reflects dense 19th-century prose.

## Themes

- family
- coming of age
- women's roles
- ambition
- sisterhood

## Content notes

- illness
- death of a family member

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 10+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 7th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 6-8 story exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 8th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 6-8 story exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)

---

_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. For the full HTML view with reading-list cross-references, see https://readinglist.school/book/little-women._