The Little Colonel's House Party

Eleven-year-old Lloyd Sherman, the Little Colonel, receives permission to host her very own house party at her family's Kentucky estate. She summons friends from across America: Eugenia, a wealthy but lonely girl from New York; Joyce, from the flatlands of Kansas; Beth, a Kentucky neighbor; and Elizabeth, a poor orphan whose presence in the group creates the book's quietest tension. Over one summer weekend, these four girls discover that friendship can bridgevastly different worlds. Johnston understood something essential about childhood: that the people who seem most unlike us often teach us the most about ourselves. Beneath the charm of pony rides and garden parties lies a surprisingly nuanced exploration of class, loneliness, and the way children forge bonds that adults underestimate. For readers who love turn-of-the-century American fiction, quiet stories of transformation, or the particular magic of children's classics that respect their audience's intelligence.