The Story Book Girls
1906
Four sisters share a pink and white bedroom in a house where imagination softens the edges of ordinary life. The Leighton girls, Mabel, Jean, Betty, and Elma, have found something miraculous in the pages of their favorite novels: the Story Book Girls, those sophisticated, glamorous creatures who speak in perfect sentences and move through the world with effortless grace. Elma, the youngest, is particularly bewitched, though her attempts to master adult vocabulary lead to endearing disasters, like her struggle with the word "embarrassment." Written in 1906, this is a tender portrait of girlhood, of the sacred space sisters occupy together, and of how literature becomes a compass when you're learning who to become. The girls aren't pretending to be someone else so much as they're reaching toward a brighter, more elegant version of themselves, a longing that never dates. The humor is gentle, the emotional beats are true, and the portrait of sibling camaraderie has the specificity that only someone who remembers being young and earnest could capture. It endures because it understands that the books we love as children shape the adults we eventually become, and that sometimes the most profound friendships are the imaginary ones we hold in our hearts.
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“a quote from Joseph Campbell, his favorite writer. “Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.””
— Unknown
“I think of life as a book. It’s full of twists and turns. Some of it is comedy, some is tragedy. I’m not going to pause on the darkest chapter and reread it over and over. I don’t want to miss all the excitement that happens next. I want to keep turning the pages. I know there’ll be redemption and blessing and joy still. I trust that God is a good writer.””
— Unknown
“No matter how great a devastation, recovery is always possible.””
— Unknown
“She grew up speaking Limousin, a dialect of Occitan that people speak in the southwest of France. She had her learning before the Third Republic decided to modernize us all and forbid any other language than French at school.””
— Unknown
“Of course you do. Sorrow and heartache have their time and place, but we shouldn’t give them everything.””
— Unknown
“The world is changing so fast. I want to create something that will remain”
— Unknown
“lamenting how unfair life can be to those of us who possess a free spirit.””
— Unknown
“Why is it sinful for a woman to enjoy life and have a few happy moments, to own her body instead of letting her every action be dictated by men?””
— Unknown
“I just want to do something creative.” I want to build something, a process where along the way I can also build a new me. I need something big, something all-consuming. I need this project to save me.””
— Unknown
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Unknown. The Story Book Girls. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-story-book-girls-324456a3-daf6-43dc-b412-5bf4d7ad3507.Unknown (1906). The Story Book Girls. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-story-book-girls-324456a3-daf6-43dc-b412-5bf4d7ad3507Unknown. The Story Book Girls. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-story-book-girls-324456a3-daf6-43dc-b412-5bf4d7ad3507.
