It wasn't bad - not as rich as A Little Princess, but an interesting story. The beginning was more than a little awkward; she should either have assumed everyone knew the story of A Little Princess and just gone with other viewpoints on it, or told the story straightforwardly. As it is, the first few chapters jump back and forth from what happened to Sara to how the other students, and particularly Ermengarde, viewed events. There were things that the other students knew that Sara didn't know they knew, according to this book, which all makes sense in the story (both stories - there's why Ermengarde withdrew from Sara for a while, for instance). Once we get past Sara leaving, and the story becomes how the other students, and the Minchins, handle the new situation, it becomes more interesting. I saw odd parallels with Little Women - though I would never have pegged Lavina (the bully) for Jo! There's a lot more depths here than A Little Princess showed, for anyone but Sara (who shows up only briefly, and mostly in letters). Worth reading, and likely rereading (preferably immediately after A Little Princess, at least once). ( )

Framed as a sequel to The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. ( )

I am distrustful, generally speaking, of sequels written by someone other than the original author, particularly when the sequel in question is following upon an especially beloved classic. It always seems, somehow, to be riding another's coattails (I know, I know - aren't all writers doing that, to some extent?, you might be wondering), and it rarely satisfies the reader who loved the original. I don't think I've ever come across a Jane Austen remake that impressed me (and I've read a few), and the current craze for "monster-mashups" - think Jane Slayre, Little Women and Werewolves, Android Karenina, and so on - leave me cold.

There are exceptions to this general rule of course, from John Gardner's Grendel, which offers the monster's view of the epic of Beowulf, to Jane Lesley Conly's two follow-ups (Racso and the Rats of NIMH and R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH) to her father's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Hilary McKay's sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic Victorian tale, A Little Princess is, as it transpires, another such exception.

I adored Burnett's tale of a privileged young girl who discovers, for a time, what it means to be young, vulnerable, and poor in Victorian England, and read it countless times as a girl. I wasn't sure how McKay could expand upon her story without doing it violence, but as it turns out, she didn't try. Wishing for Tomorrow is not more of Sara Crewe's story, it is Ermengarde's story, and (to a lesser extent) the story of Lottie, Lavinia and the Misses Minchin. It is the tale of what happened at the "Select Seminary for Young Ladies," once Sara departed, and manages - wonder of wonders - to offer a convincing, and even sympathetic(!) explanation for the behavior of some of the less admirable characters in the original.

McKay doesn't make the mistake of trying to duplicate Burnett's style or worldview - she obviously has her own - nor does she take Burnett's view of these characters as her own. Lavinia is revealed as an intelligent girl who's simply never been given the opportunity to use her mind, Miss Minchin as a frustrated and embittered woman who was also denied, as a girl, the opportunities she deserved. As for Ermengarde, she emerges from the veil cast by Sara's perception of her, much less of a lumpen "clod" than first appeared. I was amazed to discover that I loved (or, in the case of Miss Minchin, could at least sympathize with) each of these characters, despite finding them either lackluster or repugnant in Burnett's original. No small achievement on McKay's part! I think I may have to track down more of her work... ( )

A sequel to Little Princess? Oh, the horror! Is nothing sacred? Ah, but wait...it's Hilary McKay! Welllll, maybe we will read it. If at least one other person thinks it is safe. Ah, my trusted bloggy friend, Charlotte's Library, has given it her stamp of approval.

So I read it. Now I want it too, to read over and over...the key word to describe this story is satisfying. We always wanted to know what happened to the miserable, unhappy girls, left behind in the miserable, unhappy school, with two miserable, unhappy women. True, Burnett says that Miss Amelia is a little more self-assertive. But really, does one want Miss Amelia in charge of anything? I think not.

Hilary McKay gently fills in the background of characters Ermengarde, Lavinia and Lottie. Not only do we come to understand them better, we see them grow and change as they discover a world outside Miss Minchin's rule. McKay's attempt to humanize Miss Minchin is less successful and she becomes something of a dark shadow, hovering in the background. Pitiful, yet still frightening. One wonders how Ermengarde and Lottie will fare with the alcoholic and possibley mentally disturbed Miss Minchin when Lavinia has achieved her goal of Oxford. The final dramatic catastrophe is a little over the top, and yet fits perfectly in the theme of release as the students and teachers escape into a happier life.

Verdict: For anyone who wanted to know what happened next....

ISBN: 978-1442401693; Published January 2010 by Margaret K. McElderry; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library

Want to hear a story? I was in a very large bookstore in London with my daughter when I found a single copy of this book. Hilary McKay! one of my very favorite children's writers! writing a sequel to what may possibly be my all-time favorite children's book! I scanned the book carefully to find the price (not that there was any question - I was totally buying the book), but no price was visible. So I took it to the cashier, who also checked it carefully until she saw it: PROOF COPY. NOT FOR SALE. "Not for sale?" I wailed (in a quietly professional manner). "But why was it out on the shelves?" The clerk looked furtively to her right, then to her left, then shoved the book at me. "Take it," she hissed. "Just don't let anyone see it." And like a practiced criminal, i whisked the book under my raincoat, grabbed my daughter and sidled out of the store.("Mumsy?" said my daughter. "Are we stealing something?")

So everything in the garden was lovely, but I am still not totally sure about this book. I loved how McKay brought Lottie to life - spoiled, whiny Lottie of The Little Princess is wildly inventive and impishly funny in Wishing for Tomorrow, and I would be sorry to have missed her. But the story's center is Ermengarde and her sense of betrayal (because Sara never told her about the magical transformation of the attic), and I had a hard time hooking up with that. Ermengarde is less stupid in this book (how could she be anything BUT less stupid) but also less tender and kind. However, the others girls are fleshed out in surprising ways that (also surprisingly) do not alter their initial characterizations, but simply expand them. And Miss Minchin's back story is both interesting and engaging, At first I was annoyed with McKay for seeming to attempt her rehabilitation (man, I hated Miss Minchin; she and I can never be friends), but that whole part of the plot grew on me. And I am sending a little Valentine to McKay for addressing the subjugation of women in Victorian times in this most lighthearted novel. That is a real hat trick, I'm telling you. ( )