In many ways, this makes her story feel a bit more comfortable than Burnett's, and might even prove to be more readable for most girls today. McKay's writing is definitely more contemporary, although rich with details from the time period.

McKay does not try to mimic the tone of Burnett's book but instead invites the reader into the inner lives of the characters, bringing light to their hopes and wishes in ways that Burnett does not. That is exactly what McKay, creator of the creative and crazy Cassons, one of my favorite literary families in which each child is named after a color of paint, the first book in their series being Saffy's Angel, taps into with her sequel Wishing for Tomorrow. While Sara Crewe was definitely the main character in A Little Princess, Burnett endowed her minor characters with enough quirks, traits and backstories to make them interesting in their own right.

With Wishing for Tomorrow, Hilary McKay answers the question that both she and her daughter had after reading Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, 'What happened next?' Of course McKay wondered about the life of Sara Crewe and her return to India, but she also wanted to know the stories of the other students at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Girls in London.

Wishing for tomorrow by hilary mckay