You would think a story about a little prince would draw in a small crowd of young kids but to my surprise, I was thoroughly impressed. In fact, I would recommend to all French teachers or students learning French on their own to read it.  Le Petit Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (informally known as St.-Ex), is most famous for its imagery and symbolism and was eventually made into a movie. The book is written in French and is typically read aloud to students in second grade and eventually read again in grade six for the students in most middle schools in France.

As I mentioned before I was thoroughly impressed by the book and would The book starts off a little slow with the background of St.-Ex meeting the little prince, who lives on his own planet that is very small, so small he can consecutively watch 43 sunsets in a row before he is too tired and must sleep. By the 4th to 5th chapter you are introduced to a rose, the only rose on the Little Prince’s planet, she has a difficult time expressing her feelings towards the Little Prince and.  Although she means a lot to the prince he leaves his planet and her to go visit other planets. The rose allowed the Little Prince to leave which can be looked at as a sign of love. A well-known quote from Richard Bach “If you love something set it free.”

As the Little Prince travels from one planet to the next he meets different adults, there jobs and roles they play on each planet. He finds that each adult is miserable and alone on their planet and their jobs are very dull and uninteresting almost as if they lost their imagination. Once he makes it to earth he is reminded of the special person in his life and why he must return.

Although St.-Ex used his creativity with this novel I did find it quite confusing at times as to what the moral or point of the chapter was. I believe this could have been changed or altered slightly. On the other hand, it may have been purposeful being that this book is filled with the unexpected and challenging the matured mind to be less mature. The plot of this book was well written in my opinion. St.-Ex had tried the beginning in with the end in the Little Prince finding his true love which is the rose that he left on his planet.   

St.-Ex used his creativity and symbolism to send a message that just because you grow up doesn’t mean you have to lose your imagination. Although the little prince will grow older he learned to never lose his imagination otherwise he will turn into an adult like the ones he met.