Pigs have Wings. Review on Little Prince, The - Antoine De Saint Exupery

Some people look at the world as it is and ask ’’Why?’’

I look at the world as it could be and ask ’’Why Not?’’

Hello there, I am the ’Little Prince’. I live on a secluded planet trillions of miles away. My planet is small and is occupied by a few things that I dearly love.I look after my little planet and sometimes, especially when something tries to hurt my comfortable existence or my rose, whom I love, I get very upset. Hence, everyday I spend hours tending to my planet - removing the bad ’things’ and nurturing the ’good’ things. The planet is my responsibility and so is everything else that exists on it.One day, I left my planet to explore the world outside.I visited lots of other planets and met different sorts of people - people who have their own planets and their own ways of looking after it and living on them. Needless to say, I could not adjust to their ways but it did definitely make me appreciate my planet and my rose more.Each person, each planet taught me something different and by the time I reached Earth, I was beginning to understand a whole lot of things. On earth, I met my very special friend - the man who has so beautifully penned down my journeys in this book.We spoke a lot, discussed each other’s lives and I told him about my many adventures on his planet - Earth.I was sad to leave him. We were both extremely upset but then one always longs for his own planet - one worries about the loved ones he left behind - one wants to feel safe in his surroundings. So I had to leave. But in my travels, I became a wiser man. I was taught, and tried my best to teach in return, lessons of everyone’s unique existence - of their own world.

Good books are those that you read, enjoy and which leave an impression on you. ’’The Little Prince’’ does more than that - it leaves a mark on your soul.It not only makes you rethink your views on living and life, it also gives you an entire new perspective of people.And it does so in a manner so different, so absolutely unique that you can’t help but feel stunned. It’s a book which can be enjoyed by all age groups. Every read brings forth something new which just didn’t strike you before. It looks like a children’s book - comic illustrations and big print. It reads like one too - simple words, easy phrases, short chapters.But then, thats the simplicity of the storyline. At every age, the depth of the book is different - from a simple boy’s journeys through planets meeting people he finds ’funny’ and recounting of ’hilarious’ stories which can be read to young children, to an idealistic view of life and people and a desire to , perhaps, change their behaviour which can make youngsters ’rediscover’ themselves, to a solemn version of life and an acceptance and understanding of the lessons that we learn through the prince's experiences.

I love this book for it’s simplicity. I love this book for it’s innocence. I love this book for it’s imagination - I love this book for making me actually see the elephant in the boa constrictor in the hat - for my niece’s excited laughter when I told her about the pig in the box. Come to think of it, why do we lose our ’out of the box’ thinking as we grow up. I mean, I loved the first (ok, fine, I love the word love..hehe) chapter....all of us do tend to act mature as we mature - why can’t we be as impressed by the beauty of a diamond as we are by it’s value? I loved the ’character’ of the rose - my little niece found her so ’ she hurted the prince’, while I could only see the insecurity in her beauty. I even felt sorry for the fox and it’s ...oh well, by now, hopefully, you are all curious and rushing out to buy this one.

The book can leave you with questions, the book can leave you with answers. It might make you lost in your thoughts.It might make you smile and shake your head at the innocence. It’s beautifully open - giving no sermons, providing no wisdom. It’s for you to read into it what you want. Needless to say, it’s my personal favourite. It made a whole lot of difference to my life - and continues to do so every time I read it.

And my absolutely bestest part of this wonderfullestest book is the dedication :

I apologise to children for dedicating this book to a grown up but this grown up understands everything - even books about children....All grown ups were children once even though most of them don’t remember it....I change my dedication...

So Simple. So explicit. Just like you, The Little Prince....ok, I got carried away :)