The Little Queen by Meia Geddes (2017)

Website of Meia Geddes- including bio and links to interviews

"On a little world, upon a little hill, a little tear fell down a little face. A little girl was now a little queen. The little 



queen’s mother and father had said that she would live on, for a long time, and that her tears would magnify the life around her forever more, but they had not explained how she should go about going on. The little queen placed the plump shapes of her tears in a glass jar and watched the jar fill up, day after day. She stood by two gravestones enveloped by roses and placed her palms on trees and wondered questions that could not be answered. She returned to her palace squeezing roses in her palms and let her small breaths fog the windows 



as she looked down on the happenings happening below her hill.....

One day, the little queen took a long look at her jar and a long look at her salty roses. The jar was full and the 

roses were dying. The palace was empty and she was very much alone.  The little queen did not know what to do or where to go. Perhaps most importantly, she did not know who to be, for it occurred to her that she did 

not really wish to be a little queen. She believed there were better things to be. That is why, on this particular day, sitting among her salty roses, she decided that she should see the world. Maybe she would find someone who would like to take her place as little queen. After all, 
she thought, maybe others would like to feel what it is to be a queen, even if just a little one. And that is how the little queen embarked on an adventure."

The Little Queen by Meia Geddes reminded me very much of the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde, a very high compliment.  Set in a vividly imagined magical kingdom, a young girl becomes, upon the death of her beloved parents, a Little Queen.  Nothing in her brief sheltered experiences has prepared her to be a queen.  She decides to journey out, alone, to seek the wisdom to rule.  I was very much reminded of another fairy tale like work, one of my favorite books, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.  Like the Gautama Buddha, she has never experienced any of the daily struggles to survive, to find meaning in life, of her subjects.  By leaving alone, without  any court attendants, she is leaving behind her social identity.  

The Little Queen meets many people, each with something to teach her. Among those she encounters are the architect of silence, the weaver of dreams, the book sniffer (my favorite), the dream writer, the wall sawyer, the tree woman, the leaf gluer, the seasons painter, the street painter, the animal singer, the fish talker, the window builder, the perfumer and the sleep smoother.  She bonds with each one, all her subjects, as she continues her journey we see her gaining wisdom from each encounter.   In the wonderful second from the end chapter, "Wherein the little queen and her friends make homes for those in need" most of the people the queen meets join together to build houses, drawing on the special skills of each person, now unified under the queen.  I deeply loved this chapter, especially the importance having books in the houses was given.

The Little Queen is a novella, with a reading time under two delightful hours.  It is a lyrical almost poetic work drawing on myth, history, and magic.  I'm very glad I experienced this book.

Mel u