Nearly a dozen students and faculty gathered in the Heritage Room to discuss themes of youth and adulthood in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince” on Monday night. Mossey Library Public Service Librarian Brenna Wade led the group in examining the treatment of childhood, gender, death, spirituality, and modernity in the classic 1943 children’s novel.
Since Wade founded the library’s book club, Raiders of the Stacks, four years ago, she has hosted a discussion on a book each semester. Wade selected “The Little Prince” this semester in part because it is short enough for busy college students to read and in part because a movie adaptation comes out later this year.
One of the central themes of the story is the loss of innocent wonder that often comes with age.
“Children have an imagination that adults maybe lose,” Assistant Professor of French Anne Theobald said during the discussion.
Library Circulation Manager Colleen Ladd agreed that people lose their whimsy as they grow up.
“I think we do, till you have a kid and get a little of it back,” she said. “Once you have a child, you see things you used to see when you were little.”
Although it is a children’s book, “The Little Prince” is deeply philosophical, and many scenes are difficult for young readers to grasp. Freshman Colleen Prince, whose father read the story to her as a child, said she did not understand the story early on.
“It threw all these big ideas at you as a kid and you had no idea how to face them,” Prince said. “It’s completely multidimensional.”
Sophomore Victoria Watson, a newcomer to Raiders of the Stacks, had already read “The Little Prince” when she heard about the discussion.
“I loved the story and I wanted to see what other people had to say about it,” she said. “It definitely gave a new way to look at the story.”
Wade developed Raiders of the Stacks because she wanted to facilitate discussion and reclaim the joy of reading. So she began hosting a book club each semester on books that time-crunched students may already have read. She likes to coordinate book selections with movie releases and anniversaries. In the past, students have discussed “The Hobbit,” “Ender’s Game,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Station Eleven.”
“We get so caught up in the academics here that you forget that books can be and should be fun,” Wade said. “It’s something that everyone can participate in; it’s not just students or faculty.”
Ladd, who has attended the book club before, said she has enjoyed stretching my outlook on books.
“It’s good to read things you wouldn’t normally read,” she said.
Eventually, Wade would like to transition Raiders of the Stacks into a book club with a core group that commits to reading each semester’s selection, she said. Several students signed up to participate at the Source last fall, and some attended a book club book swap.
“I’ve been experimenting with book-club-only events for people actually signed up for the book club,” Wade said.
Wade said she is happy with attendance but hopes it grows. As for now, “Every talk I have that has at least some students is a success.”