Lizzy Bennet's Diary
As seen:
By Marcia Williams, and and, Marcia Williams
avg rating
3 reviews
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, this is a glorious retelling of Jane Austen’s most famous novel from the point of view of Lizzy Bennet, its feisty heroine.
The story of Pride and Prejudice, told through Lizzy Bennet’s secret diary. A beautifully detailed and completely fresh take on one of the best-loved stories in English literature. Readers will feel as though they’ve stepped into Austen’s world: the book is packed with Lizzy’s drawings, pressed flowers, ribbons from her bonnet, hand-written notes to fold out and read, dance cards, invitations, and even a letter from Mr Darcy…
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Genre: Fiction, Diary entries
Age: Upper KS2 , however the format is a beautiful example of diary entries and can be used to model in a KS1 classroom!
Key themes: History (King George III, 1797), Diaries, Love Stories, Monarchy, Gender roles.
It is a shame the writing is difficult to read because it’s a lovely idea for a book, illustrations are beautiful and you could draw some rich ideas for lessons from the format and genre. I know I would have loved to look at this book as a child but the old English language choice would have discouraged me. This is why I would be unsure of how to use this book in class. At first, I thought introducing the background of the character (Lizzy Bennet from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice) would be difficult to do but I think it would serve as a marvelous stimulus for a relevant history topic (King George III, or the 1700's era). It was exciting to read a fiction book in this format as I have never come across one before however, to my knowledge the language is too difficult and would lose the interest of the reader.
Despite my criticism of the language choice this book is a lovely example of a diary entry and could therefore be used to improve this writing format and technique within any class in KS1 and KS2 , it could even be used to encourage self-reflection and diary writing on a less formal level in terms of PSHE and emotion regulation.
I lov this book so much and can't count the times I've read it, Lizzy has an amazing persionality and it is beatiful to see things from her eyes, it is the amazing works of Jane Austen's "Pride and Predjudice" made accesible to younger readers.
You should read this book if you find unabridged classics like Pride and Prejudice hardgoing because this tells you the story but in an easier to understand way! It has interactive parts like letters you can pull out and read and leaflets based on events in the story in it to make the reading experience more interesting.
