Because of an illness in the family that her mother has to attend to, Lloyd Sherman, also known as the Little Colonel, is shipped off to boarding school from her home in Lloydsboro Valley, Kentucky.
During the semester, the Little Colonel becomes friends with Ida Shane, founds a Shadow Club to raise money for the poor, and attends her very first Halloween masquerade.
But as the Little Colonel returns home to her loving family and awaits the beginning of the New Year, she learns the most important lesson of her time away at school: absence makes the heart grow fonder.
This novel is part of the series based on real characters in the author’s life that “became one of the most celebrated children’s reads through the mid-20th century, not only in the United States but throughout much of the world” (Courier Journal).
Annie Fellows Johnston (1863-1931) has sold more than one million copies of her Little Colonel books. These include The Little Colonel, The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation, The Little Colonel's House Party, Two Little Knights of Kentucky, Mary Ware in Texas, and Mary Ware's Promised Land, all of which are published by Pelican.