The Little Prince facts for kids

The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince) is a children's book by the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in the United States in English and French in 1943. It was published in France after Saint-Exupéry went missing in 1944.

The story is about a young prince who visits some planets, including Earth, and thinks about important things in life like friendship and love.

Story

The narrator, who is a grown-up, talks about his childhood. When he was six years old, he read a book about wild animals in the jungle. Then he drew a picture of a snake eating an elephant. However, the grown-ups around him thought he drew a hat.

The narrator grows up and becomes a pilot. One day, his plane crashes in the Sahara. He has enough water to survive for 8 days.

Images for kids

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  Saint-Exupéry next to his downed Simoun (lacking an all-critical radio) after crashing into the Sahara about 3 am during an air race to Saigon, Vietnam. His survival ordeal was about to begin (Egypt, 1935).

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  The Rose in The Little Prince was likely inspired by Saint-Exupéry's Salvadoran wife, Consuelo (Montreal, 1942).

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  The writer-aviator on Lac Saint-Louis during a speaking tour in support of France after its armistice with Germany. He started his work on the novella shortly after returning to the United States (Quebec, 1942).

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  The Bevin House on Long Island, one of the locations in which The Little Prince was written during the summer and fall of 1942.

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  Two editions of The Little Prince (lower left in French and upper right in English, artwork not shown) in the Saint-Exupéry permanent exhibit at the French Air and Space Museum, Le Bourget, Paris (2008).

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  A short 45 RPM demo recording by Richard Burton narrating The Little Prince with music by Mort Garson, excerpted from a longer 33⅓ RPM vinyl record album. Burton won the Best Children's Album Grammy Award for his narration (1975).

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  One of numerous stage adaptations of Saint-Exupéry's child and adult fable, this one at the University of Minnesota's Rarig Center Proscenium (2010).

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  A sculpture of the lamplighter in a "story playground" themed after The Little Prince in Holon, Israel

See also

In Spanish: El principito para niños