Little Princes Book

Little Princes

The novel Little Princes by Conor Grennan grounds on the author’s real life story. At the age of twenty-nine, he decides to travel around the world for some time. Grennan’s adventures begin with a trip to Nepal where he spends three months working in one of the Nepalese orphanages called the Little Princes Children’s Home. The orphanage serves as a new home for many children whose parents died during the civil war. At first, Grennan doubts if he is really able to work with children. However, after some time spent in the orphanage, he finds this job very honorable and fascinating.

Grennan and his co-workers try to do their best to make those poor children’s life in the orphanage more comfortable. The story reaches its breaking point when Grennan finds out that parents of most children in the Little Princes Children’s Home are alive. They paid human traffickers for hiding their children from the horrors of war. However, the traffickers did not really do anything to protect the children, but left them in the streets of Kathmandu instead. That is how most children found themselves in the Little Princes Children’s Home. Grennan realizes this terrific injustice and decides to help the children find their families. At this moment, Grennan’s personality changes dramatically, that is, from an inexperienced youngster he transforms into a real, brave, and decisive man.  He finds a local man who agrees to assist him as a guide. They travel through the mountains and have to cope with many difficulties and dangers of the civil war. In spite of all misfortunes they face, Grennan manages to help some children reunite with their families.

After these adventures, Grennan does not stop helping people in Nepal. He establishes an organization named Next Generation Nepal. Volunteers from this organization help people all around Nepal find their children and relatives. They also struggle against human trafficking and help people overcome many other problems caused by the civil war. Grennan finds his personal happiness in this organization too. He meets a girl named Liz there. The girl shares Grennan’s commitment to helping other people and becomes his closest associate in the organization. They eventually fall in love with each other and get married very soon. This happy ending of the story seems to be Conor Crennan’s reward for all his good deeds and devotion to other people.

After reading this story, I realized that it was not only about helping other people. Of course, the author of book tries to make his readers understand that volunteering is a very honorable activity and that there are so many people in the world whom we can help. However, to my mind, the main idea of the story is to show how an individual’s personality may change in a positive way under the pressure of certain situations and problems. This story shows the growth of Conor Grennan’s personality. At first, he seems to be a bit lazy young man who volunteers only to impress other people. However, he gradually becomes a very responsible and brave man able to sacrifice his personal happiness for the sake of other people. The establishment of Next Generation Nepal becomes the highest point of Grennan’s personal growth. However, this wonderful man does not stop at this point, but continues doing his great job of making the world better.