Rating: 
Summary: All time favorite
Review: The messages in this book endure - well through adulthood. I bought this edition for a friend and her daughter who is 4. This book opened my eyes to so much when I was younger and the messages have stayed with me through the years - my all time favorite book.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: I first read this almost thirty years ago as part of my French A Level course. I have read it every couple of years ever since. It has always been one of my favourite all time books. Is it a childrens' or a grown up's book. Who cares? It speaks to everyone.It is the simple tale of a pilot who is grounded in the desert and meets the enigmatic Prince who has come from another planet. A tiny planet inhabited by the Prince and his beloved flower - and the constant fear of Baobab trees which could overwhelm everything. It is so small that he once watched 44 sunsets. He watches these when he is sad. How sad he must have been on that day observes the narrator. It is a beautiful story about friendship. We laugh as much as we cry. The author's drawing of the empty landscape after his friend's departure still chokes me. But there is also the humour. Normally at the expense of our bizarre adult world. The Prince meets a merchant who sells a pill that means there is no need to drink. This could save several minutes each day. The Little Prince observes that if he had that time he would go to a fountain and have a nice cool drink. St. Exupery is much loved in France. He was even on the money before the Euro arrived. This is much deserved for this little classic alone. Read it in English or French or whatever you like. But read it - now.
Rating:
Summary: it's no children's book
Review: it was the best present that i ever got.it's the only book that i've read four times already.it's no children's book,it's perfect for grown ups who just couldn't seem to find some answers to the questions as to what matters to them most.it'll tell you that happiness don't just come in big packages but in most simple things.it's definitely one great book!
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Book Twisted in this Translation
Review: Although "The Little Prince" is one of my favorite books and I think everyone should go out (or stay in I suppose :)) and buy a copy, I too feel(see the other one star review below) that the new translation should not be that copy that you pick up. Do yourself a favor and track down a copy of the Katherine Woods version (which seems to have disappeared from stores since the new one came out). As an exaple, compare the line "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water" (Woods translation) to Howard's which goes: "[if I had fifty-three minutes...]I would walk towards a water fountain".
This translation (and this is characteristic of almost every passage in it)saps it of its wistful, bittersweet language, replacing it with sentences which are, frankly, boring as all get out. Howard's translation may or may not be closer to the original French wording, but it takes something I love very much and makes it stale and less magical than when I first read it. In my book, that reads: "Bad Translation".
Rating:
Summary: 10 Star Book, 1 Star Translation
Review: Please, people, do not waste your time on the Richard Howard translation. It is childish, simplified, and simply awful. I really think that Richard Howard took this phenomenal, amazing book and tried to make it as devoid of meaning as he could. The new translation is almost like how a five year old would tell it- small, small words and small, small ideas.
However- I had the Katharine Woods translation before I bought this one. Do not blame this new error on the author. The Katharine Woods translation is superb. Richard Howards- Not so much.
This review has nothing to do with the book, just its differing translations.
Rating:
Summary: the most wonderful book in the world
Review: the little prince is by far the best book i've ever read. every time i read it it touches me even more. it makes me realize that small things are the things that matter. it is a masterpiece that everyone should read or should have read.
Rating:
Summary: Told for young but made for the older.
Review: The little prince is a translated version of la petit prince or the french oringinal version. Even though it says it is for younger kids I absolutly love the book to death. There are a few things to know about the author before you read this book. The author is the character telling the story in the book. He was in real life a polit and he crashes in the sahara desert in the book where he meets the little prince. Its a great story for all ages young or elderly! But the best part is that a year later (in his real life) on a mission in the sahara desert (he was a polit for the navy/milatary) he couldn't fly because of injuries from former crashes. But he begged so he flew over the Sahara desert and was never seen again. So did he crash on purpose to follow the book or did it just happen by quensidence?
Rating: 
Summary: The Little Prince - 5 stars for original translation
Review: I very much agree with Eric Schaper from Mankato, whose review I just read, in saying that the original translation far surpasses the recent one. I have loved The Little Prince since I first read the book as a child, and have reread it countless times. There is a particular charm in the first translation that is missing in the 2000. I find this translation to be a bit chopy in places and much less endearing. I have been recommending this book for years and will continue to point my friends to the original.
Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC!
Review: Reading level is ages 9-12? I don't think so! I think a senile person on the border of death would get something out of this book! Like Alice in Wonderland, this "kid" classic has more moving beneath its surface than many "adult" novels that I've read. It would disintegrate John Grisham's entire corpus just in the space of one page! Antoine de Saint-Euxpery first published this book in 1943 and since then it has been translated into a zillion languages, because like music, the language of Prince is universal. The plot is pretty straightforward. The author, a famous aviator, has mechanical trouble with his plane and is forced to land in the Sahara Desert a thousand miles from civilization. That is until a young boy approaches him out of the blue and asks him to draw a sheep for him. Sound surreal? Childhood IS surreal! Page by page, the pilot learns of the past of The Little Prince. Don't expect reality here. The Little Prince lived on a small asteroid named B-612. So small, in fact that he could see 44 sunsets simply by moving a few steps every couple of minutes. He longed to explore and so was carried by a flock of birds to Earth. The Little Prince has all the form of a parable or a fable, a tale that is meant to convey deeper thoughts than its superficial attributes. There are thoughts in this book on love, relationships, the emptiness of a life without either, death, spirituality, capitalism, in general, the souless existence of the adult world. I'm sure this book could be a doctoral thesis for a future professor somewhere. I will come back to this book to explore some mysteries many more times in my life, I think. Seek it out. Richard Howard is one of the greatest translators of our time. He only improves the English version of this great book.
Rating: 
Summary: FIVE STAR BOOK NOW ONLY AVAILABLE IN MEDIOCRE TRANSLATION
Review: This new Richard Howard translation is a travesty when compared with the translation by Katherine Woods that publisher Harcourt, Inc. has replaced. Howard has reduced the text to its lowest common denominator which the publisher calls "streamlined" and "new and improved". I call it impoverished and completely devoid of charm. I can't imagine what the publishers were thinking when they chose to replace the classic translation which beguiled us all during its 57 years in print and am reminded of Coca Cola's "New Coke" fiasco...an error which was quickly remedied. The ONLY positive comment I can make is that the color illustrations in the paperback edition are an improvement on the black & white illustrations of its paperback predecessor.
The only good news is that you can still obtain used copies of the Woods translation at Amazon or your local used book shop. Look for the white cover and a publication date prior to the year 2000.
| 
