The Little Prince

I begin as a whisper, a feeling you get when you look up at the night sky. I am filled with tiny planets, talking flowers, and a very serious little boy with hair the color of wheat fields. Before you even know my name, you can feel the sand of the Sahara Desert and hear the lonely question of a pilot whose plane has crashed. You might see a drawing of a hat, but a child who truly sees knows it is a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. Can you imagine a world where you can visit a planet with a king who has no one to rule, or another with a man who just counts stars all day? I hold these worlds and their secrets about what grown-ups often forget and what is truly important. I am a story that traveled from a faraway asteroid to the heart of a pilot, and then onto paper for the whole world to share. I am The Little Prince.

My creator was a man who knew the sky better than almost anyone. His name was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and he was a brave and thoughtful French pilot. Long before he ever thought of me, he flew small, rickety airplanes over vast deserts and tall mountains, delivering mail and seeing the world from high above the clouds. He understood what it felt like to be all alone under a blanket of stars. But in 1942, the world was in the middle of a terrible conflict called World War II, and Antoine had to leave his home in France. He found himself living in a busy, tall city called New York, but he missed the quiet emptiness of the desert and the familiar stars of home. It was there, feeling lonely and thinking about the state of the world, that he brought me to life. He didn't just write my words; he painted me, too. With simple watercolor paints, he gave my prince his golden hair, my special rose her proud red petals, and my wise fox his clever eyes. He poured all his feelings—his love for his home, his worries about grown-ups, and his belief in the power of imagination—onto my pages. I was first published and shared with the world on April 6th, 1943, ready to begin my own journey.

From that day in 1943, I began to travel far beyond New York. After the war ended, my story was finally shared in Antoine's home country of France, and then I flew all across the globe. I learned to speak in hundreds of different languages, so children and adults from almost every country could understand the secrets I carry within my pages. The most important secret was given to the little prince by the wise fox he tamed in the desert. The fox said, 'What is essential is invisible to the eye.' This means the most important things in life, like friendship and love, can only be understood and felt with your heart, not just seen with your eyes. For decades, people have read my pages and remembered to look past what things seem to be on the surface and to see what they really mean. I remind them that we are all responsible for the things we care for—our 'roses.' Today, I continue to whisper my story from bookshelves and screens, inspiring people to draw, to dream, and to look at the stars and wonder if they can hear the laugh of a little boy. I am a timeless connection, a reminder that the best parts of life are the feelings we share and the wonder we keep inside us.