Flower Fables is Alcott's first book, a collection of short fairy tales set among flowers, fairies, elves and woodland creatures. The stories began as tales she invented for the daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each one carries a gentle lesson about kindness, patience, courage or generosity, in the manner of Victorian children's literature. The book shows an early version of the imagination and moral warmth that marked her later work, and it will interest readers who want to see where her career began.