I never read the book though, that's why I referred to the movie. It was just the first that came to mind when you said "Little woman". I had a time where I watched everything with Katerine Hepburn I could get my hands on, and so came about this, and I loved it. I just looked it up on IMDB and learnt that this is only the first book of a trilogy. Gotta learn something new every day!

I think, back in that time, children generally were little adults. If you look at the clothes etc. they wore. It was only in the 1950s or so when teenage culture did start, with own fashion and music etc. especially made for them.