Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Understood Betsy

"Understood Betsy" by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
By the reviews many woman read this book as little girls. I didn't read it when I was little but after reading it I can't wait to let my girls read it when they get a little older. It is about a little 9 year old girl who is an orphan and three old aunts take her in. She lives with them in the city. They are always worried about her yet are very loving. Due to all the attention and all the worry she is a very frightened girl. She is skinny and thinks she is going to die. She is afraid of everything. Her aunt becomes sick and she has to go live with other family. This aunt lives on a farm with her elder parents. Here the girl is made to take care of herself, something she has never done. It is a story about how she finds out all the things she can do and how she isn't fearful of the world around her but finds it all so exciting. I really enjoyed this book for its simplicity. It was also quite humorous. "YOU aren't any grade at all, no matter where you are in school. You're yourself, aren't' you? What difference does it make what grade you're in!" "She had always thought she was there to pass from one grade to another, and she was ever so startled to get a little glimpse of the fact that she was there to learn how to read and write and cipher and generally use her mind, so she could take care of herself when she came to be grown up." This is what school should be, learning to use our minds so that we can take care of ourselves when we are grown up but I think it is often of just getting work done to move on to the next thing to pass and get to the next grade.

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