Understood Betsy

I discovered this book in my aunt's collection when I was about 11 or 12. The story of the sheltered girl who blossomed when she was expected to become independent and strong always fascinated me. When I grew up I learned that the author was a strong proponent of the Montessori teaching method.

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Coincidentally, I already had enrolled my daugher in a Montessori school for the past 7 years.

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When nine-year-old Elizabeth Ann's Great-aunt Harriet becomes ill and she and her Aunt Frances are no longer able to take care of her, Elizabeth Ann is sent to live with her cousins in rural Putney, Vermont. With the application of chores and country living, Elizabeth Ann, now known as Betsy,

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transforms from a weak, anxious, sickly child to a sturdy, independent, self-confident girl. The narrator of "Understood Betsy," originally released in 1917, is overly chatty by today's standards, especially in the first few chapters. The story development, while solid, is also easily predictable to anyone familiar with this genre. This book seems aimed at middle-grades girls. However, today's middle-grades girls might not have the background necessary to enjoy the book, and older readers with the necessary background might find the subject matter and execution childish. Overall, "Understood Betsy" is dated, and probably most enjoyable for people who have exhausted more familiar books such as "Anne of Green Gables" and "The Secret Garden."

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Absolutely loved this book. I only didn't give it a 5-star review because I feel those should be saved for mind-blowingly good books, like "To Kill a Mockingbird." "Understood Betsy" is just one of those easy-to-read classics, in the same vein as "Pollyanna," that leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.

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It makes me a little sniffly that they don't write children's books like this anymore.

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This chatty, conversational children's novel about a young orphan girl who goes from one set of relatives to another set and blossoms with the change is a complete delight. It's another one I had never read as a child myself but picked up because of the Shelf Discovery Challenge. Elizabeth Ann is a

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small, somewhat sickly, very timid child who lives with her Aunts Harriet and Frances, neither of whom are actually aunts but are related more distantly than that. Aunt Frances, who has the main care of Elizabeth Ann loves Elizabeth Ann dearly but fosters in her a very dependent relationship. She is quite fond of declaring that she "understands" this little girl left in her care. When Aunt Harriet suddenly takes sick and must go away, needing Aunt Frances, who is actually Aunt Harriet's daughter, to attend to her health, Elizabeth Ann is sent to yet more distant relatives who, not really wanting to be responsible for her care, in turn send her to her mother's aunt's family. This upheaval and plan strikes fear and shuddering into the little girl as she has heard these cousins of hers disparaged as horrible for as long as she can remember. But lo and behold, when she is finally with the "horrid Putney cousins," she comes out of her shell and starts to relish life instead of jumping at her own shadow. She learns independence and resourcefulness under the laconic and easy care of these country-living folks. Rechristened Betsy, she is expected to help around the house and to master her own fears. She finds sympathy when she needs it but is not coddled, and stops thinking that her every thought and action is of utmost importance to Cousin Ann, Aunt Abigail, and Uncle Henry. Over the months of living with these cousins, Betsy grows into a sturdy, healthy child who learns much of life and of another way to love and be loved. Written in 1917 and set in that decade, the slower, simpler way of life at the time is now nostalgic for readers. The characters are appealing and wonderful and Fisher manages to show that Betsy is happier and healthier with the Putney cousins without disparaging Aunt Frances and her more fearful, fluttery parenting style. This is a sweet book and one that I'm glad I finally made the acquaintance of.

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I loved this children's book about a timd girl sent to live with relatives, and how the way they treated her helped her become a self-confident person. I just wish I'd met it when I was a child!

My favorite moment in this great book is when Elizabeth starts being referred to as Betsy. The book doesn't point out this is happening, it gives the readers credit for their intelligence and lets them notice. I think this was one of the first times I realized as a girl that books don't always

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spell everything out, and you have read between the lines now and then! I used to wish I could be Betsy in both her lives---the pampered girls with her first set of relatives and the hardy farm girl with her second set!

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If I could give it more than five stars, I would. Just about my favorite children's book of all times and the strange thing is I didn't read it until I was in my forties. Love it, love, love it.

Okay, it's not really that new to me because I read it as a kid, and then again for the NYBT book discussion group. It was amazing to me how many years have gone by since I've read this (although I did read it multiple times as a child) and SO MANY of the scenes and details were instantly familiar.

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You would think I had read it yesterday.

Let's see, orphan Betsy lives with her milksoppy aunt and cousin, and when her aunt becomes ill, she is sent to live with other relatives in Vermont, who are hearty, active and self-sufficient people. At first Betsy is freaked out, then she becomes hearty, active and self-sufficient. As we might expect.

Reading it now, it's a bit preachy -- Dorothy Canfield Fisher was an educational reformer and this book, obviously I think, was intended to underscore some of her ideas about the merits of a hearty, active, and self-sufficient education. It feels very heavy-handed to an adult reader. On that basis, I was going to give it three stars, but then added a star because I remember enjoying the heck out of this as a little kid and didn't notice the agenda at all (then again, also Not the Brightest Kid), and I feel that because so many of the events described in the book have stuck with me for so long speaks well of the quality of the story

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This is like totally some kind of Montessori school propaganda, those bastards!!
But it's also really sweet, it's kind of like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm or Anne of Green Gables or something, but it's all about how to be self-sufficient and be educated at your own level and have self-confidence and

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stuff.
Plus applesauce.

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When this story begins, Elizabeth Ann, who is the heroine of it, was a little girl of nine, who lived with her Great-aunt Harriet in a medium-sized city in a mdedium-sized state in the midle of this country, and that's all you need to know about the place, for it's not the important thing in this

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story; and anyhow you know all about it because it was probably very much like the place you live in yourself.

The opening of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Understood Betsy hooked me in, and I just wanted to keep reading – and when I'd finished I just wanted to go back to the beginning and start all over again. I wish I'd come across it as a child (it is a children's book, if you haven't already guessed), but it doesn't seem to be well known in the UK, although it may be more popular in America – after all, Canfield Fisher was an American writer. In places it reminded me of The Secret Garden, while the kindly, amused authorial voice is reminiscent of Edith Nesbit, and the description of life in Vermont in the early 20th century is as fascinating and delightful as anything written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It really does deserve to be up there with classic children's authors like Edith Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett, LM Montgomery and Laura Ingalls Wilder - if you like them I'm sure you will love this.

Anyway, in addition to Great-aunt Harriet (who is 'not very rich and not very poor'), Elizabeth Ann's household also includes her great-aunt's daughter Aunt Frances, who gives piano lessons to little girls, and Grace, their 'girl', who is nearer 50 than 40, suffers badly asthma, and does all the cooking and housework. They are all very small and very thin, even though get plenty to eat, and Elizabeth Ann has a pale face, with frightened, wistful eyes. Delicate and nervous, she's cared for by timid Aunt Frances, a spinster who has read all the books on child rearing and wants to give Elizabeth Ann every advantage. But much as she loves the child she only succeeds in passing on her own fears and anxieties. She proudly tells everyone that Elizabeth Ann tells her everything, and so she does – but there are signs that she may not be quite as meek and mild as she appears, because when there is nothing significent to tell she makes things up to keep her aunt happy.

Then Great-aunt Harriet falls ill and Elizabeth Ann ends up a thousand miles away, on a farm in Vermont, with her unknown Putney relatives, about whom she has never heard a good word. She is nervous about meeting them because she remembers being told that they showed 'such lack of sympathy, such perfect indifference to the sacred sensitivities of child-life, such a starving of the child-heart'. But Unclle Henry, Aunt Abigail and Cousin Ann know exactly how to treat a child like Elizabeth Ann – and it's not by molly coddling her and wrapping her in cotton wool. They are kind, loving, and wise, but too busy to run around after her and pander to whims and frightened fancies. They encourage, but expect her to look after herself and help around the house and farm – and that's just what she does. The fact that the Putneys are so casual and off-hand in their belief that she can do things gives her the confidence to do them.

They call her Betsy, a new name for her new life, and she learns to dress and undress herself, and to do her own her hair (tied back at the nape of the neck with a ribbon, a style she has always admired). She makes butter, apple sauce and maple syrup, lays the table, and learns to sew. For the first time she plays and laughs with other children and forms friendships. And she starts to think for herself, to solve problems, to notice what is happening in the world around her, and to care for others – a kitten, the family dog, a smaller child who needs a friend. She fills out, growing strong and sturdy, acquires a suntan, and loses the nightmares and delicate digestion that have always plagued her. There's a heart-stopping moment when Aunt Frances writes to say she is coming to take Elizabeth Ann home, but this is a kind of fairy tale so, naturally, there is a happy ending (and, as I've said before, I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and this is such a happy, transformative story).

I suspect that the book very much reflects Canfield Fisher's own views on child rearing and education, but she doesn't preach. I knew she was a supporter of the methods pioneered by Maria Montessori, which involved the development of a child's physical, social, emotional and cognitive well-being. But until I looked it up I had no idea how new this must have been in 1916 when Understood Betsy was published (the book is also set in that year). So I was surprised to find the small village school so child-centred, with each child assessed in each subject so work can be set according to their needs – Betsy, as we must now call her, is in the seventh grade for reading, the third for spelling, and the second for arithmetic. And the work carried out in school is part and parcel of Betsy's growth at the farm. I wondered if it was a device used by the author, or if small village schools really did work like that.

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What can I say about such an old favorite? A book which my mother read to me when I was little, and many years later I read to my children, and which I just finished reading to my mother, knowing it would offer a small measure of comfort and cheer as she is dying. I can easily see the book's

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“faults” – the passionate didacticism, the stock characters, the romanticism of country life – but those have become part of the book's charm for me. Reading “Understood Betsy” now, having homeschooled my children, I really appreciate Canfield Fisher's passion for educational reform (she was an early proponent of Montessori education), and any mild irritation I might feel at her earnest preachiness is overcome by affection for her charm, kindness, and wisdom. Each of Betsy's adventures, in which she grows in spirit, skills, compassion, and self-confidence, has so long been part of my mental furniture that offering an objective opinion is nearly impossible. So I'll leave it at that. This will always be a cherished favorite for me, and I hope my daughter will pull out a copy (mine may have one last reading in it) and read it to me in my last days.

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Oh, I like that. The Putneys are a very clever lot. It's great watching Betsy flower - though it does require narrator intervention to point out a lot of it (more told than shown). For that reason, I liked the Wolf Pit and the fair better than the earlier unfoldings, though those are lovely too. I

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meant to read it and be done, but I suspect I'll be rereading this - it's quite like Eight Cousins and The Little Princess, both favorites. And a lovely ending - a trifle convenient, but in a realistic way.

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Betsy's confidence, health, and joy grow the further she moves from her sheltered city life with her maiden aunts.

The suspense of her new farm days and nights offers enjoyable reading to kids as they can make predictions about her future
and share their own fears and friendships.

Reason read: AAC
I enjoyed discovering this author who wrote such charming stories. This one is a middle school reader and probably no longer fits our times but the points it makes about raising children to be responsible and caring children and a bit about education makes it still a good read even

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today.

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