Books with title Understood Betsy: Illustrated

An unabridged edition to include all illustrations: Aunt Harriet Has a Cough - Betsy Holds the Reins - A Short Morning - Betsy Goes to School - What Grade is Betsy? - If You Don't Like Conversation in a Book Skip this Chapter! - Elizabeth Ann Fails in an Examination - Betsy Starts a Sewing Society - The New Clothes Fail - Betsy Has a Birthday - "Understood Aunt Frances"

Elizabeth Ann is being carefully brought up by her Aunt Frances. Aunt Frances shares in all Elizabeth Ann's fears and slights, walks her to and from school each day, and conscientiously follows the most modern theories on child-rearing. She is the original helicopter parent. Not surprisingly, at nine years old Elizabeth Ann is timid and shy, friendless, and completely dependent on her doting aunt. Then an emergency occurs, and the fearful little girl is temporarily sent to other relatives who live on a farm in Vermont. When her uncle Henry nonchalantly hands her the buggy reins for the ride from the train station, the newly named Betsy realizes that that this new family expects her to think for herself. Dorothy Canfield Fisher was an early advocate of Maria Montessori's educational theory of learning by doing, and her heroine flourishes as she becomes aware of and interested in the world around her and discovers how truly capable she is.

Elizabeth Ann was orphaned at an early age and raised by her maiden aunts in the busy city. Sudden illness forces the aunts to send Betsy to other relatives, The Putnams, who live in the country on a farm. Betsy learns all about the farm and making butter and applesauce and dearly loves her new life. When one of the aunts comes back and wants to take Betsy back to the city. . . such a dilemma! Children can readily relate to Betsy who is a real girl in a real world where fortune seems to direct her life. She so loves being on the farm and doing all the things a farm girl does, including going to school. When fate again intervenes and tries to take her away from the life she loves, some manner of common sense hitcomes into play and Betsy, though torn, bounds into another day of farmlife, full of caring love for all she comes in contact with, and grows into a beautiful young lady. Table of Contents: Chapter 01. Aunt Harriet Has a Cough Chapter 02. Betsy Holds the Reins Chapter 03. A Short Morning Chapter 04. Betsy Goes to School Chapter 05. What Grade is Betsy? Chapter 06. If You Don't Like Conversation in a Book Skip this Chapter! Chapter 07. Elizabeth Ann Fails in an Examination Chapter 08. Betsy Starts a Sewing Society Chapter 09. The New Clothes Fail Chapter 10. Betsy Has a Birthday Chapter 11. "Understood Aunt Frances" Dorothy Canfield Dorothea Frances Canfield (1879-1958) was an American author and both an child and adult educational activist. Canfield worked closely with Maria Monterssori in Italy, and was greatly influential in promoting education in the United States. Dorothy Canfield was born in Kansas, but her family traveled as her father's academic career progressed, he eventually became president of Ohio State University. Canfield settled in Vermont with her husband and children, and continued writing professionally.

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 medium-sized State in the middle of this country; and that's all you need to know about the place, for it's not the important thing in the story; and anyhow you know all about it because it was probably very much like the place you live in yourself. (...) It was certainly not because they were not good, for no womenkind in all the world had kinder hearts than they. You have heard how Aunt Harriet kept Grace (in spite of the fact that she was a very depressing person) on account of her asthma; and when Elizabeth Ann's father and mother both died when she was a baby, although there were many other cousins and uncles and aunts in the family, these two women fairly rushed upon the little baby-orphan, taking her home and surrounding her henceforth with the most loving devotion.They had said to themselves that it was their manifest duty to save the dear little thing from the other relatives, who had no idea about how to bring up a sensitive, impressionable child, and they were sure, from the way Elizabeth Ann looked at six months, that she was going to be a sensitive, impressionable child. It is possible also that they were a little bored with their empty life in their rather forlorn, little brick house in the medium-sized city, and that they welcomed the occupation and new interests which a child would bring in.But they thought that they chiefly desired to save dear Edward's child from the other kin, especially from the Putney cousins, who had written down from their Vermont farm that they would be glad to take the little girl into their family. But "anything but the Putneys!" said Aunt Harriet, a great many times. They were related only by marriage to her, and she had her own opinion of them as a stiffnecked, cold-hearted, undemonstrative, and hard set of New Englanders. "I boarded near them one summer when you were a baby, Frances, and I shall never forget the way they were treating some children visiting there! ... Oh, no, I don't mean they abused them or beat them ... but such lack of sympathy, such perfect indifference to the sacred sensitiveness of child-life, such a starving of the child-heart ... No, I shall never forget it! They had chores to do ... as though they had been hired men!"Aunt Harriet never meant to say any of this when Elizabeth Ann could hear, but the little girl's ears were as sharp as little girls' ears always are, and long before she was nine she knew all about the opinion Aunt Harriet had of the Putneys. She did not know, to be sure, what "chores" were, but she took it confidently from Aunt Harriet's voice that they were something very, very dreadful.- Taken from "Understood Betsy" written by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "Understood Betsy" has delighted readers since it was first published in 1917. It is the story of Elizabeth Ann, a 9-year-old orphan who lives a sheltered life with her loving, nervous and overly protective aunt in a bustling big city. Family upheaval requires that she leave her city home to go and live with her cousins on a farm in Vermont. In the country, Elizabeth Ann, now called Betsy, begins to blossom as she learns to think and do for herself. Each chapter brings a new adventure for Betsy, and with each, she learns just how smart and capable she really is.

For all of her nine years, fragile Elizabeth Ann has heard her Aunt Frances refer in whispers to her "horrid Putney cousins." But when her aunt can no longer care for her, Elizabeth Ann must leave her sheltered life to live in the wilds of Vermont with those distant relatives.In the beginning, Elizabeth Ann is shocked by country living--pets are allowed to sleep in the house and children are expected to do chores! But with country living comes independence and responsibility, and in time, Elizabeth Ann finds herself making friends and enjoying her new family. When the year is up and Aunt Frances comes to get her niece, she finds a healthier, prouder girl with a new name--Betsy--and a new outlook on life.Understood Betsy has delighted generations of young readers since it was first published by Henry Holt and Company in 1917. Kimberly Bulcken Root's charmingly detailed illustrations capture the winning spirit of this classic.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "Understood Betsy" is the story of a scrawny young 9-year-old orphan by the name of Elizabeth Ann who relocates from her city home to go and live with her cousins, the Putneys, on a farm in Vermont. In the country, Elizabeth begins to blossom as she is invigorated by her new surroundings, which bring new responsibilities and a growing sense of youthful independence. A delightful story of a young girl beginning to grow up, "Understood Betsy" will enchant readers both young and old.

Elizabeth Ann, a nine-year-old girl, is timid and small for her age, she is also an orphan. At first she lives with her father's aunt, Harriet, who expects her to lead a very sheltered life. When she is sent to live with her mother's family, on a farm in Vermont, she is then expected to do many of the chores that Harriet had thought too demanding of a little girl. Elizabeth Ann, nicknamed Betsy, discovers her own abilities and gains a new perception of the world around her.