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A review by celeste57
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I adore classic children’s books. I’ve inhaled them since my mom taught me to read when I was four. If I could get my hands on it, I read it. A Little Princess, The Boxcar Children, Heidi, The Secret Garden, A Wrinkle in Time, The Chronicles of Narnia, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Swiss Family Robinson were all early favorites. And yet, a lot of others slipped through the cracks of my childhood without my having met them. There are too many wonderful stories in the world to ever hope to read them all. But I’m slowly trying to cover all the ground I can. For instance, I didn’t meet Anne Shirley of Green Gables, or Laura Ingalls from the Little House on the Prairie, until I was an adult. Yet I loved them no less for the belated introductions. I can now add Elizabeth Ann to the roster.
I’ve seen the title Understood Betsy plenty of times. A copy has even resided on my bookshelf for a few years. But I can’t say the premise ever really drew me in. For some reason I decided on a whim to pick this up, and I couldn’t have been more surprised and delighted. The surface premise isn’t exactly unique; a pampered, coddled city girl finds herself forced to live with a country branch of her family for whatever reason. But the telling of the story in this case was wonderful. Something in the writing style was just pure magic, a joy to read alone and surely an even greater one to read aloud. The cadence of prose lilts and meanders beautifully The personality of the near-omniscient narrator shines through and adds an extra element of fun and charm to the story. And the love the dreaded “Putney cousins” feel for Betsy, as they call her, just blazes from the page. Life on their farm is quaint and cozy. And the way Betsy grows and blossoms over the course of her story is truly lovely.
Understood Betsy is one of those rare perfect books. There’s not a single thing about it I would change, unless it was to give it a sequel, just so I could have more time with Betsy and Cousin Ann and Aunt Abigail and Uncle Henry. This is a book that anyone could love, no matter their age, and it’s one that I definitely plan to reread often.
I’ve seen the title Understood Betsy plenty of times. A copy has even resided on my bookshelf for a few years. But I can’t say the premise ever really drew me in. For some reason I decided on a whim to pick this up, and I couldn’t have been more surprised and delighted. The surface premise isn’t exactly unique; a pampered, coddled city girl finds herself forced to live with a country branch of her family for whatever reason. But the telling of the story in this case was wonderful. Something in the writing style was just pure magic, a joy to read alone and surely an even greater one to read aloud. The cadence of prose lilts and meanders beautifully The personality of the near-omniscient narrator shines through and adds an extra element of fun and charm to the story. And the love the dreaded “Putney cousins” feel for Betsy, as they call her, just blazes from the page. Life on their farm is quaint and cozy. And the way Betsy grows and blossoms over the course of her story is truly lovely.
Understood Betsy is one of those rare perfect books. There’s not a single thing about it I would change, unless it was to give it a sequel, just so I could have more time with Betsy and Cousin Ann and Aunt Abigail and Uncle Henry. This is a book that anyone could love, no matter their age, and it’s one that I definitely plan to reread often.