Understood Betsy

Just wondering how 4 5 star reviews of this book ended up being a 4 star rating...

I was very excited to se this book, it was one I had wanted to read as part of our Homeschool. I can't believe I found one in such great condition and was able to use my rewards for it!

My 8 year old daughter and I just finished reading this book tonight. Every night we curled up on the couch with a cup of tea and I would read a chapter to her. It was such a sweet story of transformation and growth and deep love for family members.

Oh how I wanted to be Elizabeth Ann when I was little and first read this book! First of all, I thought that Elizabeth Ann was far and away the most beautiful name I had ever heard in my entire life. And I definately identified with the dull suburban upbringing, though perhaps my parents weren't quite so hypochondriatic. How I wished that some distant relatives with a farm would suddenly appear, and take me away so that I could eat maple sugar candy and learn how to churn butter and rescue kittens and go to a one room school house! Twenty years after I first discovered this book, it is still one of my favorites. Written by a leading advocate for Montessori-style teaching, this book empahises the importantes of self-reliance and self-teaching. Although I recognize the moralizing, now that I'm a grown-up, I never felt it when I was a kid and simply delighted in reading (over and over and over again) about the adventures of Betsy and her eccentric Vermont relatives.

I read this book countless times when I was younger, constantly checking it out from the library. I rediscovered it recently after finding it again at my college. I reread it and found it just as good as I had remembered; not only this, I read it to my roommate, who also loved it. This is the general reaction from those I've met who read it -- they loved it.Many others have already given info about the story, so I'll try not to repeat that. I think my favorite part is the way that the author addresses the reader, managing to communicate her own opinions while not distracting you from the story. This particularly makes it possible not to take Betsy and her neuroses too seriously during the beginning when she's still afraid of her own shadow. I also appreciate the author's sympathetic view of Betsy. She could easily have described her as a difficult, obnoxious brat (which is probably the way many of her aunts' friends in the city thought of her), but instead she shows us Betsy's strength and true character that comes out gradually as she is challenged rather than coddled. It is a definite success of the author that you grow fond of her rather than wanting to throw your arms up in the air in disgust (at the beginning of the story, anyway; by the end Betsy is very strong, capable, and worthy of our respect).The setting is also very well-done. As many others have mentioned, it gives you a strong feel for the time period and for what life was like back then. This book provided me with one of the strongest mental pictures of what life in our country was like a century ago, and this picture was vivid enough to remain with me for years. Well-done plot, likeable and realistic characters, a strong setting, the ability to make its readers remember it for years -- this book has the necessary ingredients for a true classic.