Understood Betsy [Turtleback]

Dorothy Canfield Fisher (Author)

Product Details

• Turtleback
• Publisher: Demco Media (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606125574
• ISBN-13: 978-0606125574
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This was one of my 3 favorite books when I was a child --, January 10, 2001

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Understood Betsy (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England) (Paperback)

I read it over and over.

Reading it as an adult I still enjoyed it, but I gained some insight as to why. This novel is about a young girl who feels that the world is a dangerous place and who goes around feeling vulnerable and apprehensive. The relatives who have cared for her have taught her to be frightened. self-doubting, and lacking in self-confidence. Betsy is saved by an illness in one of her aunts that requires her to go live elsewhere. The only option is to live with some other relatives who live in Vermont (in the country), and her aunts think this is not a good place for her to go but there is no choice. The Vermont relatives treat her like a normal and capable young girl who is expected to pull her share of the load.

From them, and through her experiences living in the country, Betsy discovers she is competent and that the world is not so dangerous. She experiences love that is not suffocating. She builds self-confidence and self-esteem and becomes a responsible, happy little girl who knows that whatever difficulties present themselves, she will be able to deal with them. I also loved the family she went to live with and wished I could live on a farm in Vermont, too, and make maple sugar in the snow!

This is a particularly wonderful book for girls because it is about discovering one's own competence and abilities. I would put it in the same category as "Brave Irene" by Steig, only this book is for the 8-12 year old range, I think.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! A 9 year old girl learns to think for herself., January 19, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understood Betsy (Library Binding)

In the beginning, as Peggy Parrish puts it, Elizabeth Ann was a wimp.

She was sent to her cousins, the Putneys, in the middle of her story. They began to teach her how to think for herself.

By the end of the story she could think about anything she wanted to without explaining it to anyone. This is a very well written story. It's a wonderful book relating to life at the turn of the century. It shows how schools, homes and lifestyles have changed over the years. This is one of the top ten books on my personal list.

I received this book as a Christmas present in 1997 when I was eight years old. I thought it was an excellent story because Betsy really improved in her new one-room school. Her teacher is really nice because she let Betsy read with the seventh graders, do second grade math and third grade spelling!

This story really makes you feel like you are Betsy's friend Ellen. I also like how she and the other girls in her one-room school joined together to make new clothes for the boy whose stepfather is an alcoholic. All the people are really caring in this book.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic, February 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Understood Betsy (Paperback)

The last word of _Understood Betsy_ is "Happiness" - and yet here I am, crying. A bit like the _Little House_ books, _Understood Betsy_ gives nitty gritty, realistic details of what daily life was like for a little girl living on a small farm in Vermont in 1906. Betsy herself is just as fascinated to hear about what life was like before she was born, when lead pencils were cast in a groove on a desk in the schoolhouse, as I was to read the descriptions of Betsy learning to manually mold and churn butter. Yet all this history is purely incidental to Betsy's story. One year with her no-nonsense country relatives transform Betsy from a fearful, sheltered nine-year old into a confident and responsible ten-year old. The gentle irony of the narrator's voice allows us to identify with Betsy's insecurity and self-pity, while realizing that her apprehensions are merely silly notions planted in her head by overprotective aunts. Though Betsy may at times feel abandoned and bewildered, she is surrounded by love, and has the common sense to snap out of her brooding whenever something interesting happens. I cried so much that watching me, you would have thought the book to be quite tragic; but the tears were tears of pride and happiness for Betsy. What a great book :-)