What Katy Did (Classic Library)

by Susan Coolidge and Coolidge Susan Coolidge

Book Overview

'One of my all-time favourite books. It's a very lively, funny story' Jacqueline Wilson Katy has grand plans to be beautiful, graceful and ladylike ... one day! But for now she has hair that is always... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0723512124
• ISBN13: 9780723512127
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: World International Publishing Limited
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Favorite book as a young girl

I was given this book at the age of 10 and it quickly became my favorite. The misadventures and mistakes Katy made was appealing to me as well as her transformation after the accident. This book taught me several lessons as a child that I have used in adulthood, such as: Even though a person has good intentions, no one is perfect. Everyone has a smooth handle and a difficult handle...you have to find the good in them. Parents don't always tell children why they shouldn't do something, so we should explain more carefully. I buy this book as gifts for children quite often and donated it to the school library. It is checked out often. I would highly recommend this book!

Make Room for Katy...

...on your bookshelf! WHAT KATY DID is the lively story of Katherine Carr, the eldest of six children-the others are Clover, Elsie, Dorry (a boy), Johnnie (Joanna, a girl), and Phil. Her father, Dr. Carr, doesn't mind Katy being lively and adventurous, but she is also heedless, untidy, and sometimes unkind to her siblings and doesn't care about the work she causes her Aunt Izzie, who cares for the motherless brood. Katy's days are full of "scrapes" like playing "the game of the Rivers" at school and the hide-and-seek game in the dark, Kikeri, until she is involved in a terrible accident. From there she must learn to rebuild her life; she is helped by Cousin Helen, who has not let the paralysis of her legs affect her mind or her heart. While it is true that Katy is "tamed" by her accident, she eventually still remains the innovative, fun-loving girl she was before. The chapter about Katy's Christmas and Valentine's Day plans, especially the latter, make you wish we celebrated the holidays the way they did 100 years ago! This is a great book-for a long time I liked it much better than LITTLE WOMEN-because Katy is even more lively and ingenious than Jo March. The sequels are also good, especially the first. There are four sequels to KATY, only two of which are in print, sadly. WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL follows Katy's and Clover's adventures at Hillsover, a boarding school in the East. Here they meet one of the KATY books most memorable characters, the mischievous "Rose Red" who makes their year's stay lively, to say the least. The girls play wonderful games in their spare time, including something called "Word and Question" that sounds like great fun, and Katy even "tames" Miss Jane, the humorless hall monitor, and lives down an accusation. Here we meet the Carrs' cousins the Pages, Olivia and her husband and children, the selfish Lilly, who's at school with the girls, and Clarence, a teasing boy who takes a shine to Clover. In WHAT KATY DID NEXT, Katy accompanies her neighbor Mrs. Ashe and her daughter Amy on "the Grand Tour" of Europe. This is a wonderful portrait of how people traveled to England, France, Italy, and other European countries 100 years ago. It also paints a not-so-pleasant picture of a time when many diseases were rife, and of all the troubles Katy has when Amy comes down with "Roman fever" (typhoid, I believe). But is also there Katy meets Ned Worthington, Mrs. Ashe's brother, and discovers something new to do next! The out-of-print sequels-please, someone republish!--follow the adventures of Clover and the rest of the family. In CLOVER, she and Phil, who has been sick and has been prescribed "good mountain air" as the best cure, move to a little town high in the Colorado Rockies, where they discover new friends and some old ones-to the person who wondered what happened to Clarence, he is coincidentally living nearby on a ranch with his British partner Geoffrey. It is there Clover realizes Clarence would like their old friendsh

A childhood staple

I can remember my mother reading this book aloud to me as a child; one chapter a night. It didn't take long for me to decide that I couldn't wait for her to get to the next installment. I credit this book (one of many) that led to my lifelong, love affair with reading. It's among the top five books I'm collecting now to read aloud to my own daughter. She may only be 2 months old; but, it's never too early to introduce little girls to Katy and family. This book will never go out of style...life lessons are always in vogue.

At first, I thought it was boring, but it was really FUN!

This story is about a completely UNladylike, and very unresponsible girl named Katy. She has 6 brother and sisters and they have fun together except that Katy is sometimes very bossy.. One day, she goes on a swing even when her Aunt Izzie (Katy's mother is dead so her Aunt Izzie is taking care of her family with Katy's father) tells her not to. Katy falls and gets a very serious sprain on her back so that she cannot get up for about 2 to 3 years.Katy is very upset about this and she becomes grumpy and selfish but when her Cousin Helen (who is also very sick in like Katy but is pretty and is 'perfect' as Katy and her brothers and sisters say) comes and tells her that she cannot go on being like this, thinking only for herrself because she is hurt and that feeling self-piteous shows that she is not caring for others. Cousin Helen makes Katy into a new person after this conversation and Katy becomes pretty, ladylike, helpful, happy,very responsible, and patient. But one day, Aunt Izzie dies from a sudden fever and Katy almost goes back to her former being but remembers Cousin Helen's teaching and asks if she can become a housekeeper for Aunt Izzie. Her father is rather doubtful that she can do such a thing, but is very happy and proud when he sees that Katy has the patience and kindness to do it. From then on, Katy becomes the housekeeper.After 2 or 3 years of pain and suffering is over, Katy suddenly feel as if she can walk. She jumps up but can only stand. She starts getting excited and every day, she tried standing without grabbing hold of her chair. Finally, after many long practices, she is able to walk all around the room. After some time after the triumph of being able to walk around the room, she thinks about gettting out of the room and go downstairs. She tells her family about this and when the day comes, her family prepares a suprise: Cousin Helen! Katy is delighted and becomes completely well after a few weeks. This story is very fun to read. I especially liked the way Katy changes into a new woman. At first, as I said in the title, I thought this book was very boring, but it turned out to be very fun! I am now reading "What Katy Did at School" which is the next book.

Lovely - just what books in this genre should be

The Carrs have always been my family friends, so to speak... I recently re-read this book, having loved it as a pre-teen, and I found out that it was still able to make me laugh and cry. The plot follows the growth of young Katy, focusing on her unfortunate accident and the consequences it has on her and her family. Naturally, a part of my strongly positive reaction was nostalgia, but nevertheless this is a beautifully written story, both moving and humorous, full of imaginative magic and the cosy warmth of a loving home at the same time. The characters are lovable and memorable - is there a girl who couldn't identify herself with the clumsy, unfortunate Katy or admire the saint-like, yet fully human cousin Helen?At the risk of sounding like a walking cliche, I must say that they just don't write books like this any longer: clean, wholesome and still totally satisfying and entertaining. But even if the whole world ran after the latest shock values, I would always be coming back to books like these - books for a girl who loves to read.