This was a simple, sweet book. I loved Betsy's life discoveries, the different home dynamics she was in, her pluck and her desire to do the right thing. What a beautiful little book!

This has been one of my favourite books since my mum gave it to me when I was a little girl. It belonged to her, and probably was passed along by someone even older—it is over a hundred years old! The edition I have is a battered hardcover with a torn binding and a big chunk of pages falling out, but I pick it up every few years and revisit it. It reads like historical fiction, though I believe it was contemporary when it was published. A little girl who was orphaned grows up with her fussy aunties in the big city, but when one of the aunties falls ill, she is shuffled off to live with some other relations in the country. On the Putney farm (and even on the journey there), she must exercise a dormant common sense and practicality, despite her abject terror. Her fussy aunties had never asked or expected her to do anything for herself, but despite that, she ends up finding an inner strength and independence that sees her through some adventures that may seem trivial, but represent tremendous leaps for a girl who had never had to use such traits. It is a charming story with a straightforward narrative voice that flows smoothly and simply. Although it was written in and for a very different time, the story and the lesson hold up very well.

AO Year 2
Such a sweet little book.

This is a great book, but I think it was too old for my kindergarten and first graders. The emotional stuff was over their heads.

It had been a few years since I first read this one, so I put it back in the line-up since my memories of the story line were quite faint. I know the main character is a girl, but her growing up story is not limited to just girls. Leaving one household and moving to another provides Betsy the opportunity to really live, to be aware of life, to know what she was capable of doing and being. And this understanding brings her full circle when she is reunited with her original caretaker, her Aunt Francis. Now she knows who she is and what must be done. It is a truly wonderful story and deserves to be read by everyone.

Library.

What a great book! We read this aloud and the lessons Betsy learns, the approaches the different adults take, the feeling the reader gets from the characters is well balanced, interesting, and beautiful.

Betsy's growth and improvement over the course of the book is wonderful. She starts as a pitiable, incapable child and becomes a reliable, admirable child. The descriptions of her education at home and in the one room schoolhouse are striking examples of what teaching and learning can be. The love she is taught to express to little 'Lias, in very few words, is an example to this Mommy.

My daughter, M-girl, in particular, fell in love with this book. She could relate to Betsy as a girl near her age, and learned to love Aunt Abigail, Uncle Henry, and Cousin Ann.

This is a book I would love to add to our library.

What a wonderful book!

2018 update:
I enjoyed this book much more this time around. Betsy changes so much from a little girl who is weak and fearful to a strong, confident girl. It’s a beautiful transformation.

2014: This Core B read aloud was a good story and the girls enjoyed it, but it was a little hard reading aloud in places. We all loved hearing how Betsy grew and changed as the story progressed.