This delightful old book is not only wonderful to read but really sets one to pondering the issue of free choice and how children (and all people) thrive when they are able to govern their own selves. In fact, as I was reading it I decided right then and there to teach my daughter Louisa to use the stove (with permission), and watched her great satisfaction in being self-reliant! Set in the early 1900s, 9-year-old Betsy is a pampered and overprotected fragile little girl who is afraid of her own shadow until a turn of events proves to her that she is quite capable. Understood Betsy is one of those dear books that you just can’t put down and want to go on forever! Paperback, 214 pages, for reading age 11 and up, or marvelous read aloud for the whole family.
