What Katy Did. I expect it has its fans and I daresay I'd have loved it if I'd first read it as a child but....

[nkf]

...isn't it mawkish and depressing and horrible? In particular, I hated the way that Katy has to be tamed by invalidism into proper femininity

I would be interested to know if anyone read the truly wonderful Daddy Long Legs, from about the same era as Little Women, which I also loved and still think of Meg's burnt curls whenever I use my straighteners!

Funnily enough my DD has just read What Katy did, found her crying twice. She said she enjoyed it once she go into it. She's just finishing Little Women and is going to read Little Men next.

I got my Katy books out for my DD's but re-read them myself! Must find my Kizzy book for them.

Named after a mamber of the legume family? What, you called her Lentil?

I have just read Daddy Long Legs.
Thought it a bit creepy actually.

I loved WKD as a girl and the sequels. I read them over and over again. I hope my dd finds her own special books.

'Clover' the sequel is a study in how to get your man by being good at housework.

Oh no moondog! I really like the fact that she doesn't let herself get ordered around by her benefactor and that she starts paying him back the minute she can. I also like how cheeky she is and the whole world of the girls college. Maybe it all depends on when you first read it? I am sure there are books that if I read them now I would hate, but because they are part of my childhood I love them still. I think I will have to try 'What Katy Did' as a case study...

You reckon?
I think there is a master/slave subtext.
How could you switch from a sort of paternal love to a sexual one like that.
Eew.

Sex! Surely not - even after marriage!

Blimey. This thread has taken an interesting turn.

I loved American twee fiction.

Did anybody read the Emily of New Moon books by LM Montgomery?

I liked them better than Anne of Green Gables.

I think I took in the context that she was at least 17 when she went to the college, and got there on her own academic merits. 'Daddy Long Legs' never asked anything of her, and when he did try to order her around, (stay at the farm), she defied him. I also thought the fact that she was very aware of her subserviant position and endeavoured to repay the debt, which he never asked her to do, took it to a different level. I think if she was much younger, I would have been a bit creeped out, but she's a young woman who succeeds and finds her own independence and falls in love with him on her own account. Blimey, never thought I would be thinking about this book so hard! Will definitely have to re-read it now!

Have just ordered 'Clover' from Amazon but can't find 'In the High Valley' for less than £55!!!!

I loved it as a child and read it several times-I wouldn't be at all surprised if I had a completely different reaction if I were to read it now.

Loved WKD and particularly at school (bars of soap pinned to hats?) - okay she learnt how to run a household but nowadays of course that would simply translate to a software house or stunningly successful social networking site?! The choice of any temporarily bed-bound teenager.

Love the idea of reading Blyton with the roles reversed, that is pure genius.

With Little Women/Good Wives, like many I just can't come to terms with Jo and Laurie not ending up together (think bero is prejudiced by being married to a German academic type ). Thank crap Anne married Gilbert and not the Aleksandr Petrovsky of the era (note hugely confusing mixed references!).

what I think is great about all these books is that you can read them all as a child and just enjoy them, and then come back to them when adult and analyse the hell out of them! That for me is part of the pleasure of re-reading children's books (which I do a lot). It doesn't disappoint me to notice the questionable moral messages, or the racism or snobbery, come to that; it makes me think about the values of the author and the time and place that created them, and my own perceptions and values when I was a kid compared to now. And sometimes I am agreeably surprised by finding a lot that is positive, funny, unorthodox and really worth re-reading, too!