What Katy Did is an 1872 children's book written by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name "Susan Coolidge". It follows the adventures of a twelve-year-old American girl, Katy Carr, and her family who live in the fictional lakesideOhio town of Burnet in the 1860s. Katy is a tall untidy tomboy, forever getting into scrapes but wishing to be beautiful and beloved. When a terrible accident makes her an invalid, her illness and four-year recovery gradually teach her to be as good and kind as she has always wanted.
Two sequels follow Katy as she grows up: What Katy Did at School and What Katy Did Next. Two further sequels relating the adventures of Katy's younger siblings were also published—Clover and In the High Valley. There is also a short story about the Carr children, Curly Locks in a collection called Nine Little Goslings. The books were frequently reprinted and all are available online.
Coolidge modeled Katy on her own childhood self, and the other 'Little Carrs' on her brothers and sisters.[1] The title is a play on the katydid, a family of insects – which explains the insects on the first-edition book cover.
Plot summary
12-year-old Katy Carr lives with her widowed father and her two brothers and three sisters in Burnet, a small Midwestern American town. Her father is a very busy doctor who works long hours; the children are mostly in the care of his sister Aunt Izzie, who is very particular and something of a scold. Bright, headstrong Katy can hardly avoid getting into mischief almost daily under these circumstances, but she is unfailingly remorseful afterward. She behaves somewhat kindly to the children and dreams of some day doing something "grand" with her life: painting famous pictures, saving the lives of drowning people, or leading a crusade on a white horse. She also wants to be "beautiful, of course, and good if I can." When her mother died four years earlier, she hoped Katy would be a little mother to her siblings: in practice, she is the kind of big sister who is sometimes impatient and cross with them but leads them into all sorts of exciting adventures.
When Cousin Helen, an invalid, comes to visit, Katy is so enchanted by her beauty and kindness that on the day of Helen's departure she resolves to model herself on Helen ever afterward. The very next day, however, Katy wakes in an ill humor, quarrels with her aunt and pushes her little sister so hard that she falls down half a dozen steps. Afterward, sulky and miserable, Katy decides to try out the new swing in the woodshed although Aunt Izzie has forbidden it. Had Aunt Izzie actually explained that the swing was unsafe because one of the staples supporting it had cracked, "all would have been right," but she believes that children should unquestioningly obey their elders. Katy swings as high as she can and then, as she tries to touch the roof with her toes, the staple gives way. She falls hard, bruising her spine.
The lively Katy is now bedridden and suffering terrible pain and bitterness. Her room is dark, dreary, and cluttered with medicine bottles; when her siblings try to comfort her, she drives them away. However, a visit from Cousin Helen shows her that she must either learn to make the best of her situation or risk losing her family's love. Helen tells Katy that she is now a student in the "School of Pain" where she will learn lessons in patience, cheerfulness, hopefulness, neatness, and making the best of things.
With Cousin Helen's help, Katy makes her room tidy and nice to visit and gradually all the children gravitate to it, coming in to see her whenever they can. She becomes the heart of the home, beloved by her family for her unfailing kindness and good cheer. After two years Aunt Izzie dies and Katy takes over the running of the household. At the end of four years, in a chapter called "At Last", she learns to walk again.
The book includes several poems that the characters wrote.
Characters
Katy Carr: the eldest of the Carr children and the novel's protagonist. At the beginning of the book she is a twelve-year-old tomboy, who much prefers running around outdoors to quiet 'ladylike' pursuits, and so tears her clothes and is always untidy; however, she longs to be good.
Clover Carr: the second-eldest sister adores Katy and follows her in everything she does. Clover is pretty and clever with a cheerful disposition; she is described as loving everyone and is loved by everyone in return.
Elsie Carr: the third sister, an awkward child at the beginning of the book, too old to play with the 'babies' and too young to be included in Katy and Clover's games. She tries her hardest to join in, but is usually ignored. After Katy is injured Elsie proves very helpful and considerate, and she and Katy finally grow close.
Dorry Carr: a stolid boy and great eater, the fourth Carr is the eldest son. He develops a certain mechanical skill over time.
Johnnie Carr (short for Joanna): the fifth child, a tomboy. She and Dorry are close.
Phil Carr: the baby of the family, who is only four years old at the book's beginning.
Cecy Hall: a pretty and tidy girl, the daughter of a nearby neighbour and a good friend of the siblings.
Imogen Clark: a classmate of Katy and Clover; a silly, affected girl. Initially she enthralls Katy with her romantic imagination, but she proves dishonest and self-centered and, as her father predicted, Katy grows disillusioned with her.
Papa (Dr Philip Carr): the children's father, a very busy doctor who has been a single parent, firm but understanding, since his wife's death when Katy was eight.
Aunt Izzie: Papa's sister, an old-fashioned woman who raises the children after their mother dies. She is very particular and often scolds because she does not understand the children's ways, although she has a heart of gold.
Cousin Helen: Papa's niece; she cannot walk because of an accident years ago. Despite her suffering she is amusing, cheerful, and kind; just what Katy wants to be. After Katy's accident, Cousin Helen helps her adjust to her illness.
Themes
Susan Coolidge shared her publisher, Roberts Brothers, with Louisa May Alcott, and What Katy Did helped satisfy the demand for naturalistic novels about girlhood that followed the 1868 success of Little Women. Like Alcott, Coolidge heightened the realism of her novel by drawing on her own childhood memories.[1]
What Katy Did also illustrates social shifts. First the novel depicts the treatment of serious injury in the 19th century. After her accident, young Katy is given much love and care; however, she is sad, confined to an upstairs room, and, although she has a wheelchair, she never goes further than her bedroom window. The possibility that she could leave her room is barely considered and no-one thinks of moving her to the ground floor. She copes by making herself and her room so pleasant that everyone comes to her. Early on, she goes out in a carriage, but finds the experience so painful that she never tries it again. Thereafter, she lives in her bedroom, makes the best of things and waits, hoping to outgrow her injury. There is no physical therapy – instead Katy is warned to avoid too much movement lest she "set herself back". Cousin Helen manages to travel a little, and even goes for a hydrotherapy water cure at one point, but it is made clear that she has no hope of ever walking again.
Extract
Katy's hair was forever in a snarl; her gowns were always catching on nails and 'tearing themselves'; and, in spite of her age and size, she was as heedless and innocent as a child of six. Katy was the longest girl that was ever seen. What she did to make herself grow so, nobody could tell; but there she was—up above Papa's ear, and a half a head taller than poor Aunt Izzie. Whenever she stopped to think about her height she became very awkward, and felt as if she were all legs and elbows, and angles and joints. Happily, her head was so full of other things, of plans and schemes and fancies of all sorts, that she didn't often take time to remember how tall she was. She was a dear, loving child, for all her careless habits, and made bushels of good resolutions every week of her life, only unluckily she never kept any of them. She had fits of responsibility about the other children, and longed to set them a good example, but when the chance came, she generally forgot to do so. Katy's days flew like the wind; for when she wasn't studying lessons, or sewing and darning with Aunt Izzie, which she hated extremely, there were always so many delightful schemes rioting in her brains, that all she wished for was ten pairs of hands to carry them out.
—What Katy Did, Chapter 1.
Adaptations
Two TV movies and a brief TV series have been based on What Katy Did. The most recent film (1999) starred Alison Pill as Katy, with Kevin Whately as Papa, Megan Follows as Cousin Helen, Michael Cera as Dorry, Bryn McAuley as Joanna, and Dean Stockwell as "Tramp". A 1972 UK movie adaptation, Katy, starred Clare Walker, and the 1962 eight-part TV series made in the UK, also called Katy, featured rising star Susan Hampshire in the title role. In 2015, author Jacqueline Wilson wrote her novel Katy, which is a modern retelling of What Katy Did; in 2018, the Wilson novel was adapted into the CBBC TV series Katy. The August 2016 edition of Storytime featured a new illustrated adaptation with illustrations by Italian artist Marco Guadalupi.
Sequels
What Katy Did was followed by four sequels: What Katy Did at School in which Katy and Clover attend the fictional Hillsover School (set in Hanover, New Hampshire); What Katy Did Next, in which a new friend of Katy's takes her on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe; Clover, in which Katy is married and Clover accompanies her brother Phil to Colorado after he falls ill; and In the High Valley, which shows the lives of a handful of young people living in the High Valley in Colorado, including Clover, Elsie and their husbands.
References in popular culture
"What Katie Did" is the name of a song by the Libertines that may have been inspired by the book. The lyrics refer to the characters, e.g. "Hurry up Mrs. Brown". The group Babyshambles later released a song entitled "What Katy Did Next". Both were written by Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty.
"What Kate Did" is the name of the ninth episode of season 2 of Lost.
A character named Katy Carr appears in the first volume of Alan Moore's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. As Katy beats a student at Ms Coote's school, the headmistress says she believes in the "School of Pain".
Idahoan songwriter Josh Ritter includes a reference to What Katy Did in his song "Monster Ballads" on his album The Animal Years.
The protagonist of Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle introduces her own story by saying "This is no 'Story of a Bad Boy,' no 'What Katy Did,'" to indicate that she is not remorseful for her unladylike behavior.
Full text of What Katy Did at A Celebration of Women Writers, with the original cover and illustrations and some Roberts Brothers advertisements for Coolidge's other works.
Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel.
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Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge.
Summer of the Swans is a children's novel by Betsy Byars about fourteen-year-old Sara Godfrey's search for her missing, mentally challenged brother Charlie. It won the Newbery Medal in 1971.
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Eight Cousins, or The Aunt-Hill was published in 1875 by American novelist Louisa May Alcott. Eight Cousins was originally published as a serial in St. Nicholas. It is the story of Rose Campbell, who has been recently orphaned and resides with her maiden great aunts, the matriarchs of her wealthy Boston family, until her guardian, Uncle Alec, returns from abroad to take over her care. Through his unorthodox theories about child-rearing, she becomes happier and healthier while finding her place in her family of seven boy cousins and numerous aunts and uncles. She also makes friends with Phebe, her aunts' young housemaid, whose cheerful attitude in the face of poverty helps Rose to understand and value her own good fortune.
Five on a Treasure Island is a popular children's book by Enid Blyton. It is the first book in The Famous Five series. The first edition of the book was illustrated by Eileen Soper.
Shi Xiangyun is a major fictional character in the classic 18th century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the characters known as the Twelve Beauties. She is Jia Baoyu's younger second cousin by the Dowager, Grandmother Jia. Xiangyun is the favorite grandniece of the Dowager, Baoyu's grandmother.
Homecoming is a 1981 young adult novel by American children's author Cynthia Voigt. It is the first of seven novels in the Tillerman Cycle. It was adapted into a television film.
Martha Finley was an American teacher and author of numerous works for children, the best known being the 28-volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. Her books tend to be sentimental, with a strong emphasis on religious belief. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26, 1828, in Chillicothe, Ohio. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland.
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The Katy series is a set of novels by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, writing under the pen-name of Susan Coolidge. The first in the series, What Katy Did, was published in 1872 and followed the next year by What Katy Did at School. What Katy Did Next was released in 1886. Two further novels, Clover (1888) and In the High Valley (1890), focused upon other members of the eponymous character's family. The series was popular with readers in the late 19th century.
What Katy Did Next (1886) is a children's book by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, working under the pen name Susan Coolidge. It follows the stories What Katy Did (1872) and What Katy Did At School (1873) and tells the adventures of Katy Carr as she travels to Europe.
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest child of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, and of his wife Alexandra.
Johnny Kellock Died Today is a Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award winning young adult novel by Canadian author Hadley Dyer. It follows the story of twelve-year-old Rosalie Norman and takes place in Halifax in 1959. When Rosalie's authoritarian mother falls down the stairs and breaks her ankle, she must hire a local boy nicknamed Gravedigger to take care of the family's yard. Upon meeting Gravedigger, Rosalie finds out that her beloved cousin, Johnny, has gone missing. Determined to find out why Johnny has disappeared, unexpected friends, Rosalie and Gravedigger, set out on a journey to find Johnny. Along the way, Rosalie learns about family, friendship, and love. Johnny Kellock Died Today has been praised for its detailed and realistic descriptions, as well as its wit and charm.
Katy (2015) is a children's book by author Jacqueline Wilson. It is a modern-day retelling of What Katy Did. The author loved the book What Katy Did, so when she got older and became a mother, she used to read the book to her daughter, but she noticed the moral was not appropriate for today's generation. So she rewrote the whole book, in a modern way. Katy has five younger siblings. She is brilliant with them but she's also a daredevil. She's a fan of skateboarding and adventures. She loves the feeling of soaring upwards and has happy memories of her deceased mum pushing her on a swing. But after a tragic accident her spirit sinks to the lowest point. Katy wonders if she'll ever be able to feel like flying again.
Katy is a British television adaptation of Katy by Jacqueline Wilson. The Wilson novel is a modern retelling of What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. It first aired on CBBC in March 2018.
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