The Middle Button

by Kathryn Worth, Dorothy Bayley (Illustrator)

From the front flap of this 274 page "Maggie McArn wanted more than anything else in the world to go up North and study medicine. But in the North Carolina of the 1880's it was not considered proper for young ladies to work, except as teachers. Furthermore, where would she get the money. In Maggie's large Scottish family it was only right that the boys have an education while the girls settled down and got married. And wouldn't young Marshall Elliott make her a fine husband. But Maggie disagreed with her family's ideas. It was gruff old Uncle Malcolm who offered to pay her way if she would prove her worth by earning the first hundred dollars herself and, furthermore, learn to control her hot temper. And so fourteen-year-old Maggie became Dr. Angus's assistant and went the rounds of his country practice with him, nursing all sorts of people and cases from little spoiled Victoria to the four McNair pickaninnies all down at once with measles. Somehow, though, the dollars didn't seem to come in fast enough, and many times Maggie became utterly discouraged about ever going to medical school. How it all turned out for her brings this gallant story to a superb conclusion." This vintage book is a classic that every reader will enjoy and be proud to own.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fiction

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

From NCpedia:

Kathryn Worth, writer, was born at the family summer cottage at Wrightsville Beach, the youngest of three children of James Spencer (1869–1900) and Josephine McBryde Worth. Her brother was David Gaston Worth II, her sister Frances McBryde Worth. The Worths were English Quakers who went to North Carolina in 1771 from Nantucket, Mass. The McBrydes moved into the Laurinburg area about 1788 from Argylshire, Scotland. Kathryn Worth's maternal grandfather was Duncan D. McBryde, a prominent Presbyterian preacher; her great-grandfather on her father's side was Governor Jonathan Worth. In 1905 the James Worths moved from Wilmington to Davidson, and during 1910–12 they were in Europe, where the three children attended private schools in Geneva and Neuchâtel.

Kathryn Worth was graduated from Converse College in 1920 and, after a period of teaching and writing, did graduate work at Radcliffe College in 1922; she received a bachelor of letters from the Pulitzer School of Journalism, Columbia University, in 1923. Soon she began publishing in national periodicals. On 27 July 1927 she married Walter Clyde Curry, professor of English at Vanderbilt University, and made her home in Nashville, Tenn. After the birth of her only child, Josephine (Mrs. Harold McNatt), her writing activity increased, with hundreds of poems appearing in a wide variety of publications. Sign of Capricornus (1937) is a book of poetry in which, she said, she "attempted to interpret metaphysically and intellectually the half world of very young childhood, as I have observed it in my daughter," who, at age eight, "memorized the poems as they were written; and though she does not wholly understand their meaning, she is very proud of them."

When Josephine asked her mother for a book she could "understand" as well as "memorize," Kathryn Worth wrote The Middle Button (1941), a juvenile novel using as its setting the Cumberland County home (Linden) of her mother's people and narrating the story of a Scottish girl in 1883 who wants to become a doctor. They Loved to Laugh (1942) recalls the Guilford County boyhood of Governor Worth in 1831–33, its central character a shy girl among five boys in a household of thrifty, fun-loving Quakers. After Poems for Josephine (1943), a collection of verses for children, came New Worlds for Josie (1944), a juvenile novel of two American sisters in a Geneva boarding school. Sea Change (1948), a love story for teenagers, comes to grips with religious prejudice on the Carolina seacoast in 1893; in it a southern girl decides to accept the attentions of an attractive Irish Catholic boy who had come to an unfriendly region to help in the building of a bridge.

Kathryn Worth was a Democrat and a Presbyterian. She was buried in the churchyard of Dials Church, near Fountain Inn, S.C

Reviews

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I enjoyed this book. The writing style was delightful and I liked most of the characters. Maggie had my sympathies from the start and I was cheering for her to earn her way and wondering how she could accomplish the money and the permission to become the doctor she wanted to be in a time (late 1800s) when women doctors were scarce and a college had just been opened for them. I didn’t like Bennie at all. His teasing was mean and he seemed to enjoy taunting his younger sister just to make her mad.
There was some descriptions of injuries and sickness but nothing too graphic.
This was definitely written a long time ago since the story takes place in North Carolina and there were terms used that many would consider “bad” today, but I’m guessing they were accurate of the time period and the place.

[CLM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kathryn Worth's four novels are among my favorites, and this is particularly unusual in that the heroine is an aspiring doctor in the 19th century. Her uncle promises to help pay for her training if Maggie can learn to govern her temper and raise half of the necessary funds herself. That is indeed hard to do but equally difficult is for a young woman to earn money in this era. In addition, there is an appealing young man for Maggie to consider: can she include him in her future plans without giving up her ambitions?

[Melody · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was egregiously racist both explicitly and implicitly. I could tell you that it was the story of a young girl and her quest to become a doctor in the late 1880s, but that's not enough. It's also the story of how black people are dirty, stupid, worthless, lazy, scary, and naturally only fit to wait on the white folks. This sentiment lies under the entire book, and is verbalized numerous times by various characters. I kept putting it down and fuming. Had it not been a library book, and an Inter-Libray Loan book at that, I would have thrown it.

I read it all because it came highly recommended. I am deeply shocked that it did so.

And I think I read it all because I couldn't believe my eyes. I haven't hated a book this much in a very long time. Not recommended. Ever. At all. For anyone.

Negative 30 billion stars. Now I'm going to go wash my eyes out with sulfuric acid and benzene.

[Sep · Rating 4 out of 5]

A post Civil War (1883) story about Maggie McArn the exact middle child of the McArn family (eleven kids--remember it's the 19th century) Maggie wants to be a doctor. Her uncle says if she can earn $100 in two years AND controls her temper. Her temper is ferocious. She almost kills a woman with a piece of firewood. She ties up one of the brothers trying to get him to confess. Eventually, Maggie gets control of her temper. She starts earning money by working as a practical nurse. She is also being courted by a young local man who will end up with what he calls a farm. The question is will he be comfortable (Did I mention it is the 1800s?) having a wife who is a doctor.

Warning: There is casual racism towards some of the former slaves.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my mother's books when she was young, and I read it over and over. It's a little harsh in spots, which I imagine was a sign of the times during which it was written, but it's a great story and very empowering for girls.

[Cherylann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the book They Loved to Laugh by this author. It was, and continues to be, a go-to book when I cannot read.

This book, the Middle Button, was written in 1941 and set in 1883 North Carolina. The book has a similar and familiar voice - however, it was jarring and heartbreaking to my 2018 ears to read the 1941 language describing life with and among newly freed slaves in 1883 North Carolina.

Not recommended for YA - but possibly of interest for a historical (and somewhat romantic) view of rural southern society.