The Katy Chronicles: What Katy Did; What Katy Did at School; And What Katy Did Next

Carr Family #1-3

by Susan Coolidge

This edition features
• Three complete novels
• a linked Table of Contents
• illustrations

CONTENTS
What Katy Did
What Katy Did at School
What Katy Did Next

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Childrens, Historical Fiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge.

Woolsey was born January 29, 1835, into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and mother was Jane Andrews. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852.

Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write. The niece of the author and poet Gamel Woolsey, she never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death.

She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known, however, for her classic children's novel, What Katy Did (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after the author's own, with Katy Carr inspired by Susan (Sarah) herself, and the brothers and sisters modeled on Coolidge's four younger Woolsey siblings.

Reviews

[Simonne Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had rheumatic fever as a child and spent three months in hospital. This collection was brought to me and i fell in love with Katy. Not only with Katy but I began a love affair with reading which has lasted my whole life. I feel sorry for people who don't read - they miss out on meeting so many people and going to such wonderful places :)

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved these books while at school

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was gifted to me as an older child (around age 10) and I read it the way I read most books: straight through. When I got to "What Katy Did Next", I was a bit confused by the enormous time gap and reference to characters I didn't know, but adjusted. Then I read "What Katy did at School" and all the pieces fell into place.

The drawback to this edition, is that the books are not in order! The series, in fact, goes like this:

What Katy Did
What Katy Did at School
What Katy Did Next

These books are on the "old fashioned" side, but fit right in with my regular repertoire of L.M. Montgomery, Maud Hart Lovelace, Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Frances Hodges Burnett.

What Katy Did
Katy Carr experiences a horrible accident that her family is not sure she will recover from. She learns about "invalid living" from her cousin, who is unable to walk. Through this challenge, Katy grows up and learns patience, kindness, etc. Her siblings fill in the background, especially her closest sister, Clover.

What Katy did at School
Katy and Clover go away to school when they get a little older and it is hard for them to adapt to being so far from home. But, as these girls are wont to do, they make do and make friends, making their time away at school an adventure of its own.

What Katy did Next
Katy gets to go to Europe as companion to a friend and her daughter! We get to see Europe through Katy's eyes--the good, the bad, and the ugly. Toss in a little romance and you have another heartwarming Katy adventure.

The series continues after these three, but they are less popular. The next book is "Clover", if you are interested. All of these books can be read for free on the ebook website Project Gutenberg.

[Cathy Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading these when I was a child and loving them. I was entranced by Katy, by the descriptions of a more genteel, simpler life and, coming from a large family myself, I wished our lives were more like Katy’s and her siblings! No chance with 4 brothers!
I had a yearning to revisit and read them again recently and it has to be over 45 years since I read them. Funny how some books stick in your mind! I downloaded them onto my kindle this time, no dusty second hand books from Hay on Wye this time round!! But as I read I could smell those old, red hardback books with a minute old fashioned font!
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed them all over again. It was comforting to read in these uncertain times and I relived Katy’s story of growth and self development as it would be called today! It was only the first book that I really remembered clearly from my childhood so reading the second two was new to me and they didn’t disappoint! When I was a child I wanted a Cousin Helen too and now I want a friend who’ll whisk me off to Europe for 6 months- without the annoying child of course!!
Yes the books are about a different age, a life in the early years of America, a genteel and delicate lifestyle but there are lessons to be taken from them. Patience, listening, talking, understanding, empathy- some of the so called life coaches could do with reading them so they realise they didn’t invent the wheel and maybe that’s why I have so very little patience with those people- I learnt it all as a kid with Katy!!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of the first three books of a classic series of children's books was well written and entertaining. The stories were sweet if a bit unrealistic at times. I also found it amusing how often the main characters appearances were brought up and how every new character was introduced as being either beautiful or "unbeautiful;" this knowledge apparently being extremely important. Anyway, I am glad to have read these stories and will likely read the rest of the series.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite childhood series! I read the whole series several times a year, all the way up until high school. You feel Katy’s pain throughout her life, and you grow with her as she learns to love and care for her siblings, to look to God as her teacher, and to serve and find love. I honestly think this book plays a part in my character today.

[Nahuatl P Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was very fun and exciting.

[Pollymoore3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved and re-read What Katy Did many times as a child. The Carr children could be silly, naughty and imaginative, and I must have identified with that!

[Kike Ogundipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

All That Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
Kike Ogundipe
10MRY

As a young child All That Katy Did was one of my favourite books after my grandmother gave me a copy she had found in an op shop. I read it multiple times but then it disappeared and I thought I had lost the book but to my surprise my friend had borrowed it for 4 years and to celebrate it's return to my bookshelf i read it again.

My favourite thing about this book was Katy's transition from a loud and wild young girl into a mature and kind young lady after her accident. I always thought it was amazing how she had overcome her bruised vertebrae and while doing so her behaviour and manner completely changed. She became such great role model for all of her younger siblings and when she leaves for school and after that travels Europe she is still polite and kind.

This book always inspired me to be kind to others and be a little more like Katy (it wasn't very effective on my own sister) and taught me all my manners. It also started my love for old fashioned British books like the Famous Five and other Enid Blyton stories which I read all throughout my younger years.

All That Katy Did will remain as one of my favourite books and I am gad that i have my copy back so that i can continue to read it again and again.

[Violet W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book (hence the four stars), but this particular edition has a plethora of problems. First of all, the books are in the wrong order. The correct (chronological) one is:
What Katy Did
What Katy Did At School
What Katy Did Next

When I was reading it for the first time, I was VERY confused in the first chapter of WKDN by references to Rose Red and the S.S.U.C. Thankfully I figured it out before I'd read any more. Another odd thing is that the last chapter of WKD is reprinted at the beginning of WKDAS, which is pretty annoying. This is also full of typos all the way through, some of them very hard to figure out. If that bothers you, read a different edition.

My last comment is how final the endings of every book are. I love them, but they make it seem weird that there's more even after them. For example, Mrs. Coolidge says at the end of WKDAS that when children grow up (Katy was at the time sixteen 😏), no more children's stories can be written about them. And then she wrote three more. Anyway, these are every one wonderful, wholesome family stories which I've enjoyed very much over the years.

[Kate Millin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting range of time is covered by these three stories. They start out with Katy being very much the chi,d for whom things keep going wrong in the first book. In the second she is sent to boarding school with her next sister down - she is about 15/16. In the last book she is acting as a companion to a lady and her daughter on a trip to Europe - and is late teens /early twenties.

There is a strong moral line to the boom about doing the best you can in difficult circumstances (even if you create the circumstances yourself as Katy does in the first book). It is also about the triumph of patience and calm over adversity. Having said that I did not feel like it was ramming the morality down your throat, but that is was a typical American gently tale about a girl growing up in a quieter, more thoughtful time.

[Dianna]

I would NOT recommend this edition of these books, and here is why:

The three books are out of order. What Katy Did Next should come at the end, not in the middle.

The second two books are absolutely peppered with typographical errors, most likely related to OCR. Most of these errors are painfully obvious and could have been eliminated by just one reading-over by anyone with half a brain. (ex: 50 for so, etc.)

The good news: the books were quite fun to read. I definitely recommend them, especially for fans of Little Women.

[LOL_BOOKS]

WHAT OTHER OLD SCHOOL GIRLS' BOOKS AUTHORS ARE WORTH READING?

I LIKED THE WHAT KATY DID BOOKS. I DON'T KNOW THAT THEY'RE PARTICULARLY MEMEISH THOUGH.

I REMEMBER THIS ONE BOOK CALLED "WHAT KATY DID" THAT TOOK PLACE IN THE 19TH CENTURY THAT FOR SOME REASON I WAS RLY INTO AS A KID, BUT WHEN I PICKED IT UP WHEN I WAS A LITTLE OLDER, I WAS PRETTY HORRIFIED TO REALIZE THE MORAL OF THE STORY WAS THAT SOMETIMES GOD HAS TO PARALYZE YOU TO MAKE YOU A BETTER PERSON.

LOL I THINK I READ WHAT KATY DID NEXT, IN WHICH SHE NEEDS TO FIND A HUSBAND!

[Veronica-Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this trilogy. I was particularly fond of these books when I was much younger and rereading them brought back so many lovely old memories. Back to a time when life was simpler, entertainment was filled with imaginative and personal creativity and manners and politeness was so important. Although these times are long gone, the warmth and honesty was so rewarding to read that it was easy to become wistfully comfortable in these pages of a past almost long forgotten. Highly recommended.

[Sandy Millin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so lovely to return to one of the books of my childhood, which I probably last read at the age of 9 or 10, and rediscover it. I'd forgotten most of the story, and I'd forgotten how gentle the stories are, in the best possible way. It's a view back into an innocent, middle-class, mid-1800s life - a different world. Katy is an enjoyable person to spend time with, and watching her grow up through the three books and become a confident young woman was a real pleasure. Definitely recommended.

[Dita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like What Katy Did because I thought it was soooo inspiring. Maybe it was for 9 years old little girl who dream to be big. But when 20 years later I finally got the sequels, What Katy Did Next and read it, I found it too normative and I miss the family. Katy itself is not enough to lighten the world.

[Dalaina Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katy was certainly a little brat at the start if the book. The book was somewhat sad. The kids mother was dead. Then the aunt died to. Katy ends up helping her father raise her siblings though she can not walk. It was a okay quick reader.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Katy Did / What Katy Did Next / What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge (1999)

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Katy Did

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful series.

[Joanne Tognarelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am re-reading some childhood favourites - this one included - although now I am older (alot older!) the story does not catch me as much as it did. Maybe some books should only be read when young!

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kid's lit. Not subtle.

[Kimberley Ann Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read these dozens of times. Always wanted to be Clover.

[Jackie Roche · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these books. They took me straight back to my childhood.