"B" Is for Betsy

By Carolyn Haywood

Betsy is scared about going to first grade, but it turns out school is a great place. She learns about tadpoles and the true meaning of Thanksgiving, makes new friends, and has more fun than she'd ever imagined.

Carolyn Haywood's stories about her irrepressible character Betsy have never been out of print, and now, thanks to dynamic new covers, the Betsy books will find their way onto the bookshelves of modern young readers--and into the hearts of a whole new generation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 1, 2004
• ISBN: 9780547671338

Carolyn Haywood

CAROLYN HAYWOOD (1898-1990) was a native of Philadelphia. One of America's most popular authors of children's books, she published her first book, "B" Is for Betsy, in 1939, and wrote more than forty books in all. Many of her own childhood experiences can be found in her novels.

Book preview

Copyright 1939 by Harcourt, Inc.

Copyright renewed 1966 by Carolyn Haywood

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Haywood, Carolyn, 1898–

B is for Betsy/Carolyn Haywood,

p. cm.

An Odyssey/Harcourt Young Classic.

Sequel. Betsy and Billy.

Summary: Betsy experiences an interesting first year in school and looks forward to summer vacation at her grandfather’s farm.

[1. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.H31496Bab 2004

[Fic]—dc22 2003056567

ISBN 0-15-205103-1 ISBN 0-15-205099-X (pb)

ISBN 978-0-152-05103-7 hardcover

ISBN 978-0-152-05099-3 paperback

eISBN 978-0-547-67133-8

v3.0818

To my friend

who owns Koala Bear

this book is

lovingly inscribed

1

Betsy Goes to School and Finds a Big Surprise

---

Betsy lay in her little white bed. She had been awake a long time. Outside her window the birds were calling Good morning to each other, but Betsy did not hear them.

All summer long she had jumped out of bed as soon as her eyes were open. She had always run to the window and thrown sunflower seeds out to the birds for their breakfast. But this morning Betsy was so busy feeling unhappy that she forgot all about the birds.

Betsy was unhappy because today was the first day of school. She had never been to school and she was sure she would not like it. Old Ned, who cut the grass on Grandfather’s farm, had told her all about school. Betsy had never told anyone what Old Ned had told her, but now she lay thinking about it. She thought of the cross old teacher and of the switch that had stood in the corner to be used on the legs of any child who might be late for school. She thought of the high pointed cap made of paper that Old Ned had been made to wear when he didn’t know his spelling. Old Ned had stroked his grizzly beard and said, Aye, yes! School was a terrible place.

Betsy turned her head on the pillow. Now she could see her clothes lying on her bedroom chair. There was her new green dress with the little puffy pockets. It was such a pretty dress but Betsy wished that she did not have to go to school in it. She leaned far over the side of her bed to see if she could see her new shoes. There they were, side by side, little brown shoes that fastened with a strap and a brass buckle. And there, hanging on the doorknob, was her schoolbag. It was dark green with red and yellow stripes running up and down and across it. Mother called it plaid. It was trimmed with bright red and there was a long leather strap that Betsy could hang over her shoulder. Betsy had been happy the day Father had bought the bag for her. But now that the time had come for her to wear it she didn’t feel happy at all. If only she could run away and hide!

Just then Mother came in. Come, Betsy, it’s time to get up, said Mother. Today you are going to school.

---

Mother helped her with her bath and brushed and braided her hair. Then she tied the crisp white sash on her dress.

After breakfast, Mother went upstairs to put on her hat. She was going to walk to school with Betsy every morning until Betsy knew the way.

Betsy sat on the bottom step of the stairs to wait for Mother. Her schoolbag was over her shoulder. There were two bread and jelly sandwiches tucked away in the pocket on the outside of the bag. Betsy felt very little and very scared, but she wouldn’t tell Mother, because she did not want Mother to think that she was a baby. Only that morning Mother had called her Mother’s great big girl.

---

Suddenly Betsy thought of Koala Bear. Koala was the little toy bear that Uncle Jim had brought all the way from Australia. She would take Koala to school with her. It would not seem so strange or so lonely with Koala. Betsy ran upstairs and into her bedroom. She looked in the bed, but Koala was not there. Betsy was sure she had taken him to bed with her the night before. She pulled up the covers at the foot of the bed, for although Koala always went to bed with his nose sticking out at the top, it was nearly always sticking out at the bottom of the bed in the morning. Sometimes he even fell out completely. Betsy looked under the bed and around the floor, but there was no Koala. She looked on the windowsill and in the toy closet, but Koala was nowhere to be seen.

Betsy, called Mother from the foot of the stairs, come at once, dear. You mustn’t be late for school.

Betsy took one last look in the bed, but there was no sign of a little gray bear. Very slowly she went downstairs.

I can’t find Koala, Mother, said Betsy.

Well, never mind Koala now, replied Mother. "He’ll turn up; he

Reviews for "B" Is for Betsy

[conuly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a perfectly simple and easy book for young children. Nothing special, but a solid school-and-everyday-life story.I just have one problem with it, and that's chapter four, where they learn about How The Indians Lived.Now, before I go further, I think I'll address some of the usual complaints here. No, I don't believe the author intended to be inaccurate or offensive. No, I don't believe you're a bad person if this is a beloved book from your childhood and you read it with your kids in the same way that your grandmother used to read it to you when you were sick. Yes, I am aware that this book was written in a different time.However, we're not reading this book to children 60 years ago, we're reading it to children today. And even though the author probably didn't intend to say anything rude, she actually did.Now, I'll give credit where it's due. Carolyn Haywood was careful to have the students in her book learn that the Native Americans were not one monolithic group that all live the same way. We're told that they learn that "some lived" in this sort of home and others lived in that sort of home and others still lived in a third sort of home.This is all well and good. However, this emphasis on the past is the sort of thing that gives children the impression that the Native Americans all generously went away in the past and there aren't any left... or that there ARE some left, still living the way they did 500 years ago. If it were just this one book, that wouldn't matter, but virtually every time children see Native Americans in the media that's the message they get, and that's a problem. (I've even heard people relate anecdotes where somebody else told them they thought that "Indians" were just made up entirely!)Also of note is the fact that the children are explicitly taught that the appropriate term for a Native American woman is "squaw" and their babies are "papooses". This, we're told, is the "Indian word".Well, "squaw" is now (and possibly even then, my limited research is unclear on this) considered an offensive term in English, and papoose may or may not be. Personally, I find it unnecessarily dehumanizing to use a special term to refer to people of another race instead of just using the normal English word we use for everybody else. So what are you going to do about it? Well, that probably depends on how you're using this book. If you're using it in the classroom, I suggest you just stop. Among other things, you cannot assume that your students are all the same as you. Either you're miseducating them or, worse, you have a Native American student in your class who may not appreciate this sort of stereotyping and language, no matter how unintentional. This is a nice little book, but it's not really one of the classics of children's literature that every child must read. You might make the argument for Little House on the Prairie, but this book isn't nearly so interesting or useful.If you still want to read it - perhaps it's your favorite book from your own childhood, I can see that - and you're reading it aloud, you might just skip that chapter. It's not crucial to the story. Or you could skim over the relevant passages. Alternatively (and this would work if your child is reading the book to themselves) you might just give a warning before the fourth chapter that what you're saying is VERY old-fashioned and NOW we know it's inaccurate and impolite. This isn't ideal, but it's better than letting it stand uncommented upon.All that aside, as I said before, it's really only an okay book. There are plenty of others at the same level of quality or better that have drifted out of print, and I'm not sure why this series is so beloved as to still be in print decades after it was first written. Unless this is, as said before, a dear and cherished book from your own childhood, you might want to pass it by. It's nothing special.

[andreacarole · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Betsy begins first grade. We follow her from the first day of school through the last, and on into Summer Vacation. Carolyn Haywood has a gifted ability to let us see the world through the eyes of a six year old. Life is sweet, just as we remember it from our own childhoods.