Understood Betsy

[sapphire_chan]

Read it!

It's got great examples of leading by example and benign neglect. It managed to hit about 90% of the values I hope my kids will learn without feeling, imo, too preachy, which is pretty impressive for when it was written.

[terrordactyl]

i love that book but its so hard to find in print i still have mine that i got at a thrift store when i was a kid

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Shaina

i love that book but its so hard to find in print i still have mine that i got at a thrift store when i was a kid

I think it may have been reissued. The forward talks about the 197X editions and how she was : about it coming out again.

http://www.amazon.com/Understood-Bet.../dp/0805060731

Yep! Back in print!

Ah and this edition was published 1999, which explains why I didn't encounter the book in all my reading as a kid.

[journeymom]

I read that book!

[philomom]

I love that book.

[Petronella]

That is a wonderful book. Thanks for reminding me about it! I think it's one of the best accounts of excellent parenting (along with examples of 2 kinds of poor parenting) that I've ever read.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Petronella

That is a wonderful book. Thanks for reminding me about it! I think it's one of the best accounts of excellent parenting (along with examples of 2 kinds of poor parenting) that I've ever read.

I especially liked how the poor parenting went in both directions, into too nice as well as too mean.

[journeymom]

I ordered it on Amazon. Should be here in a day or two.

[Skim]

Based on the recs here on this thread, we requested it from our library and just finished it tonight. It was too long for my 4yo dd, but she did manage to enjoy some parts of it.

My 7.5yo dd LOVED it, and thought the nervous Aunt Frances character was the funniest ever. It was a wonderful read for me, too, and a joy to share it with my girls.

I hope they get to reading it again in a year or so...

[sapphire_chan]

Apparently the new edition has some major changes.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wom...nderstood.html

[_betsy_]

Hey! That's my name!

[clicks link] HEY! That's REALLY my name! Crazy!

[bookmarks link to read later]

[Skim]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Apparently the new edition has some major changes.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wom...nderstood.html

Huh. You know, I am not going to be able to re-read this tonight to see the changes; could you please note a couple here in the thread? Interesting.

[sapphire_chan]

Oops! Sorry, that should've been two separate things. (And then I go on a cross country train trip...)

The one bad review at Amazon is that it was significantly different from the book the rest of her club was reading. So the new edition might not have all the awesomeness of the version I read.

The link is to the full-text of an earlier edition and is just posted because it's awesome that there's a full-text online. If you clip away part of the URL in your browser's address bar the University of Pennsylvania has compiled a ton of full-text online books from various sources.

(Such as that Slovenly Betsy book from my other thread. Slovenly Betsy and Understood Betsy pretty well define the different ways of looking at children and treating them.)

[Skim]

Off to see what Slovenly Betsy is all about

And I read a review of this most recent UB edition that claims it is unabridged. Perhaps that accounts for the major differences? I skimmed the online version you posted and didn't notice anything major missing...

Thanks!

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Skim

Off to see what Slovenly Betsy is all about

And I read a review of this most recent UB edition that claims it is unabridged.

Cool! Thanks for finding that. Off to purchase..