Just Patty

I thoroughly enjoyed author Jean Webster's charming book Daddy Long Legs about a plucky and pert orphan who makes good as a scholarship student at a college. Was it a little bit dated? Sure, but the novel's heroine Judy Abbott was so good-hearted and realistically saucy and impulsive that I couldn't help but love the book.

Just as delightful is Webster’s Just Patty, which deals with the adventures of Patty Wyatt, a spirited -- her teachers would say impudent -- but kind-hearted high school senior at St. Ursula's boarding school. Patty is enthusiastic and creative to a fault. Patty's a natural-born leader and, with her bosom friends Conny [sic] and Priscilla, she’s able to set a number of situations right at St. Ursula's, including show more putting the kibosh to a fake romance, striking for better conditions in Latin class, Neither Patty nor her friends fulfill the stereotype of simpering, fluffy-headed ninnies so prevalent before suffrage and the feminist revolution. Despite some spirited hijinks, it's hard not to like Patty! She’s so natural and open; she’s impudent but never cheeky.

You’ll also be struck by just how onerous a classical education is: geometry, French, French history, Latin, sociology, history, rhetoric, dancing, deportment, dramatics, English composition, English grammar, drawing, current events training, and more.

The novel, first published in 1911, is considerably less saccharine than its contemporaries, and modern readers will enjoy its rosy take on girlhood at the opening of the 20th century. With so many books focusing on dysfunctional teenage upbringings, Just Patty, with its idyllic view from St. Ursula, provides a nice, cheery change of pace. show less

This is a charming school story, similar in tone to the author's more well known 'Daddy Long Legs.'

Patty and her friends Priscilla and Connie get themselves in and out of various amusing scrapes. (It is impossible to review a school story without using that word!)

If you enjoy L.M. Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, or G.S. Porter, you'll enjoy this story.

This is a prequel to J Webster's first book, 'When Patty Went
to College,' which describes Patty's adventures after she leaves school.

4 Stars

A classic "adolescent novel".

Luin tämän kirjan viimeksi joskus teini-ikäisenä, enkä muistanut siitä juuri mitään. Nyt poimin sen hyllystä Helmet-haasteen kohtaan "kirja liittyy lapsuuteesi", enkä erityisemmin tykännyt. Kirjoitusvirheet tekstissä häiritsivät myös.