Susan Coolidge

What Katy Did Susan Coolidge

12-year-old Katy Carr lives with her widowed father and her two brothers and three sisters in Burnet, a small midwestern town. Her father is a very busy doctor who works long hours; the children are mostly in the care of his sister Aunt Izzie, who is very particular and something of a scold. Bright, headstrong Katy can hardly avoid getting into mischief almost daily under these circumstances, but she is unfailingly remorseful afterward. She behaves somehow kind to the children and also she dreams of someday doing something "grand" with her life: painting famous pictures, saving the lives of drowning people, or leading a crusade on a white horse. She also wants to be "beautiful, of course, and good if I can." When her mother died four years earlier, Katy promised to be a little mother to her siblings: in practice, she is the kind of big sister who is sometimes impatient or cross with them, but leads them into all sorts of exciting adventures.