Fairy Tales and stories for childrens. Book 26

Fairy Tales and stories for childrens. Book 26: 1. What Katy Did or What Katy did at Home; 2. What Katy Did at School; 3. The Magic City; 4. Wet Magic.


1. What Katy Did or What Katy did at Home 

Published: 1872

What Katy Did is an 1872 children's book written by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name Susan Coolidge. It follows the adventures of a twelve-year-old American girl, Katy Carr, and her family who live in the fictional lakeside Ohio town of Burnet in the 1860s. Katy is a tall untidy tomboy, forever getting into scrapes but wishing to be beautiful and beloved. When a terrible accident makes her an invalid, her illness and four-year recovery gradually teach her to be as good and kind as she has always wanted.

Two sequels follow Katy as she grows up: What Katy Did at School and What Katy Did Next. Two further sequels relating the adventures of Katy's younger siblings were also published—Clover and In the High Valley. The books were frequently reprinted and all are available online.


2. What Katy Did at School 

Published: 1873

The continuing story of Katy Carr, recounting the time she spent at boarding school with her sister Clover. 

What Katy Did at School, the sequel to Susan Coolidge's classic novel of American childhood, What Katy Did, begins in a moment of deep heat. The book opens in the days after the conclusion of the first novel: Katy is recovered from the accident that confined her to her room for four years, and the visit from saintly Cousin Helen, with which the family celebrated Katy's return to health, has drawn to a close. Life, in the fictional Ohio lakeside town of Burnet, has returned to its usual rhythms, made delightful for Katy by their novelty; the only sour note is struck by the unseasonally sultry weather. September, Coolidge writes, seemed "determined to show that he knew how to make himself just as disagreeable as August, if only he chose to do so."


3. The Magic City 

Published: 1910

The Magic City is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, first published in 1910. 

After Philip's older sister and sole family member Helen marries, he goes off to live with his new step sister Lucy. He has trouble adjusting at first, thrown into a world different from his previous life and abandoned by his sister while she is on her honeymoon. To entertain himself he builds a giant model city from things around the house: game pieces, books, blocks, bowls, etc. Then through some magic he finds himself inside the city, and it is alive with the people he has populated it with. Some soldiers find him and tell him that two outsiders have been foretold to be coming: a Deliverer and a Destroyer. Mr. Noah, from a Noah's Ark playset, tells Philip that there are seven great deeds to be performed if he wants to prove himself the Deliverer. Lucy, too, has found her way into the city and joins Philip as a co-Deliverer, much to his chagrin.


4. Wet Magic 

Published: 1913

A book about children who find magic in every day life .. and discover that mermen and mermaids actually have a whole underwater kingdom with Kings and Queens and of course Princesses. Of course you probably know these delightful children from their earlier adventures with magic, Bernard, Mavis, Kathleen, and Francis. Just normal children who believe in the fun of imagining and of magic. In this story Francis, who has always loved the idea of the sea but has never actually seen it, is very excited about going to the seashore for holiday. He finds an old aquarium and the others help him lug it home only to have their hopes dashed by Aunt Enid who was in charge temporarily. But then the magic starts when he unwittingly recites a magic charm. At the seashore the children execute a daring rescue of a supposed mermaid who 'die in captivity' and oh, lots and lots more. Enjoy these adventurous children and their wet magic in the sea.