I'm sure this is charming, and it caught my attention on Hoopla as a book I'd heard of. I knew nothing about it, not even that it was a children's book. It was written in 1872 and stars 12-year old Katy, though perhaps by the third book in the series, which this is, she is older. I could see it sparkled. But didn't interest me much unfortunately. ( )

The final installment of the "Katy" series. A grown up Katy travels to Europe and finds love. Quite dated now but I enjoyed seeing Europe through late 19th Century American eyes. ( )

Travelling was hard work in those days. Poor little Amy; even before she got sick this kind of adventure wasn't fitting for a small child. At least Katy got to see some of Europe, some of the sights from her books & studies. And she learned more about herself - enough to know what kind of a life she'd want as she grew into a young woman. I'm enjoying these gracefully written books because they're so old and help me learn about what is old history to me, but clear memories to the author. ( )

Third in the classic series about the kind and headstrong Katy, who is now a calmer young woman of twenty. She dreams of travelling to Europe, so is thrilled when a rich neighbour offers to take her there as a companion, and also for extra help with the neighbour's daughter.

The book covers their travels by boat and train, near the end of the 19th century, and thus provides a lovely piece of social history which was contemporary at the time. Katy retains her strong character and sense of justice alongside deep compassion and a great sense of the ridiculous.

Not much plot, and a bit meandering in places with a slightly intrusive author viewpoint; I very much doubt if this would appeal to most of today's teenagers, but I very much enjoyed re-visiting this book which I liked as a child. I do have a paperback edition, but read this on my Kindle after downloading it free. ( )

Sadly this was really boring compared to the previous books. Nice to see Rose Red again, but otherwise it was an endless list of things in Europe that are pretty and descriptions of an ill child complaining about being ill.

I did like the part where Amy asked Katy to tell her a story, and the story she told was "Once upon a time there were two little girls, and they were horrible smashed to death, the end". ( )