Sensible Kate

by Doris Gates

"I'm sure you'll find Kate a very sensible child," says Miss Watson, from the County Office.

Is that all anyone will ever say of her, Kate wonders. How she longs to be pretty and cute! But who would ever think of her—a freckle-faced, red-headed orphan—as cute? So Kate settles for being sensible.

Then she goes to live with the Tuttles as a "family helper." And in this small seaside town in California, Sensible Kate Summers meets some wonderful people and makes some surprising discoveries—about herself.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Historical

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Doris Gates, 1901-1987

A lifelong resident of California, Doris Gates was for many years, she was a librarian for the Fresno County Free Library. However, she is remembered for her many beloved children's books. Of these, the best known and most influential was Blue Willow (1940), selected as a Newbery Honor Book in 1941. Many consider Blue Willow to have been the first realistic, problem novel for children, and it was recognized both for its lasting literary merit and for its expansion of the range of subjects which could be explored in books for children. She died in 1987.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

We expected to like this a lot but we found this difficult to enjoy. Kate seemed to based too much on Anne of Green Gables and some of the other characters. Ended up skimming lots.

So many goodreads friends have really enjoyed this so worth a try.

Read on openlibrary

[Sonia Gomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone likes Kate; the Tuttles like her, Nora and Christopher love her…

But what’s the reason for this fondness…

By the time Kate had reached the Tuttles after a long line of foster parents, Kate had learnt that it was best to be sensible, pliable and content with whatever came your way.
Nora and Christopher loved her precisely for that, she put ‘sense’ into Nora’s head, a little girl of ten and Nora a grown married woman. Here the roles are reversed.
.
But it is Nora and Christopher who played a nice game…

Who would help them with Nora’s pregnancy…when Nora did not want to clean and wash? Sensible Kate…

Who would look after the baby; take care of all his needs? Sensible Kate of course…

So they adopt her as a ‘sister’ for the baby. Kate will of course be there at their beck and call to help scatter brained Nora look after her baby, to clean, to cook simple meals all that ‘No sense Nora’ cannot do and Sensible Kate can do marvelously…

The Tuttles did try very hard to be good parents but they were too old for a ten year old girl so they are now Sensible Kate’s grandparents!

If this is not exploiting a young girl, what is?

I wonder how Miss Watson the person from the county never saw anything in Kate other than Kate being sensible girl.

Do you know till the very end…we never get to know Kate’s surname…or anything about her identity?

All we know is that she is Sensible and never expects much. The System does that for you…

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/2017 Reread, natch. I find more in this book every time I return to it, and this time was no exception. Mr. Tuttle, in particular, struck me with his goodness and his insight. This book, taken as a whole, may well be my favorite love story ever.

1/2008 Why Doris Gates hasn't listservs devoted to her lovely work is beyond me. This tale of Kate, who is an orphan easily as delightful as Anne Shirley, is one I treasure and re-read often. In fact, I'm about due for a re-read of this, my favorite of all the orphan books in the world. The illustrations are simply lovely, the story glows. Kate beats Anne all hollow.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story.
Kate is a dear, sensible girl. And even when she decides not to be sensible, she does it for sensible reasons. And Christopher and Nora, and Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle, and Vic all combine to fill this story with life, and smiles, and yes, even a few tears perhaps.
This is a story I've read or skimmed many times, and I'm sure I'll reread it and skim it many more times. It's just that kind of book.

[Kathryn]

Ooo! Lots of good reviews from my GR friends. And, since my nickname is Kate, and I'm often told I'm very sensible, and I love seaside towns in California--this sounds pretty perfect for me ;-)

[Renata Shura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for ages and finally decided to read it and was pleasantly surprised. This is written in a more literary style than most childrens books from the past and present. It gave me food for thought as a middle aged woman and I think had I read this as a child, I would have loved it. I had read some of Doris Gates other books but this one had evaded me until so late in life.

Kate is an orphan with red hair and a desire to be cute or pretty...sound familiar? I thought this was going to be just a rip off of Anne of Green Gables but it turned out to be much more philosophical in nature. Of course there was a happy ending, which I love and overall as it progressed I found I wanted to keep going despite needing to get up the next day for work. All in all a very satisfying read.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books, you start reading and you know it is Your Book. This is My Book. Another red-headed orphan, but Kate is nothing like Anne and I love her for it.

I was a little skeptical of meeting Christopher on the beach, seemed kind of creepy, but once I got over that, I loved him and Nora. I loved the Tuttles and I was mush when Mr. Tuttle said, "I hope you like us," and it broke my heart when Mrs. Tuttle did not go up the stairs. And at the end, when all Kate can think is that she will be useful and they will get paid? SOB. Oh, Kate, we all love you! It's going to be okay!

[Cynthia Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason I thought of this book and couldn't believe I saw it on Good reads. I read it as a 7 or 8 year old in the early 70s; I think I got it from a garage sale or possibly from an older cousin. I have seen reviews from adults stating that it wasn't written on a child's level; all I can say to that was that as a child, I loved that book and re-read it many times! It grabbed me, almost but not quite as firmly as the Little House books!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend! I remember reading this as a child. I can see where some of my values were influenced by this book. The illustration by Marjorie Torrey is truly wonderful, which is appropriate since one of the characters is an artist. With these lovely pictures I could easily imagine his work. I would suggest for my Vintage Book Circle except that there is only one copy in our library system. It is really charming.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas volunteered to pick out my "ugly cover" book for the vt reading challenge and came back with Sensible Kate. I forgot this was even on the shelf! My copy has this same illustration, but is a beat-up garage sale paperback.

I've wanted to have a red-headed kid for a while, but children's lit could make me rethink that -- those kids tend to end up orphans.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely forgot how much I like this (inevitably, an orphan) book! Much better than Blue Willow which has many fans and once helped me get a job...

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and sophisticated story about a redheaded orphan who wants to be beautiful...but Kate is no Anne. She's her own very sensible person who meets some pretty wonderful people. I would happily move to that California fishing village she's in.
I was expecting a children's book happy ending to the Leo plotline and was a bit surprised and impressed when it didn't come. Perhaps even more heartbreaking, though, is the moment when Mrs. Tuttle pauses at the foot of the staircase, but ultimately doesn't go up to Kate's room.

[Magda · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was younger I didn't understand a child who didn't have a sense of humor. Kate doesn't understand Chris and Nora's teasing, but likes them anyhow.

There isn't very much sorrow about Vic's older brother, Leo, being lost at sea, which is odd, and there's no follow-up to the strange neighbor lady who plants cactus in the violets bed. Other than that, it's a sweet little story, although a bit too reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

read aloud to near-7yo. We both enjoyed this. It's low-key, in that not much happens, but we were never bored. Just a tale of 10 months in the life a 10yo girl in the 1940s. Her life changes drastically, but not in a dramatic way, since she approaches the world sensibly, she takes it a day at a time and as it comes. It changes for good, not for bad.

[Susan Mehring · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite childhood books.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book among some childrens books I had saved and sat down to read it. Definitely shows it’s age especially with regards to children being left to wander about with little supervision. Ultimately I still enjoyed it, Ialways love da good “orphan finds a family” story.

[B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I generally loved the book, I have to say that either I’m very good at making inferences with clues, happenings and information being shared in the story or this story was just that predictable…than again the age limit was WAY beneath my age, lbs! There is also the fact that I felt the story was missing a lot of details, seriously the more details someone has in their story the better a reader can create a image in their mind and the better a reader can relate to the characters situation because I definitely wanted to know what happened to her parents, I wanted to know why the Tuttle’s never had any children, I wanted to know why her cousin didn’t keep her, I mean she was a personal slave to them and they got paid for her room and board, I wanted to know whether it was because of excessive paperwork in another state or whether if they wanted to leave the state they had to adopt her, that information would have been great to know, another thing I wanted to know was who on earth got the child regarding herself as homely (a more respectable version of ugly) that was just crazy, especially how she accepted it. About the Tuttle’s, oh my gosh, they were so old, I knew they were kind of old but once I saw the illustration they look like they were pushing their 70’s no wonder neither of them knew how to relate to her, the poor child would have went mad in that house. Now about the predictability, I knew the secret Nora told her to keep right off back, just by the way Kate reacted, and I’m hoping Christopher found out on his own and didn’t say anything because if he didn’t know his wife was pregnant until she had the baby, he’s flakier than I thought, also when she told the Cline’s (Nora and Christopher) that the Tuttle’s wanted to adopt her and Nora almost passed out, I instantly knew that they wanted to adopt her and were frightened that the Tuttle’s would do it first or that she would like them better. Something I liked about Kate was her name first of all (Kate Summers) it sounds so adorable and the fact that she was a very neat child, I could totally relate, she said she couldn’t sit in her cousin’s living room comfortably and that she always had to clean up, which is what she done when she first entered the Cline’s disaster of a living room. I really loved the Cline’s though because they gave her what no one else that they mentioned couldn’t, they openly expressed how they felt about her, they took care of her without expecting anything and they knew what kinds of things she liked and how to talk to her…respectfully of course which her cousins failed to do, the Tuttle’s however, Mrs. Tuttle, didn’t know how to relate to girls anymore as she said she forgot what it was like being a little girl and was scared to show real affection while Mr. Tuttle was just plain ‘ole shy and almost never spoke at all and Kate didn’t deserve that, she was too much of a good child for that crap, also you noticed very much the times they were in, I mean the little girl was bragging about her parents getting a new car with white wall tires…that was popular ages ago and the movie they were watching was starring Shirley Temple, that part was kind of cute though…Umm, I’m mad that Leo was such an idiot that he didn’t listen when they told him taking his small boat out in that bad weather was a bad idea and ended up dying at sea, which is such a bad way to go with his family not getting the closure they need with a real burial, it was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. I was glad that Vic stood up for Kate on her first day of school though or I’m afraid she would have ended up as one of the butt kissers who followed Beverly Jean around. Overall, it was an easy breezy read excluding the death of course, although, I didn’t really feel sad as I usually do when reading about the death of a character seeing as how he was warned by a lot of people before hand…it all have could have been avoided…I’m glad that Christopher talked to the Tuttle’s so that he and Nora can adopt Kate with them serving as surrogate grandparents to both Kate and their son, and I’m also glad that Kate finally got a family who loves her since she was bounced around family members throughout her years…oh yeah, about the title I only vaguely agreed, granted for her age she did actually think before she did anything, which a lot of kids don’t do, I just think that because of her circumstances she had to make sure no one got mad at her, in which case developed her sense to think before she did anything and obeyed orders and whatnot but as you can tell by reading the story through her, she still had ten year old whims and wishes and impulses she just didn’t do them for fear of being punished or taken away from whoever happened to be taking care of her at the time…hmm…I guess that’s still sense though, lol…I do wish that Nora had had a girl though = )... oh and one more thing about the illustrations one of them was wrong, the one with the puppy, Doris says that one of the puppy's ears were white and they other was black, Majorie however paints them both black though...just thought I should point that out ; )

[Kelsey Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful story of a sensible, 10 year old orphan girl in California in the 1940s. One of my favorite childhood stories growing up. It was just as delightful to read as an adult.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having only read Blue Willow I am so very thankful to have stumbled upon this book by Doris Gates. It is absolutely wonderful.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

re-read as an adult

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was published in 1943, but I wondered if the action was meant to be set earlier. In the 1940s did the county authorities really send out 10 year old girls as "family help" (ie unpaid servants) under foster care programmes? If Kate had been say 15, it would have been less surprising. I did wonder why, if she has all those relations, none of them could be legally obliged to take her in, but then if they had there wouldn't have been a story.

When I first started to read this, I thought, oh OK, this is an American version of Anne of Green Gables. A redhaired orphan with grey eyes who is obsessed with being pretty has been shuttled from one family to another as a baby minder, and ends up in a seaside town under the care of an older couple comprised of a nervous, busy woman (Mrs Tuttle/"Marilla") and a small, shy man (Mr Tuttle/"Matthew") who house her in their attic bedroom.

But that's where the resemblance ends. Instead of Anne's starry-eyed emoting and "romantic" imaginings, Kate has no imagination at all, and no sense of humour (the two seem to go together, as to be able to see a joke you have to be able to imagine the twists of thought and language that make it funny). The author seems to be a bit short on imagination, herself, as she summarises a whole summer of "fun" in about three sentences. Kids like to read about outings and picnics etc, and this genre was even more popular in the 1940s. Perhaps the writer had little experience of such activities, and therefore couldn't write about them?

Kate's story could have been much more interesting, but somehow Gates manages to make it very dull, and to miss most of the opportunities she herself sets up for a good read. The end wasn't convincing to me at all--can a child's destiny be altered with one conversation, without prior recourse to the authorities? Would Beverly Jean accept a pencil box, when even Kate knows they are now considered "sissy" and passé? And I found it hard to believe that in 1943 even a feather-headed artist's wife would tell a 10 year old girl that particular "secret." The thread of the unpleasant neighbour comes to nothing, as do various other promising ideas.
Several good starts, shame about the lack of development.

[PacaLipstick Gramma · Rating 1 out of 5]

My granddaughter found this book at a book sale. Originally published in 1943, it was later reprinted in 1968. This looked like a delightful book, so I asked if I could read it. That way, when she was done reading it, we could have a book discussion! How fun!

Books were written entirely different that many years ago, and I took that into consideration.

This is about a ten year old girl, so one would think that it would be written on their level. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. I am an adult, and always have the dictionary at my elbow when I read. For a ten year old, this book would be extremely frustrating. Querulous, permeating, sinewy, reposing, prophesied, intimations, pallor, remonstrate, divested of that strange indefinable aura, funereal, contrite, imperturbably, sallying forth, acting sagely? For real???? And those were the words I had started to jot down in the last third of the book!

It helped me to see why some children's books are classics, and why they remain. Whereas others are destined for the recycling bin. In addition, and again considering the period in which it was written, the subject matter and how the author dealt with it was at best ~ poor. Girls have enough issues with self-esteem, looks, fitting in, and then throw bullying in the mix ~ this book just perpetuated the problems, and certainly did not deal with in an appropriate way ~ even considering the era in which it was written.

I will recommend to my daughter that my granddaughter not read this. (And to please recycle it!)

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 10 year old self adored this book. I reread it later as an adult and still found it charming, if unrealistic.

Kate is an orphan girl who thinks she's ugly (although you can see on the cover art that she is dead wrong about that!). She doesn't like her red hair and her freckles. She decides that if she can't be pretty, she had better make up for it somehow. People have told her she has a good head on her shoulders and is sensible, so she grabs onto that for her identity.

While she is staying with a very sensible older couple who might want to adopt her, she meets some crazy artists and other not-so-sensible people, and has a few adventures.

In the end, she is adopted by just the right people, and everyone is happy.

When you read it as an adult, you roll your eyes a bit at this happy orphan with no emotional scars and no discomfort living in the home of a couple who, although very nice, are clearly giving her a test drive before they decide if they want her. The adoption at the end also turns out just as it should, with no hard feelings from anyone. It's definitely a fairy tale, but an enjoyable one.

[April Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading and enjoying this book as a child. Kate, who considers herself plain, learns to balance her life with a bit of fun when she runs into a young couple who seem to be the antithesis of "sensible." I did wonder why she considered herself so plain -- I thought from the illustration she was rather pretty.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes place in Pacific Grove... very sweet and old fashioned

[Liz Flaherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I barely remember reading this book--I was nine--but I do know I loved it--and Kate.

[Sallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank your Melody Marie Murray for donating this book to our book exchange! I loved it, and cried and laughed and cried some more - tears of joy at the end even though I knew it was coming.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is simply a sweet book slightly reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables without the depth or complexity of LM Montgomery.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent middle grades novel by Doris Gates (author of Blue Willow)that I still remember and yeah, even as an adult, occasionally re-read. Great characters, good plot.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this when I was a kid. :-)