Curly Locks

Carr Family #2.5

by Susan Coolidge

Eleven year old Johnnie is determined to be adopted and have melodramatic adventures like the heroine in her favorite mawkish novel.

Joanna Carr, Katy's youngest sister, is the star of this short story which takes place chronologically between the books, 'What Katy Did At School' and 'What Katy Did Next'. It is the first story in Susan Coolidge's short story collection, 'Nine Little Goslings' (1875). It is the only Carr family story in the collection.

Genres: Childrens

64 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1875

About the author

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge.

Woolsey was born January 29, 1835, into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and mother was Jane Andrews. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852.

Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write. The niece of the author and poet Gamel Woolsey, she never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death.

She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known, however, for her classic children's novel, What Katy Did (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after the author's own, with Katy Carr inspired by Susan (Sarah) herself, and the brothers and sisters modeled on Coolidge's four younger Woolsey siblings.

Reviews

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. What a humorous, thought-provoking little story on education and on “greener pastures”—and a brilliant retelling of Curly Locks, the nursery poem. ;)

I loved seeing the Carrs again! Johnnie was still a very fun character, although different. Miss Inches was another. Dr. Carr certainly shone in this story—what a wonderful father he is! This is a cute little short story sequel to What Katy Did at School. Is life really better as a single child of a rich woman? And is educating a child merely a thing of rules and theories? A very enjoyable read.

A Favourite Quote: “Life, to be worthy, must be more or less of a protest always.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: These fine words were lost on Johnnie, but she understood that she was pronounced nicer than the rest of the family. This pleased her: she began to think that she should like Miss Inches very much indeed. Dr. Carr was not so much pleased. The note from Miss Inches, over which he and Katy had laughed, but which was not shown to the rest, had prepared him for a visitor of rather high-flown ideas, but he did not like having Johnnie singled out as the subject of this kind of praise. However, he said to himself, "It doesn't matter. She means well, and jolly little Johnnie won't be harmed by a few days of it." Jolly little Johnnie would not have been harmed, but the pale, sentimental Johnnie left behind by the recently departed intermittent fever, decidedly was.

[Ketutar Jensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's really just a short story, not a book. Jonny wants to be adopted, and her godmother wants to adopt her, but both have very unrealistic ideas about what it was to be, and after trying one summer, they both give up, and return back to as it was.