Come travel along with Susy, Prudy, and Alice “Dotty Dimple” Parlin, and their cousins Grace, Horace, and Katie “Flyaway” Clifford, back to the tail end of the 1800s. From 1860 to 1903, Rebecca Sophia Clarke (February 22, 1833 – August 10, 1906), known to children as the author Sophie May, wrote 45 children’s books. Many of them belong to 6-book series, such as the Little Prudy Stories and Dotty Dimple Series that follow two of the Parlin daughters’ little girl years, as well as the Flaxie Frizzle Stories, and these: the Little Prudy's Flyaway books.
Rebecca Clarke wrote charming tales of the lives of these children and their families to entertain but also to instruct the young readers in kindness, responsibility, honesty, and generally how to be good, decent people with full lives. Her young heroines and heroes frequently get themselves into plenty of trouble, as children do, and also get themselves out of it with the loving and patient help of their parents. This was unusual at the time in fiction—indeed, fiction itself was frowned upon—where instead of the lively, imperfect and human characters of Rebecca Clarke, you would find unrealistic, perfect little angels of children.
Meet the Parlins and Cliffords
Prudy is a thoughtful and somewhat serious little girl of 12, the middle Parlin sister. She has had numerous adventures of her own when she was a bit younger, told in the Little Prudy stories. She wasn’t always so serious. Once she tried to climb to heaven on a ladder.
Alice, better known as Dotty Dimple, is her younger sister and also has a series of her own. Dotty lives for fashion and fun, never hesitating to speak her mind or do things her own way, which regularly gets her into arguments and trouble.
Katie “Flyaway” Clifford gives the series its name. Also called Miss Thistledown Flyaway, Flyaway, or even just Fly, this little fluff of a girl adores exploring and meeting people, and is never too far from her favorite doll, Miss Flipperty Flop.
Horace (Fly calls him Hollis) finds no greater joy in life than to indulge his beloved younger sister, doing his best to keep a watchful eye on her.
About the Books
Little Folks Astray (1870): The cousins are reunited for Christmas in the home of their dear Aunt Madge, in New York City. She takes them to explore the streets and shops, but Fly has a mind of her own.
Prudy Keeping House (1870): Aunt Madge is called away to care for her ill husband, leaving the four children to play at keeping house. Their adventure around New York City isn’t over yet, but Dotty’s conscience plagues her.
Aunt Madge's Story (1871): Dear Aunt Madge tells the cousins of her younger misdeeds and makes sure they understand the value of precious friends.
Little Grandmother (1872): Experience the childhood of Grandma Parlin, born Patience Lyman on New Year’s Day, 1800. Attend the one-room schoolhouse with her, and see how little girls used to live.
Little Grandfather (1873): Join Grandpa William as a boy. Read about how he brought home the class medal—a quarter on a red string—and paraded his little company of boys in a show muster, and how he overcame ill-advised friendships with bad influences.
Miss Thistledown (1873): The families are reunited once more in Maine. Dotty tries to learn to calm down and grow into a young woman. Horace has his wits tested at Moosehead Lake.
From the back pages of the 1894 hardcover editions:
“THE authoress of The Little Prudy Stories would be elected Aunty-laureate if the children had an opportunity, for the wonderful books she writes for their amusement. She is the Dickens of the nursery, and we do not hesitate to say develops the rarest sort of genius in the specialty of depicting smart little children.”—Hartford Post, 1884
“The children will not be left without healthful entertainment and kindly instruction so long as SOPHIE MAY (Miss Rebecca S. Clarke) lives and wields her graceful pen in their behalf. Miss CLARKE has made a close and loving study of childhood, and she is almost idolized by the crowd of ‘nephews and nieces’ who claim her as aunt. Nothing to us can ever be quite so delightfully charming as were the ‘Dotty Dimple’ and the ‘Little Prudy’ books to our youthful imagination, but we have no doubt the little folks of to-day will find the story of ‘Flaxie Frizzle’ and her young friends just as fascinating. There is a sprightliness about all of Miss CLARKE's books that attracts the young, and their purity, their absolute cleanliness, renders them invaluable in the eyes of parents and all who are interested in the welfare of children.”—Morning Star, 1884
“Genius comes in with ‘Little Prudy.’ Compared with her, all other book-children are cold creations of literature; she alone is the real thing. All the quaintness of children, its originality, its tenderness and its teasing, its infinite uncommon drollery, the serious earnestness of its fun, the fun of its seriousness, the naturalness of its plays, and the delicious oddity of its progress, all these united for dear Little Prudy to embody them.”—North American Review, 1884
