To people in Deep Valley, it felt like Betsy and Tacy had always been friends, since it was difficult to imagine one without the other. The girls first became friends when they were five years old and Tacy moved to the house across the street from Betsy. Tacy is very bashful while Betsy is a born storyteller. Together, they can turn an ordinary piano box into their extraordinary hideout or a sand into their own special shop. Betsy tells Tacy stories about giant feathers or about the magic horse that pulls the milk wagon. As long as they have each other, any day can be magical for Betsy and Tacy. This is wonderful little book about two little girls and their day-to-day adventures at the turn of the century. While they are rather ordinary girls, they turn simple activities into something magical. Reading these books was slightly bittersweet, since I knew that I’d been missing out on these books throughout my childhood. I don’t understand how I hadn’t heard of this series until very recently. I re-watched You’ve Got Mail in mid October, and caught a reference to the series. A year or so ago I read Ballet Shoes, based on the reference in the same movie. It was amazing, so I figured I’d have to read Betsy-Tacy as well. A week or so ago I read Home for the Holidays by Heather Vogel Frederick, which is a part of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series. In the book, the girls read the ten books in the Betsy-Tacy series, which they all loved. Fans of the books actually wrote to Frederick trying to convince her to read Betsy-Tacy (which she did, and she obviously loved them.) After reading that, I went out to the library and took out Betsy-Tacy. This book struck me as the Anne of Green Gables for the younger set. It had similar themes and focused a lot on a strong friendship, plus the main character had a vibrant imagination. These books are semi-autobiographical and were originally stories Maud Hart Lovelace would tell to her daughter. As her daughter grew up, so did Betsy and Tacy. The main characters are sweet girls and it was very easy to forget that this book takes place in the 1900's. I was their age in 1995, but I still saw similarities in our childhoods, although theirs took place in a very different time. I’m really looking forward to seeing the girls grow up throughout the series, which ends with Betsy’s wedding. When first hearing about these books, it would be easy to dismiss them as being boring. The plot outline doesn’t exactly sound riveting. I think that that’s the beauty of this book: it takes simple and ordinary things that children do and turns it into a sweet book about the wonders of imagination and childhood. Although the writing is very simple, it’s also charming and delightful. My favourite part was when Betsy was telling Tacy about heaven. I thought that chapter was sad and beautifully written, yet it still managed to have all the sweetness of an ideal childhood. I’m really looking forward to continuing with this series. I don’t think this lovely book is half as popular as it deserves to be. Betsy-Tacy is practically perfect and a must-read for children (or children at heart.) 5/5
First of all, I cannot believe it's been over 3 years since I started reading these. How has it been more than 3 years ago? Help. I never did review these, back in the day. And while it might be a little hard to write a proper review for a children's book when you only read it for the first time at 26, I may as well try. Or just ramble, as it is what I do best. I wanted to re-read this series last year, but then didn't get around to it. Finally doing it now, as I felt the urge to start this over lunch today. I'd forgotten a lot of details, of course, but not how completely charming this first one is. The innocence of it all speaks to me a lot, and there are actually quite a lot of things I can relate to in this series, more than in, e.g. AoGG. I, too, grew up in the (second to) last house of a dead-end street and I had two siblings who were both a lot older than me. The house across the street from us had a family with 7 kids, so because of them I did have girls my own age to play with, and we always, always used to be outside - off on God knows what adventure until our respective parents called us back in for dinner. We walked to and from school together, dashed inside for 5 minutes to say hello and then were off again. So these books truly resonate with me in a way that few others do. The timeframe is completely different, of course, but even though my childhood was about 90 years later, I can still relate. I do think that my generation was the last of the "play outside until dark" kind. Kids nowadays have their Nintendos and their tablets from a very young age, and while I can see that my niece and nephew do occasionally still play outside, it's not at all the same as when I was young. Which is okay, because they'll have something unique to their generation as well and they should enjoy that. But reading books like these just takes me back, and I love the feeling of nostalgia that washes over me when following Betsy and Tacy on their adventures. (Though I am prone to feeling nostalgic, I will readily admit.)Wow, okay, I did not mean this review to turn into some kind of manifest lamenting the loss of childhood, but there you go. This probably makes me sound like I'm 40 and about to start preaching to kids that they should play outside more :pAnyway. Despite the fact that the target audience of this book might not be a 29-year-old, I still love this a lot. *Read: 30 November 2011, 19 January 2015
What do You think about Betsy-Tacy (2007)?
So I had heard about this in passing many times up in Minneapolis, I think there are things in the Children's Department named after Lovelace or something something? I was all psh old fuddy-duddy sentimental pap. But, in my extreme and strangely exhibited homesickness, something prompted me to just pick up the first Betsy-Tacy book, and about one chapter in I became a crazy convert.Betsy lives in Deep Valley Minnesota (it's really the Mankato of MHL's childhood!) and she's the only kid her age. She's 5. Then Tacy moves in across the street with her family of 11 (Irish Catholics!) and though Tacy is initially terrified of Betsy's forward manner, they become fast friends at Betsy's birthday party. They help each other through life's ups and downs -- from such lovely small things as having a picnic up on the hill to such huge sad things as Tacy's baby sister's death. And all of it is related in a light-hearted yet emphatically sincere way: just because these are the experiences of five-year-olds doesn't mean they aren't important and serious and real. They're not after-school-specials, they're not kids say the dardnest things, they're just life, through the eyes of a couple of sharp, slight adventurous (turn of the century!) young gals.It reminded me of a combo of two of my favorite things -- Little Women and Le Petit Nicolas. AND there are 9 more books. Which I will be reading in short order. I should probs get around to reading the whole spans of Nicolas and the March legacy as well. Oof.
—Emilia P
This book changed my life and made me want to become a writer. I still remember discovering it on a rainy day. It had been given to my sister, who chucked it aside to watch TV. I was enchanted by page one. Unfortunately, the later books in the series were out of print. When my family moved to New Jersey, I was miserable until I found that the Library of The Chathams had the entire series. That fact alone made moving worthwhile. Nearly 30 years later, Hart Lovelace remains my favorite writer, EVER.
—Stephanie
9/2012 This book gets better every time I read it. 12/2009 I have loved this book so long I can't remember when first I read it. I certainly didn't have two numbers in my age. I've re-read it countless times, and every time I've read it as an adult, I marvel at Lovelace's skill. Told from the perspective of a five-year-old girl, it rings true on every possible level. Read from the perspective of a forty-five-year-old woman, it's poignant and heartbreaking and nostalgic and delightful. This is my first re-read since I made the journey back to Mankato (the real-life Deep Valley) and it's pretty wonderful to read about the houses in which I have stood, tears in my eyes. I cannot recommend this book, and the books which follow it, enough.
—Melody
