Just a couple of excerpts...this book had some great passages! All three Wisconsin girls turn ten years old, and...fall in love with the King of Spain? Yup.


They sang to the tune of "Mine eyes have seen the glory," but they made up the words themselves:
"Oh, Betsey's ten tomorrow,
And then all of us are ten,
We will all grow up tomorrow,
We will all be ladies then..."
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"That was our last parade, I expect," said Betsy.
"Why?" asked Tib. "I think they're fun."
"We're getting too old for them," Tacy said.
"That's right," said Betsy. "Marching along and yelling will seem pretty childish after tomorrow."
"I suppose we'll start having tea parties," said Tacy.
"Yes. We'll crook our little fingers over the cups like this," answered Betsy, crooking her little finger in a very elegant way.
"We'll say 'indeed' to each other," said Tacy.
"And 'prefer'," said Betsy.
"Will it be fun?" asked Tib. She sounded as though she didn't think it would be.
"Fun or not," said Betsy, "we have to grow up. Everyone does."
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Simply terrific. If you have never ready BETSY AND TACY GO OVER THE BIG HILL (first published in 1942), prepare yourself for a charming glimpse into what it might be like to be a nine or ten year old girl. Book 3 of the highly recommended and soothingly warm-hearted Besty-Tacy juvenile classic series by Maud Hart Lovelace (April 25, 1892 - March 11, 1980) is a book closely based on the author's own life as a 9-10 year old growing up in small town Minnesota in 1902. The book opens with sentiments that feel as authentic today as when first written:

"Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, were nine years old, and they were very anxious to be ten. 'You have two numbers in your age when you are ten. It's the beginning of growing up,' Betsy would say. Then the three of them felt solemn and important and pleased. They could hardly wait for their birthdays."

The main character is Betsy (Elizabeth) Ray, whose tenth birthday, like the author's, happens in April. Her two best friends are Tacy (Anastacia) and Tib (Thelma). Tacy turns ten in January and Tib in March, but "they didn't say very much about being ten. They were too polite." They waited so Betsy wouldn't feel left out. Who wouldn't want friends like that?

I loved the Harper Trophy 2000 paperback edition with its illustrations by Lois Lenski, its foreword by the children's literature icon Judy Blume and, after the story, the two sections with photos and prose titled "Maud Hart Lovelace and Her World" and "About BETSY AND TACY GO OVER THE BIG HILL." Don't miss the photo of Maud's friend Midge Gerlach, the author's model for Tib, posing sweetly in her accordion-pleated dress.

The series follows Betsy from her early childhood years through her young adulthood. The early books are written more simply than the later books. I was lukewarm about the first two books in the series. They lacked narrative pizazz. Not so Book 3. The story, perhaps because the characters are older and more complex, develops and builds in a more satisfying way. Plot issues involve birthday celebrations, the girls' first "celebrity" crush on a historic figure (a young King Alphonso of Spain), encounters with a newly arrived Syrian immigrant girl named Naifa and a Syrian immigrant community "over the big hill," sibling conflicts, bullying, and a neighborhood celebration with a patriotic flavor.

Readers may wonder if there really was a Syrian immigrant community in the author's childhood home town community of Mankato, Minnesota. The answer is YES!

From page 178: "It was called Tinkcomville after its founder, James Ray Tinkcom. Like Mr. Meecham in the story, Mr. Tinkcom came to Mankato from New York and in 1873 bought all the land in the valley. He…sold parcels of land to a group of immigrants in the 1890s. (Although the immigrants called themselves Syrians, they were actually of Lebanese descent…) And just like Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, Maud and her friends enjoyed visiting the friendly community, which seemed exotic to them." Maud, herself, wrote that there had been a "rumor which used to enthrall us that one Syrian child was a princess." There is no evidence confirming the existence of an immigrant princess in the Syrian colony, but that idea clearly captured the author's imagination and influenced her fictional plot line.

And, yes, Maud and her friends, like their fictional counterparts, really did write to Alphonso, the King of Spain, who was indeed crowned on May 17, 1902, the date used in the story.

If the characters feel very real to you, as they do to me, in spite of the decades that have passed, it is almost certainly because of Maud Hart Lovelace's attention to historic detail as well as the fact that her writing was based upon her own childhood diaries about real people and events.

Highly recommended.

Re-read for VSC discussion.
"Tacy loved to say 'indeed.'"

09-23-2011:
Here's a quote from the sentimental Mrs. Kelly that I had never noticed before:
"Mrs. Kelly did not seem to notice the grown-upness. She took Betsy's round red cheeks in her hands and said, 'It's five years today that you and Tacy have been friends.'"
I love Mrs. Kelly. Love that she saves Tacy's shorn curl in a candy box and that she remarks on the longevity of B&T's friendship.

Re-read for the VSC discussion.

Read aloud with Lucy and they get more hilarious as the girls get older! We loved it!! (And now she is going to finish the series on her own!)

I really liked the plot of this story! My favorite part was when the girls, Julia, Katie, Betsy, Tacy and Tib, went out for votes on who should be queen. Great ending, too!

I am rereading the series of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books. My own kids have not been interested in them, but I remember loving them as a child. There are also several later books that I never read. This is the book from the series I remember most from reading them as a child. I was surprised how well it held up with the immigrant story line. There are a couple rough spots, but otherwise it's fine.

"Betsy and Tacy and Tib found plenty of things to do. They soon stopped being ten years old. But whatever age they were seemed to be exactly the right age for having fun" (Lovelace 171).

Update on June 15, 2015: Maud Hart Lovelace once again has a wonderful way of storytelling in the third book in the series. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib go on even more adventures in this book. Their first adventure is turning ten together! With their new age and maturity they are able to go past the big hill to discover amazing surprises (I will not ruin what happens). Let's just say it involves an argument with older sisters over who should be the queen of the summer that actually ends with a surprising new character.


This book is just like an old friend to me as I grew up with this series and the Little House series. I read all of the Betsy-Tacy books every summer (unfortunately not on a big hill because I don't have one nearby). In this one, it is nice to see the dialogue and plot become more advanced as the characters themselves develop during their pre-teen years. And as always, Lois Lenski's illustrations help show this with her charming depictions.

9/2012 Oh, Bob Ray, how I love you. I always refer to my own father as "practically perfect" because he's not Bob Ray. I love this book almost as much as I love Bob Ray. Everyone's personality is here, foreshadowing so much (just like Tib!) though this time through I did wonder when Dave's mom got her hearing back.


12/2009 This story finds Betsy, Tacy and Tib at ten years old. Their world is getting wider, and they are learning new things. This is the first time that the Lebanese settlement of Little Syria is mentioned in the series, and it's nicely done. Cultural differences are examined in a way that pre-teens will understand, and more importantly, care about. Relationships with elder siblings are handled with what appears to this only child to be truth and, well, beauty. Another lovely chapter in the Betsy-Tacy story.


I don't know how to add the edition I have, which is the original, titled Over The Big Hill. It was later changed to Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill help people associate it with the series.

My favorite part in this story was Betsy and her friends writing to the king of Spain which really happened in the author’s childhood.
Betsy is 10 in this book, so girls around this age would thoroughly enjoy this!

8/6/2022 - Just finished a second reading to refresh my memory before this month's Betsy-Tacy Society discussion of this third book in the series. It's fun to see the girls growing up and getting into bigger adventures now that they're 10 years old. Their friendship with the people of Little Syria is especially sweet and enjoyable.

Betsy, Tacy and Tib are turning ten! With this change, they do feel they must now be "more grown up", and start to think of their futures. However, they still have their knack for domestic calamity and in this book that mostly revolves around royalty.

These books remind me so much of books I loved as a kid; Elsie Dinsmore, Anne of Green Gables, The Bobbsey Twins, The Happy Holisters, the old style Nancy Drew, and the classic version Boxcar Children, which makes me regret I didn't find this trio of girls at an earlier time, but I'm still enjoying them now! Even more, I love what these girls represent in this book, they make friends with a girl who just came to the U.S. and when she is bullied they stand up for her; then, after a gentle reminder, they revel in being Americans and are actually proud of their country. In a nut shell why I'll read historical "slice of life" books over current setting ones any day!

Content notes: Mean children call foreigners names, which probably don't mean anything to modern readers (and it's made clear that this isn't nice). No sensuality issues. Minor scuffles that generally involve hair pulling, light bumps and bruises with clothing getting damaged, but no lasting injuries.

This is such a sweet series! It was a nice multi-age read-aloud that the older kids didn't "have" to listen to, but lingered close anyways. I especially appreciated the sibling conflict within the story and how it was resolved. (Because, siblings.) If kids enjoy the book, the series continues to journey with the girls as they get older through high school and marriage, too.