I loved the beginning and end of this book, but got a little weary of the love triangle angst in the middle.

And in the inconsequential aside category, I did a double take on seeing that Betsy uses the word "bigly" in a diary entry near the beginning.

No matter how well-written, I will only give a book a 5 star rating if I find it emotionally satisfying - if it intensely engages me on that level where I feel emotionally moved. This book! Oh, how very satisfying it is for those readers who have loved Betsy, and followed her development since she was first introduced at age 5 in Betsy-Tacy. Joe Willard - the hard-working orphan veiled in mystery - was first introduced in Heaven to Betsy, the book which chronicles Betsy's freshman year in high school. After various false starts, and tentative moves towards friendship, these two aspiring writers finally get their act together at the end of their senior year - and find not only love, but the kind of understanding and support that I think all of us yearn for in a relationship. This is a deeply romantic book, but romance of the best kind - because it is truly rooted in reality. Maud Hart Lovelace dedicated this book to her husband Delos, and she said that Delos was "Joe Willard to the life."

The book is not just about Betsy and Joe, though; it is also about football, Shakespeare, theatre, growing-up ambitions, Tacy's first love, Tony's defection, Julia's trip to Europe and so much more. It's been a long time since my senior year in high school, but like Betsy, I felt quite overwhelmed by the complicated tangle of emotions that comes from realising you really are leaving one stage of life behind.

"The older I get the more mixed up life seems. When you're little, it's all so plain. It's all laid out like a game ready to play. You think you know exactly how it's going to go. But things happen . . .".

I loved this book SO MUCH!!! <333
RTC

It has been such a boon to shelter-in-place with Betsy. When the real world got a bit too much, what a joy and relief to find shelter in Deep Valley and share in Betsy’s mostly -jubilant (albeit occasionally-turbulent) senior year.

I do rather wonder what it would have been like to read this in some suspense as to which boy Betsy goes with in the end – I’ve known all along thanks to some unfortunate spoilers but I think if I’d read this in my early teens, without spoilers, I would have been on pins and needles.  Though I suppose the title of this book is rather a giveaway ;-) In some moods, my youthful self would have been a bit of a shipper and been on Margaret’s side for Team Tony. (Even now, I’ve had a special place in my heart for him all throughout the series, and I wanted to give him a big motherly hug at the end of this. Though my adult self knew he wasn’t the right match for Betsy, I came the closest I’ve been to being miffed at her over the Tony ordeal; I appreciated her noble goal, but not her approach. How relieved I was that she learned her lesson and that Tony didn’t go to the devil.) However, Joe is clearly so right for Betsy and it was lovely watching their relationship develop – I especially loved their Christmas gifts to one another, and their last Essay Contest. Young Me would have found much to admire in Joe and I would have felt that kindred spirit bond over a love of writing that he and Betsy share.

As ever, I love MHL’s depictions of the Ray family, Betsy’s friends (even if Betsy’s relationship didn’t surprise me, I had a big surprise about one of her friend’s!) and the town of Deep Valley. MHL is wonderfully perceptive about people, yet also so warm and kind about humanity. She’s never judgey. There’s such a sense of goodness in these people, even though they are never goody-goody.


Betsy matures even more in this book. I especially appreciate the way she is sensitive to how big sister Julia’s leaving the nest affects the family -- the way that she tries, not to fill Julia’s place, but to keep alive some of the little joys that Julia brought to the family or in bracing up and thinking of bringing joy to others on their first Christmas without Julia.

“She knew she had helped the family, and as a matter of fact, she had been happy. That, she realized, was because she had stopped thinking about herself.
‘I’ve heard all my life that that’s the way it works. Papa is always thinking about other people and he’s always happy. I’ve got to stop thinking about myself so much—about how I look, how I’m impressing someone, whether I’m popular or not. I’ve got to start thinking about other people, all the people I met.’”

This made me think of The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

And, speaking of joy, what a joy it was to watch Betsy graduate and look toward The Great World.

“I’m going to start there,” answered Joe. “Say, you told me you thought Les Miserable was the greatest novel ever written. I think Vanity Fair is the greatest. Let’s fight.”

JOE WILLARD. Heart eyes forever.

The only thing dragging this down from a full 5-star rating is the Betsy/Tony/Joe business. It's not that I dislike Tony - I LOVE his interaction with Margaret for instance, and the fact that she has always had such a crush on him - but I loathe even the hint of any kind of love triangle, and while he's not my favourite, he didn't deserve Betsy stringing him along like that either.

Everything else, though. Heart eyes.

*Read: 13 December 2011, 16 February 2015

8/2015 stet

9/2012 There's so much depth in Lovelace's books, so much backstory that's more felt than expressed. It somehow puts me in mind of Tolkien that way. It's the feeling one gets whilst reading a book that is entirely grounded in one specific world, the history of which is fully known to the author and intuited by the reader. It makes for a roundness, a fullness that satisfies in ways the less well-built world fails to do.

It doesn't hurt that, in my copy of this, tucked into the page describing Betsy's Class Day photos is a copy of Maud's Class Day photo, and lo! she is wearing Betsy's outfit.

Can't recommend this series highly enough.

12/2009 Finally, it seems that Betsy and Joe will be together. This can't possibly be a spoiler, can it, given the title of the book? But the course of true love never did... you know.

Tony (who I adore) comes into his own as a character in this book. We get a glimpse of the boy hiding behind the lazily efficient coffee-maker, the sleepily joking clown. And I wish I didn't know about the real-life Tony, because my fictional Tony goes on to have a long and gloriously satisfying life.

Betsy's maturation continues, and she honors her family, her writing, and her friends- but she's still not able to say the things which need to be said where love and romance are concerned. Miss Bangeter teaches her famous Shakespeare class to the DV seniors- and oh, how I wish I could have audited it. I'm guessing that 90% of what I knew of Shakespeare in my teens came from Lovelace (and also Norma Johnstone's Tish books).

A lovely end to the high school portion of the series.

I love that the girls eat!!! There is no anorexia, no eating disorders.

I think that this book covering Betsy’s senior year of high school is my favorite of the 4 high school Betsy-Tacy books, this despite the fact that I generally detest love triangles in novels. I especially loathe them when, as here, there is a lack of communication between the people involved. I know the mores and constraints of the time didn’t permit Betsy to do as I most would have liked, but I do feel communication could have been vastly improved. I admit that at times I was irritated with both Betsy and Joe.

I love both Tony and Joe, although I admit I have basically rooted for Joe for Betsy. I do like my orphaned and quasi-orphaned characters!

This book, as is typical of all the Betsy-Tacy books, is superbly written, and Lovelace is a gifted storyteller, one who’s brilliantly perceptive about following the main characters from ages 5 to 18; I can’t wait to read the next couple of books, and the companion books too.

The Rays are a wonderful family. I would have sunk comfortably into these books and gotten much vicarious enjoyment had I read them as a girl. I think this book made me laugh and made me sadder and happier than any of the previous high school books.

I want to know what happens with one particular character, but a Goodreads friend, one of those who introduced me to these books, says "It is a source of endless debate." So, now I am even more motivated to want to get together with other Betsy-Tacy fans and hear what they think. I have some ideas. I know what I wanted to happen but I guess it doesn’t, which is too bad.

My public library has this book only in an edition combined with Betsy Was a Junior but I was able to get this edition from inter-library loan. I’ve already put Betsy and the Great World on reserve, a book my library does have.

It’s bittersweet to read about Betsy, Tacy, and Tib finishing high school! Betsy (Maud) had such a sweet and wonderful childhood, and for all her vices and struggles as she grows up, one thing is true: she loves and appreciates her life in Deep Valley. It was sad in another book seeing Julia graduate, but definitely sadder with Betsy.

The love story in this book is sweet and fairly realistic, with a bit of stubbornness and stupidity on both sides. The writing is solid, and the details add a lot to the story. It is interesting to contrast high school life back then, particularly all of the preparation and ceremonies that were part of graduation, with what it is like now.

Young love, teen angst, highschool fun - the formula for a great teen read doesn't change and this may be the best one ever written. I haven't been a teen for a few years (hah!) and this time I again cried during my umpteen reread as things go wrong and Betsy struggles and hurts, and I still got the warm fuzzies with the happy ending.

I was desperately in need of a comfort read recently so I continued moving through Lovelace's Betsy stories. I particularly enjoy this one, portraying Betsy's (and loosely, Lovelace's) senior year in high school and her long-awaited romance with Joe Willard. Things don't always go as planned, of course, and when Betsy and Joe quarrel at Christmastime she is able to deal with her unhappiness in a manner worthy of her years (as she puts it). I also love how she retreats to the country during Easter vacation, returning to her writing instead of hiding behind parties and is once again able to open up to Joe. I have no idea how many times I've read these. They are beloved books.

JOE WILLARD YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD.