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Betsy-Tacy #1-4

The Betsy-Tacy Treasury

maud hart lovelace lois lenski

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The first four books in the Betsy-Tacy series: Betsy-Tacy, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go over the Big Hill, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown.

592 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1,1995
Series
Betsy-Tacy

This edition

Format
592 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 1995 by Harpercollins Childrens Books
ISBN
9780060249199
ASIN
0060249196
Language
English

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About the author

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maud hart lovelace

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Maud Hart Lovelace was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. She was the middle of three children born to Thomas and Stella (Palmer) Hart. Her sister, Kathleen, was three years older, and her other sister, Helen, was six years younger. “That dear family" was the model for the fictional Ray family.

Maud's birthplace was a small house on a hilly residential street several blocks above Mankato's center business district. The street, Center Street, dead-ended at one of the town's many hills. When Maud was a few months old, the Hart family moved two blocks up the street to 333 Center.

Shortly before Maud's fifth birthday a “large merry Irish family" moved into the house directly across the street. Among its many children was a girl Maud's age, Frances, nicknamed Bick, who was to be Maud's best friend and the model for Tacy Kelly.

Tib's character was based on another playmate, Marjorie (Midge) Gerlach, who lived nearby in a large house designed by her architect father. Maud, Bick, and Midge became lifelong friends. Maud once stated that the three couldn't have been closer if they'd been sisters.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
47(47%)
4 stars
30(30%)
3 stars
23(23%)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
speedsimp
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Can't believe I missed these as a child. They are great children's stories about precocious little girls (I guess by the 4th one they are actually already 12). The first 2 deal with death in a child-like way, so that's helpful if you want/need to explain this to a child. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.
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-rkr-
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I loved reading this book (actually four books!) when I was a kid and I just read them aloud with my 4 year old daughter. Such a special story about friendship and growing up!
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LilCherryBearr
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Beautiful, comforting, and deceptively complex. The prose in the early books is reminiscent of Hemingway, full of spare beauty. The later volumes inspire curiosity about the wider world of Deep Valley and the United States at the turn of the 20th Century.
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Officer-Kaoko
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I’m still picking up books that I missed out on in my childhood. This was a delight to read. Maud Hart Lovelace writes all of these stories based on her own childhood and her best friends. Childhood imagination, innocence, humor and adventures are captured in these first 4 books, along with tender loving relationships with family and town folk friends. It has it all!
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Liaison
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Classic story/ies of a simple childhood of the past. Young girls playing with neighbors, having all sorts of adventures. Reminded me of my childhood.
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BernieSorbet
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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The Betsy-Tacy Treasury is a perfectly delightful collection of four charming books. I loved the sweet friendships between the girls and their relationships with their families.

I really enjoyed the author's note, foreword(s), and all the biographical information and photographs about "Maud Hart Lovelace and Her World" and "About Illustrator Lois Lenski" at the end. It was so fun to read how much these stories were inspired by Maud's life.
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jdristig
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I love these books. Betsy-Tacy is my favourite. It's where these wonderful stories first began. Betsy and Tacy meeting at 5 and using their imagination to do things because of their ages is cute. My second favourite Over the Big Hill. The war for the votes of the Queen of May between sisters was entertaining and ends happily. This treasury has a bonus feature of photographs of the people who inspired these lovely stories.
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flickec
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Delightful read aloud with my girl. We found friends in Betsy-Tacy and her little group that grew over the period of these four books.

Whimsical time period where all was well in the world and the naughtiness of children was what plagues most of children still today, which is relatable for readers then as well as now. We enjoyed seeing some of the scrapes the girls would get into as well as the fights and how these were gently resolved and wrong was forgiven. Maybe it would seem too picture perfect for today's world but I think it also reminded my younger readers that sometimes mountains are made out of molehills.

My 6 year old wants to read all of the Betsy-Tacy right up to her being married. That my friends, is a well written book and series.
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