As with all these Betsy-Tacy book rereads I am doing, I enjoyed this one. This was the first one I had not read as a child (or had read to me) and didn't know until last year the book even existed. As the previous books about Betsy in high school, Betsy Was a Junior follows Betsy through her junior year.

As summer comes to a close Betsy makes resolutions for the coming school year, but their all basically forgotten or dashed within the first few weeks. This year is Julia's first year at college and the house feels sort of empty and Julia ends up coming home one weekend because she is so homesick. During this visit she tells the family about sororities and Betsy is swept up in Julia's excitement of being rushed. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib decide to create their own sorority with several other girls, but this exclusivity begins to wear on the school community and their own social circle.

Betsy, as always, is swept up by the social life of high school and although she does decently in all her classes she doesn't not do as well as her resolutions hoped. She also had set her cap at going with Joe Willard, but the first day of school reveals he is seeing Phyllis, a senior girl and the aloof sister of Betsy's sophomore year boyfriend.

The school year is full of lots of lovely things though, parties and surprises and friends and family, much like the other books. By the end Betsy has learned some lessons and is looking forward to her last year in high school. There were just a few spots in this book that gave me pause. A bit about Indigenous people and a raid on the original settlers of Deep Valley mentioned in a whitewashed way and a line or two that chided a character about weight. Not surprising or unexpected but disappointing to run into it nonetheless. All in all a nice cosy, nostalgia read.

This installment in the series has a stronger plot than some of the other books, and teaches Betsy lots of life lessons without making them too moralizing to the reader. I enjoyed the humor and realistic interactions throughout, and Betsy is less boy-crazy and significantly less appearance-obsessed in this book.

Okay, so this one I really wasn’t sure if I was going to like due to Joe going out with Priscilla, but I enjoyed it!

It helps reading the next book and reading Joe himself declaring that he has always been focused on his studies and work, and that Betsy is the only girl that he’s made exceptions with. So we can pretty much infer that whatever it was between Joe or Priscilla, it was never serious as a relationship, or it was nothing romantic at all. Swoons. <3

ASKLGKWRNBOIN I will never not be in love with Joe Willard.

REREAD SEPTEMBER 2022: The herbarium all nighter is forever my favorite! But man, the coming of age at the end of this one hits SO hard

Another charming entry in this series. I think an eleven or twelve year old girl would love these and it might be heartening for them to see this vision of what high school socializing was like in more innocent times.

With every book the characters from this series become dearer and dearer to me. I really enjoyed the growth we see from Betsy in this books. The final chapter, in particular, struck a chord with me as Betsy confronted the inescapable reality that she and her fellow members of "The Crowd" are growing up. However, my absolute favorite part of this series is the slow burn relationship that is building between Betsy and Joe. Their interactions, carefully sprinkled throughout the book, is what made me devour every page any spare second that I had. From the moment they met during the summer before high school, their connection has been undeniable, fueled by their shared love for books and writing. The building anticipation of their relationship is making me anxious to start the next book, titled Betsy and Joe (FINALLY!!!!)

It has been many years since I've read the older books in the Betsy-Tacy series - and by 'older,' I mean the books which focus on the characters' high school and adult years. This book, in particular, gave me such a jolt of recognition - and I realised that it had helped me form some of my ideas about things. I was never a 'crowd' person like Betsy is - nor did I ever like parties - so Betsy's intense joy in socialising was something that fascinated me, but I always identified more with her older sister. Julia was definitely not a crowd person and always had her sights set on a horizon past high school; she had ambitions, while Betsy had fun and the ability to live in the moment and really love her life. This book is quite difficult to read in some ways, and I think that most readers will feel frustrated with Betsy - but there is no emotional breakthrough (or 'epiphany') as satisfying as the one at the end of the book.

I've always been anxious about the line between being an inclusive crowd, and being cliquish, and in this story-line the author explores that line. When Julia comes back from university for her first family visit, she is full of enthusiasm for the idea of sororities - and she infects Betsy with her enthusiasm. Before long, Betsy (in typical imaginative style) has decided to form a sorority with her best friends at Deep Valley High. Tib has moved back to Deep Valley after a few years in Milwaukee, and they are particularly tight - often having 'soirees' with two other boys. As the year progresses, though, there is a high cost to this sororal exclusivity. Betsy lets various people in her life down, and she unwittingly alienates others. She acts very silly, and she squanders a lot of time on socialising that she had resolved to devote to her family, academics and self-improvement. The imperturbable, super-confident Julia also gets a check. Both girls experience some 'hard knocks', as her father describes them, and the wonderful thing about these books is both the parents (and the author) realise that sometimes the hard knocks are the ones that really allow you to grow. Something truly sobering happens to one of the members of the Crowd at the end of this book, and Betsy and Joe finally have a breakthrough moment.

Someone compared these books to the Harry Potter books, and I do see what she meant. Not only does each book follow the arc of a school year, but as the years go by the reader becomes a partner to both the friendships (so important to the plots) and the characters' growth process. If you only read one book, you deny yourself the pleasure - and really the whole point - of the reading experience.

Hilarious. Nothing changes - popular boy crazy Betsy in 1907 sounds not that different from current day. Light and always worth a re-read.

"She stood for some time with the card in her hand before she went upstairs."
I love that I don't consider this to be my favorite of the high school Betsy-Tacy books, but I still consider it worthy of a 5-star rating. Maud's superb writing always gives me new ideas to sort over. With this re-read, I mostly focused on the theme of transitions and growing up. And, for my first time, I paid attention to the song that Mamie Dodd plays when Betsy and Joe finally dance together: "The girl I'll call my sweetheart, Must look like you...." Awwww, Maud.

I took Joe's relationship with Phyllis pretty hard the first time I read this. And, frankly, the sting has never worn off. There's just not a lot of writing out there that builds a romantic relationship like Maud Hart Lovelace builds the one between Betsy and Joe.
Her secret, or part of it, has got to be patience, because when Betsy sees the lay of the land, she is gutted, but devotes her heart to other things. The sorority (which, I hate to brag, I knew from the beginning was a bad idea), and her year at school. Lovelace is so good at letting Betsy make the wrong choices. She lets Betsy learn slowly, like we all do, and I love her for it.
And that dance, at the end, when Betsy scratches a dance for Joe Willard, but Phyllis makes him leave (typical Phyllis), but Joe runs back in just in time to dance with Betsy? (kisses pinched fingers) Perfection.

Rereading these books for a challenge. How much do I love these stories? Well, I named my daughter Betsy, so that may make it clear. These are clean, growing-up novels at their best because the characters aren't perfect, but very real. They have problems and heart aches and let themselves and those they care about down, except for the times when they act nobly and do the right thing - just like real people.

I loved these growing up, my daughter loved them, and we still enjoy revisiting Deep Valley occasionally.

This is probably one of my favorites from the series. Ah, nostalgia!!!