Further early 1900's adventures of three little girls.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are three little girls who are great friends in a small town in Minnesota. These books are fun because they describe play that most children can relate to even if the situations themselves might be dated. Even though the setting is in a previous century, things like pretending that you don't have any food so somebody will share with you or the fun of trying to fly is notably childlike, no matter the century. Much of the sentence structure is also childlike; I could imagine my own sons saying some of the sentences in the book. The text also offers some fun language challenges, just in terms of antique language.

The girls have adventures like hiking up the Big Hill, creating a secret club, spying on Betsy’s and Tacy’s sisters’ secret club, building a house out of firewood, and creating a new world in the mirror, populated by Tib’s aunt who the girls imagine is a queen. I was pleasantly surprised by how little in the book was offensive due to the time it was written. Tib’s parents are German, and her father has a gentle way of guiding the children to do as they are asked. It’s delightful. I think this book would be great for kids 8 to 12.

So much fun to be a kid. Especially when you have a big imagination, good friends and no technology! Just great sweet times.

Now they are 8! Not as poignant as the first, but still a good read.

3.4 stars

Tib, a new friend, joins Betsy and Tacy in more adventures. There is a simplicity and innocence to this series of books.

I was reminded to read this series when I re-watched You’ve Got Mail and Meg Ryan mentioned the Betsy Tacy books.

That was about the same to the first one but a bit better....so yeah

Ah, the good old days back when children played outside, used their imagination, and were rarely bored! No TV, iPads or tablets, video games, or computers. What bliss!

If I had children, I'd want them to have a childhood just like this - only I'd rather they not attempt to learn to fly from the rooftop, or give each other haircuts, or mix everything in my kitchen to make an "Everything Pudding". But I do hope they have just as much fun as Betsy and Tacy and Tib, and prove to be just as adorable.

Betsy with her overflowing imagination, her ability to create entrancing stories effortlessly, and her "ideas" to divert herself and her friends. Tacy with her sweet temper and easy compliance and lovely red ringlets. Tib with her doll-like appearance and her good-sense and practicality. Julia and Katie the big bossy older sisters, who can be nice on occasions. Margaret and Hobbie the adorable babies who are too young to understand, and all the mothers and fathers who are too old to understand. This book is priceless.

It's cute and lovely and peaceful and summery; guaranteed to amuse you if you're grownup, and delight you if you're young. I hope my children will grow up reading good books like this.

Classical children's books are absolutely wonderful, and even though I didn't really grow up reading them, it's never too late and I take endless pleasure in discovering them now.

Betsy-Tacy and Tib is a short, sweet little chapter book set at the turn of the 20th century in Minnesota, and features the three title characters and their fun antics as they meet up to play and follow where their eight-year-old minds take them. It's soothingly lovely and wonderfully diverting. Wholeheartedly recommended.

“Once upon a time…there were three little birds named Tibbin, Tacin, and Betsin…A Tibbin is yellow like a wild canary…A Tacin’s…red like a robin…a Betsin is brown like a wren…Tacy was bashful. Tib was the smallest…Besty was almost always smiling.” They put in their lockets a piece of all of their hairs. They “sort of braid them together. They’d look nice because Tacy’s is red, and…Tib’s is yellow, and [Betsy’s] is brown…They were very religious. Betsy was a Baptist, and Tacy was a Catholic, and Tib was an Episcopalian. They loved to sit on Tacy’s back fence and talk about God…above the crowding treetops there was a fine view of the sky, the place where God lived… In silence the three of them looked at the sunset and thought about God.”

My favorite chapter in Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy and Tib was Being Good. This trinity of friends tackles the doctrine of grace and the law in an eight year old version of Romans seven. “We have to be good enough though…or else we won’t go there…We were born bad…Everyone is…[so] Betsy suggested The Christian Kindness Club…This is a pretty serious Club, this T.C.K.C…This is a Being Good Club. We’re going to put stones in those bags around our necks…We seem to get into trouble when we tie things around our necks…But of course we must keep on being good…That’s what our Club is for…It’s a Being Good Club…Well, it didn’t make us good today…It made us bad.” In the words of Titus 3:5, only Jesus saves us, “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

After giving up being good, the girls take on the kitchen. “Do you know what I’d like to cook first?...It’s called Everything because it’s got everything in it…A little bit of everything there is, cooked up in one pan…Nobody’s ever tasted it, because nobody ever cooked it…I imagine that it would taste like everything good mixed together. Ice cream and blueberry pie and chicken with dumplings and lemonade and coffee cake.” Although their concoction may leave them with an upset stomach, their friendship warms the heart. Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy and Tib has all of the ingredients of a great story!

Like Ann M. Martin wrote in Foreword: These were small stories, things that could happen to anyone, but when Maud Hart Lovelace told small stories she made them seem big. And, I eventually realized, the small stories were stories that could happen at any time.

Some stories, the adventures of the girls had something to teach, some were funnier. All of them made me smile and long for their world.

n  "We had all the fun," said Tacy. "We always do."n

I loved the most: "Learning to Fly", "The Flying Lady" and "Being Good". They were 5-stars worth. The other seven were around 4-stars rate.

n  "That's what I'd like to be ... ten. You have two numbers in your age when you are ten. It's the beginning of growing up, to get two numbers in your age."n

Please, please girls - don't rush to be grown-up.

My daughter loves reading the Betsy Tacy books together!

It was funny when they found their sister's hideout. I also can't believe they cut each other's hair!

Read this many many times. First time reading aloud to my eldest. Started in late May 2015. Daughter loved this book. She is excited about the series and I am excited she's excited. Another generation of BTT fan has begun!