I have zoomed through the first 4 Betsy-Tacy books, and I have loved them all!

I particularly loved the ending of this one. While I wasn't super interested in the play itself that was being performed, I loved the resolution to the mystery that was kind of set up at the beginning. I also love that one of Betsy's pieces is published, just not in a way she thought it would be.

Another beautiful story that drew me in from the beginning.

I am reading "thinking" books right now and needed something easy to read before bed, so decided to continue my slow progress through the Betsy-Tacy series. These are sweet, gentle books that I think still will have appeal to modern readers. Lovelace really gets how children think and the stories are funny and the characters are strong. There's also a lot to learn about the past: the first horseless carriage comes to town in this book!

This book definitely had some things for modern readers to be aware of: there's a lot about the theater in here and blackface is mentioned very casually (and with no sense of it being wrong) a few times. Also, there is a fat woman and while I think the descriptions of her were meant to be kind for the time (things like: she's surprisingly beautiful for being so large! she dances really light on her feet despite her size!) they didn't age well.

These still remain charming and I can see why people love them so. I love how they grow with the characters and each book provides progressively more things that the characters are allowed to do as they age (like go downtown as the title shows). Very curious to read the next one and see what happens when Betsy-Tacy go to high school!

This book is among the many kids books that are New York propaganda. In many cases, these books are plotless and vaguely classist, and this book is no exception. However, it still has the charm, whimsy, and great characters that are common to every Betsy-Tacy book. Even if this is my least favorite and certainly the least memorable of all the Betsy-Tacy books I read.

This a cute and funny series for children. Betsy is twelve-years-old and exploring more of her world; seeing the first automobile in town, visiting the new library and the theater, and dreaming of becoming a writer.

This was so fun! I think it is my favorite book in the series so far!! :D
Betsy, Tacy, Tib, and Winona had some interesting experiences in the fourth book and I enjoyed reading them though I was able to predict that Mr. Kee was Uncle Keith, but that part was so sweet!
And Mrs. Poppy was great too. ;) And the library...
Horseless carriages... XD XD
5 stars! :)

Might be my favorite of her books. I love everything about these stories and girls and their friendships and families.

I saw one person's comment that the world of Betsy-Tacy probably doesn't exist in America, but I disagree. I can remember being old enough to go downtown without parents. Sharing it with a best friend or two made it even better. What makes Lovelace's books so great is that it was, and in a few special places still is, life in small-town America.

4.5

I've never read a Betsy-Tacy book, though I have several friends who are fans. And normally, OCD me would never start a series without starting at #1 but this book, the fourth in the series, is one of my Literary Map of the United States books. I enjoyed it so much that I almost stopped reading very early on, in order to go and get the first three books from the library before continuing. But I have a lot of reading goals this year, so I opted to just continue with book four and try and get back to the rest of the series "someday". Deep Valley is based on Mankato, Minnesota, a town I'm familiar with due to the Little House series. The book covers several adventures of 12yo Betsy and her best friends Tacy and Tib (which makes me wonder why the series isn't the Betsy-Tacy-Tib series?), mainly focused around the town's Opera House and a few plays that come through town. It was a delightful young readers book with lots of incidents that made me smile. As far as the Literary Map of the U.S. goes, I thought the descriptions of the town, the people, and events, were all very well done and really put me there in small town Minnesota.

I loved this book when I was growing up and read it many, many times. I always wanted to write stories like Betsy did.

3/10/20: While sorting through storage bins in the garage, I came across this childhood favorite. It's the only book in the Betsy and Tacy series I ever read and as far I'm concerned that's fine with me. It was an absolute perfect book for this born reader and writer-wannabe. I loved Betsy. I knew exactly how she felt making her first trip to the town's brand new Carnegie library. I still remember my mom taking me to ours and how excited I was to get my first library card (with a metal piece in it and the ka-chunk noise the machine made when the card was used to check out books). I, too, had little notebooks in which I wrote miniature stories. For me, it was mysteries featuring the "Crime Club"--a group of friends not too unlike Trixie Belden and her Bob Whites. Unlike Betsy, I did not shove them in the fire and move on to writing classic-like stories. But I have no idea what happened to those little notebooks with "The Diamond Bracelet Mystery" and others in them...

There are so many things to like about this book. The friendship between Betsy and Tacy and Tib. The way they try to hypnotize Winona Root into taking them to the theater and the friendship that develops thereafter. Winona's surprise for Betsy and her poem. Tib's ride in the town's first-ever horseless carriage. Mrs. Poppy, her quest to belong in her new town, and the heart-warming surprise she makes happen for Betsy and her family. The girls' Christmas shopping trip. The Christmas traditions of Betsy's family. And--Betsy's love of books and story-telling. A truly heart-warming book that was just as much fun to read as an adult as it was when I was young.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

I just love these books and I think I probably appreciate them even more as an adult than I would have as a child. The girls have such adventures and the small town is so sweet. The Christmas morning scene in this book made me so nostalgic. Even though I was born about 50 years after the author, I could relate to her stories. And, boy, that Betsy has spunk! Great books!

Some great parts but also some parts that haven't aged as well and took explaining to my 8 year old (Uncle Tom's Cabin, book burning, comments about body shape).