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Betsy-Tacy #1

Betsy-Tacy

maud hart lovelace lois lenski

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Best Friends Forever

There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy's age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she can play with. Sure enough, they do—a little girl named Tacy. And from the moment they meet at Betsy's fifth birthday party, Betsy and Tacy become such good friends that everyone starts to think of them as one person—Betsy-Tacy.

Betsy and Tacy have lots of fun together. They make a playhouse from a piano box, have a sand store, and dress up and go calling. And one day, they come home to a wonderful surprise—a new friend named Tib.

Ever since their first publication in the 1940's, the Betsy-Tacy stories have been loved by each generation of young readers.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1940
Series
Betsy-Tacy
Places
mankato, minnesota, deep valley minnesota, 

This edition

Format
144 pages, Paperback
Published
August 14, 2007 by HarperCollins
ISBN
9780064400961
ASIN
0064400964
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Betsy Ray

    Betsy Ray

    a spunky, overly imaginative girl with brown braids in turn-of-the-century Deep Valley, Minn....

  • Tacy Kelly

    Tacy Kelly

    a red-headed girl with a big Irish Catholic family in turn-of-the-century Deep Valley, Minn....

  • Katie Kelly

    Katie Kelly

    Tacy Kellys older sister; she and Julia Ray are best friendsmore...

  • Bee Kelly

    Bee Kelly

    the youngest of the 10 Kelly children...

  • Jule Ray

    Jule Ray

    Betsy Tacys mother, a talented pianistmore...

  • Robert Ray

    Robert Ray

    Betsy Rays father, the owner of a shoe store and a great jokermore...

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for maud hart lovelace

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 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
30(30%)
4 stars
36(36%)
3 stars
34(34%)
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100 reviews All reviews
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Ota-kun-63
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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So pure. I definitely could have read this with Ruby a few years ago, but she still enjoyed it. I’m guessing the next couple books in the series will be more interesting for her as the characters get older.
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PoisonSunflower
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I am totally the wrong demographic for the Betsy-Tacy books, which are written for young girls. I read book 1 out of curiosity, as the series is mentioned by Meg Ryan's character in the film You've Got Mail. I found this look at young life a hundred years ago so engrossing that I couldn't stop until I'd read all ten of the main series, plus Winona's Pony Cart, set in the same fictional town. The biggest asset in the series is Lovelace's great characterizations of children (who become young adults by the last books) having rather ordinary adventures. The 60th Anniversary Edition of the series also includes some great material on the real-world people on whom Lovelace based her stories.
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mulafraga
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Maud Hart Lovelace is frank and short-sentenced. The storyline goes something like, “Once upon a time, there were two little girls who became best friends, even though one was lively and imaginative and one was terribly shy.” Lovelace is not interested in drawing riveting characters. She tells us who they are in stubby sentences in the first chapter of the book and then she moves on. But, like the Little House series, these are books about the way of life in a time. The early 1900s homes line a single crossroad that makes up the town. They all have orchards and chickens. The two best friends carry their dinners to the end of their street, where it meets a meadow and a bench, and there, they eat the meals prepared by their mothers every evening. Without saying much, Lovelace evokes the tenderness of that, the wobbling glasses of milk in little girl hands and the street with its barefooted children. The girls play pretend and long for sweets and run around in their Midwestern, summer lives. Major life events seem to waft through the book. Tacy’s baby brother dies. About one and a half pages later, Pa takes everyone on a wagon ride. Lovelace isn’t worried about continuity or really even fluidity. But the few details she gives are solid enough to construct the little town and its little delights. The abrupt transitions lend to the feeling of episodic recollection so peculiar to childhood. It’s a surprisingly wistful read. I’ll confess, though, I wasn’t sorry to move on to a book where something might happen.
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MehIcicle
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I just reread this to one of the girls I nanny and it was so much fun! She loved it!
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KurtisAA
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Delightful from beginning to end! I vaguely remember reading this and the second in the series many years ago but truly enjoyed it all the more now. Meeting 5yr old Betsy and her meeting little Tacy, her BFF and then the book concluding with the introduction of the newest little girl in the neighborhood, Tib. Such a beautiful, sweet story about friendship, adventures, families, school days, and town storytelling.
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LoveLetter100
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I’m reading this book for the first time as an adult. Somehow I didn’t end up reading this series as a kid, but if I had, I would have loved it! So reading as an adult, imagine my surprise when I was on the verge of tears, not once, not twice, but FIVE separate times over the brief duration of this book. It’s such a beautiful picture of true friendship between two little girls! It made me think of my own close friendships over the course of my life. This is what it looks like when you deeply love and enjoy spending time with your friend! Since Maud Hart Lovelace based this book on her childhood friendships, she totally gets it.

The writing was especially impressive. Lovelace kept the vocabulary simple enough that children could attempt to read it on their own without getting stuck on too many big words, but she also infused it with meaning and depth. It ends up being the perfect combination. Lovelace also remembers the specific ins and outs of little kids playing pretend games, and accurately depicts that, too. I loved getting to spend time in the cozy, warm safeness of the world she created. Definitely continuing on with the series!
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