Listened to this on audiobook as somehow I missed these books along the way. They’re so sweet and innocent.

9/2012 This book gets better every time I read it.

12/2009 I have loved this book so long I can't remember when first I read it. I certainly didn't have two numbers in my age. I've re-read it countless times, and every time I've read it as an adult, I marvel at Lovelace's skill. Told from the perspective of a five-year-old girl, it rings true on every possible level. Read from the perspective of a forty-five-year-old woman, it's poignant and heartbreaking and nostalgic and delightful. This is my first re-read since I made the journey back to Mankato (the real-life Deep Valley) and it's pretty wonderful to read about the houses in which I have stood, tears in my eyes.

I cannot recommend this book, and the books which follow it, enough.

I was in middle school when my mom first gave me Betsy-Tracy by Maude Heart Lovelace for Hanukkah. Since then it’s been my favorite series. Seemingly forever I’ve been trying to push this series on others to share the love, but I’ve been unsuccessful, till now.

Being able to introduce Betsy and Tacy to my daughter is a bit magical! I loved getting to see the story through her eyes.

The story starts with Betsy’s 5th birthday and a lot of the book is doing 5-year-old things. (Perfect timing for us since Kaylee turned 5 while we were reading.) things like going on picnics, the first day of school, playing dolls.... But there’s some big themes too! There’s being jealous of a baby sister or having a loved one die. Big ideas but told from a 5-year-old perspective.

What I love about this series is that you can read and grow up with Betsy. Knowing that, we’ll probably take some time before we start the next, but I’m so, so excited to be reliving my favorite series through her eyes!

5/5

“When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”
- Kathleen Kelly, You've Got Mail

Truer words have not been spoken. My grandmother read and re-read the Betsy-Tacy books (1-4) to me and my sister over and over again throughout our childhood. Opening this book I could again put myself back in our old guestroom, where my grandmother would stay on her weekly visits. There was the odd russian doll in her beautiful white gown, the Beatrix Potter books neatly organized in the bookshelf-lined headboard, the pastel pink walls, the beige, floral quilted duvet. And of course there was my grandmother - with one of us tucked on either side. She read with such enthusiasm, a different voice for every character.

Revisiting this story, I remembered Betsy and Tacy's piano box - their fascination with the mystical city of "Milwaukee" - the bench where Betsy made up all her best stories. I was taken back to a simpler time - carriages, milkmen, friends that lived next door, mothers who gave you their best dress and calling cards. Even as a child, I was enthralled with the easy monotony of Betsy and Tacy's childhood. I wished we had a barn with a surrey and a schoolyard to walk to. Things seemed so much cozier back then. Perhaps they were. But I also saw that Betsy and Tacy were little girls much like my sister and I - little girls who made up stories, ran around outside all afternoon, and who wondered at the strange actions of adults. I felt that if I had met them we would have become friends.

I still feel an enormous amount of affection for these stories - I'll never have any objectivety around them. Their simplicity, earnestness, and unspoiled view of the world is charming. This book will always hold an important place in my memories, particularly the memories of my grandmother, who I think saw in these stories a reflection of her own childhood. It was a way for her to share her world with us. I'll always be grateful for it.

One of the first chapter books I remember reading by myself. Betsy and Tacy are the ideal friends most little girls want. The chapters are told in vignettes and feature simple adventures the girls have such as going to school for the first time, selling sand, and having picnics. My favorite, of course, is when Tacy first moves in across the street from Betsy. It's simple and short (nothing like the later high school years books) and fun. It reminds you of the simpler times when you were a kid.

This book was pure joy. The Easter Egg chapter especially was so beautifully touching.

This book reminded me of my own childhood --- when the next block was an unknown, when everyone in the neighborhood had a name and an attitude towards kids, when one played without toys and hid in tall grass and visited the woods. It was also a time when children could wander unaccompanied almost anywhere. When home furnishings were not arranged to accomodate TVs and home entertainment centers.

Well, having taken my walk down memory lane, I can talk about the book a bit. Mrs. Lovelace, it seems, had a gift for narrating the relationships of the young, for putting the world into their perspective, and for describing the porous border between the reality of imagination and the reality of home life. At the same time, she does not gloss over the challenges of reality. Therefore, even within the pages of this short book, the characters must deal with death (Tacy's sister, the Baby Bee), and the disruptions caused by birth (Betsy's sister Margaret).

Last, the book is essentially adult from the point of view of its asides --- for example, the description of the gentle manipulation of children by adults when Tacy's brother distracts Betsy and Tacey from disappointment; or how Betsy is farmed out during the time of Margaret's birth.

I think I will read more of this series.

This book changed my life and made me want to become a writer. I still remember discovering it on a rainy day. It had been given to my sister, who chucked it aside to watch TV. I was enchanted by page one. Unfortunately, the later books in the series were out of print. When my family moved to New Jersey, I was miserable until I found that the Library of The Chathams had the entire series. That fact alone made moving worthwhile. Nearly 30 years later, Hart Lovelace remains my favorite writer, EVER.

Where has this book been all my life?!? I grinned till my cheeks fell off and chuckled till I wheezed.

“We’ll catch that hen,” said Betsy, “and keep him in a box. And whenever we get hungry he can lay us an egg.”

“I don’t believe he’s going to lay an egg,” said Tacy.

“Neither do I,” said Betsy. “He isn’t trained yet.”

This joyful little gem introduces best friends Betsy and Tacy. Their five-year-old world is filled with innocence, imagination, and adventure…complete with paper dolls, a horse who loves doughnuts, and robins who fly with the angels.

“I see Milwaukee,” Betsy said after a while. “It looks like the cities on my Sunday School cards, with that wall and all those towers.”

“That’s right,” said Tacy. “I see palm trees.”

“The people will wear red and blue night gowns, like they do on the Sunday School cards, most likely,” Betsy said.

“Maybe there will be camels,” said Tacy.

I’m following Kate Howe’s read-along for the Betsy-Tacy series, and really looking forward to all of the books and discussions to come (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB09z...). I must admit that GoodReads has been persistently recommending this book to me every single day forlikeever, and I kept ignoring it. Silly me.

I wholeheartedly recommend Betsy-Tacy to fans of Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie.

Has it really been seventeen years since my first (and hitherto only) reading of this book? This time around I liked it better than I did back then. Back in 2000, I was eager to start a series so many of my book-friends loved, but I was impatient to find myself reading a book about 5 year-olds, and was a little underwhelmed. Rereading it now (after reading some of the later books in the series multiple times), I appreciate how beautifully layered the series is, with each successive book showing a broadening perspective as the girls grow up. And so, being ready now to appreciate this one on its own terms (and perhaps being older and wiser?) I found it just lovely.

A perfect book. I just re-read the entire series in honor of my Mom. I love the way they grow in complexity with the kids. The first four books are intended for early readers or read-alongs, ages 5-6, 8-9, 10 and 12. The following 6 books follow Betsy and The Crowd through high school and beyond. (I won't subject you to a review of each of the 10 books.) These characters are among the most vivid and wonderful that I've ever read. The fact that the stories took place 100 years ago does not take away at all from my sense of identification with the kids. Their adventures and coming of age stories are so universal that they are as beloved today as when first published.

Sweet!