Let the record show, I went into this one predisposed to be underwhelmed. And to be honest, there's not a lot of "story" here. But it is a lovely, warm, gentle read, just the story of a couple of five-year-old girls at the turn of the 20th century in Mankato, Minnesota. Betsy and Tacy play all day, and are allowed to be little kids. Deep Valley (Mankato) is safe enough to let them wander at will and talk to "strangers" (ie people their parents don't know from church or work.) I was impressed with the way the author revives how it feels to be three, or four, or five--young enough to be unaware of the world beyond your neighbourhood. In fact, I was visited by a blast from my own past; a very young me riding on my father's shoulders across the street during a rain shower asked, "When it rains here, does it rain all over the world?" because it seemed quite possible to me. That was when I found out that the world is not your block. Some people in my medium-sized city now (900,000 inhabitants) are unaware of this.

I realised when I got to the end of the book that this series is mentioned in passing in the film "You've Got Mail" when the Meg Ryan character is showing a little girl the books and talking about the characters in them. She mentions "Tib whose real name, I'm sorry to tell you, is Ethel." Growing up in Iowa in the sixties and seventies, my teachers were all about the Little House books; we never heard of Betsy-Tacy, and I'm quite sure they weren't in the local children's library, as I knew it inside out.

I understand there are several more in the series, so the characters will be more developed; even in this one, though, Lovelace does deal with what today would be considered some heavy issues--death, birth and serious illness among them--but with a light touch. It surprised me that Tacy is painfully shy, which being from a very large family seems odd, given my experience of a large family myself. If she had been the middle child...but who knows.

I am curious to read more of the series if I can find them.

I read a lot of older children's fiction when I was little, but somehow I never read Betsy-Tacy or any others by Maud Hart Lovelace. I'd seen some of them in bookstores, but somehow I formed the conclusion that they were too cloying and religious - even for me (I'm not religious or overly sentimental, but I can forgive it in very old children's books). I finally decided to read Betsy-Tacy after downloading it for my Kindle and I was pleasantly surprised! Betsy-Tacy is completely adorable and I see how it has remained popular for so many years. Maud Hart Lovelace wrote historical novels for adults before she ever wrote children's books, and it shows. Deep Valley is based on MHL's childhood home of Mankato, Minnesota, and though Betsy-Tacy is a relatively simple book, turn-of-the-century Minnesota is on full display here with rich detail. Obviously, this isn't going to be everyone's favorite book, but I'd definitely recommend it to fans of Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, or Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Even though I'm not quite the demographic for Betsy-Tacy (as a childless twenty-something...), I have to say that I enjoyed this book immensely. Ocassionally when I read a children's book now I'll think that I'd have liked it much better had I read it as a child - and a lot of the time it's somewhat of a backhanded compliment. But with Betsy-Tacy all I can say is that I wish I had read it as a child, because I'm sure I would have really loved it.

"Unexpectedly delightful" is a phrase that keeps popping into my head, as I sit here considering how best to describe Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy, the first in a long series of books about two (eventually three) young girls growing up in Minnesota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Begun at an unfortunate time, when a dreadful head cold, and a feeling of being out of charity with the world made the author's somewhat expository style rather irksome for me, the story won me over by degrees, gently unfolding its tale of two young girls who face the joys and sorrows of being five-year-olds together.

When a new family move into the house across the street, Betsy Ray hopes that they will have a girl her age, and after an initial misunderstanding, she finds a best friend in Tacy (Anastacia) Kelly. The two are soon inseparable: they climb the Hill together, picnic together, go to school together, and play with paper dolls together. Their imaginary games, often fueled by Betsy's penchant for storytelling, are so well depicted, that the reader senses Lovelace's fond enjoyment, as well as her understanding of the centrality of such play in the life of the child.

But life, even for five-year-olds, is not all sweetness and light, and sorrow does touch the lives of Betsy-Tacy, just as change - inevitable and painful - makes itself felt. The death of Baby Bee, Tacy's infant sister, is handled by Lovelace with pitch-perfect sensitivity. The mystery and wonder of a young child's first encounter with death is effortlessly joined to the sorrow of loss. I found the scene on the early morning hillside, where Betsy and Tacy discuss Bee's death, deeply moving.

Lovelace's sensitivity to the feelings of the child, how the world appears to her, is demonstrated time and again throughout Betsy-Tacy. She understands that death is something terrible and yet matter-of-fact - in the way that so many things are terrible and matter-of-fact to the child who must experience them for the first time. Her depiction of Betsy's initial sorrow, at the birth of her younger sister Margaret, is a realistic portrayal of a child's natural ambiguity at having "her" place in the family usurped.

First published in 1940, and depicting an earlier time, Betsy-Tacy nevertheless has much to offer the contemporary reader, and seems as relevant in its depiction of young girls, as when it was first written. I find myself wishing that I had discovered these books as a child, but as one can only go forward, I'll content myself with having discovered them now. Thank you, Constance, Wendy, Melody, Lisa and Ginny!

This is the most delightful little book. It reminds me a bit of Anne of Green Gables, but I have to admit I like the style better. There is so much heart, and imagination, and friendship, and humor; I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

I needed it. A warm story, that made me smile.

[I envy Tacy that she had Betsy. I hadn't...]

I've been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, and have many favorites from childhood, but none have ever meant as much to me as the happy and cozy Betsy-Tacy books.

My beloved aunt dug a dusty old copy of Betsy-Tacy out of her attic for me when I was 4 or 5 years old. From the very beginning, I wanted to climb inside this book and live there forever. Written in the 1940s, it is an autobiographical account of Maud Hart Lovelace's turn-of-the-century childhood in Mankato, MN--which becomes Deep Valley in the book. All of the main characters and most of the minor ones are based on people that Lovelace really knew. The stories of a childhood lived simply and happily are pure magic, as are the illustrations by Lois Lenski. Ms Lovelace went on to write nine more books in this series, following Betsy's life through her first year of marriage. A particularly nice aspect of the stories is that the reading level increases with each book.

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Loved reading this childhood favorite to my daughter.

There is an un-theologically sound explanation given by a five year old about heaven that a parent will want to explain to their child isn't meant to be instructive, otherwise I love this book.

I wish I had an innate love for the Betsy-Tacy books as so many of my friends do. I honestly do not remember encountering them in my childhood, so either we did not read them or they didn't "stick" even then, so I have none of the childhood warm-fuzzies that I do for some other series of yesteryear. Reading the first book now as an adult... I did like it, and appreciate it, but it didn't resonate with me the way many other books of similar style have done. It just felt a bit sparse and characters just weren't vivid enough for me. I found the parents especially vague and, as I think back, many of the other "family type" stories I have connected with have mother/father or other adult figures that really do make an impression. That said, it is also rather beautiful in its simplicity and so much of it is wonderful. I love the way the friendship developed and how we learn that first impressions are no always correct. I love that Tacy is always a little bit "shy" or more reserved, and that it's not a big deal or something "wrong" with her. I love Betsy's imagination and her stories. Their play takes me back to my girlhood when I would love to play paper dolls or dress-up like the grown-ups, that sort of thing. It's also a very gentle book, good for those children who do not want peril and the like. The chapter about the Easter eggs is surprisingly tragic Tacy's baby sister dies and does kind of come out of nowhere. If you have very sensitive children you may need to abridge this part, though it is handled in a very gentle and beautiful way. I will also say that, although my six-year-old son is not into the sort of imaginative play the girls do here, he still really enjoyed the book and wants to read the sequel. The edition I read has a very nice section at the end with a mini-biography of Lovelace and her friendship with the real-life "Tacy" as well as some photographs.

I read this book because it was recommended to me based on my love for the "Little House" books. At first I just thought it was okay and one of those situations where some people love Laura and don't care for Anne (of Green Gables et. al.) and others love Anne and don't care for Laura. I don't care for Betsy. I think she is kind of bratty and bossy. I appreciate that some children have vivid imaginations and their games involve lots of make-believe, but I read a book like this to get a taste of what it was like to grow up in a different time period. I don't really want whole chapters describing imaginary rides on magical milkman wagons pulled by talking horses. But what really turned me off to the book was when Tacy's little sister died. This sudden extreme darkness in a light-hearted book was dwelled upon excessively and in an unhealthy way in my opinion. Tacy appears to be comforted entirely by six-year-old Betsy and her ridiculous story about heaven and birds carrying messages there. This was bad enough, but then later in the book explicit parallels are drawn between Betsy comforting Tacy who was crying because her baby sister died and Tacy comforting Betsy crying because her new baby sister had been born.
It was kind of sickening. Enough so that it overwhelmed my distaste at the entire family so obviously hoping for a boy they had the name all picked out and they didn't even bother to have one ready for a girl, and then pretending they didn't mind when they got another girl instead.

I know I read some of the books in this series when I was in the eight to ten-year-old age range. In fact, I nearly had my very first literary argument over these books. As I recall, Leda B. saw me checking out one of the "Betsy" books in the school library, and sniffed, "I don't like them. Betsy is too goody-goody." Leda was a new girl who, in my opinion, needed to show more deference to a gal like me who'd spent her entire public school career (thus far) at Crestview Elementary. But, then again, she was also the only girl I knew who actually had a horse - a real, live honest-to-goodness horse, so I had to tread carefully there. Stand up for Betsy, and risk possible exclusion from future horsey rides, or suck it up, and remain silent? I suppose I mumbled something along the lines of "Well, I like them, anyway." If it hadn't been for the "horse thing," I might have let her have it. (I did eventually get that ride. It was boring.)

What was wrong with being a goody-goody? As a child who hated getting in trouble, I did whatever was necessary to keep the adults happy, and never once saw the inside of the principal's office. Did it make for a less thrilling childhood experience? Probably. But, it also led to a world of imagination, both between the pages and elsewhere, where kids ruled the world, and could do whatever they damned well pleased. (And, were obviously allowed to use swear words with no consequences.)

So, hats off to that goody-goody, Betsy, and her land of dress-up, floating on feathers, and magical tea parties. I'm going to read the entire series in order (Screw you, Leda!), and snuggle down into a more innocent time when children played with paper dolls cut from magazines, and got their kicks from using Easter egg dyes in unexpected ways.

Received this for my birthday and read it all that day!
Such a classic girl’s book that brings me back to my childhood like a warm drink on a cold day!
Betsy is 5-6 yrs old in this book, so great for beginning readers.

I'm 99% sure I read this as a girl, but have no recollection of it. As an adult, I thought it was utterly charming. It reminds me of a few of my other childhood favorites: the 'B' is for Betsy series, the Ginnie and Geneva series, and the All of a Kind Family series. Simple and engaging and delightfully nostalgic. I can't wait to read more of the series.