About The Betsy-Tacy Treasury
• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (November 8, 2011)
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (November 8, 2011)
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, the moment Betsy meets Tacy, one of the most heartfelt friendships in all of children’s literature begins.
The Betsy-Tacy Treasury brings together the first four books in Maud Hart Lovelace’s classic series:Betsy-Tacy; Betsy, Tacy and Tib; Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill; and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. Tracing the girls’ lives from early childhood to the brink of adolescence, Lovelace illuminates their innocent, mischievous fun and their eye-opening adventures exploring the world around them—from the stories Betsy spins from their neighborhood bench and the sand stores they run in their backyards, to their first experiences at the library, the thrill of the theater, and the sight of their first automobile.
The Treasury includes forewords by Judy Blume, Ann M. Martin, and Johanna Hurwitz.
My take: Maud Hart Lovelace is a genius at getting inside a little girl's head. This is a compilation of the first four books, beginning when the girls are 5 years old and continuing up to the age of 12. The girls have their coming-of-age experiences, real life experiences, and the reader gets to live a vicarious childhood all over again through the eyes of a growing child.
I highly suggest it to all parents of little girls (even the young at heart). The difference of time period is a non-issue since the themes are still relevant. Even the first car ride can be compared to anything new a child tries. Loved it.
I highly suggest it to all parents of little girls (even the young at heart). The difference of time period is a non-issue since the themes are still relevant. Even the first car ride can be compared to anything new a child tries. Loved it.
5 stars
About Maud Hart Lovelace
Maud Hart Lovelace was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. Like Betsy, Maud followed her mother around the house at age five asking such questions as “How do you spell ‘going down the street’?” for the stories she had already begun to write. Soon she was writing poems and plays. When Maud was ten, a booklet of her poems was printed; and by age eighteen, she had sold her first short story, for ten dollars, to the Los Angeles Times.
The Hart family left Mankato shortly after Maud’s high school graduation in 1910. They settled in Minneapolis, where Maud attended the University of Minnesota. In 1914, she sailed for Europe, and spent the months leading up to the outbreak of World War I in England. In 1917, she married Delos W. Lovelace, a newspaper reporter who later became a popular writer of short stories, and in 1926 her first novel was published. Five more historical novels followed. Maud wrote two of them in collaboration with her husband.
The Lovelaces’ daughter Merian was born in 1931. Maud would tell her daughter bedtime stories about her childhood in Minnesota and it was these stories that gave the author the idea of writing the Betsy-Tacy books. Maud did not intend to write an entire series when Betsy-Tacy, the first book, was published in 1940. But readers asked for more stories, so Maud took Betsy through high school and beyond college to the “great world” and marriage.
The Betsy-Tacy books were based closely upon Maud’s own life. Almost all of Betsy’s experiences were also Maud’s. “Of course, I could make it all up, but in these Betsy-Tacy stories, I love to work from real incidents,” Maud wrote.
Maud Hart Lovelace died on March 11, 1980. But her legacy lives on in the beloved series she created and in her legion of fans, many of whom are members of the Betsy-Tacy Society, a national organization based in Mankato.
Find out about the Betsy-Tacy convention in 2012 and the Betsy-Tacy Society.
Maud’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, October 25th: Raging Bibliomania
Wednesday, October 26th: Reading Lark
Thursday, October 27th: Reviews from the Heart
Monday, October 31st: Book Hooked Blog
Tuesday, November 1st: Laura’s Reviews
Wednesday, November 2nd: Books Like Breathing
Thursday, November 3rd: Sidewalk Shoes
Thursday, November 3rd: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness
Tuesday, November 8th: Amusing Reviews
Wednesday, November 9th: Book Drunkard
Thursday, November 10th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Tuesday, November 15th: Cafe of Dreams
Wednesday, November 16th: Teresa’s Reading Corner
You might want to link to the Betsy-Tacy convention in 2012 and the Betsy-Tacy Society.
You might want to link to the Betsy-Tacy convention in 2012 and the Betsy-Tacy Society.
2 comments:
It was great to read this post. I read, and re-read all of the Betsy-Tacy books when I was a kid and I loved them!!!! Reading this makes me want to seek them out and read them again. :)
I must admit that I've never read any of the books in this series - looks like I really missed out when I was a kid!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this wonderful series for the tour.
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