Betsy, Tacy, and Tib get involved with the play and there is a delicious bit of family drama as well. That’s the year the first horseless carriage comes to town, as well as a troupe of traveling actors. Poppy’s Opera House, a friendly rivalry with spunky Winona Root, the newspaperman’s daughter. Now the girls are twelve-old enough to go all over town by themselves. Venturing to the other side of the Big Hill is a big deal-here, I’ve already written a big long post about it.īook 4: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. In Book 3, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, the girls are the extremely sophisticated age of ten. It’s a year full of exactly the right sort of mischief. It’s the year Tacy has diphtheria and Tib and Betsy cut off their hair in solidarity. This is the year the girls learn to fly, explore the Mirror Palace, and concoct Everything Pudding. In Book 2, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy roam farther from home, all the way to the grand chocolate-colored house a few blocks away-where they meet Tib, whose spritelike looks belie her blunt and practical nature. It’s a lovely read-aloud for small girls, though I always give other mothers a heads-up about the death of Tacy’s baby sister, which happens quite early in the book and is very sensitively and quietly handled. That’s the first book: very young girls having sweet and funny adventures in small-town Minnesota at the turn of the last century. From that day forth they are inseparable, which is why the neighbors always call them Betsy-Tacy. Betsy Ray’s story-which is very, very similar to Maud’s real life story-kicks off on her fifth birthday, the day she gets to know her lifelong best friend, Tacy Kelly. Not sure where to start? Here’s a rundown of the Betsy-Tacy books and their Deep Valley companions.īook 1: Betsy-Tacy. You know, the book I’ve been squeeing about for months, the one I had the thrill-me-to-my-very-bones honor of writing the foreword for? That one! Participants will have a chance to win copies of HarperPerennial’s brand-new reissues of Emily of Deep Valley and (in a double volume, two books in one) Carney’s House Party / Winona’s Pony Cart.

Pick out some Betsy-Tacy or Deep Valley books and skip on over to sign up.

The blog A Library Is the Hospital of the Mind is hosting a Maud Hart Lovelace reading challenge during the month of October. Octo 7:58 am | Filed under: Betsy-Tacy, Books

Betsy and tacy books in order