And thus I faced my dilemma: which one do I pick? I have a pile of new releases that I want to get into, so I’m allowing myself just one nostalgic trip back to Deep Valley, Minnesota. Although I would love to dive headfirst back into the Betsy-Tacy series, alas, my dance card is full. Review: As part of the reading Bingo challenge that I set for myself in 2013, I decided to re-read a Betsy-Tacy book. I would also give the Betsy-Tacy books to a reader who has finished all of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Anne Shirley books and is hungry for more historical fiction about smart, adventurous girls. Who would we give it to? Minnesotans and Midwesterners! Betsy’s world is so clearly small-town-Midwest that readers living in that region will appreciate the quirky residents of Deep Valley. I don’t think Betsy can quite be a Slatebreaker because she does conform to many of the class and gender expectations of a small Midwestern town in the 1940s, but she’s certainly an admirable female character. But she learns from them! And that is ultimately what’s important. That means we see Betsy doing some extremely foolish things throughout the book.

Of course, she learns this because she flits around during junior year doing a bunch of other goofy stuff and doesn’t achieve all that she hoped for. The primary lesson learned from Betsy Was a Junior is that Betsy Ray needs to buckle down and work hard in order to achieve her goals. There’s something I find so charming when authors discuss what they admire about other authors.ĭoes it break the slate? For a book written in 1947, I was impressed that the female characters showed so much initiative and willingness to challenge authority. Meg Cabot wrote the forward for the edition I read, and it was everything I could have hoped for. To complete this stylish package, each of the new editions features a forward by a contemporary author who also loves Betsy & Tacy. The covers feature some of the original Vera Neville illustrations for the series, which have a certain charm about them. These covers came out several years ago, and I love how they capture the essence of the original book yet still appeal to readers now. Currently available.įace Value: I’m going to use this opportunity to rave about the new covers for the Betsy-Tacy series. Betsy Was a Junior by Maud Hart Lovelace.

Betsy tacy book set