Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding

I absolutely love the Betsy-Tacy books, and I cannot recommend them enough to girls of any age. You can grow up with Betsy: share her adventures as a little girl, follow her through the sometimes bewildering world of high school, and finally join her in her world travels as a young woman. When I got my first job in a store, I imagined Joe sitting behind the counter, reading the Three Musketeers while Betsy looked for gifts for her family. When I went backpacking in Europe after graduating from college, I took a copy of Betsy and the Great World with me, and I loved getting to compare the modern Venice to the Venice seen through Betsy's eyes. After the Betsy books my mother gave me when I was little finally fell to pieces from excessive re-reading, I tried to buy more, but was annoyed by the modern cover art (seriously, why would Betsy be in fish net stockings in a book set before WWI?). I'm so delighted that these editions use cover art by the original illustrators. I particularly love Vera Neville's illustrations--they are so beautiful, and bring the characters to life so perfectly. Thank you, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, for publishing such beautiful editions of these wonderful books!

Nothing in the world makes you feel better than a Betsy-Tacy book, and, in my opinion, Heaven to Betsy is the best of them all, although every other Betsy-Tacy book is a close second. A male friend of mine who read the whole series describes Lovelace as the American Proust. You are THERE with Betsy and her family in Deep Valley, Minnesota, starting in 1897 and concluding 20 years later. Along the way you relive a happy childhood and with Betsy and her friends--and then go on to a typical adolescent teenage period, before the last two books, which include Betsy's adventures in the Great World and, at last, her marriage and early wedded life to the guy she's loved since the day she met him. Home schoolers and their parents love these books. The quality of the writing is unsurpassed, the values are superb and these girls are great role models, without being in any way boring--they are altogether too human for that. You want laugh out loud funny? Read a Betsy-Tacy book. You want a few tears and a lot of empathizing? You want nostalgia, and love, and joy? Lovelace delivers them all, in spades. Amazing, accomplished women all over the world love these books. Don't miss out on one of the greatest pleasures life can afford--an introduction to the world of Betsy Ray.

Classic series for any girl/woman who loves absolutely charming, old fashioned stories. You LOVE Anne of Green Gables, Little House, all Louisa May Alcott books...this series is for you! If you read these as a little girl like I did, you never forgot them! Perfect gift for a girl who is reading chapter books, would be magical ad a read-aloud too. A girl can grow up with these innocent, beautiful stories.

A feel-good bio-novel about the time my grandparents were courting and starting their life together. Grandfather was the son of parents who had escaped Alsace-Lorraine under the Kaiser. My grandmother was more of a Tib-Tacy than a Betsy as she was Irish and an accomplished housekeeper when they married, but so much of the book resonated with stories I had heard growing up: the Crowd, the picnics, the walks, dancing, reading in the evenings (no radio or TV). Generosity, companionship, shared values--timeless and sweet, a book and a heroine to remember.

I liked these last two Betsy books better than all but the very earliest ones. Betsy navigating adulthood is a lot more interesting than Betsy obsessing over being popular. I identified a lot more with Betsy's struggles as a young housewife than I did her high school days. It doesn't seem quite fair that Lovelace never brought all her soldier boys home to their wives. Perhaps she couldn't bear to deal with the reality (which would have been as vivid in the post WWII era in which she was writing as in Betsy's own era) that some of them might not come home.

I loved the Betsy books as a young teen, but I think I appreciated them even more fifty years later. Lovelace weaves a wealth of detail about everyday life of the middle classes in midwestern small towns into her charming stories about Betsy, her friends and family. But these two books among my very favorites in the series take Betsy into a Europe on the cusp of World War I and then into married life and establishing a writing career. When I was a teenager, I did not appreciate how rare the relationship of Betsy and Joe was (both in her time and our own).

I read “Heaven to Betsy” in the eighth grade and loved it. I am now retired but was thinking about the book one night and checked Kindle. They had not only that book, but an entire set I was so excited I bought all of them and have throughly enjoyed them all. They bring back memories of those days and they are a fun read.

My favorite of all the Betsy-Tacy books! The great world is full of adventure and romance- makes me feel like I'm right there seeing it all with Betsy! I love how the author's style grows with her characters. Following Betsy and Joe as their relationship grows and changes, and the world of course is ever-changing, is fascinating, thought-provoking, and still heart-warming.

This series gives an excellent portrayal of life in the early 20th century.