Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding [Paperback]

Maud Hart Lovelace (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

Betsy and the Great World: Betsy Ray is twenty-one and on the adventure of a lifetime: a solo tour of Europe! There's even a handsome Italian, Marco, who's going overboard for her—if only she could stop thinking about her ex-sweetheart Joe Willard.

Betsy's Wedding: When Betsy's boat docks in New York, Joe is waiting there . . . with a ring! But she's going to learn that marriage isn't all candlelight, roses, and kisses. There's also cooking, ironing, cleaning, and budgeting— and will she be able to find time to forge a writing career?

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Some characters become your friends for life. That’s how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.” (Judy Blume, bestselling author )

“When I was growing up in the Bronx, I had lots of friends. But the girls I most enjoyed spending time with were Betsy, Tacy and Tib....in the series by Maud Hart Lovelace... - three girls full of good ideas, adventures and fun.” (Johanna Hurwitz, award-winning author of more than sixty popular books for young readers )

“I re-read these books every year, marveling at how a world so quaint - Shirtwaists! Pompadours! Merry Widow hats! - can feature a heroine who is undeniably modern.” (Laura Lippman )

“Slipping into a Betsy book is like slipping into a favorite pair of well-worn slippers: It’s always a pleasure to live in Betsy’s world for a little while, to experience her simple joys, but also her (thankfully short-lived) sorrows.” (Meg Cabot )

“There are three authors whose body of work I have re-read more than once over my adult life: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Maud Hart Lovelace.” (Anna Quindlen )

“I read every one of these Betsy-Tacy-Tib books twice. I loved them as a child, as a young adult, and now, reading them with my daughter, as a mother. What a wonderful world it was!” (Bette Midler, actor and singer )

“Family loyalty and the devotion of friends to one another, which for me are the defining characteristics of the Betsy-Tacy stories.” (Esther Hautzig, award-winning author, former Director of Children's Book Promotion for Thomas Y. Crowell Co., and former publicist for Betsy's Wedding in 1955 )

“The Betsy-Tacy books were among my favorites when I was growing up.” (Nora Ephron, Academy Award-nominated director )

“I am fairly certain that my independent, high-spirited grandmother must have had a childhood similar to Betsy Ray’s…As I read..., I felt that I was having an unexpected and welcome peek into Granny’s childhood-a gift to me from Maud Hart Lovelace.” (Ann M. Martin, creator/author of The Baby-sitters Club )

“I grew up 30 miles north of Mankato, and trips to town were filled with mystery and magic, because I was walking the same streets that Betsy and Tacy once walked. The Betsy-Tacy books...., more than any other books, fed my dream of becoming a writer one day.” (Jill Kalz, 2008 MN Book Awards Readers' Choice Award winner )

“I truly consider BETSY AND TACY GO DOWNTOWN to be the finest novel in the English language! I will never love any other books as much as I love the Betsy-Tacy books.” (Claudia Mills, children's book author, winner of National Book Award and Golden Kite Award )

About the Author

Maud Hart Lovelace (1892-1980) based her Betsy-Tacy series on her own childhood. Her series still boasts legions of fans, many of whom are members of the Betsy-Tacy Society, a national organization based in Mankato, Minnesota.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061795135
• ISBN-13: 978-0061795138
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > 20th Century

More About the Author

Maud Hart Lovelace, born in 1892, is the author of the Betsy-Tacy series, in addition to several other books for adults and children. She based the Betsy-Tacy series on her own childhood and once wrote, "I lived the happiest childhood a child could possibly know," and it is this joy that comes through in her books. She died in 1980 but her legacy lives on in the beloved series she created and in her legions of fans, many of whom are members of the Betsy-Tacy Society, a national organization based in Mankato, MN.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly written, a joy to read., October 3, 2009

By 

Kathleen A. Baxter (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding (Paperback)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best series ever - Betsy lives happily ever after,eventually, October 3, 2009

By 

Jessica Weissman "poet and computer programmer" (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding (Paperback)

This is two volumes republished as one, covering Betsy Ray's life from after high school until the last of the immortal trio marries - republished in gorgeous editions with lots of bonus material about the real life originals of the characters, including pictures. Plus an introduction by Anna Quindlen, who loves these books almost as much as I do.

Betsy Ray has definitely grown up. The story picks up after Betsy leaves college. She spends a year touring the Great World, spending enviable amounts of time in Italy, Germany, and England, starting with a romantic ocean crossing. As usual, the real story is in the people Betsy meets. Will she forget her high school soulmate Joe and spend the rest of her life in Italy with the swoony Marco and his wonderful aunts?

Read the book and find out who she marries in Betsy's Wedding. Either way, I guarantee it is just about the most romantic wedding you ever saw. AND Betsy's first few years of marriage make interesting, funny, sweet reading too.

Maud Hart Lovelace tells a fascinating story with the deft touch of a real writer. Her descriptions of Europe are realistic enough that you can almost retrace Betsy's steps. She makes the first glorious days of marriage and setting up a household vivid, too. The newlyweds of 1914 are not so different from the newlyweds of nowadays.

In the final pages the Crowd dances at Tib's wedding, a fitting conclusion to the ten books that tell their story starting at age 5.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Final Two Books in the Betsy Tacy Series -- Once You've Read Them, Start Over Again with Betsy-Tacy!, October 3, 2009

By 

J. Hart "Book Club Girl" (Maplewood NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding (Paperback)

I read these books as a child and reread them to this day. The first four books, Betsy Tacy, Betsy Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown are wonderful for a girl age 5 and up. The books progress in reading level as they go, as well as in themes. The final six books in the series, just reissued in 3 2-book volumes, are absolutely amazing. They are Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself; Betsy was a Junior/Betsy and Joe; Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding and are great for a girl age 9 and up. We follow Betsy through four years of high school, with dances, rides in autos, boys and hijinks. Then she's off for a year of travel in Europe just prior to the outbreak of WWI and then she returns home to marry her high school sweetheart and begin on her writing career. Lovelace based these books on her own upbringing in Mankato, Minnesota and they are simply wonderful. This summer I traveled to Mankato for the Betsy Tacy Convention and saw Betsy's, Tacy's and Tib's house. I cannot wait to read these with my own daughter, but in the meantime, I will continue to reread them. They are my literary equivalent of comfort food. Fans include such bestselling authors as Meg Cabot, Laura Lippman, Anna Quindlen, Nora Ephron, Judy Blume, Nancy Pearl, Joyce Maynard, and Mary Kay Andrews!