Customer Reviews

The Betsy-Tacy Treasury

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's not very well spelled out, but this book contains the first four books of the series: Betsy-Tacy, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. It would be great to have all of these in the same volume, but it might get a little heavy if you are reading chapter a day to your munchkin. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with anything Betsy and Tacy.

These books are amazing. that's almost all there is to say. The characters are great, the plot is great. I can't believe it was all real. I daydream about being Betsy almost every day. If you are looking for a series to read, read these. It doesn't matter how old you are, they're for everyone.

As a child growing up, I was an avid reader. I began reading the "Betsy-Tacy" books when the school librarian introduced me to the series. This is a wonderful series showing the life of the main chracter, Betsy. I can remember devouring each of the books. Now that I am a teacher and a mother, I can't wait to find and purchase the books for my daughter and my classroom library. In today's society of technology and media, this is a wonderful collection of old fashioned, classic stories.

I found these books as a little girl at the public library in the early 1970's, reading them in order from the first, easy to read book all the way through to Betsy's wedding. Each book matures with its character, and they are so beautifully done. Betsy, her friends, and her family and community are great role models for girls, and you come to feel like you are one of the friends as you read it. I remember being both gratified and terribly sad when I finished the last book, as I hated to leave everyone. I found them again for my own daughter, who is now in her mid-20s, a Brown University literature graduate, who still loves the books as much as I do. And if you need more encouragement to buy the series for your own daughter for the holidays, The New York Times today noted that Bette Midler, Anna Quindlen, and Nora Ephron are all fans!

Betsy, Tacy and Tib are such ordinary little girls living in a quiet little town doing little girl things. They have journeys to the other end of the neighborhood. They meet a new friend. In short, it is a book about a safe, comfortable little girl life.

It is perfect reading for a first grade girl. The stories are simple and the reading is at a level suitable for first graders.

This Treasury combines all the stories into one book making it quite a big, important looking chapter book for a little girl.

The Betsy-Tacy Treasury is the first four of the Betsy-Tacy books: Betsy-Tacy, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. Included in the book are great forwards by current authors that are also fans including Judy Blume, Ann M. Martin, and Johanna Hurwitz. There are also sections at the end with background about Maud Hart Lovelace, illustrator Lois Lenski, and each of the four books included. I loved all of this information and found it very interesting. Also interesting was the praise at the beginning of the book for Maud Hart Lovelace from such personalities as Anna Quindlen, Meg Cabot, Laura Lippman, Bette Midler, Nora Ephron, Lorna Landvick, etc. In particular, Anna Quindlen stated, "There are three authors whose body of work I have reread more than once in my adult life: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Maud Hart Lovelace." This is praise indeed!

Was this book truly worthy of all of this praise? I am more than happy to say a very emphatic "YES!" By the end of the first book, I had fallen in love with Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly and their world in Deep Valley, Minnesota. Deep Valley is the Mankato of Lovelace's childhood around the turn of the nineteenth century. (For fellow Little House on the Prairie TV series fans, this is the same Mankato that characters from Walnut Grove visit to get trade goods.)

Five-year old Betsy is excited when a new family with lots of children moves into the house across the street. One girl appears to be her age. After a slight misunderstanding, they soon become fast friends and the people of Hill Street and Deep Valley can't remember a time when Betsy-Tacy were not friends. Soon a new girl moves in to the chocolate house on the way to school, and Tib becomes their fast friend. Betsy wants to be a writer and is full of imaginative stories. Tacy is shy, but loyal and fun. Tib is very matter of fact and also very pretty. The books move through their lives. By book two they are eight, book three they are ten, and book four they are twelve.

What did I like so much about this book? Although the adventures took place long before my childhood, the spirit of their life and adventures perfectly captures the spirit and joy of childhood that does not change through the ages. The wonder of the world and how one street and one city can seem so giant and faraway places like Milwaukee can be viewed with imaginative delight are just how a child views the world. Their adventures playing and making up stories reminded me of the fun I had as a child with my best friend Stephanie and sister Kristi doing very similar things. It was wonderful how Lovelace was able to capture her childhood and to remember what it was like to be a child and to have a fantastic imagination that can make climbing a hill the most exciting journey.

What really brought these books to the next level to me was when in book one, tragedy strikes. Tacy's baby sister, Bee, dies from a childhood illness. Tacy and Betsy go for a walk and Tacy is very sad about her sister's death. Betsy tries to cheer her up and talks to her about Bee's adventures in heaven. "Of course she can see us. She's looking down right now. And I'll tell you what tickles Bee. She knows all about Heaven, and we don't. She's younger than we are, but she knows something that we don't. Isn't that funny? She's just a baby, and she knows more than we do."

Betsy brings the death down to the level of a child's understanding, and is able to make Tacy think of all of the fun that Bee is having in heaven being a big girl and watching out for her family. I found it to be a very moving conversation and quite touching. Betsy and Tacy are the best kind of friends; the kind of friends that can help you out in a moment of crisis and be what you need them to be.

I also really enjoyed how Betsy, Tacy, Tib befriend a little girl (Naifi) from "Little Syria" in Deep Valley in Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill. They defend her when she is picked on by some rather nasty boys. Tib's mother (Mrs. Muller) had some wise words to say about it, "I'm glad Tib stood up for that little Syrian girl. Foreign people should not be treated like that. America is made up of foreign people. Both of Tib's grandmothers came from the other side. Perhaps when they got off the boat they looked a little strange too."

Overall, The Betsy-Tacy Treasury was a wonderful, delightful series of books that I am very happy to have finally read. They are great adventures of childhood wonder and also have beautiful illustrations. I will definitely be reading these stories to my daughter when she gets older and I'm already planning for making a future trip to Mankato to check out Big Valley. I also want to read the rest of their adventures as they grow into teenagers and beyond! My only complaint is that poor Tib is always left off of the title of the books.

I read these books as a child, and really wanted to get them for my daughters too. This one was in excellent shape, exactly as advertised. These are wonderful stories. I recommend these books to everyone with young children. They are great for reading together.

The story of two real-life friends has kept the granddaughters entertained during their Christmas break. The girls enjoy reading about life for girls their age in another era. We will continue to read about the adventures of Betsy and Tacy.

I bought this item for my daughter for Christmas, and I'm sure she will be thrilled. She's already read the first two books by checking them out of the library, and I wanted her to have her own copy so she doesn't have to return them. The delivery was much faster than expected, so I'm happy about that.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I didn't realize from the description (perhaps my fault for not reading carefully) that all four books are together in one paperback book. I was expecting it to be four individual paperback books. That would be much better as my daughter likes to carry around her books and read them over and over again. This will be a little tougher to lug around and may lead to it getting worn much faster.

Overall, I'm happy that the books are available. Good stories for little girls are important to have, especially when there's so much trash written these days.

Somehow, I've misplaced or lost several of the first four Betsy-Tacy books, so it's great to have them all in one treasury now. The cover gives the book a more classic feel, unlike some of the updated illustrations in recent publications of these books. The original drawings from Lois Lenski are all included inside, too. The end of the book includes some historical facts about each book, and which events were based on Maud Hart Lovelace's actual childhood. There are also photographs of many of the people that the characters were based on: Bick ("Tacy"), Midge ("Tib), and of course, Maud ("Betsy"); as well as the real Mr. and Mrs. Poppy, Julia and Margaret, Winona, etc. Highly recommended.