Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself

Betsy Ray and her friends are in high school now. This volume covers Betsy's freshman and sophomore years in Deep Valley High School, and comes with bonus information about the author and the real life originals of the characters. Boys, clothes, gossip, teachers, who's in and who's out, putting off your schoolwork, dances, food, and other forms of fun fill their high school days. Who will Betsy go out with on any given weekend? Who will ask her to the dance first? What will she and her friends get up to on their own? Will Betsy be true to herself as a writer, or try to act different to attract boys? Will it work? All this is set in the first decade of the 20th century, when cars and phones and such were new. People walked most places they wanted to go, or took the train. Clothes were made to order by seamstresses. But even if they looked different, people don't change much. This is the best picture of how high school feels that I know of. So come live through it with Betsy, Tacy, Tib, Irma, Winona and more. Not to mention Tony, Cab, Phil, LLoyd, and a host of others.

I've loved the Betsy-Tacy Series since I was a preteen in the late 50s. My sister introduced me to the books, high school and beyond originally, and I still have her copies of all the books. I buy new copies whenever they're in print to give to friends and pass along the joy I feel when I read and re-read Maud's stories of her childhood in Mankato MN (aka Deep Valley). Wonderful stories with all the joys and fears we all feel when entering high school and life beyond. I think my favorite book in the series is Betsy and the Great World, especially after my own trips to the Great World many years ago. The warmth and love of the friendships, especially between Betsy, Tacy and Tib, are what I hope everyone can also experience in their own lives.

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.

The first two novels in the high school books are big favorites of mine. When I was in high school, my parents got a divorce and my mom and I moved to a small apartment and my life changed immeasurably. But I could always count on Betsy and the members of her crowd to help me deal with the immense upheaval I was going through. Reading these for the first or the fiftieth time you realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same. When you're 14, (in 1906 or 1982) you have HUGE all-encompassing crushes, and you have the best friends you'll EVER have, and every little change is a LIFE-CHANGER (or at least, that's how it feels!). Read these books and no matter how old you are, you'll return to them again and again because they're that soothing.