Lois illustrated Betsy-Tacy, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, which tell the stories of the girls’ adventures from age five to twelve. Readers have their favorite Lenski illustrations of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, including the piano box, Everything Pudding, and Betsy writing stories in the maple tree.
In 1944, Lois was approached by Crowell, the publisher, and offered the chance to illustrate the Betsy-Tacy high school books, beginning with Heaven to Betsy, which were aimed at teen readers. Lois declined to work on the new books, as she preferred to illustrate books for younger readers, and suggested artist Vera Neville for the position.
During the 1940s, Lois’s family began to travel throughout the South. Lois observed the lifestyles and customs of children in the states they visited, and these sketchbooks led to her “Regionals” series for middle grade readers, including Bayou Suzette and Texas Tomboy. The second Regional, Strawberry Girl, won the 1946 Newbery Medal for outstanding work in children’s literature.
In the 1950s, Lois suffered from pernicious anemia and was advised by her doctors to spend winters in Florida. Despite her illness, Lois continued to write and illustrate two books per year. In 1958, her husband, Arthur Covey, became ill and passed away in 1960. Lois sold the Connecticut farm, Green-acres, and made her permanent home in Tarpon Springs, Florida. From 1960 to 1971, she continued to write and illustrate her children’s series, including Mr. Small, Davy, Roundabout, and Debbie. Her autobiography, Journey into Childhood, was published by Lippincott in 1972.
Lois Lenski passed away on September 11, 1974, at her Florida home. Her legacy includes the nearly one hundred books she wrote and illustrated as well as illustrations for more than fifty books by other authors, including the Betsy-Tacy childhood books.
—Teresa Musgrove Gibson
Sources: Lois Lenski,
Journey into Childhood (Lippincott, 1972);
Something About the Author,
vol. 26 (Gale, 1982)
Praise
“There are three authors whose body of work I have reread more than once over my adult life: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Maud Hart Lovelace.”
—Anna Quindlen,
New York Times bestselling author
“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,
New York Times bestselling author
“I reread 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,
New York Times bestselling author
“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
“Some characters become your friends for life. That’s how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.”
—Judy Blume, beloved bestselling author
“The Betsy-Tacy books were among my favorites when I was growing up.”
—Nora Ephron, Academy
Award-nominated writer-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
“Family loyalty and the devotion of friends to one another … 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
publicist for Betsy’s Wedding in 1955
“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
“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
“Maud Hart Lovelace and her Betsy-Tacy series influenced me very much when I was a girl; I identified with Betsy, who wanted to be a writer, as well as the friends’ girl-power.”
—Lorna Landvik,
New York Times bestselling author
“Heavens to Betsy! It was pure bliss to slip away and into the world of these turn-of-the-century Minnesota girls, their families, their friends, their loves. It had been many, many years since I’d spent time with the enchanting Betsy Ray, but after reacquainting myself with these classics, I now realize that one of the reasons I believed I could someday become a writer was because of Betsy’s own infallible confidence that she would be a writer. Don’t worry if you don’t have a young person to buy these delicious books for—be selfish and give ’em to yourself.”
—Mary Kay Andrews,
New York Times bestselling author
“I grew up thirty 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, Minnesota Book Awards
Readers’ Choice Award winner
“At school visits, when kids ask what books I read as a child, I have only one answer: Betsy-Tacy—the entire series… Truthfully, I think those were the only books I read as a child. But they were enough to make me know that characters in books had true and honest feelings and that made all the difference.”
—Maryann Weidt, author of the Minnesota
Book Award-winning picture book
Daddy Played Music for the Cows
“As a Minnesota girl, I read the Betsy-Tacy books about a thousand times as a kid. I used to go to sleep at night with one of the books under my pillow whispering to myself about the girls, hoping I’d dream I was playing with them.”
—Anne Ursu, award-winning author
Books by Maud Hart Lovelace
The Betsy-Tacy Books
Book 1: Betsy-Tacy
Book 2: Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Book 3: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Book 4: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
Book 5: Heaven to Betsy
Book 6: Betsy in Spite of Herself
Book 7: Betsy Was a Junior
Book 8: Betsy and Joe
Book 9: Betsy and the Great World
Book 10: Betsy’s Wedding
The Deep Valley Books
Winona’s Pony Cart
Carney’s House Party
Emily of Deep Valley
Back Ad
THE BETSY-TACY SERIES BEGINS
BETSY-TACY
ISBN 978-0-06-440096-1 (paperback)
BETSY-TACY AND TIB
Foreword by Ann M. Martin
ISBN 978-0-06-440097-8 (paperback)
BETSY AND TACY GO OVER THE BIG HILL
Foreword by Judy Blume
ISBN 978-0-06-440099-2 (paperback)
BETSY AND TACY GO DOWNTOWN
Foreword by Johanna Hurwitz
ISBN 978-0-06-440098-5 (paperback)
THE BETSY-TACY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS AND BEYOND
HEAVEN TO BETSY AND BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF
Foreword by Laura Lippman
ISBN 978-0-06-179469-8 (paperback)
Heaven to Be
tsy: In the first of the high school books, Betsy is 14 and a freshman at Deep Valley High.
Betsy in Spite of Herself: It’s Betsy’s sophomore year and she takes a glamorous trip to Milwaukee to visit Tib.
BETSY WAS A JUNIOR AND BETSY AND JOE
Foreword by Meg Cabot
ISBN 978-0-06-179472-8 (paperback)
Betsy Was a Junior: Betsy (unwisely) introduces the idea of sororities to Deep Valley High.
Betsy and Joe: Betsy’s senior year arrives and finally she is going with Joe!
BETSY AND THE GREAT WORLD AND BETSY’S WEDDING
Foreword by Anna Quindlen
ISBN 978-0-06-179513-8 (paperback)
Betsy and the Great World: Betsy sets off for a year-long tour of Europe to start her writing career.
Besty’s Wedding: As WWI sweeps across Europe, Betsy hopes she and Joe find happines.
THE DEEP VALLEY BOOKS
EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY
Foreword by Mitali Perkins
ISBN 978-0-06-200330-0 (paperback)
Maud Hart Lovelace’s only young adult stand-alone novel, Emily of Deep Valley, is considered by fans of her beloved Betsy-Tacy series to be one of the author’s finest works.
CARNEY’S HOUSE PARTY AND WINONA’S PONY CART
Foreword by Melissa Wiley
ISBN 978-0-06-200329-4 (paperback)
Carney’s House Party fills in the gaps in Lovelace’s wildly popular high school Betsy-Tacy books, and Winona’s Pony Cart revisits Betsy, Tacy and Tib as young girls.
Available wherever books are sold, or call 1-800-331-3761 to order.
Credits
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover and spine illustrations by Lois Lenski from the books’ original publication
Copyright
BETSY-TACY. Copyright © 1940 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Copyright renewed 1968 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Author note from Minnesota Writes and reproduced with permission. Copyright © 1961 by Instructional Fair • TS Denison. BETSY-TACY AND TIB. Copyright © 1941 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Copyright renewed 1969 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Foreword copyright © 2000 by Ann M. Martin. BETSY AND TACY GO OVER THE BIG HILL. Originally published under the title Over the Big Hill. Copyright © 1942 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Copyright renewed 1970 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Foreword copyright © 2000 by Judy Blume. BETSY AND TACY GO DOWNTOWN. Copyright © 1943 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Copyright renewed 1971 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Foreword (originally published in the The Betsy-Tacy Companion: A Biography of Maud Hart Lovelace and Her World by Sharla Scannell Whalen) copyright © 1995 by Sharla Scannell Whalen. “Maud Hart Lovelace and Her World” (adapted from The Betsy-Tacy Companion). Copyright © 2000 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Betsy-Tacy was first published in 1940 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. First Harper Trophy edition published 1979.
Betsy-Tacy and Tib was first published in 1941 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. First Harper Trophy edition published 1979.
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill was first published as Over the Big Hill in 1942 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. First Harper Trophy edition published 1979.
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown was first published in 1943 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. First Harper Trophy edition published 1979.
FIRST HARPER PERENNIAL MODERN CLASSICS EDITION PUBLISHED 2011.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-06-209587-9
EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062125569
11 12 13 14 15 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Maud Hart Lovelace, The Betsy-Tacy Treasury
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