Betsy-Tacy and Tib
By Maud Hart Lovelace and Ann M. Martin
4/5
()
About this ebook
Betsy and Tacy are best friends. Then Tib moves into the neighborhood and the three of them start to play together. The grown-ups think they will quarrel, but they don’t. Sometimes they quarrel with Betsy’s and Tacy’s bossy big sisters, but they never quarrel among themselves.
They are not as good as they might be. They cook up awful messes in the kitchen, throw mud on each other and pretend to be beggars, and cut off each other’s hair. But Betsy, Tacy, and Tib always manage to have a good time.
Ever since their first publication in the 1940s, the Betsy-Tacy stories have been loved by each generation of young readers.
Maud Hart Lovelace
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.
Related to Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Children's Social Themes For You
The Witch of Blackbird Pond: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amari and the Night Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Keeper of the Lost Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Velveteen Rabbit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bridge to Terabithia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Graveyard Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horse and His Boy: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Number the Stars: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Crossover: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shiloh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Battle: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School for Good and Evil: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuart Little Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Kitty Goes to the Doctor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Egg Presents: The Great Eggscape!: An Easter And Springtime Book For Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unlocked Book 8.5 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of My Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silver Chair: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Kitty: Ready, Set, Go-Cart! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trumpet of the Swan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Kitty's First Day of Preschool Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dork Diaries 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Funny Grasshopper Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Neverseen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The One and Only Bob Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Betsy-Tacy and Tib
206 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sometimes Betsy gets on my nerves, but I did enjoy this one too. I returned these books to the library and was ready to check out the rest of the series, but they were gone! Sad day! I probably won't go back and read the rest immediately, but maybe I will one day...
Will definitely suggest these to my nieces, though.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I do enjoy the sweetness of these young girls and the fact that there is always some very realistic danger faced in them. They are true to life, which offsets any tendency towards the saccharine.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are eight-year-old Minnesota girls who are best friends. Betsy is the one with the ideas, and Tacy and Tib usually go along with whatever she suggests. They try to learn to fly and form a secret club. It’s all innocent fun, and the stories of their escapades will make many readers nostalgic for the carefree days of their own childhood.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Here in the second book of the Betsy-Tacy series we are introduced to their new friend, Tib, and learn about what it might have been like to be a young girl in the late 1890s. When Tacy catches Diptheria, she can't play for months, and her whole household is quarantined. So her friends send her messages using a fishing pole over the fence. Sweet and enjoyable, fine for elementary school children. Adults may enjoy it too, as the author does not "talk down" to her audience. Recommended, but read the previous book first if you can.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great fun to re-read this, I remember well the cutting of each others hair. They had so much fun. I wanted to be as fearless as Betsy as a child. Betsy was the ringleader.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oh these girls try to be good, but they're so impulsive and imaginative, they get into all sorts of scrapes. And of course they learn lessons, but Lovelace is not at all didactic or preachy. I'm not sure that they're the right age though - aren't 8-year-olds likely to be a little more mature?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A worthy follow-up to Betsy-Tacy, Maud Hart Lovelace's first book about two (eventually three) young girls growing up in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Minnesota, Betsy-Tacy and Tib is a humorous and heartwarming celebration of childhood friendship, and only increased my appreciation of the characters, the author, and the series.Picking up roughly two years after the first title, when Betsy Ray, Tacy Kelly and Tib Muller are eight years old, it follows the three best friends through many hilarious adventures. From the dubious culinary achievement of the "Everything Pudding," to the (inevitably) disastrous consequences of making hair lockets to remember each other by, the episodes chronicled here are guaranteed to win a smile and a chuckle from all but the most hardened reader.As is only fitting in a novel truly meant for children, adults are a continuous a source of mystery and confusion. Often angry at the unexpected thing, as when the girls' parents are horrified that they have gone "begging" at Mrs. Ekstrom's, rather than the fact that they have muddied their dresses; they are sometimes surprisingly sensitive to the feelings of young people, as when Mr. Muller turns the disassembly of the play-house in the Muller basement into a game.Lovelace's simple narrative, together with Lois Lenski's charming illustrations, is practically a pean to the happy days of childhood, although more serious subjects occasionally find their way into the story. I was particularly struck, while reading Betsy-Tacy and Tib, by the fact that the three friends are all of different ethnic and religious backgrounds - a reality highlighted in the chapter where they discuss God and "being good." I appreciated the ecumenical aspect of the story, and found myself wondering whether Lovelace, who originally saw these books published in the early 1940s, during the Second World War, made a deliberate choice to be inclusive, or whether it happened naturally.Addendum: Some time ago, my friend Constance commented on my review of The Princess Bride, and mentioned that to be a "literal Libby" in her family was to be "just like Tib." You'll understand when you read the Betsy-Tacy books, she told me... And yes - now I do!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A sweet, funny tale about three young girls who are given freedom for their imaginations to roam. They occasionally get into trouble, but it's never too serious, and their adventures harken back to a simpler time when children could go off by themselves without danger. Illustrations by Lois Lenski are charming. I would recommend the book to young chapter book readers, perhaps ages 6-9.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/59/2012 Stet
12/2007 Re-reading this book hardly counts as reading, since I know it like the back of my hand. The entire series is so well-written and just plain fun that revisiting it is a treat. Lovelace's essential voice is unchanged throughout the series, yet she writes in a tone designed to engage readers of the characters' ages especially. My favorite part of this book is where Tib's family's "hired girl" Matilda catches them at mischief:
'"The dining room looks all right now," Betsy added. "Doesn't it, Matilda?"
Matilda looked at the tidy dining room. She swept it with a stony glance.
"I hear," she said meaningly, "that Mrs. Ray's kitchen looked nice too after you kept house for her one day."
And she stalked back into the kitchen.'
One thing I noticed this time through is that in the books, the Big Hill is described as ascending past Betsy's back yard, but when I was in Mankato it went up past Tacy's. Is this my imagination, fellow convention-goers? - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the second Betsy-Tacy book and it's just as good as the first. I really liked the idea of Betsy and Tacy meeting Tib because of a card that they left in the chocolate covered house. I also enjoyed that this edition of the book included the real places from Lovelace's life that are talked about in the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a classic series for young girls about three friends, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, whose life in a small town is enjoyed through the wonderful writing of Maud Hart Lovelace. This is a great series for young girls, and it was one of my personal favorites as a kid.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"We've got to learn how to fly! I'm sure we can do it!"--and so Betsy, Tacy, and Tib decide to do just that. First it's jumping off the hitching-block. Then it's jumping off the porch. Then it's jumping (excuse me: flying) off the big maple. "We'll be flying off the roof tomorrow," predicts Betsy. Or will they? And that's just one of the trio's wonderful misadventures.--Catherine
Book preview
Betsy-Tacy and Tib - Maud Hart Lovelace
1
Begging at Mrs. Ekstrom’s
BETSY AND Tacy and Tib were three little girls who were friends. They never quarreled.
Betsy and Tacy were friends first. They were good friends, and they never quarreled. When Tib moved into that neighborhood, and the three of them started playing together, grown-up people said: It’s too bad! Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly always played so nicely. Two little girls often do play nicely, but just let a third one come around….
And they stopped, and their silence sounded as though they were saying: then the trouble begins!
But although so many people expected it, no trouble began with Betsy, Tacy and Tib. The three of them didn’t quarrel, any more than the two of them had. They sometimes quarreled with Julia and Katie, though. Julia and Katie were Betsy’s and Tacy’s big sisters; they were bossy; and Betsy and Tacy and Tib didn’t like to be bossed.
Betsy and Tacy lived on Hill Street, which ran straight up into a green hill and stopped. The small yellow cottage where the Ray family lived was the last house on that side of the street, and the rambling white house opposite where the Kelly family lived was the last house on that side. These two houses ended the street, and after that came the hill.
Tib didn’t live on Hill Street. She lived on Pleasant Street. To get to Tib’s house from the place where Betsy and Tacy lived you went one block down and one block over. (The second block was through a vacant lot.) Tib lived in a chocolate-colored house which was the most beautiful house Betsy and Tacy had ever been in. It had front stairs and back stairs and a tower and panes of colored glass in the front door.
Tib was the same age as Betsy and Tacy. They were all eight years old. They were six when Tib came to live in Deep Valley, and now they were eight. Tacy was the tallest. She had long red ringlets and freckles and thin legs. Until she got acquainted with people Tacy was bashful. Tib was the smallest. She was little and dainty with round blue eyes and a fluff of yellow hair. She looked like a picture-book fairy, except, of course, that she didn’t have wings. Betsy was the middle-sized one. She had plump legs and short brown braids which stuck out behind her ears. Her smile showed teeth which were parted in the middle, and Betsy was almost always smiling.
When Betsy ran out of doors in the morning, she came with a beam on her face. That was because it was fun to plan what she and Tacy and Tib were going to do. Betsy loved to think up things to do and Tacy and Tib loved to do them.
One morning Betsy ran out of her house and met Tacy who had just run out of hers. They met in the middle of the road and ran up to the bench which stood at the end of Hill Street. From that bench they could look ’way down the street. They often waited there for Tib.
Betsy and Tacy had to wait for Tib because they got ready to play sooner than she did. Betsy’s mother was slim and quick; she didn’t need much help around the house. And Tacy’s mother had ten children besides Tacy, so of course there wasn’t much for Tacy to do. Tib’s mother had a hired girl to help her, but just the same Tib had to work. Tib’s mother believed in children knowing how to work. Tib dusted the legs of the chairs and polished the silver. She was learning to cook and to sew.
Betsy and Tacy didn’t mind waiting today. It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.
What shall we do today?
asked Tacy.
Let’s go up on the Big Hill,
Betsy answered.
The Big Hill wasn’t the hill which ended Hill Street. That was the Hill Street Hill. The Big Hill rose up behind Betsy’s house. And a white house stood at the top.
Shall we take a picnic?
asked Tacy.
I wish we could,
said Betsy. But it’s pretty soon after breakfast to ask for a picnic.
If I went in the house to ask,
said Tacy, I might have to help with the dishes.
Better not go,
said Betsy. But we’ll be hungry by the time we get to the top.
She thought for a moment. We may have to pretend we’re beggars.
What do you mean by that?
asked Tacy, her blue eyes beginning to sparkle.
Why, muss up our hair and dirty our clothes and ask for something to eat at the white house.
Oh! Oh!
cried Tacy. It was all she could say.
Just then Tib ran up. She looked so clean in a starched pink chambray dress that Betsy thought perhaps they had better not be beggars.
What are we going to do?
asked Tib.
We’re going up on the Big Hill,
said Betsy. Of course, we have to ask.
They were eight years old, but they still couldn’t climb the Big Hill without permission; Betsy and Tacy couldn’t; Tib’s mother always told her that she could go wherever Betsy and Tacy were allowed to go. Tib’s house was too far away to run to every time they had to ask permission.
Betsy and Tacy sent Paul, who was Tacy’s little brother, into their houses to ask permission now. Paul trotted into Tacy’s house and into Betsy’s house, and he trotted back with word that they could go. So Betsy and Tacy and Tib started walking up the Big Hill.
Julia was practising her music lesson, and the sound of the scales she was playing flashed out of the house as they passed. It sounded as though Julia were enjoying herself.
I wouldn’t like to be playing the piano today,
said Betsy.
Neither would I,
said Tacy.
Neither would I,
said Tib. Of course,
she added, we don’t know how.
Neither Betsy nor Tacy would have pointed that out. Tib was always pointing such things out. But Betsy and Tacy liked her just the same.
We could learn quick enough if we wanted to,
said Betsy. I can play chopsticks now.
They came to a ridge where wild roses were in bloom. They stopped to smell them. They passed a thorn apple tree where they would pick thorn apples later. Now the tree was covered with little hard green balls. There were lots of trees on that side of the road and the grass was deep and full of flowers. On the other side was a fenced-in pasture with Mr. Williams’ cow in it.
At last they came to the top of the hill. They could look down now on the roofs of Hill Street. They could see the school house where they all went to school and the chocolate-colored house where Tib lived. They could see all over the town of Deep Valley, ’way to the Big Mill. And deep in the valley they could see a silver ribbon. That was the river.
The top of the hill was flat, and there were oak trees scattered about. The white house stood in the middle. It was a small house with a flower garden at the front. Some people named Ekstrom lived there. Behind the Ekstroms’ house was a