In case you were wondering, I’m rather a fast reader. I can’t really claim that as the reason for flying through the Betsy Tacy books so quickly, however. Most of the ease of reading was because the books were written for a middle school girl. I had never read these books, and yet I fully enjoyed them, despite being closer to 30 than to 20. 
The Betsy Tacy series consists of ten books. I read the first five within a day and a half, but the first four books are much less involved than the fifth.
Betsy-Tacy introduces you to Betsy, a spunky, imaginative five year old who doesn’t have a friend just her age on Hill Street, until a family moves in across the street and she sees a red headed child just her age. Tacy, a shy five year old, is the perfect foil (or partner in crime) for Betsy, and they quickly become best of friends. This book is full of old-fashioned play descriptions, which I found charming, and which most young girls will be interested in reading. When E reads this in a few years, I will happily hand over old magazines to play paper dolls with, will build a box-house in the backyard, and allow her to dress up in “finery” and “go calling.” From encouraging good relationships with older sisters (who are usually helpful and good but sometimes bossy), to explaining how Tacy dealt with a younger siblings death and Betsy dealt with a baby sister’s birth, the books are realistic without going into too much detail.
Betsy-Tacy and Tib brings in another girl just Betsy and Tacy’s age, Tib, who, joy of joy to Betsy and Tacy, came from Minneapolis. We first met Tib in the final chapters of the first book, and the second book introduces us to the girls at age nine. From learning how to fly, to pretending to be beggars, the girls do everything together and for each other, including cutting off each other’s hair to “remember each other by” in case one dies.
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill once again brings us to Deep Valley, Minnesota as the girls reach age 10, a very important age. For, as Betsy says
“You have two numbers in your age when you are ten. It’s the beginning of growing up.”
The third book shows us some of the historical context of the time, from turn-of-the-twentieth-century school entertainments to the “Little Syria” as the girls called it, a group of Christian Syrians who had fled Islamic persecution in Syria. As Mr. Ray (Betsy’s father) explains it:
“They (the inhabitants of Little Syria in the book) come from a very interesting country. You can read about their country in the BIble. The Deep Valley Syrians are Christians, but most Syrians are Mohammedans. Syria is under the control of the Turks, and the Turks are Mohammedans too. A good many of the Christina SSyrians are coming to America these days. And they come for much the same reason that our Pilgrim fathers came. They want to be free from oppression and religions persectuion. We ought to honor them for it.”
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown opens with 12 year old Betsy writing, and the girls having read dime-novels, that the hired girl owns, such as Lady’s Audley’s Secret. Mrs. Ray encourages Betsy to read “good literature” if she wants to be a writer, and she is then introduced to the new Carnegie Library in town. Two classics are highlighted in this book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Rip Van Winkle, both in play form at the theater in Deep Valley. We are also introduced to a few more main characters as the storyline ramps up for Besty and Tacy starting High School. “Horseless carriages” and telephones are historically new developments in Deep Valley, and there are fun descriptions of the girls experiencing these new things.
Heaven to Betsy starts with Betsy at age 14 leaving Hill Street to live down in town, Tib having moved back to Minneapolis, and Betsy and Tacy starting High School. Julia (Betsy’s elder sister) and Betsy have a very good relationship, Betsy is starting to get beaux, and Julia is pretty consistent with getting a new beau every few months (she claims that examination time is a good time to be between beaux, it is less distracting from study). I wouldn’t say Betsy is a flirt, and in context of the social norms of the day, the boy-girl relationships talked about in this book are very normal, and not at all bad.
The only objectionable material I would say the books contain are some instances of sibling discord which is always ironed out, and a few mentions of an Ouija board. I would still highly recommend this series to parents of young girls, and encourage them to use the material as springboards into discussion about what was culturally or religiously acceptable then and what is culturally and religiously acceptable in our own homes.
I loved how the books encourage imagination, a good diet of classic books and good writing, and focus on having healthy relationships with various people.
As the first half of a series, I would give the five books four out of five stars. It’s not something I think EVERYONE must read, but they are still very enjoyable.
