Betsy ~Tacy Book Read

I have heard smatterings of the Betsy~Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, so picked up the one and only book at our local library - Betsy ~ Tacy. It was the first in the series when Betsy and Tacy meet for the first time and they are five years old.

Oh my how times have changed.... mumps? Who gets mumps these days??  I remember getting the mumps - it was a part of childhood until the immunization came to be. That aside, there is an innocence in the book which we don't see today. The lack of "stuff" that bombards us today - tv, radio, electronics, etc. Betsy and Tacy find entertainment in a box that they can call home, or a store, or whatever they want it to be that day.

I remember my Dad working in a furniture store. One of the biggest delights I can remember is when he brought what I remember calling a "big big box" - I am assuming this was a box that sofas were delivered in. I don't remember much of what we did in the box, but it was a treat to be able to play in it.

Betsy and Tacy decide to put sand in jars their mothers provided for them. Getting a nickel back then was quite the thing as you could splurge. 

Not sure how I missed Betsy~Tacy growing up - there were the other series I know of, but this one somehow flew under the radar screen for me. Guess I'll enjoy the innocence of children's literature written by Lovelace today.

Comments

[Episcogranny]

As I said on FB, I have loved these books most of my life. I've read the entire series, and have tried for years to get some of the originals through antique book dealers. It is such an eye opener, as you point out, to read about mumps, routine infant death, and other things that we don't think about today. But besides those things, it is wonderful to see how little girls are little girls, no matter in what era they live. That is what makes my 7 y/o granddaughter love these books as much as I do.

BTW, I found these at my local Carnegie library growing up. They still have the original copies I read 40 years ago. I've told them if they ever want to sell them, to call me first!

[Cathy]

There is a popular book in this area that is that old and they have "been lost" -- they are worth so much to book collectors, methinks they went walking and never made it back to the libraries!

[Anglodan]

I thought that secret meetings were against canon law in the Episcopal Church.

[Mary Beth]

You BLOGGED! I'm sooooo happy! Be sure not to miss the grownup ones too. (teenage ones)

yay!

[jo(e)]

I loved those books as a child, and I still reread them as an adult.

When I read them to my youngest child, I was pleased at how much he loved them as well. He'd interrupt to ask me questions about "the olden days," and I'd tell him stories about my mother's childhood.

[Term Paper]

I really admire this, I mean it really looks interesting!