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31st out of 122 books
—
94 voters
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (Betsy-Tacy #4)
Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are twelve—old enough to do lots of things...even go downtown on their own. There they see their first horseless carriage, discover the joys of the public library, and see a real play at the Opera House. They even find themselves acting in one! Best of all, they help a lonely new friend feel at home in Deep Valley—the most wonderful place in the world...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
April 5th 2000
by HarperCollins
(first published 1943)
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9/2012 Six stars. Ninety-six stars. Down Town is my favorite of the first four books and ranks near my favorites in the series entire. I'm prissy about my copy, which is, in fact titled Down Town. None of this namby-pamby Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown stuff. Nope, just Down Town, because like Winona, I like to go in doors marked "Private, Keep Out."
There are so many good stories twining though this book- Mrs. Poppy's, of course. We meet Miss Sparrow here, the librarian who gets so many great lines...more
There are so many good stories twining though this book- Mrs. Poppy's, of course. We meet Miss Sparrow here, the librarian who gets so many great lines...more
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May 22, 2009
Abigail
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Readers with Heart / Sydney Taylor Fans
Recommended to Abigail by:
Wendy / Constance / Melody / Lisa / Ginny
Shelves:
childrens-fiction,
maud-hart-lovelace
Review Temporarily Removed.
2 likes · like · see review
A motor car comes to town! Two plays at the Opera House! Christmas! Betsy explores her vocation as a writer! But most importantly! The Carnegie Library opens! Betsy's dad lets her spend whole days there and gives her money for her own lunch! Yayyyy the Library!! This book was thrilling, emotion and action-packed. It made me emotional a couple of times, especially when Betsy got to go to the library. It still blows my mind how quickly they're growing up -- in this book we saw a lot more of their...more
Once again, Betsy and Tacy exceeded expectations!
In what I would call the final installment of the “childhood” portion of this series, “Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown” – the girls are now 12 years old and, according to them, “all grown up.”
Their escapades continue – riding in a horseless carriage (a car!), beguiling their new friend, Winona, going to the theatre, befriending an unexpected companion, acting on stage and discovering a long, lost relative!
So many things to adore in this book! For those...more
In what I would call the final installment of the “childhood” portion of this series, “Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown” – the girls are now 12 years old and, according to them, “all grown up.”
Their escapades continue – riding in a horseless carriage (a car!), beguiling their new friend, Winona, going to the theatre, befriending an unexpected companion, acting on stage and discovering a long, lost relative!
So many things to adore in this book! For those...more
Betsy, Tacy and Tib are 12 years old now and quite grown-up. They are even allowed to go downtown...all by themselves. They are way excited, they know that when they go downtown they will get to see and do all kinds of things, things like seeing their very first horseless carriage, the public library and even a play at the opera house. They even are able to make a new friend, Winona Root. And along the way, they learn a few important life lessons too. Things like what books are appropriate for a...more
I saw one person's comment that the world of Betsy-Tacy probably doesn't exist in America, but I disagree. I can remember being old enough to go downtown without parents. Sharing it with a best friend or two made it even better. What makes Lovelace's books so great is that it was, and in a few special places still is, life in small-town America.
I think this is one I may have read as a child. I vaguely remember bits of it, and I feel influenced by the messages of making new friends in Mrs. Poppy and in Winona.
This time through, anyway, I was enchanted by Winona pretty early on. She's so smart, and she grins, and she does what she can to fend off loneliness. I caught a line near the end that I probably didn't before: "'I love to go in doors that say "Private, Keep Out,"' said Winona."
I love how the girls are now 12, and really starting...more
This time through, anyway, I was enchanted by Winona pretty early on. She's so smart, and she grins, and she does what she can to fend off loneliness. I caught a line near the end that I probably didn't before: "'I love to go in doors that say "Private, Keep Out,"' said Winona."
I love how the girls are now 12, and really starting...more
The girls are now 12 and again I thought it would be too "old" for Mary Ann to understand. There was also a moment when the reality of Santa Claus was discussed and I was worried things were going to get pretty dicey and Mary Ann was going to get an unexpected shock, but luckily Betsy, Tacy, and Tip are very sensible girls and have agreed to believe in Santa Claus until they are at least out of high school. This was a very enjoyable story for me too, perhaps the best part for me was that Mary An...more
Two things I noticed while reading this as an adult is that this book is the crucial transition text in the lives of the characters. By the next book they are in High School. This story captures them in a golden last breath of childhood. It is lovely. Second the story captures the genesis of an author. Betsy is caught reading dime store novels (gasp!) and is throughly chastened by her mom and dad. So they do what any good parent in 1911 would. They arrange for Betsy to make a weekly trip down to...more
We did not edit out the part in Betsy and Tacy where the baby dies...but I am slightly editing this one.
Questions I didn't want...
what's trashy? We skipped the word trashy... Tacy's father didn't like the book, that's all.
What is a beer calender? - nope its just a calendar.
What is black face? She's just a plain dancer.
While I have said that the name of the show is Uncle Tom's cabin, the rest of the time I just read "the show" I din't want the title embedded in memory with all the repetition.
Some...more
Questions I didn't want...
what's trashy? We skipped the word trashy... Tacy's father didn't like the book, that's all.
What is a beer calender? - nope its just a calendar.
What is black face? She's just a plain dancer.
While I have said that the name of the show is Uncle Tom's cabin, the rest of the time I just read "the show" I din't want the title embedded in memory with all the repetition.
Some...more
Feb 09, 2012
Marie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Classics, Children's, Fans of Little House on the Prairie, Fans of Anne of Green Gables
Recommended to Marie by:
Heather Vogel Frederick
Shelves:
read-for-book-club
One of my favorite books ever. As I mentioned in my review of Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill I thought that it would be hard for me to watch them grow up and yet still be little kids, at least until high school. I was wrong. I feel like that book was just an awkward transition book for me. I was still coping with the fact that they're not little kids anymore, but they're not quite grown either. This book was different. Even though they were still only twelve and not in high school yet, I fo...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jan 18, 2010
Heidi
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Heidi by:
Saralyn
Shelves:
2010-book-challenge,
children-0-12,
fiction,
series,
historical,
2010-ya-book-challenge,
humor,
ya-12-19,
biography,
i-own,
juv-6-12
I love that the books are growing up with the girls, including the people they meet and the town "expanding." It is just like childhood--everything broadened as I got older. I love the new characters. I love the experiences. The staring made me laugh. The play made me a bit jealous--I always wanted to do something like that when I was little. And the library? Well, how could I not love Betsy's joy of the library?!
So far, there really is only one thing I do not like about the series: the titles....more
So far, there really is only one thing I do not like about the series: the titles....more
My visits to Deep Valley, Minnesota, continue. "Downtown" is the Betsy/Tacy book with the most depth so far. The girls are twelve years old, and have left behind their world of fantasy play in favor of the interests and pleasures of reality and relationship. Many themes crop up. First, there is the irony of the horseless carriage. We know it will eventually destroy Deep Valley, and Ms. Lovelace does briefly mention the "evil smell". But the residents of Deep Valley --- with the exception of the...more
This was one of my very favourite books when I was twelve. I'm not sure if that's just because that's when I got the book or because Betsy and her friends are also twelve in the book - I liked reading books about children who were my own age. I adored the theatrical thread running throughout the book, the section on Christmas that seemed to bottle up all I felt about Christmas so beautifully, and most of all Winona.
I have no idea what it is about Winona that I like so much, except that perhaps s...more
I have no idea what it is about Winona that I like so much, except that perhaps s...more
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, the fourth book in the Betsy-Tacy series, originally published in 1943, is my favorite of the Betsy-Tacy books so far. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are 12 years old and are trading in picnics on the Big Hill for solo trips to downtown Deep Valley, Minnesota, and they embark on more grown up adventures to the library and the Opera House. Like all of the previous Betsy-Tacy books, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown made me laugh out loud numerous times. In one of these hilarious scenes...more
This is the last of the "younger" Betsy books, taking us to turn of the century Minnesota, horse-less carriages, and many wonderful new friends. BTGD introduces us to Winona Root, Mrs. Poppy, and some of the places and items we will know and love in the "high school" books. A wonderful look at the transition into adolecense. We also read about the tradition of the annual christmas shopping trip that Betsy and Tacy take together. On a personal note, this is a tradition that my sisters and I do ev...more
And now these feel like novels, more like I remember them reading. Although, oddly, I don't specifically recall reading this one. Bits felt familiar, like with her uncle, and Margaret's doll, but the rest not. How odd.
Anyway, I loved it. I loved the girls growing up, and how so many fewer of Tib's lines had the tag, "Of course Tib would say that." 'Bout time we were allowed to know Tib without author intrusion. I also loved all the winter scenes, and Christmas, and Christmas shopping. How do I...more
Anyway, I loved it. I loved the girls growing up, and how so many fewer of Tib's lines had the tag, "Of course Tib would say that." 'Bout time we were allowed to know Tib without author intrusion. I also loved all the winter scenes, and Christmas, and Christmas shopping. How do I...more
Okay, I know I said in my last review (the one I wrote of Betsy, Tacy and Tib that I wasn't really interested in reading the rest of the series. But Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill and this one are really charming, and of course quick reads. The next books in the series look somewhat more grown-up--I can't wait to see what Betsy, Tacy and Tib are like when they're teenagers!
I grew up with only the first three in the series, so it was kind of strange to read this book for the first time in my late twenties. B, T, & T make a new friend named Winona, who takes them to the theater to see Uncle Tom's Cabin. They also make friends with a fancy but lonely hotel-owner's wife named Mrs. Poppy, who reunites Betsy's family with a long-lost relative. So cute.
Once again, this fourth book in the Betsy-Tacy series is well written and full of emotionally lovely moments. As an adult reading it for the first time, I saw the story lines coming from a million miles away but I thoroughly enjoyed them anyway. Some of the more old-fashioned stuff such as the furs and performance of the play Uncle Tom’s Cabin (the latter of which I’m sure was ahead for its time) rubbed me slightly the wrong way, and I’d have loved to hear more about the new library and Betsy’s...more
This book was more mature and included how not to beg for something you want really badly and also discovering the beauty of libraries. Also, that opening drawing of Betsy sitting in a tree writing makes me insanely jealous. Who doesn't want to be writing in a tree? Well, maybe a few people but I hope not too many :)
Somehow I missed the Betsy and Tacy books when I was growing up, but I'm so glad I've found them now! This one is my favorite so far, especially the chapter about their annual Christmas shopping trip. It makes me wish I had a little girl to share them with.
As they turn 12 B, T, and T branch out from their little neighborhood. Betsy really starts to explore her writing more seriously and earns the privilege to go downtown alone to discover the library and the joy of reading by the fire and checking out books for two weeks at a time. Currently many of my students don't go near the library...they say their parents will buy them books. So sad.
Betsy's adventures are starting to get big time. She's really coming into her self and finally starting to get into her writing. And everyone in Deep Valley seems to appreciate her, Tacy and Tib as much as they should be. Love this.
Full review at: http://dogearedandwellread.wordpress....
I enjoyed this Betsy-Tacy book immensely! Now that the girls are twelve, they are enjoying their freedom and learning more about themselves and other people...Maud Hart Lovelace had a real talent for writing the girls in a very honest way. They never act out of the ordinary for girls their age.
I enjoyed this Betsy-Tacy book immensely! Now that the girls are twelve, they are enjoying their freedom and learning more about themselves and other people...Maud Hart Lovelace had a real talent for writing the girls in a very honest way. They never act out of the ordinary for girls their age.
Charming. I love Betsy and her adventures. Lydia really liked this one too, even though the girls are older in this book. I was afraid she would lose interest, but she's requested it every night for a while.
There were two things in this book that nearly made me weep from happiness:
1. Betsy getting the trunk to write on
2. Betsy's parents working out a wonderful ritual of library visits
(read: 31)
1. Betsy getting the trunk to write on
2. Betsy's parents working out a wonderful ritual of library visits
(read: 31)
This is my favorite one yet- so imaginative! I also liked how some of the chapters center around the girls Christmas festivities and also Betsy's first trip to the library.
This one actually made me tear up a bit! Lovelace somehow manages to write about a specific childhood in a specific time and place and yet make it about all childhoods. I loved it.
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Maud Hart Lovelace was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. She was the middle of three children born to Thomas and Stella (Palmer) Hart. Her sister, Kathleen, was three years older, and her other sister, Helen, was six years younger. “That dear family" was the model for the fictional Ray family.
Maud’s birthplace was a small house on a hilly residential street several blocks above Mankat...more
More about Maud Hart Lovelace...
Maud’s birthplace was a small house on a hilly residential street several blocks above Mankat...more
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“She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns there and of going out to a restaurant, alone, to eat.”
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55 people liked it
“Betsy returned to her chair, took off her coat and hat, opened her book and forgot the world again.”
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36 people liked it
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