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May 18, 2010

Lisa rated it:

As with the previous six books, this seventh Betsy-Tacy book was exceedingly well written.

Maud Hart Lovelace = a genius.

I can’t otherwise explain why I care so much about the characters and the story when I don’t give a hang about fashion or hairstyles or many of the other frequently mentioned things in the book/these books. I will admit the very, very, very frequently mentioned pompadour hairstyle ended up irritating me slightly.

Betsy and her crowd are growin More...

28 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2009

Melody rated it:

This particular book makes me want to reach through the years and shake Betsy so hard her teeth chatter. She's lost nearly all the ground she gained in the first two years of high school, she's flitting from interest to interest, she's just not focused- and yet, and yet... I love her so. Also, in this volume we are introduced to that exciting specimen, the Perfectly Awful Girl- to wit:

"'Tony is suspended again,' Alice said.
'What happened?'
'I hate to say it, but I bel More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2009

Jan rated it:

Lots of Betsy-Tacy lovers find BWAJ a difficult book. Betsy makes many wrong choices and suffers the consequences. I find it very instructive without being preachy. Two life lessons that it teaches are: 1. Often seemingly simple fun and frivolous pasttimes can have very negative effects in our lives. 2. Living for yourself and the pleasure in a moment, instead of thinking of others and endeavoring to serve and please them, often leaves one with guilt, emptiness, regrets or all three. In BWAJ More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Danielle added it

I thoroughly enjoy re-reading these books and even though the setting is in the 1910's in Minnesota I find that the lives of high-school students of today are still basically faced with the same situations as those of the turn of the century. They are social and still finding themselves and their place in the world. They are learning to make decisions and realizing that they will make many mistakes along the way. Life was, yes, a bit simpler-in terms of communication and technology but human More...

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Mar 24, 2010

Lawrence rated it:

This book was quite good. Betsy begins to grow up and mature. Consequences of her behavior become real to her, and she begins to understand the attitudes of others to her and how some of her behavior is self-limiting. For example, in the previous two books, her loss of the essay contests does not appear to affect her; but in this book, when she is not even selected to participate in the contest, she is plainly told the reasoning behind the decision --- it is not her abilities that have been q More...

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May 03, 2007

Elizabeth rated it:

for the first time in my young adolesence as a Betsy, this story helped me believe that not only could I be pretty and popular and go out on dates, but when preparing for said dates, I could even do adorably clumsy things like burning my bangs off with a curling iron, and I would still come out alright in the end! Thanks Maud (no E, just like me!) Hart Lovelace!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 23, 2007

Maisie rated it:

This is probably one of my favorites from the series. Ah, nostalgia!!!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2010

Heidi rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 24, 2010

Abigail rated it:

The seventh book in Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy~Tacy series - in which the youthful trials and tribulations of three Minnesota girls growing up in the early years of the twentieth century are detailed - Betsy Was a Junior (as the name would suggest) follows Betsy, Tacy and Tib through their third year of high school. There are changes aplenty, from Tib's return to Deep Valley and Julia's departure for University, to Betsy's creation of the Okto Delta sorority. Despite her list of plans, and her d More...

13 comments like (7 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2007

Carmen rated it:

Betsy Was a Junior is perhaps the most fun-filled book of the entire Betsy-Tacy series. It opens with Tib's return from Milwaukee, which is met with joy and happiness by Betsy and Tacy. Three strong once again, the girls busy themselves with attending dances, performing in school recitals, and, of course, hanging out with their Crowd.

Prompted by older sister Julia's rhapsodic descriptions of sorority life, Betsy decides to follow suit by creating a high school sorority called Okto D More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Ro rated it:

I think this is my favorite Betsy-Tacy Book so far. Betsy's choices may be frustrating, but the overall theme of resolving to try again when we don't meet our personal goals is perhaps something we can all relate to. We all let ourselves and our loved ones down at some point, but we also grow, mature, and try and do better. Plus the joke Christmas presents were hilarious. I laughed very hard at all of Betsy's "married" names.

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Sep 20, 2010

Megan rated it:

Oh my. Maybe I rushed reading this installment, but it did not improve from my childhood estimation. The greater moral lesson for Betsy here felt to heavy handed: "Be popular and inclusive." I did like how Julia gives up her sorority obsession in an instant to travel abroad and learn to sing opera. it sounds like an obvious choice, but in many ways it isn't. And I love how she leaps at the chance, and counts the cost but nil.

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May 29, 2010

Marcy rated it:

This is the book where we have to watch Betsy as she buys into being popular, starts an exclusive sorority, ignores her best intentions, and finds out the hard way that "you ought not go through life, even a small section of life like high school with your friendships fenced in by snobbish artificial Barriers." And she and Joe have their first dance.YIPEE!!!
My favorite part though & flowers; then stay up all night trying to press and label each one, all for a botany project th More...

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Dec 30, 2010

Linda rated it:

I think these coming of age books - although set in 1910 - 1918 - are as relevant today to young people as ever. Beautiful, heart-warming stories based on the author's life and friends. I read them first in high school and am rediscovering them now.

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Dec 01, 2011

Abigail (Abbe) marked it as to-read

My book is a later printing than this red cover but has the same image. I can't wait to read the complete series. I did not read this far as a little girl in elementary school. I think I read the first 5 only.

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Feb 09, 2011

Judy rated it:

Ok, did anyone else think that Okto club pretty snotty and elitist? But I suppose wanting to find a group to fit in and be popular is such a right of passage in high school (not saying that I did that, of course!)

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Oct 17, 2009

bookishblonde rated it:

Some things about sororities don't seemed to have changed much in the last 100 years... I was surprised and then pleased to find this a large part of this year in Betsy's life. She is inspired by her older sister's reports of rushing at U.Minn., so she starts her own sorority with her HS buddies. Lovelace is not hesitant to show what she learned from that little experiment. Well-written and engrossing.

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Jun 24, 2011

Susan rated it:

I read this series was I was a teenager and loved it. My daughter read it 30 years later and loved it, too. We have collected the series for her daughter to read when she is ready. Dated, but not out of date.

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May 22, 2011

Kristen rated it:

I am having fun reprising this series, which I started long, long, ago (in the 1980s) but never came across the final four books. This one was the first one I hadn't read yet, and it was great, just as the others have been.

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Jan 15, 2009

Susann rated it:

"She stood for some time with the card in her hand before she went upstairs."
I love that I don't consider this to be my favorite of the high school Betsy-Tacy books, but I still consider it worthy of a 5-star rating. Maud's superb writing always gives me new ideas to sort over. With this re-read, I mostly focused on the theme of transitions and growing up. And, for my first time, I paid attention to the song that Mamie Dodd plays when Betsy and Joe finally dance together: "T More...

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Mar 08, 2011

Krystal rated it:

It took bit more for me to be interested in Betsy this time around. During her junior year, she learns the painful lesson about popularity and cliques so I spent a lot of time saying "Oh Bets, not a good idea." However, the great thing about Betsy, is she always comes through in the end. She does a lot of growing in this book for the better so I excited for the next one and senior year.

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Jan 15, 2012

Jess rated it:

So is the wrong reaction to this book "OH, TONY"? Because that's sort of what I'm left with. Also, an intense desire to knock Betsy and Joe's heads together.

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Dec 31, 2011

Miriam rated it:

This book is as well-written as the other books in the series, but Betsy is a bit of a "mean girl" in this one, so it just wasn't as pleasant to read.

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Dec 11, 2009

Glorious.Clio rated it:

A discussion of what true friendship and realistic goals. With love, humor, and onion sandwiches in-between.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Tina added it

I love all the Betsy-Tacys, but I think the 4 set in high school are my favorites.

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Jul 31, 2009

HD added it

Pretty much every fall, I read the entire series. Have been doing this since I was 8.

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Mar 06, 2009

Kate rated it:

This book is very awesome, this girl from books before comes back from this place.

This book was really awesome, the ending was really sad! I think this person might die of this illness that was really common in the early 1900s witch was when this book takes place. I really liked this book though, and I can't wait to read the next one in the series!

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Jul 03, 2009

SheWunders rated it:

The Betsy-Tacy series is set in the 20s I think. Every time I read a Betsy book (or an Anne book) it makes me wish for a simpler time. BUT in comparing the attitudes of Betsy's "Crowd" to today's gaggle of kids I don't think their motives are very different. It's the means in which the motives are achieved. Interesting. Ponder... ponder... ponder... I conclude that in we're really the same now internally as we were then. Just now we have more ways of doing bad stuff. There's just More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Sab rated it:

In which Betsy and her friends form Okto Delta, and prove that hanging out with the popular kids can take its toll on yer academic life. Still fascinated by the mysterious Joe Willard, Betsy dates boys from the Crowd instead, and it all comes down to an Essay Contest she wasn't even invited to participate in. "I've let my writing go this year," Betsy says. "Imagine if my writing went away entirely?" And Betsy, the writer since birth, decides that next year she's not going to More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Kerith rated it:

Betsy starts off her junior year promising to settle down and work hard...and then big sister Julia goes off to university and brings back tales of sororities, thus spurring Betsy to start one herself. This isn't my favorite of the Betsy-Tacy books but it's still a lot of fun. I love these tales of friendship and the Ray family is a delight. Betsy, as always, learns valuable lessons and grows up a little bit more.

Since I re-read BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF recently it just seemed right to continue More...

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