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134th out of 246 books
—
76 voters
Betsy Was a Junior (Betsy-Tacy #7)
The Best School Year Ever That's the kind of junior year Betsy Ray has planned for herself. And when her childhood friend Tib Muller moves back to Deep Valley, Betsy's sure her perfect year is off to a grand start. With charming, funny Tib around, Crowd doings are more fun than ever -- especially after Betsy starts Okto Delta, the first -- ever sorority at Deep Valley High...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
March 31st 1995
by HarperTrophy
(first published March 31st 1947)
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Jan 24, 2010
Abigail
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Betsy-Tacy Fans / Anyone Interested in an Insightful Portrait of Teenage Girls
Recommended to Abigail by:
The BT Crowd
Shelves:
childrens-fiction,
maud-hart-lovelace
Review Temporarily Removed.
Sep 20, 2012
Melody
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
comfort-read,
favorites
9/2012 As hard as this one is to read (because it rings so true) there are parts that I love as much as anything else in the series. This is the book which caused me to fall in love with Cab. And then the momentous scratching of the dance! And the postcard. There's a lot of growth in this book, and I love it though it's never going to be easy.
12/2009 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 gaine...more
12/2009 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 gaine...more
5 likes · like · see review
May 18, 2010
Lisa Vegan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
many, but please read the first six books first
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 growing up in a way that feels completely...more
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 growing up in a way that feels completely...more
3 likes · like · see review
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, Be...more
Aug 05, 2011
Danielle Lentz
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 bei...more
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 ques...more
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!
This is probably one of my favorites from the series. Ah, nostalgia!!!
Mar 16, 2012
Marie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Little House on the Prairie, History, Anne of Green Gables Lovers
Recommended to Marie by:
Heather Vogel Frederick
Shelves:
read-for-book-club
Okay, so it's been a while since I read this, so this review will probably be shorter.
Well, there is this pattern I've been noticing that isn't really a great one. At the end of every year, Betsy resolves to be more serious about her schooling and stop putting her social life before the more important things. However,I think that this book was where she really actually learned her lesson and will stick to her resolution next year. After seeing how much Cab had to grow up when his father died, Be...more
Well, there is this pattern I've been noticing that isn't really a great one. At the end of every year, Betsy resolves to be more serious about her schooling and stop putting her social life before the more important things. However,I think that this book was where she really actually learned her lesson and will stick to her resolution next year. After seeing how much Cab had to grow up when his father died, Be...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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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 Delta. Althou...more
Prompted by older sister Julia's rhapsodic descriptions of sorority life, Betsy decides to follow suit by creating a high school sorority called Okto Delta. Althou...more
One of the fluffier ones -- basically about the evils of sororities and the joys of Tib returning to Deep Valley. Also about waiting around for Joe Willard to decide to be in love with you. There were some hilarious, capersome moments that hearkened back to the younger days (grades K-5) -- oh the herbariums! And the sobering realization that you can really hurt your little sister's feelings. I dunno, it was great, and I am way too excited for BETSY AND JOE. Swoon. Joe Willard is totally cool.
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.
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.
That's the kind of junior year Betsy Ray has planned for herself. And when her childhood friend Tib Muller moves back to Deep Valley, Betsy's sure her perfect year is off to a grand start. With charming, funny Tib around, Crowd doings are more fun than ever -- especially after Betsy starts Okto Delta, the first -- ever sorority at Deep Valley High
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 that they ignore...more
My favorite part though & flowers; then stay up all night trying to press and label each one, all for a botany project that they ignore...more
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.
another glorious installment. lindsay & i both agree that we liked this one because betsy is kind of a mess. she has lofty ambitions and falls short, sometimes hurts peoples feelings. in that way, high school betsy kind of reminds me of phyllis reynolds naylor's alice mckinley, and coming from me that is high praise indeed.
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.
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!)
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.
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.
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.
"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: "The girl I'll call my...more
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: "The girl I'll call my...more
This is my least favorite of Betsy's high school years because the bit about the sororities is unpleasant, but the ending is very emotional. That makes up for the rest.
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.
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.
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.
Another sweet book, but also one filled with wisdom about being true to yourself and what is really important in life.
A discussion of what true friendship and realistic goals. With love, humor, and onion sandwiches in-between.
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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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“One strain could call up the quivering expectancy of Christmas Eve, childhood, joy and sadness, the lonely wonder of a star”
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13 people liked it
“We'll just have to find more flowers in the spring. That's when they bloom, tra la.”
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6 people liked it
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Jan 25, 2010 05:30pm
Yes, Yes! Your must! :) I'm midway through Betsy and Joe, and just loving it...more
updated Jan 25, 2010 08:27pm