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Betsy #4
Betsy and the Boys
Carolyn Haywood's stories about her irrepressible character Betsy have never been out of print, and now, thanks to dynamic new covers, the Betsy books will find their way onto the bookshelves of modern young readers--and into the hearts of a whole new generation.
It's a new year, and Betsy has a new She is going to play football on the boys' team. Of course, the boys refuse to play football with a girl. That is, until Betsy and Mr. Kilpatrick cook up a secret plan to win Betsy a spot on the team. . . .
It's a new year, and Betsy has a new She is going to play football on the boys' team. Of course, the boys refuse to play football with a girl. That is, until Betsy and Mr. Kilpatrick cook up a secret plan to win Betsy a spot on the team. . . .
160 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 1945
9 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn Haywood
63 books80 followersCarolyn Haywood was an American writer and illustrator of children’s books, best known for her beloved “Eddie” and “Betsy” series, which captured everyday childhood with warmth and authenticity. Raised in a supportive, middle-class Philadelphia family, she developed her artistic talents early, studying art and later working as a teacher, an experience that inspired her to write for young readers. After formal training in fine arts and travel in Europe, she worked on murals before turning fully to books. Her debut, “B” is for Betsy, appeared in 1939, launching a prolific career built on close observation of children’s lives and feelings, continuing for decades.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 17, 2021
Definitely dated in some ways. Red police car, receipt for recipe, Lucy the cook....
But I do like that Betsy gets to play football. Too bad she doesn't play it longer, but I guess it was probably boring after a month.
I liked this book better than the previous two. She has more agency, more chances for things to go wrong and for her own efforts being needed to fix them. Still, Busy Summer is the best I've yet read.
But I do like that Betsy gets to play football. Too bad she doesn't play it longer, but I guess it was probably boring after a month.
I liked this book better than the previous two. She has more agency, more chances for things to go wrong and for her own efforts being needed to fix them. Still, Busy Summer is the best I've yet read.
March 1, 2020
This wasn't my favorite of the Betsy books. I wasn't particularly interested in the episodes here, they didn't feel as connected to the rest of the series and Betsy seemed a little different somehow. I'm also not sure how I felt about the resolution of Betsy wanting to play football with the neighborhood boys it was a little too 1950s for my taste.
December 11, 2011
I first discovered this delightful novel as a young student at Windsor Elementary School. Heck, all these years later, I still remember the name of the first chapter, “Pancakes and Cream Puffs.” I guess I really liked this one as a kid.
Anyway, this is Betsy’s story. In the fourth grade and full of spunk, Betsy wants to play football with the boys. She also wants to make pancakes and cream puffs with her pal, Billy Porter. And there’s also a strange misunderstanding involving boys and valentines.
It’s all very innocent and sweet. Did I mention that it was written in 1945? And that the illustrations are awesomely retro?
This is a sweet book for sweet girls of all ages. It is just as good as I had remembered it to be.
Anyway, this is Betsy’s story. In the fourth grade and full of spunk, Betsy wants to play football with the boys. She also wants to make pancakes and cream puffs with her pal, Billy Porter. And there’s also a strange misunderstanding involving boys and valentines.
It’s all very innocent and sweet. Did I mention that it was written in 1945? And that the illustrations are awesomely retro?
This is a sweet book for sweet girls of all ages. It is just as good as I had remembered it to be.
February 1, 2018
This is a fun read. I rarely give five stars, I remember reading what I called in elementary school, "The Betsy Books" over and over again.
No one should 'expect' this book to speak to today's children, however, I think reading it can teach children today what life was like decades before they were born. They may have even been considered "outdated" in the 1960's when I read them. That never occurred to me when I was a kid. I just liked the way Carolyn Haywood tells her stories.
I love these books and am a little disappointed that our local library only has a few. Probably ten years ago I bought of copy of "B is for Betsy" and read it to my daughter who was 9 years old. She loved it.
I think if as adults we do not become so critical of books that we believe are "outdated" and comment on that, kids may just read these books and other classics and glean something from them. I have always encouraged my children to read whatever appeals to them no matter when it was written.
No one should 'expect' this book to speak to today's children, however, I think reading it can teach children today what life was like decades before they were born. They may have even been considered "outdated" in the 1960's when I read them. That never occurred to me when I was a kid. I just liked the way Carolyn Haywood tells her stories.
I love these books and am a little disappointed that our local library only has a few. Probably ten years ago I bought of copy of "B is for Betsy" and read it to my daughter who was 9 years old. She loved it.
I think if as adults we do not become so critical of books that we believe are "outdated" and comment on that, kids may just read these books and other classics and glean something from them. I have always encouraged my children to read whatever appeals to them no matter when it was written.
August 13, 2021
Sometimes it’s fun to revisit books you loved as a child. This was one of my favorites, and it helped me make sense of the fact that I like a lot of things boys liked back then, baseball, computers, cars, you get the idea. I wanted to be excepted for the person I am, not forced to fit into somebody’s mold of what a girl should be. This book helped me work through some of those feelings and find a way to confidently be myself.
August 29, 2025
Such a clean, wholesome read for children! I recommend this to any child! A delightful story! Sweet stories like this I use for “pallet cleansers”, especially after the two very intense books I just read. This book is written in a bigger font and would be easy for children to read on their own. It’s a 5 star book for me!
March 31, 2022
I love Carolyn Haywood books! I love reading them to my kids to hear the sweet innocence that used to exist in books. From the police man that gives Betsy a kitten, to apologizing for Valentines gone wrong. Such a great book with great upstanding characters with amazing morals!
August 1, 2017
I'll give it 3 stars if this is a read aloud to a child 8 or younger.
By the time most 21st century children read well enough to pick this up on their own it would be too simplistic and dated.
By the time most 21st century children read well enough to pick this up on their own it would be too simplistic and dated.
July 15, 2018
Fun, sweet book from my childhood. It was good to reread it.
July 31, 2021
Good read. Fun for kids.
October 20, 2022
Betsy's 4th grade year is filled with football, ice skating, a neighborhood Christmas play, and a surprising Valentine's Day
August 7, 2020
My 7 year old really enjoyed this!
Read
July 25, 2009Haywood, C. (1945). Betsy and the Boys. Orlando: Harcourt Books.
0152051023
Don’t judge a book by the cover. This cover is an update. The content of this book and the illustrations are authentic 1940s fluff. Betsy and the Boys follows the daily lives of Betsy and her best friend Billy as they cook, attend school, enjoy Valentine's Day, prepare for a play, wash dogs and play football.
With all of the ‘gees’, ‘gollies’, ‘jimminies’ and ‘you betchas,’ it’s easy to think the book is stereotypical of the time it’s describing. That is of course, until you think about the plot. Billy bakes along side Betsy. And Betsy searches for a way to play football with the boys. (Don’t get me wrong, this book doesn’t completely deconstruct gender stereotypes—the parents seem to embody traditional gender roles and Betsy *SPOILER* is subtly directed away from playing football)
Betsy and the Boys shares the experiences of everyday middle class (white!) suburban experience. Most of the children in the narrative are good and well-intentioned. The chapters feel episodic (which would lend itself to being read aloud) with an overarching plot that fades in and out.
This is one book in a larger Betsy series by Haywood.
Activities to do with the book:
While I wouldn’t say that Betsy and the Boys is the most tense or fast-paced book in the history of the world, it can still manage to be engrossing as a read aloud to eight or nine-year-olds or as a social studies read into life in the U.S. during the 1940s (without that pesky second World War to bring anyone down).
Older students could use this book to examine how both gender and childhood are constructed. Since Valentine's Day is celebrated in a certain way in the book, students could "write back" with their own experiences of the holiday.
Favorite Quotes:
“Betsy, Billy, and Ellen had met in the first grade. They had become fast friends as they worked and played together” (p. 1).
“After the pancake and cream puff experience, Billy began calling Betsy “Pancake” and Betsy called Billy “Cream Puff.”
At first, Billy didn’t mind. He just thought it was funny. But when the Wilson boys, who lived around the corner from Billy, heard Betsy call Billy Cream Puff, they screamed with laughter” (p. 16).
“Who ever heard of a girl on a football team?
“Girls can do anything,” said Betsy. “Girls can fly airplanes and drive taxicabs and run streetcars. Why can’t they play football?”
“Cause they can’t,” said Rudy.
“Well, I betcha I’ll be on the team,” said Betsy” (p. 20).
For more of my reviews, visit sjkessel.blogspot.com.
0152051023
Don’t judge a book by the cover. This cover is an update. The content of this book and the illustrations are authentic 1940s fluff. Betsy and the Boys follows the daily lives of Betsy and her best friend Billy as they cook, attend school, enjoy Valentine's Day, prepare for a play, wash dogs and play football.
With all of the ‘gees’, ‘gollies’, ‘jimminies’ and ‘you betchas,’ it’s easy to think the book is stereotypical of the time it’s describing. That is of course, until you think about the plot. Billy bakes along side Betsy. And Betsy searches for a way to play football with the boys. (Don’t get me wrong, this book doesn’t completely deconstruct gender stereotypes—the parents seem to embody traditional gender roles and Betsy *SPOILER* is subtly directed away from playing football)
Betsy and the Boys shares the experiences of everyday middle class (white!) suburban experience. Most of the children in the narrative are good and well-intentioned. The chapters feel episodic (which would lend itself to being read aloud) with an overarching plot that fades in and out.
This is one book in a larger Betsy series by Haywood.
Activities to do with the book:
While I wouldn’t say that Betsy and the Boys is the most tense or fast-paced book in the history of the world, it can still manage to be engrossing as a read aloud to eight or nine-year-olds or as a social studies read into life in the U.S. during the 1940s (without that pesky second World War to bring anyone down).
Older students could use this book to examine how both gender and childhood are constructed. Since Valentine's Day is celebrated in a certain way in the book, students could "write back" with their own experiences of the holiday.
Favorite Quotes:
“Betsy, Billy, and Ellen had met in the first grade. They had become fast friends as they worked and played together” (p. 1).
“After the pancake and cream puff experience, Billy began calling Betsy “Pancake” and Betsy called Billy “Cream Puff.”
At first, Billy didn’t mind. He just thought it was funny. But when the Wilson boys, who lived around the corner from Billy, heard Betsy call Billy Cream Puff, they screamed with laughter” (p. 16).
“Who ever heard of a girl on a football team?
“Girls can do anything,” said Betsy. “Girls can fly airplanes and drive taxicabs and run streetcars. Why can’t they play football?”
“Cause they can’t,” said Rudy.
“Well, I betcha I’ll be on the team,” said Betsy” (p. 20).
For more of my reviews, visit sjkessel.blogspot.com.
June 28, 2016
BETSY AND THE BOYS is a wonderful vintage juvenile fiction book in the "Betsy" series by Carolyn Haywood (1898-1990), an author noteworthy enough to receive a New York Times obituary on January 12, 1990.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/12/obi...
BETSY AND THE BOYS is an amusing chapter book aimed at 7-10 year olds first published in 1945 featuring the likable Betsy, who is now a 4th grader. This fiction is best approached with a historic filter: the stories preserve a sweet and happy, somewhat innocent, sanitized version of a middle-class (white), small town, childhood world that, at the publication time, would have been in the realistic fiction category. Now the book offers a chance for modern readers to compare the activities, daily life, and attitudes of the 1945 era with life and childhood today.
The book is quite "wholesome." It opens with Betsy and her friend Billy in the kitchen at Billy's house. Both like to cook.
Spoiler alert: The handle of the container holding pancake batter breaks spilling batter all over the linoleum floor. Betsy, Billy, and the dog slip and slide harmlessly, sending them into gales of laughter.
Cream puffs are their next attempt.
Spoiler: The children innocently split the dough into only two cream puff balls, dough they don't know is meant to be enough for 36 minis, so when they check the oven after a while, they see unexpectedly large cream puffs!
Betsy and Billy learn their new teacher has an odd name that they can hardly say without laughing: Spoiler: it's Miss Pancake! And the teacher tells her class she knows it's funny and laughs along with the children.
Other chapters include stories about Valentine's Day, foul-smelling flea soap, dog bathing fundraising efforts in order to buy a football, birthday party, misunderstanding between friends, Betsy's wish to be included in the boys' football play, a Christmas party with a performance by the children, and youngsters being rescued by fire fighters from a bathroom they can't unlock.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/12/obi...
BETSY AND THE BOYS is an amusing chapter book aimed at 7-10 year olds first published in 1945 featuring the likable Betsy, who is now a 4th grader. This fiction is best approached with a historic filter: the stories preserve a sweet and happy, somewhat innocent, sanitized version of a middle-class (white), small town, childhood world that, at the publication time, would have been in the realistic fiction category. Now the book offers a chance for modern readers to compare the activities, daily life, and attitudes of the 1945 era with life and childhood today.
The book is quite "wholesome." It opens with Betsy and her friend Billy in the kitchen at Billy's house. Both like to cook.
Spoiler alert: The handle of the container holding pancake batter breaks spilling batter all over the linoleum floor. Betsy, Billy, and the dog slip and slide harmlessly, sending them into gales of laughter.
Cream puffs are their next attempt.
Spoiler: The children innocently split the dough into only two cream puff balls, dough they don't know is meant to be enough for 36 minis, so when they check the oven after a while, they see unexpectedly large cream puffs!
Betsy and Billy learn their new teacher has an odd name that they can hardly say without laughing: Spoiler: it's Miss Pancake! And the teacher tells her class she knows it's funny and laughs along with the children.
Other chapters include stories about Valentine's Day, foul-smelling flea soap, dog bathing fundraising efforts in order to buy a football, birthday party, misunderstanding between friends, Betsy's wish to be included in the boys' football play, a Christmas party with a performance by the children, and youngsters being rescued by fire fighters from a bathroom they can't unlock.
November 15, 2022
I have been looking for these books everywhere and I am so glad to have finally found them! While my friends in elementary school were always checking out the more "popular" books in the library, I found myself coming back to this series again and again. I'm pretty sure I read every book in the series at least twice! I'm a little perturbed to discover that they've been re-released with a more modern cover, because I actually prefer the vintage look. Brings back so many memories and should I stumble across these somewhere, I may just have to read them again!
March 18, 2013
Read this with Annie...such a cute book! Great book for little girls!
March 6, 2014
I Liked Betsy and the boys they had A Christmas and the fairies got stuck in the bathroom since they Locked them themselves in the bathroom and couldn't unlock it
March 13, 2015
Betsy just wants to be like one of the guys. But when it comes to lying to Billy, she does.
READ BETSY AND THE BOYS!!!!!
READ BETSY AND THE BOYS!!!!!
May 16, 2020
I liked it. She gets a football to keep from the boys so she can join the football team. And she does, then she gets ice skates so she goes ice skating instead.
June 24, 2024
Lizzie: I didn't like this as well as the other Betsy books I have read. This one seemed to end at a weird part, like it would be finished in a later book.
September 9, 2022
Very helpful if you are learning Norwegian, simple and funny, of course outdated otherwise
(Veldig hjelpelig hvis laerer du norsk, enkelt og morsomt, forresten er det utdatert)
(Veldig hjelpelig hvis laerer du norsk, enkelt og morsomt, forresten er det utdatert)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews