Betsy-Gracie

I am a huge fan of Betsy-Tacy books.

It's a series of books based on the true life (well, childhood and coming-of-age) of the author, Maud Hart Lovelace, growing up in small-town Minnesota at the turn of the century. The first book, Betsy-Tacy, begins when almost-5-year-old Betsy (based on Maud) becomes friends with actual 5-year-old Tacy (fictional counterpart of her friend Bick). In book 2, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, the close pair of friends become a trio. There are ten books in all, the last being Betsy's Wedding, which takes place about 20 years later.

I liked these books as a kid, and I rediscovered them when I was 15-16, living in Nice, France. I was very homesick, and one day I realized I had never read the 9th book - Betsy and the Great World. When I was a kid, I started it, but I stopped reading it because Betsy was traveling through Europe, but Tacy and Tib weren't with her.

It was like getting a Christmas or birthday present that someone had forgotten to give you. No, it was better than that. It was almost like when my friend Anne was looking through my CDs and found a Nat King Cole album that I had never opened, but put on the shelf and forgotten about. (I had bought it with two others, and in my excitement for the others, I had never even opened the Nat King Cole CD.) No, it was even better than that.

I know! It was like it would be if someone discovered a seventh complete novel by Jane Austen. That's how I felt.

Anyway, I decided to order it. What better time to read about a young woman living in Europe than when you, yourself, are a young woman living in Europe? While I was at it, I thought I might as well order the 4 high school books, which I probably hadn't read since I was 9 or so.

I waited and waited, and finally, my package came. Being the thorough person that I am, I started at the beginning, with Heaven to Betsy (the 5th book). And when I finished that one , I picked up Betsy in Spite of Herself, then Betsy Was a Junior, and then Betsy and Joe, and then, finally, Betsy and the Great World.

I read those books in a week. I read one each day. I remember, I tried to pace myself with the last one. Since I had never read it before, I managed to stretch out the reading of this particular book of juvenile fiction, appropriate for Ages 8 and up, over two days.

It must have been so hard to force myself to sleep that Friday night, and so exciting to wake up the next morning. I wonder if I reached for it the minute I opened my eyes, and stayed in my bed in the loft for however long it took to finish it. Or, maybe I stretched it out - got up, took a shower, ate breakfast... no, I probably didn't make it through breakfast!

I take Betsy and the Great World with me everywhere. I took it to the Dominican Republic, and it was the one book I couldn't, or wouldn't, leave behind for the school library. I have 6 Betsy-Tacy books here, and have read them all multiple times in the last 2.5 years.

I was thinking about them again this week because yesterday was my 22nd birthday, and I always remember the description of Betsy's 22nd birthday from The Great World:

"Since leaving Munich she had had her twenty-second birthday. A strange birthday with no cake or presents, just the wine of traveling alone... seeing strange places, meeting new people, struggling with a foreign language!" (Maud Hart Lovelace, pg. 218)

Well, my birthday wasn't alone, and I made myself a cake (yellow with chocolate frosting), and several of my friends gave me presents.

My parents gave me a present too - I got this card in the mail from the Betsy-Tacy Society.


"Dear Grace,
A gift of $100 was given in your honor by your mother. This gift will be used to pay the mortgage on Betsy's House."

There will be a plaque with my name on it in the house! It is the perfect present for someone in my situation - moving soon, far from being settled, and with little need or use for stuff. THANKS, MOM & DAD!

Oh, and if anybody else ever wants to get me a present...