“Some characters become your friends for life. That’s how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.” —Judy Blume

Read by Mara Wilson

In the first of the high school books in Maud Hart Lovelace’s beloved Betsy-Tacy series, Betsy and Tacy experience the highs and lows of freshman and sophomore year in Deep Valley, Minnesota in 1906 and 1907.

Betsy Ray is loving every minute of freshman year at Deep Valley High in Heaven to Betsy – with new and old friends all around, her high school “Crowd” is born. Her passion to become a writer faces off with a tough teacher for the first time and she finds camaraderie with a new, if aloof, boy in town who share her talent for writing. But most intriguing of all is the boy she and her best friend Tacy dub the “Tall Dark Stranger.”

As a sophomore, Betsy finds herself the center of every activity at Deep Valley High in Betsy in Spite of Herself – and suddenly, thanks to her old friend Tib, she’s offered a golden opportunity for glorious transformation. But will she impress the boy with the shiny red auto by becoming dramatic, mysterious “Betsye,” while staying true to herself, the Crowd and her dream of becoming a writer – or would she be better off just being Betsy in Spite of Herself?

Featuring a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman, cover art illustrated by Vera Neville from the original 1945 publication of Heaven to Betsy, interior illustrations by Neville, along with archival material and photos of Maud Hart Lovelace, her friends and the town of Mankato, MN, the basis for Deep Valley.

Many of places and homes from the books can still be seen today, including Betsy’s and Tacy’s childhood homes, which are available to tour thanks to the Betsy-Tacy Society.

Read all the books in the classic Betsy-Tacy series, which follows aspiring writer Betsy Ray and her friends from the age of five through to Betsy’s post-high school travel in pre-WWI Europe and her wedding, spanning the first decade of the 1900s and beyond. These iconic stories, based in large part on Maud Hart Lovelace’s own childhood, teenage years and young adulthood in Mankato (Deep Valley), MN have been beloved by generations of readers and authors alike:

The Betsy-Tacy Books
Betsy-Tacy
Betsy, Tacy and Tib
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
Also available in the four-volume omnibus The Betsy-Tacy Treasury
Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself (two-volume omnibus)
Betsy Was a Junior/Betsy and Joe (two-volume omnibus)
Betsy and the Great World/Betsy’s Wedding (two-volume omnibus)

The Deep Valley Books (books about other characters in Betsy’s Crowd and town):
Carney’s House Party/Winona’s Pony Cart (two-volume omnibus)
Emily of Deep Valley