They were all subtitled 'Monkeyshine of Mankatoman.' Maud titled her diaries 'Comedy of Errors' for her freshman year in high school, 'Much Ado About Nothing' for her sophomore year, 'As You Like It' for her junior year, and 'All's Well That Ends Well' for her senior year.

Lovelace were not, among other things, one of the most unflagging diarists since Pepys.' ( The Betsy-Tacy Companion, page 174) According to the original publisher of Betsy In Spite of Herself, ' the Betsy-Tacy series might never have been written if Mrs.

All the books, but Betsy's Wedding were written and published while at this home. (Note: the house pictured above-right is where Maud and Delos lived at the time she was writing the Betsy-Tacy books. You must take Betsy through high school.' She went into the living room to see what was so funny and discovered him reading her diaries. Initially Maud was embarrassed and found them silly and 'full of slang and boys, boys, boys.' She immediately dismissed the idea of using any of them for potential story plots, but eventually changed her mind after one evening when she overhead Delos laughing. It happened around 1944 when Maud received from her parents a box of her high school memorabilia, which included her diaries. Maud originally planned to stop the series after Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, but her husband, Delos and daughter, Merian changed her mind. Likewise the fourth book was first titled Downtown and later changed to Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. It was instead titled Over the Big Hill and later changed to Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill. Maud titled the third Betsy-Tacy book Betsy, Tacy and Tib are Ten, but the publisher didn't like the title. The Betsy-Tacy series began in the form of bedtime stories that Maud told her daughter, Merian. Likewise each of the last six books in the series ( Heavens to Betsy, Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy Was a Junior, Betsy and Joe, Betsy and the Great World, and Betsy's Wedding) increase both in vocabulary difficulty and in content.

The first four books in the Betsy-Tacy series ( Betsy-Tacy, Betsy, Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown) increase in reading difficulty so that the child reading can grow up along with Betsy, Tacy and Tib. The real Betsy (Maud), Tacy (Bick), and Tib (Midge) were all present in Mankato for the celebration of Betsy-Tacy Day, October 7, 1961. Before we reach the end of October and in turn the end of the Maud Hart Lovelace Reading Challenge I thought I'd share a few quotes, facts, and links about these books and their much beloved author.

Maud hart lovelace society