Monday, May 18, 2009

Heaven to Betsy



Finished Heaven to Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace's fifth book in the series. Betsy and Tacy are now freshmen in high school. Many changes take place this year. Betsy's family moves to a new, larger home. They also acquire house help, a woman named Anna, who comes to live with them. The move away from Hill Street is sad for Betsy since she will no longer be right across the street from Tacy. The new house is lovely though. Betsy has her own room and makes new friends nearby. They become "The Crowd." Betsy quickly merges Tacy into The Crowd and they have many adventures and social activities. Boys become a major topic in this book. Betsy spends a lot of time on her personal appearance. She begins rolling her hair at night on curlers (magic wavers) that Anna has given her. She develops a crush on a new boy named Tony, but steps aside when she realizes that her friend Bonnie likes him too. We also meet Joe Willard, whose character was based on Maude's own husband, Delos Lovelace. The social negotiations between boys and girls are very carefully drawn here. Betsy has numerous learning experiences as a result of them. The prose has again matured to match the age of the characters. This was a very pleasant, comfortable read.

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