Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace

From Amazon:  "Betsy and Tacy are best friends. Then Tib moves into the neighborhood and the three of them start to play together. The grown-ups think they will quarrel, but they don't. Sometimes they quarrel with Betsy's and Tacy's bossy big sisters, but they never quarrel among themselves.


They are not as good as they might be. They cook up awful messes in the kitchen, throw mud on each other and pretend to be beggars, and cut off each other's hair. But Betsy, Tacy, and Tib always manage to have a good time."


 After reading the first book,  I decided to immediately get the second book from the library.  While I'm happy that I've continued to read, I wasn't as into Betsy-Tacy and Tib.  I think with the addition of Tib, I realized something -- I didn't really enjoy Tacy as much as I adored Betsy and Tib!  Betsy's imaginative nature and Tib's pragmatic nature are extremes that play off well against each other and make them fun to read.  Tacy's defining trait of shyness isn't as enjoyable to read though I did identify with it!

But, to jump back, Betsy-Tacy and Tib takes place about three years after Betsy-Tacy and the change in age does a bit to refresh the story.  Now, the girls realize that growth is constantly coming at them, and they even see their first glimpses of mortality (which would have been more real to a child back then) in Tacy's prolonged illness.  While they react to these ideas childishly and humorously, it's still a change from the previous book in which growing up meant being as old as their sisters who were then eight.

As I said, part of the thrill of the story was off for me when I realized I was getting irate with Tacy's actions or when I found the section on the flying woman not to fit into the story, but at other times, such as when the group decided to cook everything pudding, I felt happy I had picked up the second book so quickly.

I will definitely be continuing on with this series!

Verdict:  6.  Not as charming as the first book, but I still enjoyed it. 

Thoughts:  How about that scene in which Betsy doesn't understand why Tib can't grow up to be an architect but must be a housewife?  Maud Hart Lovelace pointing out the injustice of it all back in the Forties from the viewpoint of a girl growing up in the Nineteen Hundreds! 

Betsy-Tacy Books 

1. Betsy-Tacy
2. Betsy-Tacy and Tib