My Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace Book Review on Goodreads

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One of my favorite books ever. As I mentioned in my review of Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill I thought that it would be hard for me to watch them grow up and yet still be little kids, at least until high school. I was wrong. I feel like that book was just an awkward transition book for me. I was still coping with the fact that they're not little kids anymore, but they're not quite grown either. This book was different. Even though they were still only twelve and not in high school yet, I found this story not sad because they had already grow up in a way. There was no awkward dolly playing with yet love affairs like the previous. I felt like in this book I could just sit back and read.



This book focused a lot on Victorian society, which I liked a lot. It catered to my deep love for reading books that deal with ideas and inventions that the characters consider amazing (or unamazing depending on if it's historical or dystopian). When you read about, say how novelic it was to see a "horseless carriage" or use/own a telephone it makes me just brim up with happiness at the simplisticness of society, and gives me a deeper understanding of feelings/thoughts during that time period.



Really, this book just follows Betsy, Tacy, Tib, and a little bit of their newfound side friend, Winona, through the downtown area and all the marvelous things and experiences they discover there. Betsy goes to a library and eats lunch out at Heinz's Restaurant all by herself, they all got to a matinee and act in one, they ride in a horselss carriage, they use and own telephones, they go to parties and visit the wealthiest woman in Deep Valley, Mrs.Poppy, and they go Christmas shopping! The girls go throughout society, and it's like their first exposure to this whole new world.



There is no more doll-playing or game inventing, only the wonders of downtown.



Overall, this book was a joy for its (unusual for the series before this point) societal glimpses. My favorite so far because they finally grew up and their adventures are now more exciting (and easier to connect) with than ever! I'm sure Heaven to Betsy will exceed all my expectations with its even more relatableness and sophistication!



View all my reviews

Reading Log for Week of 2/3/12- 2/9/12

Saturday 2/4/12 1 hour Pgs: 1-60  (Literally, I'm not just making this up).                    

P.S. I switched out of this version to the better, more popular version that can be found here. For some background on the series, here's a YouTube video that a girl did on why she loves the Betsy-Tacy series and what they are about.

Betsy-Tacy Series Video                                                                                                                                                           

Betsy and Tacy have a deeper appreciation for certain things that may seem everyday to us because of the society, economy, and time period they live in.

                                                                                                                                                                       "A horseless carriage! Betsy, Tacy, and Tib were stunned into silence. There had been rumors for some time of a marvelous invention called the horseless carriage, a vehicle that ran without being pushed or pulled...even uphill (Lovelace 19)."

                                                                                                                                                                       

Things such as receving a telephone call, or even having a telephone are considered novels, rare, and wondrous for Betsy, Tacy, and Tib. Other things that excite Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are matinee plays, elevators, having books carried by a boy, going visiting with people late at night, bobsledding, going to the library and restaurant, reading romance dime novels, being given a dime, and more. The story is set in 1904, and society is very polite and Victorian. Things are being invented, thus creating the awe over inventions that did not exist before. The economy is different, so certain denominations of money are worth more than now. The world is different, and social, economic, and world factors affect the story and plot of the characters. This makes the story interesting to see what life was like back then.
                                                                                                                                                                       

Sunday 2/5/12 30 min Pgs: 61-88
and
Monday 2/6/12 30 min Pgs: 89-120




matinee (n) an entertainment, especially a dramatic or musical performance, held in the daytime, usually in the afternoon.
                                                                                                                                                                      
" 'See that? Uncle Tom's Cabin  or Life Among the Lowly. They're giving a matinee next Saturday. I;m going' (Lovelace 28)."
and
"Then Betsy and Tacy told her about the coming of Uncle Tom's Cabin. They told her about Little Eva and Topsy, about the transformation scene and the flogging scene and Eliza crossing the ice. They told her about Winona's tickets to the Saturday matinee. 'Gee whiz!' said Betsy. 'We've just got to be the ones she takes' (Lovelace 31)."
                                                                                                                                                                      
The matinees the girls see with Winona Root are the main pieces of the plot. The girls live for seeing these, because they are a symbol of social status, they enjoy watching them, and they symbolize a coming-of-age experience for the girls. The girls first get to watch one in a box, and later even get to act as fill-ins for other actors! The events with the matinees occur during much of the book, being the main conflict, resulting in why the word matinee is so important to the story.