Betsy Was a Junior/Betsy and Joe

By Maud Hart Lovelace

"Some characters become your friends for life. That's how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy."--Judy Blume

With a Foreword by Meg Cabot

Maud Hart Lovelace's beloved Betsy-Tacy series continues with Betsy Was a Junior and Betsy and Joe. Betsy hopes that junior year will be the best school year ever, especially now that her charming, funny and dear friend Tib Muller is back in Deep Valley. But when the Crowd gets into trouble, and she finds herself growing apart from friends like Tony, Betsy's best year could turn out to be her worst.

Senior year starts out perfectly in Betsy and Joe, as the two born writers who've been kept apart by various misunderstandings finally start to "go together" with all the fun of their senior year ahead of them. But Betsy's friend Tony, who needs the safe comfort of the Crowd to keep him out of trouble, has come calling as well--and his intentions are definitely romantic.

Featuring a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, cover art illustrated by Vera Neville from the original 1947 publication of Betsy Was a Junior, 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

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061794724
• ISBN13: 9780061794728
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.3" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 7 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 4

Customer Reviews

I LOVE these books

My mother's hometown is the real Deep Valley, and I have loved these books for as long as I can remember. My grandmother and I spent a summer vaction tirelessly hunting down out of print, hardcover copies of all the high school books. They were, and remain, my very favorite young adult literature. I read them over and over because the invoke memories of a less frenzied time. I strongly recommend them for anyone.

A delicious experience, full of grace, charm, and humor

Betsy and Joe finally come together . . . and even then things don't always go smoothly! Full of tendeness and humor. Deep Valley at its best.

I love the Betsy-Tacy series!

My mother read the Betsy-Tacy series to me as a child and i've read them myself over and over again. Although I'm now in college I still enjoy them every time. I recomend this series to everyone! There's something about Betsy that just holds you to the books.

A wonderful, descriptive story of a young couple

I have read and loved every book of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy series. But this book stands apart as a wonderful touching story. Betsy, at a small town high school, has always liked and been fascinated by Joe Willard, a proud orphan boy who is as talented a writer as she. Though they have their ups and downs, Betsy and Joe end up together in the end, like any good romantic story, and figure out they loved each other all the time. It just takes a wonderful story for them to find their love, which blossoms in the literary style and wonderful description of this enchanting story.

amazing book- changed my life

this is the culmination of the Betsy series. It is the zenith of youth, the crux of Betsy's life: she and Joe finally get together, merging two souls and creating a new life. This book is very sweet, creating an accurate portrayal of life at the turn of the century. Betsy makes you laugh, cry, and rejoice as she finds happieness. It is a tale of childhood delights progressing to mature happiness and fufillment. A great read.