Good news Maud Hart Lovelace fans! Harper Collins publishers will be reissuing the Betsy-Tacy books, including Carney, Emily of Deep Valley, and Winona's Pony Cart beginning in December 1999. They will have NEW cover art and retain the Lenski and Neville illustrations inside.

HarperCollins made an excellent choice when they decided to reprint Maud Hart Lovelace's other Deep Valley books. Carney's House Party is, of the three being reprinted, the most essential to the events in the post-high-school Betsy-Tacy books, and it's hard to see why it was ever allowed to go out of print in the first place.

This book is wonderful for many reasons. First, it gives us more insight into Carney Sibley, always one of the most interesting characters in the series. It answers the question that the other books leave us wondering about: whatever happened with Carney and Larry? Carney's devotion to Larry was one of the mainstays in the Betsy-Tacy high school books, and readers will thoroughly enjoy seeing how the relationship plays out.

It is also fascinating to see Deep Valley through another character's eyes, and to see other characters' opinions of Betsy Ray (the Betsy-Tacy books were largely autobiographical, and Betsy, the main character in most of the books, is Lovelace's fictional alter ego). Since the book has been out of print for so long, many readers will be thrilled to see new episodes involving the Crowd. Sadly, Herbert and Tacy do not figure in, and there's not enough of Cab, but, happily, Joe Willard makes a brief cameo.

Lovelace's stories wear so well; Carney's experiences at Vassar, her uncertainty about how well she fits in in the East, and her emotional turmoil (well, as close as Carney will ever come to emotional turmoil) over Larry are all still engaging and relevant. The Crowd is wonderful as always, with lots of singing, dancing, and inside jokes (young Lochinvar!). Don't miss this bonus trip to Deep Valley!

I finally got ahold of a library copy of "Carney's House Party," and I am so excited to have read it! It was another great look at Deep Valley life, and for me it was great to *finally* see where the heck Sam came from. (If you go right from the high school books to "Betsy's Wedding," you don't get much explanation who this Sam guy is and what happened to Larry.)

This book made me feel like I was right there at the house party, with my good pals from high school Betsy and Carney and Bonnie. I hope the publisher sees fit to reissue this title, as well as "Emily of Deep Valley" and "Winona's Pony Cart," so that those of us that are B-T nuts can finish our collections.

Only thing is that I wished there had been more about Tacy, since she always was my favorite character. But a very small flaw, indeed. The Betsy-Tacy world is a magical place, and very soothing to read about.

"Heaven To Betsy", is the best book in the Betsy-Tacy series that I've read so far. It makes you wish that you could go to Deep Valley High yourself! I CAN'T WAIT to read the other Betsy-Tacy books as Betsy grows up.

The whole Betsy-Tacy series, especially
the high school and beyond ones, are books I
return to again and again with sentiment.
Though written in 1947 and set in the early
1900's, there is a timelessness to the frank
emotion and lush description of the teenage
adventures of our heroine, Betsy Ray. Betsy
is a good role model for today's young girls,
for though she is understandably interested
in boys and being well liked and known at
school, she is smart and has great ambitions
to be a great writer and a good sister.

Set in fictional Deep Valley, Minnesota but
based somewhat on the author's life and her
journals, the book is written with sweet
sentimentality and vivid memory of the
joys and heartaches of young adult life. It's
amazing how the feelings are very much the
same, though the 1900's were a different time
with different dress and customs. Readers
will love looking at Vera Neville's beautiful
drawings which should have been kept on the
paperback covers, and imagine a time when
lunch was called supper, boys came to "call",
all skirts came down to your ankles, and
friends sang around the piano knew how to waltz.

You will fall in love with the Ray family--
their fun traditions, the benign and joking
father, laughing and beautiful mother, sedate
Margaret the little sister, and of course
Julia, the lovely and soulful singer sister
who is always understanding and warm. Here
are parents still very much in love, sisters
who stopped fighting once they started high
school and actually support each other
. The Ray family that welcomes visitors any
any time of the day, so their home is always
brimming with fun.

Heaven to Betsy is about Betsy's freshman
year in high school, when she discovers boys
and has her first crush on mysterious and
worldly Tony Markham, becomes active in
school societies in performance and competing
in the Essay Contest. It is a wonderful
portrait of mainstream America in the 1900's
as well as a book young women can relate to
as they struggle with their own pains and
enjoy the thrills of growing up.

The Betsy-Tacy book series is fantasic, to say the least. When I was little, my mother read them aloud to my brothers and I. That's not to say they're only for children. Anyone will love these timeless classics. They feature Betsy Warrington Ray, a young aspiring writer, who's character is actually based closely upon author Maud Hart Lovelace's Life. In the first book, 'Betsy-Tacy', Betsy has her 5th birthday party and invites her new neighbor, 5-year-old Tacy Kelly. Soon to make their twosome a threesome, Tib Muller moves to the neighborhood from Milwaukee. They become great friends and the books take the girls through high school and beyond. The books in the Betsy-Tacy series are:

Betsy-Tacy, Betsy, Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Heaven to Betsy, Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy was a Junior, Betsy and Joe, Betsy and the Great World, and Betsy's Wedding.

I recommend these books highly; everybody should read them.

What a great story! I keep it on my window seat to flip through often--it's one of my very favorite stories!Betsy and Joe finally meet in New York after Betsy's year-long trip to Europe! They are finally together and determined never to be seperated again. Afetr many years of loving each other, they will be married. Joe convinces Betsy to marry him in a week. The scene in the restaurant in New York where Joe tells Betsy how much he loves her, how they belong together, and how she must always love him is so touching! Through this part(and the moment when they saw each other when Betsy came off the ship) I was oblivious to everything as I read. Of course, that was the case through the rest of the book as well. Joe's job hunt is hilarious. The day before they are married, he and Betsy go from one newspaper place to the other, Joe determined to find a job so Betsy's father will consent to the match. Well, of course, he succeeds. They are married. Joe and Betsy have a wonderful relationship. It is truly the best I ever read about. They both treat each other with such consideration. Joe is so gracious as Betsy learns to cook(which is a big undertaking for her.) He is so considerate of Betsy, reading to her at night, helping her with the dishes when her cooking endeavors fail, and many other things. Betsy tries so hard to be a good wife to Joe, considering that the most important thing in her life. She even refuses a job in newspaper writing, feeling that she has another job already as keeper of the house and companion to Joe. I liked the way that Betsy handled Aunt Ruth's coming. She did not mask her feelings and was honest, but still,unselfishly, let her come. It ended up working out too! Well, I just loved the story. Their relationship taught me a lot about marriage. I loved the way they treated each other. I don't see the like much these days. It was great! I cried and cried when Joe left for war. But, my fellow readers, I have learned that the books about Betsy were largely based on the author's life. In a biography about her I learned that her husband (who was much like Joe) returned from war--so take heart--Joe returned too and he and Betsy, no doubt, continued their "golden world."

The whole Betsy Tacy series is a triumph---some of the best reading there is. Like few others series (the Little House books are the other that comes to mind) we truly can read and watch Betsy grow from a little 5 year old to a married woman, and grow along with her. As a little girl, I read the early books in this series, and didn't know there were more. You can imagine my delight when I discovered the high school years and beyond were also part of the continuing story! In this book (as you can guess) Betsy gets married, but so does Tib! I like it that Betsy's wedding is not the end of the book--we also get to see her get started on married life during the diffecult WWI period. I remember the minute I finished this book. I had a feeling of happiness but also sadness that never again would I read something new for the first time about Betsy, Tacy, Tib, Joe, Julia, Margaret and all the rest! But the last lines were done so well--they looked to the past and into the future and made me feel that although this was all that was written about them, they continued to exist somewhere out there in the land that wonderful characters in wonderful books live on in! If you have never read this series, I envy you! Get all the books, read them, and you will remember and make them part of your life forever.

Betsy is back in the USA after a long time in Europe-and Joe is there to greet her. After being in love for years, the couple agree to get married, within the week no less! After Betsy convinces her family to agree to this, we watch as Betsy and Joe are married, and embark on a new life together.

Set near the turn of the century, around WW1, this is a view of every young woman's dream of marriage-a fun, intelligent, strong husband who adores you. Betsy and Joe are friends first, lovers second, something which is always important. At one point, Joe states that he can talk to Betsy, and that he fantasizes about their home life. A lot of guys could take a page from Joe's book!

This book is in no way dated, bringing Betsy to the close of her girlhood and teenage years. If you liked "Anne of Green Gables" or other books by Montgomery, check out Lovelace, for both your little girls and not-so-little girls.

I just completed reading Fr. Arseny Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father. And I wanted to share with anyone who whould listen that this book was one that I could hardly put down. It reads simply, easily, yet truthfully. It is not spiced up with pietism nor does it try to make something out of the man that he was not,yet who he was in Christ was nothing short of ingodded, (an Orhodox Christian Phrase used to describe someone who has given his life so totally unto God that he or she has become by Grace everything that God is by nature. In otherwords: Christlike. I found myself, a grown man, weeping at times; laughing in the spirit in others. But always deeply moved and contemplative. I now ask Fr. Arseny to Pray for me a sinner. I have been an Orthodox Christian for 25 years and rarely have I found a book that touched my soul as deeply as this book. Whether you are Orthodox, Catholic, Or Protestant, if you want to read about a REAl MODERN DAY SAINT read this. It contains no tampering to make him sound better than he is, with all accounts checked with witnesses from the Russian Gulog where he spent over 20 years in prison simply for being a Christian Priest, to His Spiritual Children. This Book is a MUST READ!

This book is not for sensitive nerves, but even if one enters in ones mind into the horrors of Stalin's "special camps" - camps no less cruel than Hitler's, at times worse - one cannot really grasp the pain and suffering of all the prisoners; and especially Prisoner No. 18376, better known as Father Arseny. But to many he was like Christ on earth, a true Christian in all meanings of the word. The interesting thing about this book, a zamisdat from the Soviet era, is it's two layers. On the surface the incrediable stories about the camps, the Soviet-Communist Holocaust, and beneath the Message of God and His Will. Among all these horrors the faith in God survived and persisted - The Cross' victory over indifference and atheism. Fr. Arseny didn't preach sermons on the Faith, no, he lived it and suffered it as Jesus Christ did. He lived like all true Christians should. Seing the Faith lived in the person of "a little priest", a man willing to sacrifice himself for his neighbour and seing the suffering Christ in even the worst criminals in the camps, is what gives the strongest impression and it's dimension! This impression overshadows the horrors of the Siberian camps. The last part of the book, called "Spiritual Children", can perhaps at first look dull and insignificant after the stories told earlier in the book, but don't be fooled. That's really an example of how a true saint influence both the believer, the lukewarm believer, and the unbeliever. In short, how Christian virtues by example not by words only, lead man towards salvation!

Rarely do I find a book that is compelling from start to finish. A book that through which the Holy Spirit reaches into my very depths calling me to lay down my self-centeredness, my pride and my love of the world, to reach to something and someone so much greater. The stories of how Fr. Arseny took incredible abuse and won over the tormentors with the great love of Christ flowing through his life. A non-stop book of God's loves and miracles fully active in todays world, even at the worlds worst. Rare will be the person who can read this without having a sense of a deep inner goodness wanting to come to the surface and reach out to others. This is truly a call to all of us to allow God to bring us to His best and highest in our lives.

Moskva-Petushki, which is translated in English as Moscow to the End of the Line, is Venedikt Erofeev's greatest work, one drunken man's (Venichka's) journey on the Moskovskaia-Gor'skovskaia train line to visit his lover and child in the Petushki. En route, Venichka talks with other travelers in dialogue and he also speaks in monologue about various themes such as drinking, Russian literature and philosophy and the sad, poetic soul of the Russian peasant. As the novel progresses, it becomes increasingly dark, disoriented, hallucinogenic and surrealistic, in proportion to the narrator's alcohol intake.

Moscow to the End of the Line was written in 1970. During this time, Erofeev, himself, was traveling around the Soviet Union working as a telephone cable layer. Erofeev's friends have said the author made the story up in order to entertain his fellow workers as they traveled, and that many of these fellow workers were later incorporated as characters in the book.

The text of the novel began to be circulated in samizdat within the Soviet Union and then it was smuggled to the West where it was eventually translated into English. The official Russian language publication took place in Paris in 1977. With glasnost, Moscow to the End of the Line was able to be circulated freely within Russia, but, rather than stick to the original form, the novel was abridged in the government pamphlet Sobriety and Culture, ostensibly as a campaign against alcoholism. Finally, in 1995, it was officially published, together with all the formerly edited obscenities and without censorship.

Although he is an alcoholic, Venichka never comes across to the reader as despicable. Venichka is not a man who drinks because he wants to drink; he drinks to escape a reality that has gone beyond miserable and veered off into the absurd. He is not a stupid or pitiable character, but rather one who has no outlet for his considerable intelligence. That Venichka is very educated is obvious; he makes intelligent and well-read references to both literature and religion. However, in the restrictive Soviet Union of his time, there was no outlet for this kind of intelligent creativity; Venichka is forced to channel his creative instincts into bizarre drink recipes and visions of sphinxes, angels and devils.

Although many will see Moscow to the End of the Line as satire, it really is not. Instead, it is Erofeev's anguished and heartfelt cry, a cry that demanded change. Venichka is not a hopeless character, however, the situation in which he is living is a hopeless one.

A semi-autobiographical work, Moscow to the End of the Line was never meant as a denunciation of alcoholism but rather an explanation of why alcohol was so tragically necessary in the day-to-day life of citizens living under Soviet rule.

Moscow to the End of the Line is a highly entertaining book and it is a book that is very important in understanding the Russia of both yesterday and today as well. This book is really a classic of world literature and it is a shame that more people do not read Moscow to the End of the Line rather than relying on the standard "bestseller." This book deserves to be more widely read and appreciated.

This is a sublime little tale, saturated with humor and pathos. Erofeev (both author & narrator have the same name, heightening the autobiographical tone of the book) is the Dante of the Moscow commuter rail. He stumbles from bar to bar and a purgatory of the 'thirteen varieties of Soviet vodka.' Then, it's onto the train, which takes him some thirty stops from Kursk station and 'The Hammer and Sickle' to the 'end of the line' at Petushki (which I'm told means 'flowers' in Russian) where he is to meet his Beatrice.

But (unlike Dante) Erofeev never seems to arrive. As he downs more and more hooch, the story becomes progressively more blotched and incoherent. It culminates in the Passion of Erofeev, in which our poor hero is driven up against the wall of the Kremlin (though whether its the Kremlin in Moscow or Petushki is unclear) and left screwed.

This is a story about mercy. Read it. It is easily one of the best books I've read in the past year. Then pass the word along, because it deserves to be better known.

Ah, this book...a cherished one for me, pilfered from a friend who's father studied under Nabokov (but later given back). I read this under the serious spell of Knut Hamsun and this book is similiar to "Hunger" but perhaps more humorous. It's about an unemployed, alcholic cable fitter who is fired for charting diagrams of his comrades "idleness" correalated with the days they get drunk. Thrust into a serious drinking binge he is stuck on a train trying to reach Moscow and in between we have flashbacks of him trying to buy vodka before restaurants and stores have opened, giving us recipes of cocktails made out of aftershave ("Aunt Clara's Kiss) that brings on hallucinations and incredible verbal pyrotechnics full of literary ramblings and political rumblings. The whole time his hallucinations are marked by a pair of overcoated angels egging him on or chastising his behavior as he mixes up his route on the train forgetting to disembark and actually heading away from his destination. He finally does reach Moscow and the novel closes like a hand over a movie lens as abruptly as it started. It is a startling book, not only the best of the samizdat novels (works distributed like fanzines secretly during the communist regime) but by far the most dazzling comic novels ever written about desperation and alcholism. It is an incredible book and after reading it you will never have patience for another Bukowski book again.

I, too, read all the Betsy-Tacy books as a child. Emily of Deep Valley, while not a "Betsy" book, thoroughly captivated me and was perhaps my favorite. Why, oh why, haven't the publishers reprinted it? Emily--and Carney, too, of Carney's House Party--would indeed find buyers all over the country. I want copies for myself and also for my daughters, who, although they are now grown, are also dwellers in Deep Valley.

In my youth, I read every Maud Hart Lovelace book I could get my hands on -many ,many times. As an adult, I have been trying to collect these beloved books. Although the Betsy-Tacy series has been republished and a beautiful novel for adult readers - "Early Candle Light" - "Emily of Deep Valley" and "Carney's House Party" are out of print and I haven't found them in years of trying. Please republish these gems from my childhood. With the founding of the Betsy-Tacy Society a few years ago, I'm sure I would not be the only buyer.

I first read the Betsy-Tacy books and fell in love with Betsy and Joe, Tacy and Tib. The high school stories were so much fun. But my favorite book was Emily of Deep Valley. I was captivated by her. I thought it would be fun to chat with Betsy, but I wanted to be Emily's best friend. I wish I could find a copy of the book.

A year full of fun and adventure. That is what Best Ray and her friends make make of their highschool junior year. Excited to finally be a junior, Besty has lots of plans for the great year ahead of her. Yet most of her plans fail, but but Besty always makes the best out od a bad situation.
Besty was a Junior, by Muad Hart Lovelace, has its good and bad poitns. Some of the bad points were that charcters were always happy mopst of the time, and that was very unrealistic. The good points were thoguh, that it was a very fun book to read, and there never was a dull moment.
As a result I would rate this bok a 9 out of 10, mostly because it was very exciting, and captivating. I would definatly recomend this book.

When I first read these books twenty years ago I had a hard time finding them and I did not read them in order. I started with "Betsy and Joe" and then read whatever ones I could find. I thought I was the only one in the world that enjoyed these books!!Thank you Harper for reissuing these books. I bought the entire set online and have been reading them in order! These past few weeks I have been in another world--Betsy's world, and it has been wonderful. The new books with the pictures and history of Maude's family and friends have made the characters in these stories come alive.

These books reminded of the "Little House" books and I hope someone makes a TV series out of these stories. They are timeless.

I would give the entire series more than five stars. My obsession with the Betsy-Tacy books began as a young girl reading my mother's hardcover copies. These had been given to her as gifts by her aunt. My great-aunt then began giving me each book in the series, in hard-cover. Unfortunately, all of these were destroyed in a fire that destroyed our family home. My mother was successful in obtaining all the Betsy-Tacy books in hardcover again. I grew up mere miles from the town on which Deep Valley is based, Mankato, MN. I am grown and married and have children of my own, all boys. But I look forward to sharing the timeless treasure of these books with my niece and friends' daughters. I still reread them regularly. These books transcend the period in which they were written. Give yourself a gift and read this series; then share it with a friend and with all the young women/girls you know. There are also two peripheral Lovelace books not directly part of the Betsy-Tacy series, but placed in Deep Valley: Carney's House Party and Emily of Deep Valley. I believe they may be out-of-print; publisher, please bring them back as you revitalized the Betsy-Tacy books.

Very fascinating account of war-time Europe, this book also gives you a glimpse of life during the fast-changing times before and after
the death of Queen Victoria.

Every reader will be drawn into the honest and readable writing
style of Vera Brittain, who remembers the time of WWI when she
served as a nurse. As many other reviewers say, her momoir is simply stunning and even shocking in its description of her experiences during the tribulations. Though the some
descriptions about the hot, (or chilling) dirty hospitals, wailing patients, or stupid supervisers are understandably subdued, her feelings reacting to these surroundings are always touching, and sometimes even with some witty remarks.

On top of that, I was impressed with her daily way of life, which expeienced the rigid Victoraimism before the comrapatively free, modern post-war era. Some episodes are remarkable in telling us how a young woman had to live in a provincial town in England at the turn of the 19th century, when a die-hard Victorian conservative moral codes were still prevalent. In fact, Vera, rather humourously, recounts how travelling alone by train could be inappropriate for a lady at that time, and how she had to arrange the meeting with her love, Roland, using some skills.

Moreover, some readers may find this book interesting in different way;
that is, as this book was written during the time between WW1
and WW2, you get a strange feelings that something is missing

from the book that should have been there. For example, Hilter
is mentioned only once, but not the Nazi, and the name of
fascism appears, but very briefly (though she records one
episode in Italy which predicts the future events).
And the League of Nations, for which she passionately devotes
herself, was, as you all know, to collapse. Considering the
book alongside with the history WE know, the book becomes all
the more fascinating just because of the things the book could not tell at the time of writing.

And this strange sense leaves me wondering -- "What did Vera
Brittain do during the next world-war?" "How did she respond to
WW2 and possibly other big events in the world?" This is the
reason I didn't give 5 star rating, because the text itself is brilliant, the book gives me little information about the
author (anyway I will find it though, but...). Though a short
introduction by her daughter is attached, we know little about
her, and that is a shame, because this book is deserves much wider
range of readers, from those who remember the war to the students of Victorianism and feminism, and her life would
interest all those readers.

This book was the subject of a PBS drama in he early 1980's. However as good as that BBC television play was the book itself is far and away a better experience. If you are interested in the "Great War" and it's effect on the battlefield and Western culture then this is a must read. Vera Brittain was born into a upper middle class British family, exactly the generation that so willing risked their lives for their Country, King and Empire. The effect upon her, her family and friends as well as her generation is overwhelming and gaves a human face to the great events of this last century. You will not be able to read this without feeling the overpowering effect that the Great War had on those both at the Western Front and at home. A great and often overlooked book, one of the few of it's type written by a woman, a real hidden classic.

Ms. Brittain's autobio about the devastating losses she, and her generation, suffered as a result of WW I is simply brilliant. The book is clear, easy reading, and the story, though quite harsh, is never too filled with "woe is me" sentiment. Ms. Brittain's movement from provincial comfort to "university" to working as a volunteer VAD in the hospitals, coupled with the loss of a brother, a love, and a fiance, makes for fascinating reading. Ms. Brittain mourns the passing of the youth of the "war generation", but by the time the book is done, one realizes that the non-combatant "survivors" of Ms. Brittain's own generation--of literary "sets" and chivalric valour betrayed and changes in the social order in deep ferment-- has also passed from among us. This is not a joyful book, and its narrative voice can be quite bitter. But it is a meaningful book, and a very good read. Ms. Brittain's pragmatic feminism resonates well some seventy odd years later.

I borrowed this book from the library to read aloud to my 2 year old. He loves it and I'm adding it to my wish list.

The story is about a family of mother, grandmother and daughter (maybe 7 or 8 years old). The mother works as a waitress to support her family. The little girl realizes and appreciates how hard her mother works - she often helps out at the diner herself after school. She's learned from her mother the value of saving - when her mother's boss gives her some money for filling the salt shakers, she puts half in the big jar at home.

The little girl speaks of a fire that detroyed their home and all their possessions. Through the help of extended family and friends they are able to start over. However their new apartment lacks a place for her mother to "take a load off [her] feet" The family saves coins in a big jar for a year to be able to buy a new easy chair - from the mother's tips, from the grandmother's market savings, from the little girl's "earnings".

The pictures are beautiful - colorful, almost luscious. Our favorites are of the mother collapsed in a chair while the little girl counts her tips and a picture of the little girl's fantasy chair - huge, covered in velvet with roses on it.

The words are simple enough that beginning readers will be able to master it, especially after having listened to it being read aloud over and over again. My son has asked for it at least a dozen times in the last week!

This book is about a family that lost all of their furniture in a house fire. The family members decide to save coins to buy a new chair for their home. The mother is a waitress and tries to save all of the money she can to help out the family. The mother and daughter take all of the money they save it in a jar. When the jar is full they go out and buy a beautiful chair for the family to enjoy. This book is appropriate for ages 6 to 10. The illustrations are very meticulous with a painted appearance and show exactly what is going on in the text. Each page has an inventive and vibrant border on it that pertains to what is happening on that particular page. This is a Caldecott Honor Book that teaches a valuable lesson on how hard times can always be worked through and that working hard and giving 110% will always make a difference.

Once a little girl's mother wanted a chair.

This book is fluffy light reading but has good morals to it

Did you know I'd never read this book as a child? Yes, this was the only Betsy book my library didn't carry. So, since I seem to be rediscovering books from my childhood, I requested this one and dug right into it.

I'd been waiting ever since the introduction of Joe for Betsy and Joe to finally hook up. And they do! (Of course, we knew Maud Hart Lovelace wouldn't keep us hanging like that.) The Deep Valley world is perfect but still very real; all the characters come alive and you love them like your own family and friends.

I'm on a quest for the Betsy-Tacy High School books, but really, who designed these paperback covers?

These stories make me wish I had lived in those periods. Although I have a strong feeling my life would be different. I love the Betsy series and I can't wait to share them with my own children.