For some reason I don't ever enjoy this one as much as the others. Betsy is totally wrapped up in Joe and nothing much happens besides that.

Oh Joe! So dreamy. And everyone is growing up.

I love that the girls eat!!! There is no anorexia, no eating disorders.

I think that this book covering Betsy’s senior year of high school is my favorite of the 4 high school Betsy-Tacy books, this despite the fact that I generally detest love triangles in novels. I especially loathe them when, as here, there is a lack of communication between the people involved. I know the mores and constraints of the time didn’t permit Betsy to do as I most would have liked, but I do feel communication could have been vastly improved. I admit that at times I was irritated with both Betsy and Joe.

I love both Tony and Joe, although I admit I have basically rooted for Joe for Betsy. I do like my orphaned and quasi-orphaned characters!

This book, as is typical of all the Betsy-Tacy books, is superbly written, and Lovelace is a gifted storyteller, one who’s brilliantly perceptive about following the main characters from ages 5 to 18; I can’t wait to read the next couple of books, and the companion books too.

The Rays are a wonderful family. I would have sunk comfortably into these books and gotten much vicarious enjoyment had I read them as a girl. I think this book made me laugh and made me sadder and happier than any of the previous high school books.

I want to know what happens with one particular character, but a Goodreads friend, one of those who introduced me to these books, says "It is a source of endless debate." So, now I am even more motivated to want to get together with other Betsy-Tacy fans and hear what they think. I have some ideas. I know what I wanted to happen but I guess it doesn’t, which is too bad.

My public library has this book only in an edition combined with [b:Betsy Was a Junior|7901|Betsy Was a Junior (Betsy-Tacy, #7)|Maud Hart Lovelace|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165651581s/7901.jpg|10923] but I was able to get this edition from inter-library loan. I’ve already put [b:Betsy and the Great World|7891|Betsy and the Great World (Betsy-Tacy, #9)|Maud Hart Lovelace|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165651517s/7891.jpg|10913] on reserve, a book my library does have.

I never read these as a kid, but I was recently talking to some people who said they were a mainstay of their growing up, like Little House or Anne of Green Gables.

I started here on the 8th book as it was in a give away pile in my laundry room. These books are really good, and I think I would have really liked them when younger, as much as I liked it now. The world of a teenager in 1910 is so interesting to see and Betsy's character is so full of life and determination to enjoy life to the fullest. I will definitely be getting the rest of these books.

At this point, Betsy is less a total embodiment of myself and more someone who is the me I would have wanted to be in high school. But she's still also me, and I love her. And I loved this book. It was so sweet.

This is my second favorite Betsy book (after Betsy's Wedding) because of the focus on Betsy and Joe. I was waiting for them to become a couple and in this, their senior year of high school, it seems like it might finally happen. But! Tony, a longtime friend seems to be interested in Betsy as well interfering with their budding romance. Like all of the Betsy books, this is loosely inspired by Maud Hart Lovelace's real-life and is another understanding entry in to the series!

October 2023:

Just the warm and cozy book I needed this weekend. ❤️

January 2021:

I was off work today and spent most of my time reading this book. When I finished I was happy but teary-eyed. My little Betsy, who was 5 years old when I met her, was so grown up - a high school graduate with a serious boyfriend and ambitions for her future writing career. Her growth and gradual maturing over the course of the books is real and believable - funny, touching, at times painful to experience. All the characters in this series are so well-written and genuinely human that they feel like people I know and love in real life.

I'm starting to think I need to slow down my reading and not zip through the remaining two Betsy-Tacy books so quickly! I'm going to miss the Rays and their friends in Deep Valley, Minnesota too much when I'm finished.

I love this book ❤️ When I first read the Betsy books I started at the end with Betsy's Wedding. I wasn't able to read this book or Betsy and the Great World for a few years because my library didn't have it. So I was always missing part of the story. I still to this day remember going to a far away library with my dad to do genealogy research and finding this book and reading it in one sitting!