Maud's Bio | Betsy-Tacy Books | Historical Novels | Praise for Maud | Teachers & Librarians | Book Club | Fun and Games | Birthday Party 

Maud Hart Lovelace has been an inspiration in the lives of many people.

These are quotes from just a few you might recognize...

"Slipping into a Betsy book is like slipping into a favorite paid of well-worn slippers. It's always a pleasure to live in Betsy's world for a little while, to experience her simple joys as well as her (thankfully short-lived) sorrows."

     Meg Cabot, best selling author

Left:  Author Meg Cabot speaks at the Deep Valley Convention in Mankato, MN in 2009.

“There are two kinds of women, those who know these books and those who don’t.”

"I reread these books every year, marveling at how a world so quaint—shirtwaists! pompadours! Merry Widow hats!—

can feature a heroine who is undeniably modern."

     Laura Lippman, best selling novelist

“There are three authors whose body of work I have reread more than once over my adult life: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Maud Hart Lovelace. We fell in love, not only with Betsy but with Tacy and Tib and all the others, and wanted to know from year to year what was happening to them. Betsy-Tacy fans never die. They just re-read.”

     Anna Quindlen, best selling author, Pulitzer Prize winning writer

“Maud Hart Lovelace and her “Betsy-Tacy” series influenced me very much when I was a girl; I identified with Betsy, who wanted to be a writer, as well as the friends’ girl-power."

    Lorna Landvik, best selling novelist

“Heavens to Betsy! It was pure bliss to slip away and into the world of these turn-of-the-century Minnesota girls, their families, their friends, their loves. It had been many, many years since I’d spent time with the enchanting Betsy Ray, but after reacquainting myself with these classics, I now realize that one of the reasons I believed I could someday become a writer was because of Betsy’s own infallible confidence that she would be a writer. Hurrah to Harper Perennial for giving us the gift of three new gorgeously packaged omnibus re-issues of the Betsy-Tacy-Tib high school books. Don’t worry if you don’t have a young person to buy these delicious books for--be selfish and give ‘em to yourself.”
    Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author

"As a Minnesota girl, I read the Betsy Tacy books about a thousand times as a kid. I used to go to sleep at night with one of the books under my pillow whispering to myself about the girls, hoping I'd dream I was playing with them."

    Anne Ursu, award-winning author

“Some characters become your friends for life. That’s how it was for me with Betsy-Tacy.”

     Judy Blume, best selling author

“I read every one of these Betsy-Tacy books twice. I loved them as a child, as a young adult, and now, reading them with my daughter, as a mother. What a wonderful world it was."

     Bette Midler, actor and singer

“The Betsy-Tacy books were among my favorites when I was growing up.”

     Nora Ephron, Academy-Award nominated director

“I am fairly certain that my independent, high-spirited grandmother must have had a childhood similar to Betsy Ray’s…As I read about the School Entertainment and ice cream socials, about ladies leaving calling cards and the milkman with his horse-drawn wagon, I felt that I was having an unexpected and welcome peek into Granny’s childhood—a gift to me from Maud Hart Lovelace”

        Ann M. Martin, creator/author of The Baby-sitters Club

“Family loyalty and the devotion of friends to one another, which for me are the defining characteristics of the Betsy-Tacy stories.”

        Esther Hautzig, Award-winning author, was the Director of Children’s Book Promotion for Thomas Y. Crowell Co. and handled publicity for Betsy’s Wedding in 1955

“I truly consider BETSY AND TACY GO DOWNTOWN to be the finest novel in the English language!  I will never love any other books as much as I love the Betsy-Tacy books.  Some authors create a warm, joyous world which the reader admires from afar; Maud Hart Lovelace creates her warm, joyous world, and then invites all of us to come in and share it.”

     Claudia Mills, children’s book author, winner of National Book Award and Golden Kite Award

"I grew up 30 miles north of Mankato, and trips to town were filled with mystery and magic, because I was walking the same streets that Betsy and Tacy once walked. The Betsy-Tacy books spoke of the quiet, invaluable riches right in my own backyard, and, more than any other books, fed my dream of becoming a writer one day."
     Jill Kalz, 2008 MN Book Awards Readers' Choice Award winner

 “When I was growing up in the Bronx, I had lots of friends. But the girls I most enjoyed spending time with were Betsy, Tacy and Tib. I didn’t need my mother’s permission to invite them over to my house. All I had to do was open one of the books in the series by Maud Hart Lovelace and there they were – three girls full of ideas for good ideas, adventures and fun. In time, I introduced my daughter to these girls. Even though I’ve lost touch with many of my childhood friends, Betsy, Tacy and Tib remain just as I remember them and waiting for my granddaughters to join them in games now too.”

     Johanna Hurwitz, award-winning author of more than sixty popular books for young readers

“At School visits, when kids ask what books I read as a child, I have only one answer:  Betsy Tacy--the entire series.  In the summer I read them lying on a blanket under a massive oak tree.  In winter, I read them curled under the covers in my "Hollywood" style bed.  When I finished Betsy's wedding, I'd start over again. Truthfully, I think those were the only books I read as a child. But they were enough to make me know that characters in books had true and honest feelings and that made all the difference.” 
      Maryann Weidt, children’s book author and MN Book Award-winning picture book, Daddy Played Music for the Cows.