Book Club Girl - Book Group Recommendations, Reading Group Guides, Audio Book Club Podcasts

Book Club Girl's Holiday Gift Recommendations!

Here's a post that's been rolling around in my head for a while - my recommendations for gifts for bookish folk this holiday season!

 

Book Club Girl - Betsy-Tacy Tote Bags
Perfect for toting books and more! All proceeds go to benefit the 2012 Betsy-Tacy Convention!

 

 

Books to Bed: Pajama and Book Sets Designed from Your Favorite Children's Books  The perfect gift for the child in your life. My son has Corduroy pjs and just this past weekend my daughter got the Pinkalicious book and pj set which I just love. Choose from Goodnight Moon, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Fancy Nancy and more!



Banned Books Bracelets
From the American Library Association store - fly your banned book colors with this super cute bracelet featuring books that have been and are often still challenged in our schools. Also comes in a children's version and size.

Nancy Drew 80th Anniversary T-Shirts
The girl sleuth you grew up reading is 80 (yikes). But she's as youthful as ever in this fab t-shirt that's available in long- or short-sleeve.

 

 



Vintage Typewriter Key Cufflinks, Necklaces, Bracelets, and Earrings
Cufflinks for the well-read man in your life, plus jewelry for all the ladies!

 

 

A Story Before Bed -- Children's E-Books with Audio/Video of You Reading Them!Can't be near your grandchild, niece or nephew at bedtime? Or, do you want to have a recorded version of you reading your favorite shared story for when you're out of town? Check out A Story Before Bed, where anyone can record themselves reading a story and send it to the child in their life. 

 

E-Reader Cases
Gorgeous e-reader cases in varying patterns that come in sizes for Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and more!

 

Animal Book Ends
These cast-iron animal book ends are perfect to hold for your child's library or to add whimsy to any room.

 

 

Book Lights for E-Books and P-Books

A range of book lights for book as well as e-readers. No more flashlight under the covers for you!

 

 

Literary Bookmarks
These silver plated bookmarks let you mark the page in a multitude of books at once, identified by genre - romance, fiction, nonfiction and there's even one for your book club book!

 

 

Listen to Mitali Perkins, Melissa Wiley and Me Discuss Maud Hart Lovelace and Betsy-Tacy Now!

Thanks so much to Mitali Perkins and Melissa Wiley for joining me for what I think was the fastest hour of my life as we discussed all things Maud Hart Lovelace and Betsy-Tacy! And thank you to all the listeners who joined in and commented and asked questions. We had a blast and hope that you did too.

There were some great questions during the show, including what books a young girl can read if she's in between the early Betsy books and the high school ones - recommendations included the All-of-a-Kind Family, The Melendy Quartet, Anastasia Krupnik, Beverly Cleary, the Penderwicks and books by Laurel Snyder.

Another listener wanted to know what other series, like Betsy-Tacy, follow the characters from a young age to adulthood and we recommended Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter, Louisa May Alcott's books and, for their great depiction of the teen years, Madeline L'Engle's books, especially the Austin Family series. (I know I've forgotten series and titles, so please add in the comments!)

As promised, here are links to many of the things we discussed:

The Betsy-Tacy Convention - scheduled for July 19-22 in Minneapolis and Mankato, MN
The Betsy-Tacy Society - join!
Maud L listserv - for details on how to join, let me know in the comments that you're interested and I'll email you
Mitali Perkins' blog
Melissa Wiley's blog

For more background information on Maud Hart Lovelace and the Betsy-Tacy and Deep Valley books, I encourage you to check out these three books:
Maud Hart Lovelace's Deep Valley by Julie Schrader
The Betsy-Tacy Companion by Sharla Scannell Whalen
Future in a Handbasket: The Life and Letters Behind Carney's House Party by Amy Dolnick

Those of you in the Southern California area, head over to Readers Inc bookstore this Saturday, Nov. 20th at 3 pm to see Melissa Wiley discuss Carney's House Party and WInona's Pony Cart and Maud in general. You can get a free Betsy-Tacy tote bag with every Lovelace purchase!

If you're at NCTE this week (National Council of Teachers of English) visit the Harper booth #820-22 at 3:30 on Friday the 19th where Mitali will be signing Emily and there are totes there too!

And look for Mitali, Melissa and me at the mid-winter ALA (American Library Association) Conference in January of 2011.

Listen in to the show now - did I mention there was a lightning round?

Updated! Come Back to Betsy's Deep Valley with Emily, Carney and Winona!

My faithful readers know that the reissue of Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy high school and beyond books last fall was one of the highlights of my publishing career, so strong is the love I have for these books. But as great as that experience was, I felt that any reissuing was not complete until we had also brought Lovelace's three "Deep Valley" books back into print as well. Carney's House Party and Winona's Pony Cart are both set in Betsy Ray's Deep Valley, and feature co-starring characters from Lovelace's beloved series, now in starring roles. And with Emily of Deep Valley, Lovelace gave us her only true stand-alone YA novel (though Cab Edwards does appear!), and one that is thought by many to be her finest work.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes one to reissue a book as these three books have found their way back in print, in two volumes (Carney and Winona are published together), with the help of an amazing group of fans, scholars and authors. Let me explain.

First, there are the covers - we have once again reprised Vera Neville's beloved illustrations on the front of the books. And, for the first time ever, a biography of Vera Neville, about which very little has been written or known (check it out, there's not even a wikipedia page!) is now included in the books, along with a photo of this elusive illustrator. The biography was written by Teresa Gibson, a fellow fan of Lovelace's and Neville's who has done extensive research on her life and works and who presented on Neville at last year's Betsy-Tacy Convention.

The books also contain a new biography of Lovelace written by Julie Schrader, who was most recently Executive Director of the Betsy-Tacy Society and is the author of Maud Hart Lovelace's Deep Valley. Julie also provided historical background material on the real women behind the characters Emily Webster and Winona Root. And Amy Dolnick, author of Future in a Handbasket: The Life and Letters Behind Carney's House Party, wrote a wonderful essay about the real woman behind Carney Sibley, a favorite of Betsy's Crowd. And within each volume, there are also archival photos of all the people depicted in Lovelace's stories.

 

With just these additions the books would be amazing. But, thanks to the internet, we also have two amazing new forewords by authors Melissa Wiley and Mitali Perkins. Why thanks to the internet? Well it was last fall's extensive blogging about Betsy that led me to find Melissa Wiley, blogger at Here in the Bonny Glen, and author of the Martha and Charlotte Years of the Little House on the Prairie series. I found in Melissa a fellow fan and cyber soulmate, if you will, and when it came time to work on these books, I immediately reached out to her to ask her to write a foreword to the combined edition of Carney's House Party and Winona's Pony Cart. And it was Twitter that led me to acclaimed YA novelist Mitali Perkins, author of Secret Keeper and most recently, Bamboo People. I saw that she too was a fan and I'll never forget her enthusiastic response to my email asking if she would write the foreword to Emily of Deep Valley.

Carney's House Party/Winona's Pony Cart and Emily of Deep Valley go on sale today, October 12th and there are several events to celebrate them (not to mention many book blog reviews). In future posts I'll take you through each book, but in the meantime, you can browse inside Carney and Winona and Emily; and look for an event online or near you. I also hope that old and new Lovelace fans will join us on Tuesday, November 15th, when Melissa and Mitali will talk with me on Book Club Girl on Air about all things Betsy, Carney, Emily and Winona!

All of these women volunteered their time and talent to make these reissues what they are and I, for one, am forever in their debt. Thanks to them, these books came together not like an herbarium made in one long all-nighter the day before they were due (see: Betsy Was a Junior), but rather like a perfectly planned Betsy-Tacy picnic, complete with the blackened cocoa pail. I am thrilled that they are available again to be discovered by a new generation of readers and reclaimed by longtime fans. 

Reissue Celebrations Online
October Thanks so much to Sarah at A Library is a Hospital for the Mind for hosting the second annual Maud Hart Lovelace Reading Challenge! The challenge runs throughout the month of October to celebrate the reissue of these three Deep Valley books. Sarah's post last Saturday about Maud herself serves as an absolutely wonderful overview of Maud's life and her books.
November 1st-5th Mitali Perkins will run a tweet-read of Emily of Deep Valley, using hashtag #classicread. 
November 15th Book Club Girl on Air show about all things Betsy, Carney, Emily and Winona!

Reissue Events
Saturday, October 16th The Betsy-Tacy Society Party to Celebrate the Reissues at Betsy’s and Tacy’s houses in Mankato
Sunday, November 7th The Maud Hart Lovelace Society Party at Magers & Quinn Booksellers Party in Minneapolis
Saturday, November 13th Mitali Perkins Event at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA
Saturday, November 20th Melissa Wiley Event at Readers Inc in Santa Mesa, CA! *** Just Added!

An Adriana Trigiani and Betsy-Tacy Long Weekend

What a great long weekend-yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Adriana Trigiani's World's Biggest Book Club which was a lavish brunch put on at the Rockleigh Country Club in Rockleigh NJ. The turnout was amazing and we were able to live stream (nearly all) of the event as well! As soon as that footage is up, we'll post it here because if you missed it, you missed a very good time. Adriana was in top form, and had the crowd laughing hysterically during her talk - which, as one fan wryly noted when she asked a question about how much editing is required on her books, was full of (wildly entertaining) digressions. There were books for sale, door prizes, giveaways and everyone had a chance to meet and chat with Adriana. A wonderful event from start to finish.

Tomorrow I head up to my parents' house in NH with the little ones because on Tuesday, at the Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, MA, there's an Edwardian Tea Party Celebrating the Betsy-Tacy reissues! The party is being hosted by Jennifer Davis-Kay, one of the brains behind last summer's Betsy-Tacy Convention, winner of the Convention Essay Contest for her impassioned essay about one Tacy Kelly, and quite frankly, one of the funniest women I've ever met (don't believe me? Ask Dawn at She is Too Fond of Books). The tea party starts at 2 pm, and it's school vacation week in Massachusetts so it should be a perfect way to spend the afternoon on your own or with your daughter (ages 5-14 and up!). We'll be eating cupcakes, making scrapbooks and calling cards and more! I'll be there with 3 generations of my family in tow, and also have some of my college and high school friends attending with their daughters. I'm also excited to visit Wellesley Booksmith for the first time, as I've always loved Brookline Booksmith and am eager to see their newest outpost. Hope to see some of you NH and MA readers there! And if you're in the New England area and can't make it but want to know more about the New Betsys, NE Women who love YA lit, let me know and I'll get you in touch with them!

PHILO, PHILO, PHILOMATHIANS!

No, that's not painted on the roof of Deep Valley High (with an underscore of tar beneath it to keep brave Zetamathians from attempting to wash it off). That is in fact, the headline to this post because the winners of Betsy-Tacy Convert Week are the Philomathians! I have been a tad remiss in not naming the winning society sooner, but hey, Betsy was a procrastinator too, so I'm in good company.

Congratulations Philos, for converting more new fans to Betsy-Tacy! As I mentioned when I announced the final outcome to the Maud L list serv, it wasn't quite the blowout I thought, but it was, in fact, a definitive win. And of course the real winners are Betsy-Tacy fans everywhere - old ones who know that they've helped to spread the word about our beloved tomes and new fans who are enjoying the books for the first time!

Thank you to everyone who participated in Betsy-Tacy Convert Week. A paver stone in honor of the Philomathians will be placed outside Maud Hart Lovelace's home on "Hill Street" that will read:

Philomathians
Convert Week
Winners Fall 09

Poor old Zets... and, to that end, if you feel like commemorating your efforts Zetamathians (and I count myself among you, sniff), you can order your own paver here!

New (and old) fans remember to renew your membership to the Betsy-Tacy Society and go here to find a local Betsy-Tacy group near you! I'm very much looking forward to dinner with some NewBetsys (of New England) this weekend during the American Library Association's mid-winter meeting!

Betsy, Tacy (and Tib) Make New York magazine!

Betsy Warrington Ray, who wrote stories about New York debutantes living swanky lives in Fifth Avenue apartments (though she knew nothing about such things, and thus her stories were always summarily rejected by the magazines to which she sent them), would be so pleased to know that she--along with Tacy and Tib, natch--has made it into the city's magazine of record at last!

Read My Guest Post at ReadingGroupGuides.com!

I hesitate to even post this, as I know I do go on (and on) on this particular subject. But if you can stand one more soliloquoy to Betsy and Tacy, read my guest post at ReadingGroupGuides.com today.

Support the Betsy-Tacy Society When You Shop at Any Barnes & Noble Nationwide Sat. Oct 3rd!

To celebrate the reissues of the high school Betsy-Tacy books, the Betsy-Tacy Society has partnered with Barnes & Noble. If you shop at any Barnes & Noble nationwide on Saturday, October 3rd using this voucher, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Betsy-Tacy Society! The Betsy-Tacy Society is dedicated to maintaining the legacy of Maud Hart Lovelace's beloved series as well as with the upkeep of Betsy's (Maud's) and Tacy's (Bick's) actual childhood homes in Mankato, MN. Both houses have been lovingly restored and are open to the public for visits.

Thanks to the Betsy-Tacy Society, you can look out Betsy's front window at Tacy's house across the street and imagine yourself seeing Tacy for the first time. You can sit on the bench where Betsy and Tacy took their dinner plates, see the brass bowl that Mrs. Ray (so smartly) bought for herself the Christmas of Betsy's Freshman year, and also the typewriter on which Maud wrote the books and more. So if there are books you've been meaning to buy (and hey, why not buy some Betsy ones too!) head to your local B&N tomorrow to shop and benefit Betsy-Tacy at the same time!

It's Betsy-Tacy Convert Week!!! Go Philos! Go Zets! Let the Games Begin!

I can't believe it's finally here -- on Tuesday, September 29th, the Harper Perennial Modern Classics editions of Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy was a Junior and Betsy and Joe, and Betsy and the Great World and Betsy's Wedding are on sale! The have forewords by New York Times bestselling authors Laura Lippman, Meg Cabot and Laura Lippman and feature original cover art illustrations by the amazing illustrator Vera Neville, who brings Betsy into young adulthood from Lois Lenski's endearing childhood illustrations. In addition, they feature back matter excerpted from Sharla Scannell Whalen's amazing Betsy-Tacy Companion, with wonderful background material on Maud Hart Lovelace and the friends and family she wrote about in her beloved series.

As part of the reissue celebration, this week (and probably next) has been deemed Betsy-Tacy Convert Week! More than 200 people have signed up (via this blog and Facebook) to use this time to find and convert a new reader to the world of Betsy-Tacy -- and to make things interesting, they've been divided into two teams, Zetamathians and Philomathians -- the two rival societies at Deep Valley High School. Converters will post their stories here in the comments (as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere else). At the end of these two weeks I will tally up how many Zets and how many Philos made converts (based on comments posted here) and the winning team will win a paver stone in their name outside of Maud Hart Lovelace's childhood home!

I can't wait to see the comments pile up! There are also Betsy-Tacy parties planned in various locations, and there may be one near you, see below! There have also been so many online and print features, just in the last week alone, that demonstrate how much people love Betsy-Tacy, once they've been introduced! Check it all out below!

 

Betsy-Tacy Parties!
9/30 Aliso Viejo, CA, at the Aliso Viejo Library
10/3 Mankato, MN, at the Betsy Tacy Houses
10/3 Mesquite, TX, at Borders
10/23 Bainbridge Island, WA, at the Library
10/29 Waltham, MA at More Than Words**NEW!
11/7 Highland Village, TX, at Barnes and Noble
11/8 St. Paul, MN, at the Red Balloon Bookshop
2/16/10 Wellesley, MA at the Wellesley Booksmith
4/17/10 Dallas, TX, at the Dallas Heritage Village

Blog and Newspaper Features, just in the last week!
Six Boxes of Books -- Depraved Deep Valley - Top Ten Ways Deep Valley High is Like Gossip Girls!
Here in the Bonny Glen -- Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Booking Mama (and Booking Daughter) -- Betsy and Tacy Books #3 and #4!
Mankato Free Press -- Betsy-Tacy's Back!
Book Chatter and Other Stuff -- Betsy-Tacy Review
Joelle Anthony -- In Celebration of Betsy-Tacy
My Books. My Life -- Betsy, Tacy and Tib Review
Lauren Mechling -- Betsy-Tacy Giveaway!

Now bring on the comments:
Zet, Zet, Zetamathian! Philo, Philo, Philomathian!

Announcing Betsy-Tacy Convert Week! SIGN UP DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 9/4!

On the off chance that you haven't heard from me via Facebook, Twitter or Maud L, or happen to be a Betsy-Tacy fan I have not yet found and stalked on numerous social media, I wanted to announce here that the week of 9/28, the week the reissued high school Betsy-Tacy books go on sale is also, officially, BETSY-TACY CONVERT WEEK!

What is this you ask? Well, inspired by the passion that so many Betsy-Tacy fans have for the series (I mean, seriously, more than 200 of us traveled to Mankato, MN for the weekend to visit the houses, dress up in character and play games!), I decided we should put it to work, so to speak, and deploy a BT Army of sorts to convert readers everywhere into Betsy-Tacy fans.

Here's how it will work.
1) You sign up by commenting to this post that you want to find and convert someone into a Betsy-Tacy fan (comment by end of day Friday Aug 28th -- DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4th!).
2) We'll split everyone into Deep Valley High School's rival student societies: Zetamathians and Philomathians, to tap into your competitive natures
3) We will send everyone who signs up a copy of Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself
4) You will then give that copy away to someone who doesn't know about the series who should - ideally a young girl who will grow up with the series, but it can be a mom, an aunt, or anyone really!
5) You post a comment here about who you gave it to, what you said, what they said, etc. and identify yourself as a Zet or a Philo (we'll let you know which one you are when you get the book)

I'll keep a sticky post at the top of Book Club Girl that entire week (or two) so that all the comments will be front and center and the first thing people see.

6) If you have other online platforms you ALSO:
- Tell your convert story on Facebook, and share it with the Betsy-Tacy Groups on Facebook
- Tweet your story
- Put it on Flickr
- Make a video and we'll help you put it on YouTube
- Blog about it on your blog
- The sky's the limit!
7) At the end of the conversion week, or two weeks, we'll tally how many Zets made converts and how many Philos made converts (I'll tally from commnts made here on BCG since it may be hard for me to find links to everything online).
8) The winning society will get a paver stone in their name, ala "For the Zetamathians Who Converted the Most Betsy-Tacy Fans Fall 2009" placed outside of Maud Hart Lovelace's childhood home in Mankato, MN

So what do you think? Can we all pretend that the on-sale week is like the Social Room the first week of school at Deep Valley High? Go up to the new kids and convert them! The most orange or blue bows at the end of the week win!

Betsy-Tacy Convention -- Day Four, The Final Day

It's been an incredible weekend, and it's hard to believe that it's over, but as I sit here in Minneapolis typing this final report, I realize that it is. I am so incredibly grateful for all the work that everyone put into this weekend's convention and I'm so happy that I was able to share it with my sister and my baby girl. This morning we rose early to a group breakfast of Waffles with the Hawthornes and then had the choice of several breakout sessions to learn more about the books and the history behind them. We chose the "Violent Study Club" exploration of Vera Neville run by Teresa Gibson who has been studying Vera for the last 12 years. It was fascinating to learn more about this illustrator who means so much to me -- and I love that her main sources of fuel while drawing were a pot of black coffee and cigarettes. It was fascinating to learn about her time studying in New York, living in Georgia and how she and Maud collaborated. Maud would send her the manuscript before it went to the publisher and Vera would illustrate the chapter headings from the manuscript. This explains why "Okto Delta" is misspelled in Vera's illustration in Betsy was a Junior -- she drew that based on Maud's early manuscript, which was later edited from the spelling of "Oktw" to "Okto."

The second breakout we attended was entitled "Muster Your Wits and Your Feet" and there my sister and I, along with my baby girl who was in the baby bjorn, "learned" the waltz, schotisse and the turkey trot. The baby especially loved the schotisse with all the jumping. It was fairly aerobic and now I know how everyone in the Betsy books could pack away the food and stay so slender -- when not walking great distances they were burning calories by dancing.

The breakouts were followed by the keynote speech of the convention by Meg Cabot and she was simply wonderful. She shared with everyone her new foreword to the forthcoming Betsy was a Junior/Betsy and Joe and she had everyone laughing, and at times, sighing in recognition and remembrance. She captured the room.

Our final stop in Mankato on our way out of town was the Glenwood Cemetery where Maud is buried. We visited her grave, and that of Cab's and we also saw Mr. Heinz's on our way out. Maud's grave is modest but behind it a larger stone has been placed by the Maud Hart Lovelace Society and on its two sides it illuminates her contributions to literature. The cemetery is removed from the town and quite beautiful and peaceful.

We headed back up to Minneapolis, feeling somewhat sad that we were leaving Mankato but we drowned our sorrows with one more trip to Culver's, whose butterburgers are now a midwest favorite of mine (and honestly, those have to be the cleanest fast food restaurants I've ever been in). 

We drove into Minneapolis with a few landmarks in mind. First was the Bow St. Apt (really 2400 Aldrich Avenue) that Betsy and Joe (Maud and Delos) lived in when they were first married. We found it easily and it looked just as I envisioned it. Next we visited the Canoe Place house, really 1109 West 25th Street, the first house that they owned together.

The last landmark on our list was the house that Mary Richards lived in in the Mary Tyler Moore show and this proved more elusive, but after looping around the same gorgeous and quite swanky neighborhood a few times we finally found the famous house with the rounded tower. And last but certainly not least, and something I'll report on more, but we visited Magers and Quinn Booksellers,the largest independent bookstore in the city and I finally got to meet Jeff Kamin, who writes fabulous monthly guest posts for Book Club Girl on the book club he runs and moderates and MCs at Books & Bars.

Tomorrow we head back home with bags weighed down with Betsy-Tacy swag, and, for me, three different out of print books by Maud Hart Lovelace that I won at the silent auction. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend, one in which I made so many new friends, and it was a dream come true for both my sister and me. 

Betsy-Tacy Convention - Day Three!

OK, I'm exhausted so this will be brief, but here's the report from day three of the Betsy-Tacy Convention! We rose early for breakfast with everyone and then got ready for our trip to Murmuring (really Madison) Lake. Many of us wondered how long it would take to get there by bus, but we figured it couldn't be too long since Betsy used to go via horse and buggy. Our first stop was the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Ray first met and later married. We saw the tree under which they chatted, when Mr. Ray came up to the house to borrow a cup of salt (why he needed a CUP of salt remains a mystery.) And here's a picture from the outside of the bow window in which they were married. The view from the window over the lake is quite beautiful.

We then drove around the lake to Point Pleasant, where Betsy and the family spent many summers renting a small cottage. The cottages are gone, but we did have dinner in a house somewhat like the one that everyone would go to three times a day to eat. We enjoyed fried chicken, cole slaw, corn bread, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes and....Lady Baltimore Cake! Very yummy.

Upon our return we spent the afternoon resting (and I wrote my speech for tonight's legacy panel). At 5:30 we returned to the convention center for a theatrical rendition of Betsy's Wedding, which was absolutely adorable, and I realized half way through that having a mock wedding was a very Betsy-Tacy like thing to do as well (though there were actually men playing the men in this mock wedding). The wedding reception that followed was a typical Ray family Sunday Night Lunch, complete with onion sandwiches, potato salad, coffee and wedding cake (I have had A LOT of cake this weekend).

At 7 Maud's Legacy Panel began, including yours truly along with Kelly Reuter, who had known Maud; Pat Neville-Downe, niece of Vera Neville; Louise King, daughter of Carney, and her daughter Caroline King; and Billy and Pete Steiner, grandsons of Cab Edwards. The panel was wonderful. Kelly Reuter shared stories of her correspondence with Maud as well as her visit with her in California. Pat Downe showed us original illustrations that her aunt had made, including one of Betsy in a deck chair that was made for Betsy and the Great World and never used! We all swooned over this. I didn't get a picture of this one myself, and can't get the one off my sister's camera tonight, so stay tuned for that.

Louise and Caroline King shared stories of Carney, and talked about actually sleeping on the sleeping porch. Louise was surprised to hear it was still there so we shared with her a picture someone had taken the day before. Louise remembered when Maud would come to visit and she and her mother would sit and talk for hours and hours.

Cab's grandsons were hilarious, sharing several stories about Cab, who was quite the bad boy at times, shooting the cannon in Lincoln Park off one July 5th, but who was also a sound businessman and always impeccably dressed. He and Maud, they reported, were friends for their entire lives. They also brought along Cab's flask and unveiled it to much laughter and applause.

The legacy panel was followed by the announcement of several winners -- of the 5K race, the trivia contest and the essay contest. Jen Davis-Kay of the New Betsys won for her essay on the woman in the Betsy-Tacy books that she most admires: Tacy. She read her essay which was wonderful.

I had every intention of joining the perfectly awful girls following all these festivities but you can only tote a 7 month old so much in one day, so we ended up back at the hotel. Good thing as tomorrow starts early with breakout sessions - I'm hoping to attend the one on Vera Neville and to learn how to do the modern dances. And after that...our keynote speaker is Meg Cabot!

Help the Betsy-Tacy Society by Shopping at Barnes & Noble on Monday, July 20th

Thanks to many dedicated members and donors, the Betsy-Tacy Society was able to pay off the mortgage on Betsy's house in 2009! This is a tremendous accomplishment and having seen Betsy's and Tacy's houses in person, I can attest to the fact that they look amazing and being able to visit them and actually see Mrs. Ray's brass bowl, the coffee pot, Maud's typewriter and more is wonderful.

However, the current economic climate is making things very difficult in terms of further renovation and upkeep of the houses. We all need to do what we can to keep Maud's legacy alive in Mankato, as the Society gets no city, state or federal funding. How can you help? Well, you can become a member of the Betsy-Tacy Society, purchase an engraved paver stone to go outside Betsy's house (see previous post), and for tomorrow only, if you shop at any Barnes and Noble using this voucher, a portion of the proceed will go to the Betsy-Tacy Society! So, if you have a book you've been meanining to pick up (maybe this month's book club selection), or a birthday present, why not go tomorrow, Monday July 20th and help Betsy-Tacy at the same time?

Thanks for all you can do to help.

Betsy-Tacy Convention -- Day Two!

I don't know if I can even get this all into one post, it has been the most amazing day, I have about 8 million pictures and one great video and so much to report!! We're back in our room, having just left a group of Perfectly Awful Girls at the Red Sky Lounge where the debate when we left was: Joe vs. Tony. I had no idea how many things Tony had going for him (and also realized, heh, I married my Tony, and that's worked out pretty well!)

The day started off with us missing breakfast -- whoops, but I do have a baby in tow, I think that gives me some excuses. So the day really started off boarding our bus and heading up to Hill Street (really Center St) where we saw the little yellow cottage Maud Hart Lovelace lived in until she was 14, and across the street, the white rambling house that Tacy lived in. It was amazing to see them both, and they are both being beautifully restored and maintained by the Betsy-Tacy Society.

The first highlight was seeing this paver stone outside of Betsy's house, which I had inscribed to my sister and baby girl as a surprise:

We then went and sat on the bench, scene of so many Betsy-Tacy dinners and story telling.

In Tacy's house many artifcacts are on display including the brass bowl that Stella Hart bought for herself because she wasn't sure her husband would buy it in time (I think I model myself after Stella). I also saw the cover for Winona's Pony Cart for the first time in a display of all of Lovelace's books, the Hart family's coffee pot -- which was always put on in times of family stress and strife (though I still don't understand how eggshells worked into the making of coffee), and Maud's typewriter.

After these tours we headed back to the convention center for a typically Betsy-Tacy picnic lunch, with bologna, a hard boiled egg and an unfrosted chunk of cake. We picked up our BT swag from the Betsy-Tacy Society store -- including a great onesie and bib for the baby and had a quick stopoff at our room before heading out on the driving tour of Mankato.

Driving around Mankato we visited the Carnegie Library where Betsy read as a child, and studied for the Essay Contest with Joe Willard. Then it was onto Carney's house, where we saw the sleeping porch immortalized in Carney's House Party and the side yard where the grass was worn down from everyone hanging out. We drove past the Episcopal Church that Betsy and Julia convert to in Heaven to Betsy and stopped at Tib's Chocolate Colored House which is absolutely gorgeous! We visited the Blue Earth Historical Society (which was very helpful to us in the upcoming reissues) where we could see Maud's high school scrapbook along with the lifesize replica of Betsy that Harper Collins created and sent on tour to celebrate the publication of Betsy's Wedding. This tour included a wedding reception at the Waldorf Astoria which was attended by more than 300 people!

We drove through Paige Park, scene of so many high school picnics, Little Syria, from Big Hill and Emily of Deep Valley and ended our tour at the current library, where there are, in addition to many copies of the books, original drawings by Lois Lenski and the actual glass pitcher that Tacy gives to Betsy for her fifth birthday.

And if that wasn't enough--we had dinner tonight in the Great World, with food inspired by the book. We were graced at our table with Mr. O'Farrell and Mrs. Main-Whittaker (making us, I think, second only to the Captain's table on the S.S. Columbic). Many attendees dressed up in costume. There was Betsy in her cherry colored robe having a bath at the pension in Munich when the soldiers are out, women dressed as paper dolls, two women dressed as spinach mit eit, two young girls dressed for the Cat Duet (which they performed), two different pairs of people dressed as the Agony Column and subsequent telegram and one woman dressed as the House of Yellow Roses. And there were many many more dressed in beautiful period costumes. They all looked amazing.

Right now I should be working on my speech for tomorrow -- I can't believe I'll be on stage with relatives of Vera Neville AND Cab Edwards. I must muster my wits and treat this as the essay contest SENIOR year and get my act together. Look for another report tomorrow!

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2009 -- Day One Report!

It is hard to believe that we are here, in Mankato - Deep Valley - Minnesota, "breathing the air these characters breathed, walking the streets they walked" as tonight's keynote speaker Kathy Baxter said, but we are! My sister and my 7 month old and I arrived in Minneapolis around noonish. After getting our rental car we decided to leave touring Maud Hart Lovelace's homes to Monday and we headed south to Mankato. We had one stopover at Culver's for lunch, whose sign which reads: "Frozen Custard Butterburgers" had us too intrigued not to stop. Lucikly the twitterverse and my facebook friends set us right, and we realized that "frozen custard butterburgers" is not one thing, but two. Phew. I had a burger, fries and root beer float, and the cheese curds. But they weren't like as good as the cheese curds my boss and author Mike Perry have given me in the past, and I was sorry about that.

We arrived in Mankato at about 4, and after diva-ishly changing hotels (sorry, but I need a window that opens to the outside world not to an enclosed pool, and the thought of smelling chlorine for 3 days was more than either one of us could take), we started to meet fellow Betsy-Tacy fans! It was so much fun, especially meeting so many people I've gotten to know only via email, twitter and facebook for the past 6 months. We got ourselves registered, and--sort of Harry Potter style--reached into a bag to pick out a ribbon to determine which "house" we're playing for for the weekend. I was thrilled to pick Zetamathian. My sister, not so lucky, drew Philomathian. But then, Joe was a Philo, so it's not all bad. We then perused the extemely appealing Betsy-Tacy swag provided by the Betsy-Tacy Society and filled out our order forms. What we ordered tonight will be magically delivered tomorrow. The picture here is of the t-shirt and tote bag my sister smartly ordered before the convention, plus the t-shirt I scored fom the BTS tonight. Tomorrow we'll all be outfitted (onesie for the baby too!) in style. Miss Mix would be proud (well, after she rolled over in her grave at how unladylike t-shirts are).

Anywho, the evening's festivities started off with an extremely entertaining (no matter what Barb says) presentation about how to read our agendas, our tickets and where we need to catch the bus for our various trips. After that, the convention was officially kicked off in grand style by Kathy Baxter who gave an absolutely fabulous speech about her love for the books and her quest, from a very young age, to hunt out Maud Hart Lovelace and all the people and locations depicted in the books. She had the room oohing and aahing at her photos and her stories of her correspondence with Maud, her daughter Merian, the real-life Carney and Cab. She was fantastic (and sets the bar high for all future presenters here at the conference, and that includes me--yikes).

After Kathy's talk we all participated in an icebreaker. We were presented with a list of questions about the books which we each filled out. We then had to go around the room to find other fans who had answered the questions the same way, and thus we met a whole bunch of people really quickly. (It was at this point that various fellow fans absconded with my baby girl). A sampling of the questions we had to answer are below. I can tell you I was really excited to find someone else who also wanted to taste welsh rarebit and that it was with some urgency that I found myself walking around saying aloud to anyone who would listen "Did anyone else want to wear Betsy's jade bracelets?!" The favorite Cox Military slang, from my completely impartial poll would be "Curses Jack Dalton! Give me the child."

All these festivities, and the fact that it is an hour later in our time zone, finally took the toll on the baby, so we retired to our room for some room service, and well, blogging.

Tomorrow we rise pretty early (and I'm such a Julia, and long to sleep in). After a Ray family-style breakfast (there had better be MUFFINS), we're off to tour Betsy's (Maud's) and Tacy's (Bick's) childhood homes which are being restored and preserved by the Betsy-Tacy Society. We'll enjoy a picnic lunch and then a tour of Mankato/Deep Valley sites from the books.

Need to get some sleep now, will report more tomorrow. Here are a sampling of the Official Ice-Breaker Questions. How would you answer them? I'll pick one person from all who answer them by midnight on Monday the 20th and they will win the three new Betsy-Tacy reissues of Heaven to Betsy through Betsy's Wedding when they come out at the end of September! (US and Canada only please).

Favorite Crowd Girl besides Betsy
Favorite Crowd Boy
Character You Dislike the Most
Food You Most Want to Taste
Tony or Joe?
Incident that Always Make You Cry
Event You'd Most Like to Attend
Character Who Makes You Swoon
Clothing Item of Betsy's You'd Like to Own
Favorite Cox Military Slang

We're Mankato Bound to Celebrate Betsy-Tacy!

Or should I say, Deep Valley bound? My sister arrived this evening, my bags are packed and we're heading to the airport in the morning to fly to Minneapolis. We'll spend a couple of hours upon arriving in Minneapolis touring Maud Hart Lovelace's homes there, with a stop to see the house that Mary Richards lived in in Mary Tyler Moore and to see the MTM statue (remember to bring hat to throw up in the air). Then we'll drive the 1 1/2 or so hours to Mankato, childhood home of Lovelace and the setting for the Betsy-Tacy Convention! The convention kicks off with Ice Cream at Heinz's Ice Cream Parlor tomorrow night. I think we'll try the Imperial and see if we can finish it (definitely Game Off this weekend). I will also attempt my first vlog on this trip so stay tuned!

Read My Betsy-Tacy Earth Day Post

Over at the official blog of the Betsy-Tacy Convention. Sign up for the convention by May 1 to get the lowest rate! Convention info here.