This series about a pair of best friends growing up in Minnesota around the turn of the last century. The stories are basically their slice-of-life adventures as they grow up together, and they are based on the life of the author, Maud Hart Lovelace, and her experiences with her own childhood best friend.

Betsy and Tacy (short for Anastacia) first meet as young children, about five years old, and they become lifelong friends. When they first meet, Tacy has just moved to the neighborhood and is very shy and afraid to even talk to Betsy, but she soon warms up to her, and the two girls become best friends. They live close by each other and often like to have supper together on a bench near their houses. They spend so much time together that people often refer to them as a pair, Betsy-Tacy. They share the events and changes of their lives, sometimes reassuring each other when new and frightening things happen. Tacy has younger siblings, so she reassures Betsy that everything will be fine when her younger sister is born. Later, Tacy’s little sister dies young, and Betsy consoles her.

At the end of the first book, the girls meet another new girl called Tib (real name Thelma), who has also just moved to the neighborhood, and she also becomes their friend. (Tib is also based on another of the author’s friends when she was growing up.) For a while, during the course of the books, Tib moves to a different city, but then she later moves back. The series follows the three girls through school, their graduation, first loves, new jobs, and eventually, marriage and children. The books tend to be episodic, with several shorter stories and incidents making up the bigger story.

Books in the Series:

Betsy-Tacy (1940)

Betsy and Tacy meet as young children and become best friends. At the end of the book, they also meet Tib, who also becomes their friends.

Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941)

More slice-of-life adventures as both Betsy and Tacy adjust to adding Tib to their friendship, making a trio of friends instead of a pair.

Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942)

While competing with their sisters in a contest, the girls explore areas of their own town where they don’t usually go, broaden their horizons, and make friends with an immigrant girl whose family is from Syria.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943)

The girls are old enough to go downtown by themselves. They go to the library, see a play at the opera house, and even get parts in a play.

Heaven to Betsy (1945)

The girls are in high school and developing new crushes.

Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946)

As Betsy’s high school years continue, she develops her crush on Joe Willard, becomes class secretary, and considers redeveloping her personality, only to find that, whatever she does, she’s still Betsy.

Betsy Was a Junior (1947)

High school life gets complicated when Tib moves back to town and the girls decide to start a sorority, but the girls end up getting in trouble at school.

Betsy and Joe (1948)

Betsy has always had a crush on Joe, but when another boy who Betsy thinks of as just a friend, Tony, begins showing interest in Betsy, she has to decide how to tell the boys how she really feels about them.

Betsy and the Great World (1952)

Twenty-one-year-old Betsy takes a trip to Europe.

Betsy’s Wedding (1955)

As the country is about to enter World War I, Betsy marries Joe, and the two of them settle their home life, deal with relatives and household adjustments, and planning their futures. Tacy is married and expecting a baby, and Tib also gets married.