The houses are open on weekends year-round but Betsy-Tacy fans show up en masse each June for the Deep Valley Homecoming-this year from June 26-30- like a children’s book Coachella. Reading them brings a sense of calm to my frenzied life.” They’re about family, friendship and fun in doing simple things. Linda Lee, an adult Betsy-Tacy fan visiting from Claremont, California, says of the books, “I re-read them even now. The lack of technology, fighting and fast-paced action may be the secret for the books’ enduring appeal.

The houses have been lovingly restored and designated as national literary landmarks.Ī step into Betsy-Tacy world is a step back into a slower, more peaceful era.The first of the series’ 10 books, Betsy-Tacy, begins in 1897, when Betsy is about to turn five, and the series continues through Betsy’s Wedding during World War I, all based on Hart Lovelace’s own girlhood. Little girls and their grandmothers, mother and daughters, and adult “gals on getaways” line up for a tour of the real-life houses that are the setting of the beloved book series. You’ll find Betsy-Tacy fans who’ve come from around the world to visit the trim little Victorian houses on Center Street, “Betsy’s House” and “Tacy’s House,” where Hart Lovelace and her real best friend, Frances Kenney, grew up right across the street from each other. If you need proof, you need only show up in Mankato on a Friday or Saturday afternoon in summer.

Yet, the beloved Betsy-Tacy series by Mankato, Minnesota, author Maud Hart Lovelace have been in continuous publication since the 1940s and inspire an almost fanatical devotion, even among readers who are used to consuming racier fare such as “Gossip Girl” or “The Vampire Diaries.” Docent Kathryn Hansen shows a Lois Lenski illustration of the Betsy-Tacy books and compares it to the neighborhood today. It’s hard to believe that a series of novels can still be popular with a heroine who neither Tweets nor Snapchats, a girl who lacks magical powers, a vampire boyfriend, or a fabulous assortment of weaponry. Fiction Meets Reality in Maude Hart Lovelace’s “Deep Valley” Betsy’s House, the real-life home of Maud Hart Lovelace in Mankato, Minnesota

Betsy and tacy books in order