Betsy-Tacy-Midwest Connections

“There are three authors whose body of work I have reread ore than once over my adult life: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Maud Hart Lovelace.”
– Anna Quindlen

Around 1897, in Mankato, Minnesota, Maud Hart Lovelace met two girls — Bick Kenney and Midge Gerlach. The three soon formed a trio that would be inseparable in their youth and remain friendly throughout their adult lives. Many years later, Maud told her daughter, Merian, bedtime stories about her girlhood adventures with Bick and Midge. Soon, she developed these tales into a popular series of books that was first published in the 1940s. Mankato was transformed into Deep Valley, Minnesota, around the turn of the 20th century. Maud became friendly storyteller Betsy Ray, Bick became shy, redheaded Tacy Kelly, and Midge became the practical, yet fun-loving, Tib Muller.

The series begins with a fast friendship between Betsy and Tacy, who soon enjoy such fun as picnics on the bench on the Big Hill and dressing up and calling on neighbors. When Tib moves into the chocolate-colored house nearby, she quickly becomes Betsy and Tacy’s other best friend. Many of their fictional adventures are based on Maud’s real experiences with Bick and Midge.

As they grow older, Betsy’s, Tacy’s, and Tib’s world grows larger. They climb over the Big Hill that had always seemed so high and enjoy such downtown delights as riding in horseless carriages and going to the theater. High-school introduces them to a new social life, and many members of their Crowd are also based on real people in Maud’s life.

Even though the Betsy-Tacy books were written so long ago, timeless themes of friendship, family, and love continue to teach us about our past and what we dream for our future. And they remain the perfect bedtime stories to be shared by a mother and a daughter. The discussion topics, suggested reading list, and author biography in this reading group guide are intended to spark discussion about the wonderful characters and stirring adventures in this enchanting series.

Heaven to Betsy: Betsy Ray is loving every minute of freshman year at Deep Valley High—with new and old friends all around her . . . not to mention boys! But most intriguing of all is the one she and her best friend Tacy dub “the Tall Dark Stranger.”

Betsy in Spite of Herself: Betsy is at the center of every activity as a Deep Valley High sophomore—and suddenly, thanks to her old friend Tib, she’s offered a golden opportunity for glorious transformation. But will she impress the special boy by becoming dramatic, mysterious Betsye—or would she be better off just being Betsy in spite of herself?

Betsy Was a Junior: It’s the best school year ever, especially now that charming, funny Tib Muller is back in Deep Valley. But when her crowd gets into trouble, Betsy’s best year could turn out to be her worst.

Betsy and Joe: Betsy always thought she and Joe Willard were made for each other—and now that summer’s over and senior year’s begun, it seems her dream is coming true! But her friend Tony Markham has come calling as well—and his intentions are definitely romantic.

Betsy and the Great World: Betsy Ray is twenty-one and on the adventure of a lifetime: a solo tour of Europe! There’s even a handsome Italian, Marco, who’s going overboard for her—if only she could stop thinking about her ex-sweetheart Joe Willard.

Betsy’s Wedding: When Betsy’s boat docks in New York, Joe is waiting there . . . with a ring! But she’s going to learn that marriage isn’t all candlelight, roses, and kisses. There’s also cooking, ironing, cleaning, and budgeting— and will she be able to find time to forge a writing career?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATORS

Maud Hart Lovelace (1892-1980) is the beloved author of the Betsy-Tacy books, as well as many other books for adults and children. She grew up in Mankato, MN and based her beloved Betsy-Tacy series on her childhood there. Mankato became Deep Valley in the books, and all of the characters in the books are closely based on friends with whom Lovelace grew up.  Visit the website of the Betsy-Tacy Society for more information about Lovelace’s years in Mankato.

In addition to Mankato, Lovelace spent many years living in Minneapolis, and the Maud Hart Lovelace Society, based in St. Paul, is as dedicated as the Betsy-Tacy Society in keeping her legacy alive. This past summer a memorial plaque was placed at 905 West 25^th Street in Minneapolis, the site of the Hart family’s home after they moved from Mankato.

In addition to illustrating the first four Betsy-Tacy books, Lois Lenski (1893-1974) was the Newbery Medal-winning author of Strawberry Girl.

Vera Neville illustrated six of the Betsy-Tacy books as well as three Deep Valley Books.

Damn Good Food and other new arrivals from the Minnesota Historical Society Press

Books, Books, and more damn good Books are arriving in the store daily.  Damn Good Food was just written up in the New York Times. This is a cookbook with an attitude. Hell’s Kitchen owner Mitch Omer put pen to paper and gave up some recipes for your enjoyment. Get em before they’re gone.  10% off for a while.

Sticking with the Minnesota theme, Kevin Kling’s Holiday Inn is still fresh in the store.  Kling is a master storyteller and this one will look good under the tree if you get my drift.  Better yet, pick it up now and read aloud after a big fat turkey dinner.  Even grandma will laugh at these stories.

If ghosts are your thing, The Nearly Departed is your book. Minnesota ghost stories and legends including St. Olaf’s boy in the red cap.

Lastly, I’ll mention A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts:  Stories by  N. M. Kelby. A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts is a collection of stories, rooted in the Midwest, for those of us who suddenly find ourselves displaced, tourists in our own lives.

What are you waiting for, get your butt downtown and buy some books.

Shiver-Midwest Connections

“It’s love at first sight for Grace and Sam but not at all in the traditional sense. Sam is a [we won't tell you here!!] and Grace is human. Perfect for fans of the TWILIGHT series!”
– Vicki Erwin, Main Street Books, Charles MO

Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf-her wolf-watches back. He feels deeply familiar but she doesn’t know why.

Sam has lived two lives. In the cold winter months, he is a wolf, keeping the silent company of his pack and keeping careful watch over the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year when the weather is warm enough, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace… until now.

For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But now it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human-and Grace must fight to keep him-even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“My big literary influences for Shiver were Crow Lake and The Time Traveler’s Wife, because they tell quiet, bittersweet love stories.”
–Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater is a twenty-seven year old writer, artist, and musician. Her debut novel, Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception, was published by Flux in 2008. She lives in rural Virginia with her husband and their two young children. For more information please visit Maggie at www.maggiestiefvater.com.

Missing Mark-Midwest Connections

“I’ve interviewed hundreds of people, many on the best or worst days of their lives.  I believe listening carefully for the most intriguing parts of those conversations helped me develop an ear for dialogue……I’ve covered such a variety of events and people that no plot or character from my imagination seems over the top. I absolutely believe the adage, truth is stranger than fiction. Because I’ve lived it in my day job. Other writers sometimes hold back, thinking, ‘No one will ever believe that.’ My advice to them is, because of what people see on the news each day, you can go further than you think. “
– Author Julie Kramer — career television news producer and now a bestselling novelist

When Riley Spartz sees a want ad reading “Wedding Dress for Sale: Never Worn,” her news instincts tell her the backstory might make an intriguing television sweeps piece.

The groom, Mark, last seen at the rehearsal dinner, never showed up for the wedding, humiliating his bride, Madeline-and her high-strung, high-society mother-in front of 300 guests. His own mother, eager to spare him further embarrassment, waited weeks before filing a missing-person report, and then learned how difficult it is to get police, or the media, interested in missing men.

Now Riley is up against a boss who thinks finding a famed missing fish will net the station higher ratings, a meth cartel trying to assassinate a K-9 dog because of his powerful nose for drugs, and a neighbor who holds perpetual garage sales that attract traffic at odd hours.

When her missing-person case leads to a murder investigation, Riley discovers a startling motive for Mark’s disappearance-and a TV exclusive guaranteed to win the ratings…if she lives to report it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JULIE KRAMER is a freelance television news producer for NBC’s Today Show, Nightly News, and Dateline. Prior to that, she was a national award-winning investigative producer for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. She lives in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, with her husband and sons.

http://www.juliekramerbooks.com/



Pioneer Girl-Midwest Connections

Pioneer Girl is the true story of Grace McCance Snyder. In 1885, when Grace was three, she and her family became homesteaders on the windswept prairie of central Nebraska. They settled into a small sod house and hauled their water in barrels. Together they endured violent storms, drought, blizzards, and prairie fires. Despite the hardships and dangers, Grace loved her life on the prairie.

Weaving Grace’s story into the history of America’s heartland, award-winning author Andrea Warren writes not just of one spirited girl but of all the children who homesteaded with their families in the late 1800s, sharing the heartbreaks and joys of pioneer life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrea Warren is the author of several highly acclaimed children’s books, including Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Outstanding Nonfiction; Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, a Robert F. Sibert Award Honor Book; and Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy, a Booklist Editors’ Choice.

Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna

The Lacuna By Barbara Kingsolver

currently 20% off.

In The Lacuna, her first novel in nine years, Barbara Kingsolver, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd, a man caught between two worlds—an unforgettable protagonist whose search for identity will take readers to the heart of the twentieth century’s most tumultuous events.
Book Description

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America’s hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.

With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

Fall Ride

I spent part of yesterday in Murphy Hannrehan park riding my Jake the Snake.  It was a beautiful day.  This bike can handle almost anything.  I started on paved roads, then hit the gravel before jumping on the single track at Murphy. Get out and ride before the snow flies.

Where’s the trail?

The bridge

Jake the Snake

Moose on the Loose-Midwest Connections

What would you do with a moose on the loose? Colorful, comic artwork highlights the hilarity that ensues when wildlife wanders indoors. Can boy best beast? By story’s end, young readers will know exactly what to do when a moose goes on the loose!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

Kathy-jo Wargin is the bestselling author of more than 30 books for children. Among her many awards for her work are an IRA Children’s Choice Award for The Legend of the Loon and an IRA Teachers’ Choice Award forWin One for the Gipper. Kathy-jo lives in Minnetonka, Minnesota.  Visit her website at www.kathy-jowargin.com.

John Bendall-Brunello began drawing at quite a young age, and especially loves illustrating animals and children, capturing movement and life within simple and bold compositions. He has illustrated over 60 children’s books. John lives part of the year in Cambridge, England, and part in Cannes in the south of France.

Corn-Midwest Connections

Popcorn, corn on the cob, breakfast cereals – corn is used in many of children’s favorite foods. But what is the story behind this popular grain? Gail Gibbons dishes up the details about corn’s cultivation, uses, and more, offering a cornucopia of information in her typical style. (And be sure to have copies available next winter to celebrate National Popcorn Day on January 19.)

Because the “Corn Belt” is highlighted by Gail Gibbons as the highest corn-producing region in the country, children from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin will be especially fond of a book that celebrates an important natural resource grown right in their own backyard!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gail Gibbons has written more than 140 books for children, including Hurricanes! and its companion Tornadoes!, The Pumpkin Book, Apples, and Ice Cream: The Full Scoop. This graduate of the University of Illinois now lives in rural Vermont in a passive solar house that her husband, Kent Ancliffe, built and on an island off the coast of Maine.

End of Season Sale-Bicycle Accessories 20% Off

It’s the end of the season and we need space for more books. All bike accessories are 20% off.  We still have some bags, pumps, tubes, tools, gloves, socks and lights in stock.