The Betsy-Tacy Society

09/01/2026

RUSH WEEK 2026

It's time for our annual membership drive!

From September 1 through September 13, everyone who buys a new membership or renews an existing membership or "reawakens" a lapsed membership gets an additional two months added to their membership "year" – such a deal!

This year we are especially focusing on the youngest members among us. Right now we have 120 members at the BTT Club and YA levels – about 12% of our total membership. We would love to raise that number to 200! And that's where you come in.

Betsy was surrounded by many wise and warm mentors, role models, and guides throughout her life. Could you be that wise and warm older person for a new young member? Do you know any young readers who might enjoy a gift membership to the BTS? If so, please purchase one for them!

https://shop.betsy-tacysociety.org/shop/membership/2

Or, if you love this idea but don't know any young people, purchase a gift membership, and we will make the match for you.

https://tinyurl.com/ympzbpcw

Our goal is to attract 81 new members at the BTT Club, YA, or New Adult level by September 13 – and each time we bring in 9 new members, we'll start filling in the pipeline linking the nine illustrations of various mentors we meet throughout the series.

(We so wish that Vera Neville had illustrated Miss Fowler – who was such an important mentor to both Betsy and Emily – and Miss Salmon, Carney's particular inspiration!)

"New Adult," by the way, is a new membership level. We're trying to make the jump from the YA level ($15) to the Adult level ($25) a little less onerous, so we're offering this new membership for people ages 20–25 (which means that Adult membership now starts at age 26).

So, again, our focus is on the younger members – but *any* new membership or membership renewal during Rush Week is a wonderful help to us!

It will be such fun to see the pipeline fill in as the memberships mount up – and it will be *thrilling* to welcome all these new young faces to our group.

Please join, renew, and/or give a gift membership today!

https://shop.betsy-tacysociety.org/shop/membership/2

09/01/2026

A NOTE FROM JEN

Folks, something is wrong with my email account – messages sent to [email protected] or [email protected] aren't getting to me right now. I am working on this but it may take a minute. If there's something you need urgently, please call our main number, and Kat or I will get back to you.

507-345-9777

Thank you for your patience!

~ Jennifer D-K
BTS Exec. Director

08/27/2026

A LITTLE MORE INFO ON THE BT AUDIOBOOKS

This is the release schedule:

October 13: Betsy-Tacy and Tib
November 3: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
November 17: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
December 1: Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself
January 5: Betsy Was a Junior/Betsy and Joe
February 2: Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding
March 2: Carney’s House Party/Winona’s Pony Cart
April 6: Emily of Deep Valley
April 27: The Betsy-Tacy Treasury

The Treasury will combine the currently available "Betsy-Tacy" (read by Sutton Foster) with the next three titles read by Mara.

The BTS is exploring a partnership with libro.fm, which would allow purchasers to support local bookstores (you can imagine that we love this idea!!) – stay tuned for more details as we learn more.

And that is all we know for now. We'll share any news we get as soon as we get it!

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

A NOTE FROM JEN

It's a day of thrilling announcements!

First, and truly most amazing: ALL the Betsy-Tacy books are being released as audiobooks! Starting in October, a new book will be released each month through April 2027. And they will be read by the marvelous Mara Wilson, our last Convention keynote speaker, who is a true fan and will do a simply smashing job.

This is the solution to the puzzle I've been tantalizing you with – I didn't want to say anything official until the books were ready for preorder. Which, to my understanding, they weren't supposed to be yet, but it looks like you can preorder them in some places.

If I could ask you to hold off until I learn more from HarperCollins, that would be grand. The first title (𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒔𝒚-𝑻𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒊𝒃) won't come out till October anyway.

Just FYI: 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒔𝒚-𝑻𝒂𝒄𝒚, which is already available in audio, read by the luminous Sutton Foster, will not be re-recorded by Mara.

I don't know if Mara was already on HarperCollins's radar or if my little whisper to them post-Convention had any effect, but I am strutting a bit nonetheless. 😂

I wish I had more info (one reason not to announce prematurely), and I'm sorry that I don't, and I promise to fill you in as soon as I have more details. 🙏🏻

And here's the second big announcement: The BTS has a new website! It is a thing of BEAUTY, and I hope you will check it out right away:

𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐬𝐲-𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐲𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲.𝐨𝐫𝐠

Our designer was Hayley Luther of Mankato's AdMfg (https://admfg.com/), and she was a joy to work with. Even better: She's a niece of Kelly Reuter, one of our founding members! I adored that BT connection.

And she did an absolutely fabulous job. I told Hayley that I wanted to combine a dreamy, romantic, vintage feel with crisp modern capability. I wanted the site to be searchable, well-organized, engaging, and gorgeous – and I think she knocked it out of the park. Let me know what you think.

And please let me know immediately if you spot any errors or if a link doesn't work. Hayley spent several hours teaching non-techie me how to make changes and updates, and my goodness I'm practically ready to go pro.

I've been holding all this news for so long now, I've felt like a shaken-up can of ginger ale! What a joy to finally be able to bubble over and share it with all of you. ❤

There's also 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 happening in Betsy-Tacy Land. Stay tuned for the next installment!

❌⭕️ Jennifer D-K
BTS Exec. Director

08/25/2026

The latest "Everything Pudding" (for BTT Club members and Adult BTT Club members) hits the mail this week. Editor Anna Brannin and designer Shelley Harris did a bang-up job with a back-to-school theme, a sweet ode to school supplies, cool give-away offers, a fun recipe and game, some enticing book recommendations, and more!

If you know a child who might like getting something in the mail four times a year, this would be a grand time to purchase a membership:

https://shop.betsy-tacysociety.org/shop/membership/2

If you're curious about this publication, you can find some back issues on our website:

https://betsy-tacysociety.org/publications/

Happy reading!

08/24/2026

A NOTE FROM JEN

Two fun things today!

First, it's not too late to sign up for tomorrow night's Drop-In Writers Lounge – two quiet hours in the company of kindred spirits to work on a project of your choice (it doesn't have to be writing!). The time flies, it's surprisingly fun, and we're all repeatedly astonished by our own productivity. (It's a MAGIC event! 💫) Join us, won't you?

https://tinyurl.com/bdb2hsk7

And second, as we wrapped up our discussion of 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒔𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 two weeks ago, the participants had great fun casting 𝑩𝑰𝑺𝑶𝑯: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆, choosing any actor we like, living or dead. The results delighted us so much, I created a slideshow that you can now watch on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi6yoicCyA4&t=9s

What I know for sure is that as much as we unite around our love of BT, there are many topics that can divide a room of fans faster than a Sharks and Jets rumble: Tony vs. Joe! Lenski vs. Neville! First four vs. high school!

(Ha, and a new one I learned just this year: Should we celebrate Maud's birthday on April 25 [traditional] or April 26 [actual]? My goodness, the heated argument that ensued when I brought this up at a Board meeting!!)

And one such reliably divisive question is whether the books should be made into a movie or TV show, a topic that spawns fervent and passionate arguments on both sides.

I have always been on the anti-movie side. There is no way that any filmed version could capture the richness of Maud's writing or live up to the glorious reel that unwinds in my head. Any movie is bound to be a disappointment.

But I've come around to the other side for a very practical reason: There is simply no way that we can ever take our rightful place beside what I call The Big Three (Little House, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables) if we too do not have a movie or TV show. Period.

And after seeing what Greta Gerwig did with 𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 (which I know wasn't everyone's cuppa, but I loved it), I am encouraged that a movie – while still not as glorious as the one in my head – could in fact be well-done and interesting and worth watching.

But this little YouTube video is not meant to be a pro-movie argument, and I hope you will take it with a grain of salt. It is simply a bunch of fans having some fun – and I hope you will too.

Does this make you curious about our book discussions? Our next is September 22, when we begin our dive into 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒔𝒚 𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝑱𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒓. We'd love to welcome you!

https://tinyurl.com/jn67khpf

See you soon, I hope.

❌⭕️ Jennifer D-K
BTS Executive Director

In August 2026, 27 fans gathered for our monthly discussion of a BT...

08/21/2026

Author Emma Cline (whose latest book 𝑺𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒛𝒚 is longlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize) shares that Maud made her want to be a writer: "As a child, I loved the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, first published in the 1940s . . . "

Read more:

https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/emma-cline-interview

This is so thrilling!

The author of Switzy, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, talks about the strangeness of life’s endings, writing in hotels, and the childhood books that inspired her

08/17/2026

A NOTE FROM JEN

I've posted two new videos on our YouTube Channel "All Roads Lead to Betsy" (where I talk about books I've recently read and loved and then reveal what Betsy-Tacy book I see a connection to – a fun challenge!):

▪️𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂 𝑷𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝑬𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕: https://youtu.be/XZOSNhxgkLA

▪️𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝑴𝒆: https://youtu.be/iU6UYuJm6lg

We're up to 428 YouTube subscribers, which is thrilling! Please consider subscribing – it costs nothing and is a great way for us to demonstrate to potential funders how much support we have from BT fans.

Happy viewing!

❤ Jennifer D-K
BTS Exec. Director