Giveaway of The Betsy-Tacy Treasury

The recently released The Betsy-Tacy Treasury includes the first four books of the Betsy-Tacy series, conveniently bound together in one volume. It is available in both a softcover edition and an e-book. Just a reminder: if you order it through Amazon or Barnes & Noble, be sure to click through the links on the Betsy-Tacy Convention website to help support the Betsy-Tacy Society! 

The New York Times featured a wonderful write-up about this new edition, and the enduring charm of the series in general. Be sure to check it out!

Also, throughout these coming weeks, remember to visit the sites that will be part of the blog tour for this book. Sarah has a list here.

Harper Perennial sent me a free copy to review and I can assure you that this edition is just beautiful! There is also a new biography in the back of the book featuring illustrator Lois Lenski. I am delighted to add this volume to my book shelf.

If you haven't gotten around to ordering your copy yet, you are in luck; thanks to Harper, I have an extra copy to give to one lucky reader!

To be eligible for this contest you must:

• Not already own the Treasury 
• Be a resident of the contiguous United States

 There are two ways you can enter:

1. (Mandatory) Leave a comment with a suggestion or topic idea (Betsy-Tacy related, of course!) of what you would like me to post more of on this blog. Do you enjoy learning about the famous people mentioned in the books? The fashion? The places? Popular music? Quotes? Characters? Whatever it is, let me know! You can also leave any suggestions you have to improve the site.
   
   
2. For an extra entry, you can tweet this giveaway. Just be sure to come back and leave a comment saying you did so. 

This giveaway will run until Tuesday, November 22, 2011. I will come back then and update this post with the randomly-chosen winner. I will also privately contact the lucky person, so please be sure to include an e-mail address. Giveaway has ended.

Thank you to Harper Perennial for providing these copies, and for republishing this wonderful series! (Disclaimer: I was not paid to host this giveaway. I think you all know that I love this series, so my positive accolades are genuine!)
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The winner is Christine from A Rambling Fancy. (If you don't already own the book, please send me your address and I will get it out to you. My email is justaudrey[at]live[dot]com.)

Thank you everyone for participating. You all had some terrific suggestions and I look forward to covering them in the months ahead! 

Wildflowers in Betsy-Tacy and Tib

On a recent re-read of the early books in the series, I noticed that Maud mentions a lot of Minnesota wildflowers. Since many of these were new to me, I decided to look them up to see what they looked like. (With names as intriguing as butter-and-eggs and Indian pipes, I was curious!) I left out the common ones, like clover and daisies, but here are some visuals of the flowers mentioned in Betsy-Tacy and Tib. (Click image for source.)

Sumac

Reddening sumac bushes crowded close, almost concealing the wall. (252)

Behind the sumac bushes Betsy and Tacy and Tib hardly dared to breathe. (254)

Mullein

Vervain

Tall woolly mullein stalks and blue vervain and sunflowers crowded around the low stone wall which was crumbling and falling apart. (251)

Butter-and-eggs

No clover or butter-and-eggs or daisies grew beneath the beeches. (250)

Indian pipes

Tacy found some clammy Indian pipes but mostly the grass was empty now. (250)

You may have noticed that all of these mentions are from Chapter 9, titled "The Secret Lane."