Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill Quotes

“Betsy, Tacy, and Tib can’t wait to be ten. After all, getting two numbers in your age is the beginning of growing up—exciting things are bound to happen.”

“And they do! The girls fall in love with the King of Spain, perform in the School Entertainment, and for the first time, go all the way over the Big Hill to Little Syria by themselves.

“There Betsy, Tacy, and Tib make new friends and learn a thing or two. They learn that new Americans are sometimes the best Americans.”

“When the girls climb the ‘big hill’ and go into the forbidden territory of Little Syria, they are doing so for self-interested reasons.”

″ But the real adventure, the true learning experience, happens when the girls befriend the Syrian/Lebanese neighbours who have recently become part of the Deep Valley community.”

“When the girls stand up against the bullies who are bothering their new friend Naifi, Tib’s dress gets torn. But Tib’s mother assures them she is glad that Tib defended her new friend, even at the expense of her best dress.”

″ Foreign people should not be treated like that. America is made up of foreign people.”

“The book is about the adventures of three young girls - Betsy (Elizabeth) Ray, Tacy (Anastacia) Kelly, and Tib (Thelma) Muller - as they grow up in early twentieth-century Minnesota.”

“The three friends celebrate their tenth birthdays, fall in love (all together) with the young King of Spain, and visit Little Syria - the colony of Lebanese immigrants just outside of Deep Valley.”

“Mrs. Kelly did not seem to notice the grown-upness. She took Betsy’s round red cheeks in her hands and said, ‘It’s five years today that you and Tacy have been friends.”

“In this installment they befriend a little girl who is a Syrian refugee and through her they learn some important lessons about kindness, forgiveness, and patriotism.”