Home for the Holidays

Home for the Holiday is the penultimate book in one of my favorite middle grade series, the Mother Daughter Book Club. We've been with these girls since they were eleven years old. Now they're fifteen turning sixteen. The book club goes on. The club even grew from four daughters to five. Now the girls consist of Emma, Cassie, Jess, Megan, and Becca.Each book in the series is set during a different year in the girls' lives. In a slight twist, Home for the Holidays took place during the first half [...]

BEST. BOOK. EVER. I am curled up with my Betsy-Tacy Afghan and a box of tissues. Not because the book is sad! Because I am so happy! And a dork, but what can you do??!!Summary: Loved it. Loved all the BT references. Technically, by adding the 5th girl, I found it harder to follow which girl was narrating each chapter. It would have been helpful to have the narrator's name on the top or bottom of each page, so an easy glance would remind you if Emma or Cassidy or whomever was talking. Also, addin [...]

I love this book! I love the romance between Darcy and Jess, and between Emma and Stewart, and even between Cassidy and Zach. I love the Holiday spirit, from the tears of joy, and the cry of laughter. I also love that Becca now has her own chapter in the book, and I love that they have now transformed Pies & Prejudice into a real cafe. This book is one of those feel-good books that never gets old! Long live the Mother Daughter Book Club!

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers! *** While all the books of this series have involved boys to some extent, this book seemed to veer away from the "coming of age" gestalt that characterized earlier books and more towards "chick lit". There was just an awful lot about boys in this book, what with Jess and Emma having boyfriends, Cassidy finally being interested in boys, and Becca and Megan fighting over a boy. Of course, this being the fifth book in the series, I'm already invested in t [...]

I really wanted to like this a lot, but it didn't really do it for me. At first, I couldn't understand why I didn't like it more, because all the references and things the characters loved I love. (Skating, England, Jane Austen and, of course, all things Betsy-Tacy.) I boiled it down to two major objections. First, the voice of each character sounded exactly alike. I had to check who was narrating each chapter multiple times and that was annoying. It's not enough to just have one character who's [...]

Great fun to see the five heroines (and their families!) of this series reading Betsy-Tacy! While it was difficult at times to distinguish between the characters, the author's love of her craft and her appreciation of Maud Hart Lovelace made this book a delight to read.

Original read dates: April 15th, 20124/15/12: Once again, the girls of the Mother-Daughter Book Club astound me! I read this book in one sitting and it was pure enjoyment. My one problem with this book is that it wasn't as good as the previous and I felt it was kind of pushed by her publisher. Definitely not as purely awesome. Also, the plot is now predictable. After all these books, I saw the Secret Santa mix-up from the start. These are really my only complaints. Besides this, this book was ju [...]

MAYBE - Anne is reading it. This is a sold 3 1/2 star book. I didn't LOVE it. I probably wouldn't put it into my daughter's handsbut I enjoyed it. Let's start with what I liked about it: *It's set in New England at Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years. For someone who reads books because of where they are set and when they take place, it really doesn't get much better than that! *It reads like a Babysitter's Club/Horse Club book and took me right back to the types of books that I flew through when I [...]

Emma, Jess, Cassidy, Megan, Becca and their mothers are all back for a new season of the Mother-Daughter book club. This season the girls and their mothers will be reading the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Since they will all be in different places for the Holidays they decide that they will celebrate together on New Year's Eve.The girls have picked names among themselves to be Secret Santa to. As each girl opens their gifts each day they are disappointed in their Secret Santa. It see [...]

This, the 5th installment of The Mother-Daughter Book Club series, covers the fall/winter of the girls' sophomore year in high school.This time part-time "mean girl" Becca Chadwick lends her narrative to the story. Yes, this girl is a snot. But WHY is she a snot? WHY does she act the way she does? Through her own voice we are given another dimension to the Mother-Daughter Book Club experience.The book club selection this time around is the "Betsy-Tacy" series by Maud Hart Lovelace. (This is pret [...]

Home for the HolidaysBy Heather Vogel FrederickThere are 5 main characters, Becca, Megan, Jess, Emma, and Cassidy.The chapters are in the point of view of a different character and then it repeats. Each chapter ends in a conflict or a resolution with each character.The themes that I picked out were friendship and love because each characters chapters had either a friendship problem or a love problem. Then it would be resolved by the opposite, like if there was a love problem it would be resolved [...]

In this fifth installment of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series, the girls prepare for Christmas while reading the Maud Hart Lovelace Betsy-Tacy books. While they would all like to recreate the warm family environment of the books, all of the girls have some unheaval in their lives. Cassidy's family may move to California. Megan's British boyfriend breaks up with her. Becca's father is out of work. Jess suffers an injury that prevents her from going on a ski trip. Emma is busy, and all of the [...]

I found this book very confusing to be honest.There are so many people involved, and not to mention the change of perspectives, i lost track of who was who more than a few times. However, i loved that we finalyy got to read from Becca's perspective. Finally, how she thinks instead of everyone's opinion of how she thinks. I could totally relate with Jess and Emma's situation and their holiday vacation together. Been there, done that!And i did love the part on the turret where they're all just com [...]

This Christmas season, join the girls of the mother-daughter book club for a variety of holiday-themed adventures! Becca, Megan, Emma, Cassidy and Jess have plenty of reading material to bring on their trips, too, because the book club is tackling the Betsy-Tacy series before their next meeting on New Year’s Eve. But unfortunately, nothing goes quite as planned for any of the girls. On a Christmas cruise with their families, Megan and Becca fight over the dashing son of the ship's captain. Cas [...]

A perfect way to end the year, nicht wahr?Sometimes the very fact that a book exists is enough to warrant five stars! Here the MDBC reads the wonderful, marvelous, fantastic Betsy-Tacy series (and all before Christmas, so I'm guessing the next installment will be in the Spring of the same year? I guess the girls are getting older too quickly!). My love for the B-T books knows no bounds, so I was automatically going to love this - and I was not disappointed as Heather incorporated our ornament ex [...]

Oh my gosh, so charming. The girls, now sophomores in high school, have decided to read the Betsy-Tacy series for their book club. The author hung around with many of the people I know and got everything just right. She pulled my favorite quotes and made my favorite allusions and reading about all of our BT fan traditions (ornament exchange!) was so much fun. And man, I've always wanted to try hosting a progressive dinner. It'd be so much fun. I think I might have to buy this one. I don't really [...]

I really enjoyed the first few books in this series. For some reason, I didn't read the last one, but the only problem I have with this book is that the girls don't feel like sophomores, I still feel like they are 8th graders, and some depth in their characters is missing. That said, I do love some of the characters and I adore Concord, I would so love to live in a place like that. I love a lot of elements but the characters need to grow up more. The only other complaint I have is Mrs. Wong ,ser [...]

Another great installment in the MDBC series. I read the first four Betsy-Tacy books before reading Home for the Holidays. In the MDBC book, Frederick focuses more on the older books but at least I had a background to the books.In this season of the book club, it is December. Becca is given her own voice this year, making five different girls telling their part in the book. It did make me like her character more, hearing her side of things. There are a lot of mishaps and misunderstandings, which [...]

In the fifth book in the MDBC, exciting things happen. Home for the Holidays is a perfect book to read with a warm mug of hot cocoa. In the fifth book, There is sadness, joy, and the taste of the holidays. They read the Betsey-tacy books, which how the author describes it make me want to read them too. There are relationships, breakups, and boyfriends. Cassidy faces the tough decision of moving to California. Becca deals with her struggles with her family. Jess deals with disappointment, then be [...]

Absolutely loved it! I was relieved to know that the author had not heard of the Betsy Tacy books as a child, too. I am definitely checking those books out! I found it interesting to read some of the story from Becca's point of view, which by the end of the book, had me rethinking her personality somewhat. Like the addition of book club discussion questions, too! Hope there will be another book in the series!Even though the girls are sophomores in high school, the story line is perfectly clean f [...]

Earlier this year I was introduced to both the Betsy-Tacy books and to Heather Vogel Frederick's Mother-Daughter Book Club, and I fell in love on both scores. It turns out that HVF too is a BT fan, and this book spectacularly brings both series together. In their sophomore year of high school, the girls of the M-DBC read the Betsy-Tacy series, and the result is classic Maud and classic HVF. At the end of this book there was nothing to do but sigh contentedly and reach for Heaven to Betsy for a l [...]

The strongest so far of the Mother-Daughter Book Club books, I count myself a fan. As a devotee of Maud Hart Lovelace and her Betsy-Tacy books (the featured author/books in this installment of the series), I especially enjoyed the many shared literary themes. (*Ahem: if you haven't yet read the Betsy-Tacy books, GO READ THEM!!!*) I also very much enjoyed the inclusion of Becca' perspective--it definitely helped me to feel like she was more a part of the group.

It seems I grow up with these books. Half the things they go through, I've been through. It's amazing how many characters I'm like. I'm like Emma and her writing skills (and her name), Jess and her love of animals and singing, and Cassidy with her love of sports. I hope that more of these books are written!

Fuun!Emma seemed a little long winded and boring with her writing thoughts all written out.I like this series, and this is the second time I read the book, so it wasn't a surprise that I liked it.

It's like a love letter to the books--and their fans.

First Read from June 10th to the 12th of 2012

I thought this was the best MDBC book yet. I can't believe she added Beccas chapter! It made me ecstatic when I found that out!! Loved it!!!!

I thought this book was awesome (like all the others in the series), if "The Mother Daughter Book Club" is not on your to-read list you have got to put it on.

I love this seriess, in many ways it is teenage fluff but the literary element makes me feel better about it.

The allusions were wonderful, the Betsy canvas bag. . . the ornament exchange. . .