Betsy, Tacy, Tib, Julia, and Katie decide to crown a Queen of the neighborhood to highlight the advent of summer. Tib and Julia are selected candidates for Queen, and they all spiritedly set out to acquire the votes of their neighbors. It turns out to be the biggest quarrel that the group of five would ever endure, for it turns out that Julia and Katie had solicited votes at the Ice Cream Social, which the younger girls did not attend, while Betsy, Tacy, and Tib had scoured Little Syria for votes, which the older girls are adament must be disallowed. These inequities give way to a full-blown battle, which gets tearful and personal, especially between Julia and Betsy.

Amidst the turmoil, the younger girls’ sojourns to Little Syria come to light. Their families had not known that they had made several trips there and had become so friendly with Naifi and her family and community. They are surprised and shocked that the girls had been so welcomed warmly and embraced by the Syrians; they had been rather apprehensive of their unfamiliar customs and ways. There is some discussion as to whether Arabic signatures on votes should be counted.

In the digital era, the internet and social media readily enable the spread of information about people who hail from different areas of the world, and their norms and culture. Still, there is no shortage of fear of those who are come from faraway places or are different in some way. Some of this is due to ethnocentrism: in general, people are most comfortable within the world which they have always inhabited. But to refuse to learn about and appreciate other cultures, to reject outright people and artifacts that seem different and strange, is a response as common today as it was then. It makes this story all the more remarkable.

Julia and Tib express no further appetite to be coronated given the distress that it is causing. Betsy and Julia make up, and the families decide that they want to learn more about the Syrian community in their midst and the little girl who, it turns out, would have been an actual princess (emeera) in Syria. Thrilled to learn this, the girls unanimously decide to crown Naifi Queen of Summer. Naifi’s family agrees that she can be so coronated, with the understanding that it be made clear to all attending that they are determined to become assimilated American citizens who are eager to learn and adopt American ways. Accordingly, the coronation features copious American flags, Katie’s recitation of the Gettysburg address, and Julia singing the Star Spangled Banner, while Naifi arrives resplendent in the chiffon, cashmere, and jewelry of her native country. A rousing time was had by all.

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For more on the real-life Little Syria and its depiction in this book, see the sources cited in the prior post on this page, Befriending and Defending Naifi.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib discover a small immigrant community called Little Syria while exploring the Big Hill. One day, they meet and become friendly with a young girl from the community named Naifi.

Naifi does not speak English, and dresses and acts differently than the girls who live in Betsy’s neighborhood. She seems excitable, Betsy observes, and quite “darling” (p. 51, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993). They invite her to join their picnic, the girls begin to learn one a few words in one another’s languages, and they all just generally have a wonderful time. It is, they acknowledge, the oddest but most enjoyable picnic that they can remember.

It is difficult to know the precise number of immigrants, Syrian or otherwise, in the United States at any given point in time, but it is estimated that approximately 200,000 Syrians fleeing unrest had come to the United States by 1920, and that perhaps 100,000 have been in the U.S. in the 2020s. There was indeed a “Little Syria” of perhaps 2,000 immigrants near Mankato (Deep Valley) during the time period of the Betsy-Tacy series, many of whom were likely Lebanese. In Lovelace’s book Emily of Deep Valley, protagonist Emily Webster works for and with this immigrant community.

One day, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib happen upon a group of boys bullying Naifi — encircling her, calling her names, and pulling her hair. Tib, small but unafraid, steps in immediately to stand between Naifi and her biggest tormenter. Tacy follows bravely, and then Betsy. Order is eventually restored with the arrival of Betsy’s older sister Julia and Tacy’s older sister Katie (who intimidates everybody, apparently!), but not without some upsetting physical moments. Naifi flees, and the girls return home, shaken.

Julia tells Tib’s mother, Mrs. Muller, what happened, and why Tib’s clothes are torn and dirty. They are concerned about Mrs. Muller’s response. But Mrs. Muller, a daughter of immigrants herself, understands. She explains to the girls that the treatment Naifi endured is too often a part of the immigrant experience, and is glad that the girls are unharmed.

—

On the Lebanese and Syrians in Maud Hart Lovelace’s books, see Jia Tolentino’s “The Little Syria of Deep Valley” in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/the-little-syria-of-deep-valley

For some statistics and more recent stories of Syrian immigrants, see https://iir.gmu.edu/immigrant-stories-dc-baltimore/syria

This is the book in which Betsy, Tacy, and Tib all turn ten, with two numbers in their age, and therefore, according to them, have officially grown up. Their birthdays don’t actually count, they inform anyone who will listen, until all three of them turn ten. So Tacy and Tib wait until Betsy celebrates her birthday in April, and then they all officially declare themselves grownups.

They try using fancy words like “indeed” and “prefer” (which Tib doesn’t know the meaning of), begin referring to one another by their longer given names Elizabeth, Thelma, and Anastacia (which sends them into peals of laughter), and practice drinking tea with a raised pinky flourish. (They discard these affectations just as quickly.) They venture further across the Big Hill than they ever have before, coming upon the community of Little Syria, which they have only ever seen while out buggy riding with their parents. They even fall in love, simultaneously, with the sixteen-year-old King of Spain.

In the modern digital age, ten remains a milestone birthday, often marking a bit of a break with childish games and toys. Now considered the beginning of the “tween” years, children often receive their own smartphones at this age, or they will in a year or two, and may even be introduced to social media. The age of onset of puberty for girls has dropped steadily over the years, from 16.6 in 1860 to 14.6 in 1920, and now hovers around ten. The world is not only different for ten-year olds, they are different, too. And yet, in so many ways, they are much the same as their early-twentieth-century counterparts.

Betsy’s sensitivity to the process and meaning of growing older is one of her defining qualities throughout the series, and is a hallmark of these tween years, even today. She actively explores the meaning of life, growth, and maturity in ways that both Tacy and Tib are still more inclined to take for granted. As she “lay very still in the bed she shared with Julia and thought about growing up” on the eve of her birthday, she wonders whether maybe “it’s not so nice growing up. Maybe it’s more fun being a child” (p. 12, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993). This will become an ongoing internal debate for Betsy, as it is for so many, now as then.

—

Sources:

Now ten years old, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib develop a crush on King Alphonso, the teenage King of Spain. This is their first crush as individuals, let alone collectively, so they are not quite sure how to think about it or handle it. But they decide that they must do something about it, together. So they write and send him a letter (with Mrs. Ekstrom’s help), proclaiming their love and suggesting Tib as a suitable future queen, for she owns a white accordion-pleated dress.

In the digital age, it is not uncommon for ten-year-old young girls to create social media accounts and use them to communicate with the outside world. According to the Atlantic Health System, in 2024, 40% of ten-year-olds had their own smartphone, and nearly one in five children between the ages of 9 and 12 used social media every day. Many follow and “like” the posts of celebrities. A modern teenage monarch would very likely have an active social media presence via which a young fan could express admiration, and the young king or queen could conceiveably send a response!

Happily, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib receive a response to their letter, too! It seemed to come from the king’s secretary, said Betsy’s mother, who read aloud the short note thanking the girls for their letter and sentiments. Still, it was wildly thrilling — just as it might be today to receive a “like” or a comment on a social media post sent to a well-known actor, singer, or star.

While sometimes (and incorrectly) dismissed as “only parasocial” and therefore not real, messages exchanged between fans and celebrities can absolutely have real meaning for all involved. They enable the sharing of visibility, affection, and emotionality, often across great physical and social distances. They are real and consequential, and so might more accurately be termed “sociomental,” for they are enable a unique form of sociality that exists in a shared cognitive space. And they most certainly can result in genuine feelings of connectedness, just as we saw in the earliest days of the 20th century, when a trio of young girls reached out to someone who lived a completely different life halfway across the world, and received attention and affirmation in return.

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On children’s smartphone use, see: https://ahs.atlantichealth.org/about-us/stay-connected/news/content-central/2024/10-facts-about-kids-and-teens-on-social-media.html#:~:text=By%20age%2010%2C%20approximately%2040,years%20old%20to%20use%20them.

On parasocial/sociomental relationships, see: Mary Chayko. 2021. Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life (3rd Edition, SAGE Publications) https://collegepublishing.sagepub.com/products/superconnected-the-internet-digital-media-and-techno-social-life-3-259314

and

Mary Chayko. 2002. Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age (SUNY Press). https://sunypress.edu/Books/C/Connecting