Betsy Cromer Byars, . . Puffin, $5.99 (121pp) ISBN 978-0-14-240063-0
In a boxed review, PW
called this a "jewel-like novel. In tightly constructed scenes, the author slowly and fluidly unspools the small revelations that aid in the narrator's understanding of the [late-19th-century] world around her." Ages 8-12. (Feb.)
Newbery winner Byars and her two daughters, with whom she collaborated on My Dog, My Hero
, offer a collection of fictional students' responses to their Continue reading »
Whether experimenting with styling mousse or engaging in ``t-shirt wars'' with the class Rambo, the irrepressible Bingo faces life with considerable panache. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
``One summer two boys and a girl went to a foster home to live together''--the Newbery Medal-winning author chronicles their trials and tribulations in witty and poignant fashion. Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
A girl communicates with an alien through her computer, and a young cartoonist defends his attic refuge in these ""saucily told, sparely written"" stories. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
A daydreaming television addict encounters the real world in this comic novel by a Newbery Medalist. ""Byars infuses the story with her own special magic,"" said PW. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
Not-just-any novel, Byars's latest races without pause between hilarious, suspenseful and touching crises. Rogers's drawings are fine but almost unneeded; every scene is vividly described from the Continue reading »
Junior's flight from the barn on his handmade wings lands him in the hospital; his siblings Maggie and Vern are trying to get their Grandpa out of jail; and Grandpa's dog Mud is defying all obstacles Continue reading »
Byars infuses her own special magic into this story of a boy who fails in school but imagines a much different world for himself. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
The hard-living Blossom family is back in this last title of a remarkable quartet. All the children are anticipating something: Maggie is about to perform with her mother in the rodeo, Vern is Continue reading »
The irrepressible Bingo Brown is back, in his most delightful tale yet. It's Christmastime at the Brown house, and what a holiday this is shaping up to be. Bingo's mother is pregnant, and as if the Continue reading »
Byars, a licensed amateur pilot, brings her knowledge of and enthusiasm for flying to this novel of the cross-country flight an impetuous 13-year-old and her grandfather make in his Piper Cub. As Continue reading »
Fans of the irrepressible Blossom clan will be delighted to learn that their exuberance has spilled over into this fifth volume. With her distinctive blend of compassion and quirky humor, Byars Continue reading »
In a starred review, PW said, ``Byars... brings her knowledge of and enthusiasm for flying'' to this novel about a 13-year-old girl and her grandfather, who travel cross-country in a Piper Cub. Ages Continue reading »
Mud, the Blossoms' rambunctious dog who ``had never turned down a walk in his life,'' takes center stage in Byars's event-filled fifth installment about this irrepressible clan. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
""Frequently funny lines surface throughout this light-as-cotton-candy, fast-paced novel,"" said PW of this tale about Dorothy, who lands the starring role (Tarzan) in her class play. ""This Continue reading »
When Maggie's brother-in-law abandons his wife and newborn son, Maggie feels so betrayed that she turns her anger against all menparticularly against the rowdy boys at school and her distant, Continue reading »
Bingo Brown is one of Byars's most ingenuous and likable male characters since Junior Blossom. He is a fairly ordinary sixth grader, with a number of extraordinary questions, which he faithfully Continue reading »
Bingo, that incomparable optimist from The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown , returns with even bigger issues to challenge him and charm readers. Melissa, the love of his life, has moved away, and Continue reading »
Jackson and his scheming friend Goat, heroes of Cracker Jackson , Byars's compassionate and thoughtfully rendered novel about physical abuse, return in this lighthearted adventure. The boys attempt Continue reading »
The third starring vehicle for the inimitable Bingo concerns his long-distance relationship--and fame as local authority on matters amatory. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
For Byars, meeting an enormous blacksnake on her front porch becomes a springboard for tracing her lifelong love of animals, and also her likes and dislikes, successes and failures as a writer. The Continue reading »
Fans of Bingo's previous books will wish things went better for him here. The story opens with the unexpected sighting of his long-lost heartthrob, Melissa, and closes with the sad revelation that Continue reading »
Having agreed to tend Professor Orloff's greenhouse in his absence, Mozie finds more than he'd bargained for: a human-size, mummy-shaped pod that hums with energy and seems to call to him with a Continue reading »
Given a policeman for a father and a private investigator for a mother, could 13-year-old Herculeah Jones be anything but a sleuth? Drafting her neighbor and sometimes reluctant sidekick, Meat, she Continue reading »
This journal of Bingo's trials of love, presented as an instruction manual for his little brother, is ""poignant and hilarious by turns,"" said PW. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
It may not earn Byars (Summer of the Swans) another Newbery Medal or Simont (A Tree Is Nice) another Caldecott, but this volume is tailor-made for kids just beginning to read on their own. For Continue reading »
""Me Tarzan, you Dwayne,"" gloats Dorothy when she out-screams her nemesis to land the starring role in the class play. Similarly glib, frequently funny lines surface throughout this Continue reading »
In a futuristic world in which 60% of people have mutated to develop superpowers, transgender teen Oberon, who has a panic disorder, is the only one of his siblings without a Continue reading »
Three days after her 15th birthday, Nell Strand manifests her matrilineal magic in the form of yellow ladybugs that alight on her piano keys as she searches for the perfect Continue reading »
Ever since her mother’s death, Japanese American seventh grader Megumi Mizuno has felt like school is a waste of time. Following her latest expulsion, Meg is enrolled at strict, Continue reading »
Drawing from personal memories, per an afterword, Agra Deedy (Carina Felina) kicks off this relational telling focusing on the friendship between a child, Coqui, and Emilio, the Continue reading »