It didn’t surprise me to read that Betsy Byars has received more letters about The Pinballs than about any of her other books. Of all her books that I have read, The Pinballs is one of my favorites. I love the three main characters. The plot is perfectly balanced. Even the writing style immediate...
Award: NewberryMy TakePuberty is hitting Sara hard and Byars is absolutely brilliant in her depiction of the angst and drama of a young teen with the frustrations about her father and her impatience with her little brother---this rings so true of sibling relationships! Her intense sense of right ...
I usually like this author's work, but this book really dissapointed me. Warren is a young boy who daydreams of the horror movies he hopes to one day make. His daydreams help him escape his real life that consists of a eco-terrorist, missing mom, a older sister who really doesn't pay attention to...
Herculeah knew something was up. She could feel it in her hair from the very first moment she saw her father, Police Detective Jones, enter the yard of Dead Oaks, the local mystery mansion. Her sense of danger deepened when she encountered the creepy, hollow-toned man who hired her mother to inve...
The fifth book about the Blossom's was a hoot - because we listened to it as a book on tape, and we acually listened to it first. It's fun to hear all the characters come to life. In this book, Vern's friend, Michael, convinces him to trespass in Mad Mary's cave. Mad Mary herself is missing, and ...
This is my 10 yr old little brother's favorite book. I get so excited that he loves to read! He kept talking about this one and how much he liked it, so I bought him a copy for his birthday. He asked me if I would like to read it too, so I did. It was a cute little story about two best friends wh...
I enjoyed this but wondered if it might be a bit slow-moving for the average young reader. Most of the book focuses on Mouse's fear as he waits for retailiation from the school bully after he labeled a Neanderthal poster with the bully's name. The story only covers about two and a half days, b...
I am borrowing a lovely review by Carol Hurst:Betsy Byars' newest book Keeper of the Doves is the deceptively simple story of one turn of the century family during one summer. Accessible to kids from fourth grade up, it speaks gently but packs a punch. The story revolves around words and their po...
"Bingo Brown fell in love three times during English Class." When I read this first sentence, I knew I was in for a treat. Of course, I was the same age as Bingo at the time, sixth grade, and over the course of the next several weeks, I fell in love with Bingo, myself. I devoured everything Byar...
Thanks to my friend and colleague Cindy, I have a small handful of Betsy Byars books with which to kick off my summer reading. I enjoyed the heck out of The Eighteenth Emergency with its parade of quirky characters. This short novel, House of Wings, is a different creature entirely. Young Samm...
I received this book from Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for a review.Well I didn't know this was the last book in the series. That wasn't mentioned in the Netgalley description. Kind of sad with that, because now at times I was just confused. There are some explanations, but a lot is just stran...