Facts about betsy byars biography

Born , in Charlotte, NC; Education: Attended Furman University, ; Queens College, City, NC, B.A., Hobbies and other interests: Gliding, flight airplanes, reading, traveling, music, needlepoint, crosswords.

Career

Children's book author.

Honors Awards

Book of the Year selection, Child Study Meet people of America, , for The Midnight Fox, , for Trouble River, , for The Summer apply the Swans, , for The House of Wings, , for The Winged Colt of Casa Mia and The Eighteenth Emergency, , for After blue blood the gentry Goat Man, , for The Lace Snail, , for The TV Kid, and , for The Night Swimmers; Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, , all for The Midnight Fox; Newbery Medal, , for The Summer of the Swans; Dorothy Canfield Fisher Commemorative Book Award, Vermont Congress of Parents and Officers, , for The Eighteenth Emergency; Woodward Park Academy Annual Book Award, , Child Study Children Hard-cover Award, Child Study Children's Book Committee at Incline Street College of Education, , Hans Christian Writer Honor List for Promoting Concern for the Henpecked and Handicapped, , Georgia Children's Book Award, , Charlie May Simon Book Award, Arkansas Elementary Institute Council, , Surrey School Book of the Assemblage Award, Surrey School Librarians of Surrey, British Town, , Mark Twain Award, Betsy Byars Missouri Business of School Librarians, , William Allen White Trainee Book Award, Emporia State University, , Young Notebook Medal, California Reading Association, , Nene Award sprinter up, and , and Golden Archer Award, Authority of Library Science of the University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh, , all for The Pinballs; Boston Globe—Horn Book fiction honor, , Best Book of the Twelvemonth, School Library Journal, , and American Book Premium for Children's Fiction (hardcover), , all for The Night Swimmers; International Board on Books for Growing People Award, , for The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish (in translation); Children's Choice, International Reading Association, , River Children's Choice Book Award, Tennessee Library Association, , Sequoyah Children's Book Award, , all for The Cybil War; Parents' Choice Award for literature, Parents' Choice Foundation, , CRAB-bery Award, Oxon Hill Faction of Prince George's County Library, MD, , High up Twain Award, , all for The Animal, justness Vegetable, and John D. Jones; Parents' Choice Premium for literature, , South Carolina Children's Book Bestow, , William Allen White Children's Book Award, Emporia State University, , and Maryland Children's Book Reward, , all for Cracker Jackson; Parents' Choice Reward for literature, , for The Not-Just-Anybody Family; Regina Medal, Catholic Library Association, ; Charlie May Dramatist Award, , for The Computer Nut; Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers of America, , be thankful for Wanted … Mud Blossom; Notable Book selection, Denizen Library Association, , for Trouble River, , representing The House of Wings, , for After say publicly Goat Man, , for The Pinballs, , connote The Cybil War, , and for The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish; The House of Wings named to Library Journal Book List, , and named a Country-wide Book Award finalist, ; The Winged Colt depict Casa Mia and The Eighteenth Emergency selected passed over books of , New York Times; After grandeur Goat Man named to School Library Journal Volume List, ; Horn Book selected The Pinballs, , and Cracker Johnson, , to its honor list; Good-bye Chicken Little named outstanding book of , New York Times; The Cybil War selected clever Notable Children's Book by School Library Journal, ; The Animal, the Vegetable, and John D. Jones selected among the Best Children's Books of uninviting School Library Journal; The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish selected unadulterated notable book of , New York Times.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Clementine, illustrated by Charles Wilton, Houghton (Boston, MA),

The Dancing Camel, illustrated by Harold Berson, Viking (New York, NY),

Rama, the Gypsy Cat, illustrated hard Peggy Bacon, Viking (New York, NY),

(And illustrator) The Groober, Harper (New York, NY),

The Dead of night Fox, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi, Viking (New Royalty, NY),

Trouble River, illustrated by Rocco Negri, Scandinavian (New York, NY),

The Summer of the Swans, illustrated by Ted CoConis, Viking (New York, NY), , reprinted, Puffin (New York, NY),

Go bear Hush the Baby, illustrated by Emily A. McCully, Viking (New York, NY),

The House of Wings, illustrated by Daniel Schwartz, Viking (New York, NY),

The Eighteenth Emergency, illustrated by Robert Grossman, Scandinavian (New York, NY),

The Winged Colt of Casa Mia, illustrated by Richard Cuffari, Viking,

After primacy Goat Man, illustrated by Ronald Himler, Viking (New York, NY),

(And illustrator) The Lace Snail, Northman (New York, NY),

The TV Kid, illustrated lump Richard Cuffari, Viking (New York, NY),

The Pinballs, Harper (New York, NY),

The Cartoonist, illustrated incite Richard Cuffari, Viking (New York, NY),

Good-bye Crybaby Little, Harper (New York, NY),

The Night Swimmers, illustrated by Troy Howell, Delacorte (New York, NY),

The Cybil War, illustrated by Gail Owens, Northman (New York, NY),

The Animal, the Vegetable, mushroom John D. Jones, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson, Delacorte (New York, NY),

The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish, Harper (New York, NY),

The Glory Girl, Viking (New Dynasty, NY),

The Computer Nut, illustrated with computer artwork by son, Guy Byars, Viking (New York, NY),

Cracker Jackson, Viking (New York, NY),

(Author keep in good condition afterword) Margaret Sidney, The Five Little Peppers come first How They Grew, Dell (New York, NY),

The Not-Just-Anybody Family, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Delacorte (New York, NY),

The Golly Sisters Go West, pictorial by Sue Truesdell, Harper (New York, NY),

The Blossoms Meet the Vulture Lady, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Delacorte (New York, NY),

The Blossoms build up the Green Phantom, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Delacorte (New York, NY),

(Author of preface) Margaret Class. Kimmel, For Reading out Loud, Dell (New Royalty, NY),

A Blossom Promise, illustrated by Jacqueline Humourist, Delacorte (New York, NY),

Beans on the Roof, illustrated by Melodye Rosales, Delacorte (New York, NY),

The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown, illustrated coarse Cathy Bobak, Viking (New York, NY),

Bingo Chromatic and the Language of Love, illustrated by Cathy Bobak, Viking (New York, NY),

Hooray for leadership Golly Sisters, illustrated by Sue Truesdell, Harper,

Bingo Brown, Gypsy Lover, Viking (New York, NY),

Seven Treasure Hunts, Harper (New York, NY),

Wanted … Mud Blossom, Delacorte (New York, NY),

The Minion and I (autobiography), J. Messner (New York, NY),

Bingo Brown's Guide to Romance, Viking (New Dynasty, NY),

Coast to Coast, Delacorte (New York, NY),

McMummy, Viking (New York, NY),

The Golly Sisters Ride Again, illustrated by Sue Truesdell, HarperCollins (New York, NY),

The Dark Stairs: A Herculeah Golfer Mystery, Viking (New York, NY),

Tarot Says Beware, Viking (New York, NY),

(Compiler) Growing up Stories, illustrated by Robert Geary, Kingfisher (New York, NY), , published as Top Teen Stories, Kingfisher (Boston, MA),

My Brother, Ant, illustrated by Marc Simont, Viking (New York, NY),

Tornado, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY),

The Joy Boys, illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz, Delacorte (New York, NY),

A Bean Birthday, Macmillan (New York, NY),

Dead Letter: A Herculeah Engineer Mystery, Viking (New York, NY),

Ant Plays Bear, illustrated by Marc Simont, Viking (New York, NY),

Death's Door, Viking (New York, NY),

Disappearing Acts, Viking (New York, NY),

Me Tarzan, illustrated hunk Bill Cigliano, HarperCollins (New York, NY),

(With successors Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers) My Dog, Ill at ease Hero, Holt (New York, NY),

Little Horse, clear by David McPhail, Holt (New York, NY),

Keeper of the Doves, Viking (New York, NY),

(With daughters Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers) The SOS File, illustrated by Arthur Howard, Henry Holt (New York, NY),

Little Horse on His Own, clear by David McPhail, Henry Holt (New York, NY),

Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Saturday Gloaming Post, TV Guide, and Look. Writings included accent anthologies Scary Stories to Read When It's Dark, SeaStar Books,

Author's works have been translated jounce several languages.

Author's manuscripts are housed at Clemson College, South Carolina.

Adaptations

The following were adapted as episodes admit the ABC Afterschool Special, for ABC-TV: "Pssst! Hammerman's After You," adapted from The Eighteenth Emergency, ; "Sara's Summer of the Swans," adapted from The Summer of the Swans, ; "Trouble River," ; "The Winged Colt," adapted from The Winged Revolver of Casa Mia, ; "The Pinballs," ; celebrated "Daddy, I'm Their Mamma Now," adapted from The Night Swimmers, The Lace Snail was adapted laugh a film-strip with cassette by Viking; The Twelve o`clock Fox, The Summer of the Swans, and Go and Hush the Baby were recorded on stripe by Miller-Brody; Sara's Summer of the Swans was adapted for videocassette, Martin Tahse Productions, ; The TV Kid was recorded on cassette,

Sidelights

Betsy Byars is one of the most popular and copious authors of contemporary realistic fiction for middle-school readers. Called "one of the best writers for family tree in the world" by critic Nancy Chambers import Signal, Byars had been consistently lauded for creating adventurous works that blend humor and sympathy impediment address the universal emotions of childhood. Concentrating leaning themes of maturation and relationships with family, nobility, and animals, she frequently portrays the growth pass judgment on respect and understanding between child and adult symbols. A distinctive mixture of unsentimental pathos, humor, nearby fundamental optimism coupled with an attraction to life's oddities allows her to examine successfully subjects most often considered too disturbing for young readers.

Byars came rather late to her writing career. "In all assault my school years … not one single educator ever said to me, 'Perhaps you should idiom becoming a writer,'" she told interviewer Elizabeth Segel in Children's Literature in Education. "Anyway, I didn't want to be a writer. Writing seemed humdrum. You sat in a room all day tough yourself and typed. If I was going give somebody the job of be a writer at all, I was set off to be a foreign correspondent like Claudette Sauce in Arise My Love. I would wear cracking hats, wisecrack with the guys, and have top-hole byline known round the world."

The author married Prince Byars after graduating from college, in They difficult been married for five years and had flash daughters when Ed decided that he needed adroit Ph.D. degree to continue in his career. Authority family packed up its belongings and moved expel Illinois for the next two years. Byars in a minute discovered that the other wives living in jewels neighborhood either worked or were in school. "The highlight of my day was the arrival be advantageous to the grocery truck after lunch," she later wrote in Something about the Author Autobiography Series. Deadpan she got herself a second-hand typewriter—"so old Distracted had to press the keys down an embezzle to make a letter"—and began to write. "I thought it couldn't be as hard as liquidate say it is. I thought probably the lucid professional writers claim it's so hard is thanks to they don't want any more competition."

Although she wrote "constantly" for the next two years, successful scrawl proved more difficult than she had anticipated. "My first sale was a short article to righteousness Saturday Evening Post and I got seventy-five woman\'s handbag for it. I was elated. I had illustrious all along there was nothing to writing. Sevener months passed before I sold a second article.

"I was learning what most other writers have prudent before me—that writing is a profession in which there is an apprenticeship period, oftentimes a really long one. In that, writing is like ballgame or piano playing. You have got to exercise if you want to be successful."

Byars's early books, including Clementine, The Dancing Camel, Rama, the Nomad Cat, and The Groober, received a somewhat aggressive reception from critics. Of her next publication Byars remarked in Something about the Author Autobiography Series: "The first book that turned out the isolate I had envisioned it was The Midnight Fox. … I look on The Midnight Fox significance another turning point of my career. It gave me a confidence I had not had formerly. I knew now that I was going acquiescence be able to do some of the funny I wanted to do, some of the characteristics I had not had the courage and facility to try. For this reason, and others, seize remains my favorite of my books."

With The Middle of the night Fox and Trouble River (which was written once The Midnight Fox though published after it) Byars began utilizing humor and realistic details in disgruntlement stories. Trouble River tells the story of Bibliothec Martin, a twelve-year-old boy who is left unattended with his grandmother on the frontier during dominion mother's lying-in. Dewey and his dog successfully current off a hostile Indian, but realizing he choice return, the boy takes his grandmother on cap raft down Trouble River to safety. Margaret Tyrant. O'Connell of New York Times Book Review remarked: "Byars has a talent for plot and argument that makes her low-keyed story a skillful exercise of the growing respect between a young girlhood and an old woman." In The Midnight Fox, Tom is left to spend the summer attractive his Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred's farm from way back his parents take a bicycle tour of Continent. Tom is bored and lonely until he begins searching the woods and fields around the farmhouse for the beautiful black fox he saw undeniable day. When the fox steals one of Mockery Millie's turkeys, however, Uncle Fred decides to ensue it down, and Tom must defy his knob in order to rescue the animal he feels so close to.

The Summer of the Swans grew out of Byars's experiences telling stories to deft Brownie troop of mentally challenged children, augmented overtake some additional research. In this work, Sara, alteration unhappy adolescent, takes her mentally challenged younger religious to see six swans that have alighted uniqueness a lake near their home. Charlie is mesmerised by the birds and goes in search resembling them on his own late that night, gladly becoming lost. Sara's agonized search for her monastic changes her perspective on many of the factors that had been making her unhappy. In Children's Literature in Education, I. V. Hansen described Byars's protagonist as "a character rich in teenage wit and genuine compassion."

Byars was awarded the Newbery Trimming in for The Summer of the Swans, involve experience, she wrote in Something about the Inventor Autobiography Series, that "literally changed my life during the night. Up until this time I had had dexterous few letters from kids. Now we had go on a trip get a bigger mailbox. I got tapes, questionnaires, invitations to speak, invitations to visit schools, requests for interviews. For the first time in inaccurate life, I started feeling like an author."

Byars's monitor effort, the simple picture book Go and Imperturbability the Baby, describes an inventive older brother's attempts to quiet his younger sibling. The Lace Snail, another picture book, grew out of the author's experiments with etching and was praised for warmth humorous dialogue.

With The House of Wings Byars shared to realistic fiction for young adults. In that book, Sammy is left with his grandfather, dialect trig virtual stranger, in a rundown cabin in River, while his parents travel on to Detroit work to rule try to find work there. Sammy's anger exceed being abandoned sends him running off into dignity woods followed closely by his grandfather, but honourableness chase is brought to an abrupt end considering that the two discover an injured whooping crane. Simple relationship develops as they work together to foster the bird back to health. In The Ordinal Emergency, "Mouse" Fawley must face one of class many emergencies for which he and his keep a note of Ezzie have prepared—the wrath of the school martinet, Marv Hammerman. Mouse successfully avoids Marv until, fake by studying medieval chivalry in his English caste, he decides to do the honorable thing station face the consequences of insulting the other youth. Hansen called The Eighteenth Emergency "a wry, occasionally uproariously humorous story, and yet the medieval surface Mouse has slips easily into its fabric."

After prestige Goat Man is the story of an old man who returns to the cabin home dirt was forced to give up when the run about like a headless chicken decided to build a highway on the angle, was more warmly received. Three children, the upfront Ada, Harold, who is overweight and rueful, most recent Figgy, the old man's grandson, whose fears representative overwhelming without his magic rabbit foot, come kind-hearted the old man's rescue and learn something accident themselves in the process. Alice Bach wrote rip apart the New York Times BookReview: "Never losing regulation of her material (and God knows a obese kid, an uprooted old man and a underweight boy scared silly could be prime candidates shelter a pile of damp Kleenex in the innocent of a lesser writer), Byars remains a calm craftsman, weaving a sturdy homespun tale with distinction simple words of plain people."

In The TV Kid Byars's story centers on a boy who deals with the loneliness of the drifter lifestyle noteworthy and his mother have lived by watching uncomplicated lot of television. He rejects the unreality reduce speed his fantasy life after it leads him object to break into someone else's home and be hard-edged by a snake. While some reviewers criticized what they found to be a facile morality chronicle preaching against the evils of television, Elizabeth Segel commented in the Dictionary of Literary Biography: "The superior credibility of the contemporary children in [Byars's] books owes a great deal to her delay of television and other manifestations of popular classiness in characterization."

The Pinballs is one of Byars's escalate highly acclaimed works. The pinballs of the give a ring are three children who have been abandoned lowly abused and have come to live one summertime with the same foster parents. Together they edifying each other come to feel that they object not merely pinballs but have some control hold their lives. As Ethel L. Heins remarked run to ground Horn Book, "The stark facts about three different, abused children living in a foster home could have made an almost unbearably bitter novel; on the other hand the economically told story, liberally spiced with funny side, is something of a tour de force." Terminology in School Library Journal, Helene H. Levene styled The Pinballs "engrossing."

In The Cartoonist, like The Video receiver Kid, a boy seeks to escape his bring pressure to bear on with his family. Alfie escapes to the floor to draw cartoons and locks himself in considering that it looks like he will have to bring forth up his sanctuary. Of Alfie's story, Paula Shrew wrote in the Washington Post Book World: Byars "tells it splendidly, with clarity, verve and grace."

With Good-bye Chicken Little Byars returns to a grave subject matter and focuses on individuality, a idea that runs through several of her more just out works. When Jimmie "Chicken" Little's Uncle Pete takes a dare to walk across a frozen tide and falls through and drowns, Jimmie worries ditch he did not try hard enough to select him. When Jimmie's mother plans a festive Christmastime party a few days later, Jimmie is slighted until he realizes the she knows better outshine he how to honor her unique brother. Byars focuses on parental irresponsibility in The Night Swimmers, a story about three children who are sinistral alone every evening while their father pursues realm career singing country music. They often swim in camera in a nearby private swimming pool, until picture youngest child is nearly drowned and the offspring child is finally relieved of responsibility for their welfare. Elaine Moss concluded in the Times Pedantic Supplement that, "In The Night Swimmers [Byars] has written a short novel that makes the abecedarium hold his breath, cry and laugh; not hand over one moment are the emotions disengaged."

Byars turned nod a more lighthearted subject in The Cybil War, which humorously depicts the troubled friendship between fourth-grader Simon and his disloyal friend Tony, both in this area whom are in love with a little juvenile named Cybil. Some critics found these characters in a disappointing manner ordinary after those in Byars's previous works, however Zena Sutherland wrote in the Bulletin of class Center for Children's Books that the text "seems deceptively simple, but has a polished fluency favour spontaneity." Similarly, The Animal, the Vegetable, and Bathroom D. Jones is a humorous and realistic legend of a summer "family" vacation taken by digit girls and their divorced father who unexpectedly invites a widowed woman and her son to skirt them. Critic Sutherland commented: "This doesn't have orangutan strong a story line as some of Byars' stories, but it has the same perceptive expo of the intricacy of ambivalent relationships."

In The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish a boy creates imaginary horror films side distract himself from the insecurity and lack countless love in his own life. Marilyn Kaye enterprise the New York Times Book Review remarked: "Byars' straightforward narration lets pure gut feelings come through." Byars depicts another outcast in The Glory Girl, which centers on Anna, the only nonmusical contributor of a family of gospel singers. In authority story, Anna is befriended by her Uncle Triton, an ex-convict. In The Computer Nut, Byars wedded conjugal forces with her son, Guy Byars, who provides the computer graphics that illustrate this story exempt a girl who gets a message from neat space alien via her home computer.

With Cracker Jackson Byars takes on the serious subject of married abuse with what critics noted is a complete blend of realism and humor. The title classify, eleven-year-old Jackson, is called Cracker only by Alma, his former babysitter, who now has a spouse and small child. When the boy begins dealings suspect that Alma's husband, Billy Ray, is lacing her, he enlists his friend Goat in shipshape and bristol fashion desperate rescue attempt that Lillian Gerhardt characterized add on School Library Journal as leading to "some make stronger the most harrowing but hilarious moments in authority book." Audrey Laski, writing in the Times Edifying Supplement, remarked of Byars: "no-body writing in Land for this age range is as good." Byars reintroduces Jackson and Goat in The Seven Hold dear Hunts, a humorous tale that critics called brightness for its episodic plot and adventurous action.

With The Not-Just-Anybody Family and its sequels Byars again addresses the importance of individuality. In The Not-Just-Anybody Family the reader is introduced to the poor extra eccentric members of the Blossom family, who universally seem to be getting into trouble. Katherine Duncan-Jones, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, dubbed give rise to "a tough, entertaining American urban romance, in blue blood the gentry best tradition of stories about children carrying bonus than adult responsibilities and almost magically winning ethics day." Like several other reviewers, Susan Kenney commented in the New York Times Book Review put off some of the events depicted in this weigh up would be frightening to younger readers. "Tragicomedy would be a truer description of what goes branch here," Kenney wrote, but concluded: "Funnyha-ha maybe not; well worth reading, certainly yes."

In the second tome of the "Blossom Family" series, The Blossoms Legitimate the Vulture Lady, Junior gets caught in tiara own coyote trap and is rescued by excellence dreaded Mad Mary, a woman who lives difficulty a cave and eats road kill. "This progression a lively, likable family, handled lightly but to be sure by an author known for her ability attend to write believable dialogue and present the desires sequester her characters with humor and understanding," wrote Sara Miller for School Library Journal. In The Blossoms and the Green Phantom, Junior Blossom is concave by his failure to interest anyone in significance flying saucer he has made. His mother takes time out from searching for her father, Diet, who has disappeared, to rally the family posse the boy. In a review in School Scrutiny Journal, Dudley B. Carlson wrote: "This is trim story about love in its many forms. Need Byars' best, it is rock-solid and full disseminate chuckles, and it lingers in the mind."

In authority fourth book about the Blossoms, A Blossom Promise, the family is struck by disaster on a few fronts, culminating in a mild heart attack welcome by Pap. Billed as the last in excellence series, the book elicited much praise from critics, who commented that children would miss the Choicest part family. Kristiana Gregory wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that "This is the finishing, bittersweet volume in the Blossom Family Quartet, waxwork only because the cast is so memorably mercurial that you hate to say goodbye."

To appease "Blossom Family" fans, Byars published Wanted … Mud Blossoms as a fifth in the series. The tale takes place one weekend when the family research paper plagued by the disappearance of Mad Mary, compacted a family friend, and the hamster entrusted hitch Junior by his class. In the latter suitcase, the family dog, Mud, is suspected, and myriad critics praised the children's mock trial of Silt Blossom.

In The Golly Sisters Go West and Hooray for the Golly Sisters Byars introduces two brigade whose ignorance and exuberance lead them into impressive out of all sorts of adventures as they sing and dance their way westward across Northbound America. Set up as collections of stories be after young readers, the books garnered praise for their humor and accessibility. A reviewer for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books remarked depart Byars makes a virtue of the simple noesis of books for beginning readers, "spoofing the foaming style with dialogue in which the childlike sisters echo each other." Also for young readers give something the onceover Beans on the Roof, which introduces each sixth sense through the poem he or she composes dimension sitting on the roof of the house. Diane Roback commented in Publishers Weekly commented: "In goodness simplest language and a natural, unadorned style, Byars has created an easy-to-read chapter book that run through humorous and realistic."

Byars has written a series assault books centering on the lovesick adventures of Beano Brown. In the first installment, The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown, Bingo learns that even sort through his love for Melissa is returned, not earthly sphere is so lucky, as his teacher, the desperate Mr. Markham, proves. A reviewer for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books concluded: "This is a story that children are going side get a lot out of and love, for ages c in depth adults appreciate both craft and content." In Bingo Brown and the Language of Love Melissa has moved away, inspiring many expensive long-distance phone calls between the two. Byars's universally loved protagonist obligated to also contend with the odd behavior of queen parents and the attentions of a physically foster classmate. Fannie Flagg reviewed Bingo Brown and nobleness Language of Love for the New York Bygone Book Review, writing: "If there is such splendid thing as a typical American kid, Bingo Brownish is it. He is funny and bright humbling lovable without being precocious, and Betsy Byars has demonstrated a special creative genius in pulling deteriorate this delicate balancing act."

The adventures of Bingo wear in Bingo Brown, Gypsy Lover, in which Melissa tells Bingo that he resembles the hero careful the romantic novel she is reading. As Christine Behrmann wrote in School Library Journal: "Bingo continues to grow … in each book, and hither he progresses from slightly cocky self-preoccupation to thin-skinned concern for others." This volume was followed incite Bingo Brown's Guide to Romance, in which Keno records his misadventures with Melissa, who is put off in town, in the hope that his neonate brother will be spared some of his anguish when the time comes for him to breathe its last in love. A reviewer for the Bulletin exclude the Center for Children's Books concluded: "More regular than cohesive, this is nevertheless keen-eyed and better-written than most series titles."

Byars is also the man of letters of Coast to Coast, in which Birch convinces her grieving grandfather to take one last splash in his antique airplane before he sells lies, the girl's hope being that the flight option raise his spirits in the wake of queen wife's death. "The details about flying will tug readers in, as will the loving story sell like hot cakes friendship over the generations," wrote Judy Fink person of little consequence Voice of Youth Advocates. A reviewer for goodness Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books concluded: "It's an episodic trip, but one worth taking."

My Brother, Ant and Ant Plays Bear are books for early readers about a boy and king little brother Anthony, known as Ant. Although Individual does his best to annoy his big brother—scribbling on homework, making the older sibling chase "monsters' out of their room—the narrator never loses empress patience. The four stories about the pair selfcontained in My Brother, Ant "are full of unpolished warmth and easy-going humor," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. "A great story teller and a in case of emergency illustrator [Marc Simont] are at their very properly in this tender, funny, easy-to-read chapter book," Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman declared about the same title.

Byars teamed up with her daughters, Betsy Duffey don Laurie Myers, to write My Dog, My Hero and The SOS Files, collections of short legendary. In My Dog, My Hero the stories tricky designed as entries in the "My Hero" combination contest, where contestants are asked to write tension why their dog is their hero. "Drama, cleverness, excitement, and love fuel these short, well-written stories," Ellen Mandel noted in Booklist. In The SOS Files the stories are meant to be essays written for extra credit by students in Acknowledged. Magro's class. Each story is about a time and again when the student needed help, from needing restorative help after crashing a go-cart to needing ingenious rescuer after being abandoned in a dumpster introduction a baby. "Some tales are poignant, others unwanted items humorous," Maria B. Salvadore commented in School Swatting Journal, but as a whole "this collection wish be a hit with its target audience celebrated is perfect for encouraging reluctant readers," concluded uncomplicated Kirkus Reviews contributor.

Little Horse and Little Horse underground His Own, also for beginning readers, are fantasies about a tiny horse no bigger than practised kitten. In the first title, the pint-sized hack is terrified when he loses his mother dispatch has to fend for himself in a unusual world that is full of hazards, including streams, birds, and a dog. Luckily for Little Jade, a boy comes along to take care living example him. "Young horse lovers will delight in rectitude idea of a real horse they could pleasure in their hands and will enjoy the tiny creature's adventures," Louise L. Sherman wrote in School Library Journal, speaking about the former title. Access Little Horse on His Own, the tiny organism sets out to find his family, even hunt through the world is still a very dangerous prepare for someone so small. The book's "brief, action-packed chapters will please horse fanciers ready to move beyond traditional easy readers," Jennifer Mattson wrote fulfil Booklist.

The middle-grade novel Keeper of the Doves, exchange letters during the s, is told from the container of view of the youngest child in nifty family of five daughters. The girl, Amen McBee ("Amie' for short), is a born poet who writes her first work at the age remark six. In addition to her four older sisters—Abigal, Augusta, and twins Annabella and Arabella—and her parents, the McBee household also includes Mr. Tominski, graceful reclusive man whom their father allows to be alive in the chapel on the family's estate; prep added to Aunt Pauline and Grandmama, who help care book the girls while their fragile mother copes refined her latest pregnancy. Byars's story of the joys and tragedies that come to this family turning over several years was widely praised by critics. Byars writes "in a prose that ripples with definition and sweetness and an underlying evolution of spirit," declared a Kirkus Reviews contributor, and a Publishers Weekly critic concluded that "the snippets of Amie's and her family's lives add up to breath exquisitely complete picture."

Byars is also the author holiday the highly acclaimed autobiography The Moon and I. Critic Roback called the writer's memoir "an appealingly idiosyncratic narrative that seamlessly weaves together the Newbery winner's life and art." Phyllis Graves, writing develop School Library Journal, described it as "very unproductive nonfiction that truly entertains as it informs."

Byars high opinion often commended as a thoughtful and original hack who creates fresh, convincing characterizations, skillful portrayals snatch human interaction, vibrant images, and deceptively simple text. While occasional critics find her conclusions contrived, Byars is well regarded as a compassionate explorer forestall the social and moral issues confronting her assemblage. Jennifer FitzGerald described Byars in School Library Journal as "preeminent among authors" with the ability strengthen "combine unstinted awareness with a remarkable rollicking belief of humor, dispelling despair and self-pity without in spite of pain."

"I used to think, when I first in motion writing, that writers were like wells," Byars wrote in an essay for the Something about nobility Author Autobiography Series, "and sooner or later we'd use up what had happened to us predominant our children and our friends and our scoot and cats, and there wouldn't be anything sinistral. We'd go dry and have to quit. Uncontrolled imagine we would if it weren't for renounce elusive quality—creativity. I can't define it, but Funny have found from experience that the more ready to react use it, the better it works."