Showing results by author "Betsy Byars" in All Categories

When you're a pinball, life is a risky game, especially for three adolescent children placed in a foster home. Their hard-won defenses are firmly in place as these three uneasy strangers meet their foster parents. For each of these children who were failed by their families, caring for others is so scary it hurts. No one has been in control. But as their daily lives become dotted with fried chicken dinners, puppies, and birthdays, they begin to hope that even pinballs can be winners.

All summer Sara Godfrey has fretted over herself, her impossible body, her terrible new haircut. One moment she's elated, the next, she's in tears. And she can't figure out why. Maybe her wildly changing moods are tied to the sudden and unaccountable appearance of the swans, which hold the rapt attention of Charlie, Sara's mentally handicapped brother, who she loves far more than herself these days. When he disappears, in her anguish, Sara turns to Joe Melby, whom she has long despised, and together they search for him.

Mystery is in Herculeah Jones’ blood. How could it not be, with a father on the police force and a mother who’s a private eye? So when Herculeah notices a man hanging around the "Dead Oaks" mansion, she can’t resist doing some investigating of her own. Legend has it the old estate was the site of a murder, and now, it looks like there’s something even more nefarious going on. Can Herculeah crack the case before the mystery man closes in on her?

When Junior Blossom wakes up in the hospital, his last memory is of crouching on the barn roof with cloth wings tied to his arms, and of Maggie and Vern in the yard below, urging him to fly. That had been just before Junior spotted a police car approaching the farm in a cloud of dust. Meanwhile Pap, the children's grandfather, sits in disgrace in the city jail. He was arrested for disturbing the peace after his pickup truck accidentally dumped 2,147 beer and soda cans (worth $107.35) on Spring Street. With their mother away on the rodeo circuit, it's up to Maggie and Vern to find a way to rescue Pap and Junior.

Safety is downriver - but first there’s trouble ahead. As soon as Dewey Martin sees the Indian creeping toward the cabin - and toward his unsuspecting grandmother - he knows what to do: knock him down and take off before the rest of the raiding party arrives. The only means of escape is Dewey’s homemade raft, and lying in its path are rapids, wolves, Indians, and 40 miles of uncharted river. Can a boy who’s never manned an oar and an old frontierswoman be the first to make it down Trouble River? 

No one asked Tom how he felt about spending two months on his Aunt Millie’s farm. For a city boy, the farm holds countless terrors - stampeding baby lambs, boy-chasing chickens, and worst of all, loneliness. But everything changes when Tom sees the midnight fox. He can spend hours watching the graceful black fox in the woods. And when her life - and that of her cub - is in danger, Tom knows exactly what he must do.

When Junior brings home the classroom hamster, Scooty, he decides to build the best hamster tunnel ever. But when Scooty goes missing, all evidence points to Mud. In the meantime, Mad Mary is missing, too - although Maggie and Ralphie find her bag and cane near the highway. Have Scooty and Mad Mary been kidnapped - or worse? With a mystery around every bend, it’s going to be anything but an ordinary weekend with the Blossoms!

When Herculeah Jones's best friend, Meat, decides to take a comedy class, he just expects to get a few laughs. But then he discovers a dead body in the bathroom and realizes that there's nothing funny about murder. Things can't get any worse - until the body disappears! Meat needs Herculeah's help to uncover the clues, but she's busy investigating a case of her own.

A dangerous coyote is surely no match for Junior Blossom. He sets out to build the best trap ever and win the big reward! However, Junior’s inventions aren’t exactly known for their success. A malfunction sets off a series of events that leaves Junior trapped far from home in a place no one would think to look for him. Will the rest of the Blossom family be able to rescue him?

Amen "Amie" McBee, the youngest of five sisters, gobbles up words the way other children gobble up sweets. She couldn't be more different from her elder twin sisters Arabella and Annabella, called the Bellas. The mischievous Bellas constantly frighten Amen with stories of Mr. Tominski, the old recluse who lives in the woods nearby and mysteriously tends to a flock of doves.

At the eerie Hunt mansion, Herculeah Jones has been reading aloud to Lionus Hunt, an elderly stroke victim who can only communicate by blinking his eyes (once for yes, twice for no). Mr. Hunt seems to be trying to tell Herculeah something, but his gruff nurse won't allow her to ask any questions. What is Mr. Hunt trying to say? Is it related to a murder that took place in the mansion's black tower years ago? And who is the creepy old lady who lives in the mansion? Herculeah's friend Meat thinks she may be asking for trouble, but Herculeah Jones won't quit....

All her life, Boo has wanted a real live dinosaur to follow her home - and today, one did. There is only one problem - no one else can see Boo's dinosaur. Boo's older brother Sammy certainly won't put up with these crazy antics.

When Herculeah discovers a mysterious letter inside the lining of a secondhand coat, she suspects it's a desperate cry for help. If so, what happened to the person who wrote it? Herculeah thinks she knows the answer. What she doesn't know is that someone is watching her - someone who will do anything to keep her quiet.

Junior Blossom has created the most spectacular invention of all time: a homemade UFO. The Green Phantom took all of the garbage bags and Day-Glo paint Junior could find, but now it requires one more very special ingredient. Although Junior needs help, his family seems too busy to care about him. Then when Pap and his dog, Mud, don't come home from town, the Blossoms are pulled apart even farther. Are Pap and Mud in serious trouble? Can a Blossom promise bring everyone back together again?

Together with her best friend and reluctant sidekick, Meat, Herculeah Jones meets a famous mystery author, Mathias King, aka the Murder King. King's novels mirror gruesome real-life murders, particularly A Slash of Life, which is about an unsolved local stabbing. Some people believe Mathias King isn't making up the details; could he actually be responsible for the crime? Herculeah's sure she can find out. But Meat seems too busy with his new girlfriend to give Herculeah much of a hand. Can Herculeah solve this mystery on her own, or will Meat's dating be this sleuth's downfall?

Madame Rosa, the eccentric local fortune teller, has been murdered, and the only witness is her parrot, Tarot. But he’s not talking. Herculeah Jones thinks she knows who the killer is, but she’s not the only one.... Someone else knows - someone who wants to make sure Herculeah won’t be around to see the future.

Herculeah Jones finds herself in the middle of another mystery when her best friend Meat barely escapes a hitman’s bullet. Someone must have mistaken Meat for someone else. But who? Herculeah is determined to solve the mystery, before the assassin comes after her!

For the Blossom family it's the best day of their lives - and the worst. Maggie, out west with her mother, is about to become the newest Blossom on the rodeo circuit. And now that the rain has finally stopped, Junior can at last visit his friend Mad Mary in her cave in the woods. These two weeks of rain have been like an answer to a prayer for Vern and his friend Michael. Together they planned and built a perfect raft, and now, with everyone out watching the waters rise over the banks of the Snake River, they're sure their great voyage downstream will be witnessed with cheers.