About the Author

Betsy Byars began her writing career rather late in life. "In all of my school years, . . . not one single teacher ever said to me, 'Perhaps you should consider becoming a writer,'" Byars recalls. "Anyway, I didn't want to be a writer. Writing seemed boring. You sat in a room all day by yourself and typed. If I was going to be a writer at all, I was going to be a foreign correspondent like Claudette Colbert in Arise My Love. I would wear smashing hats, wisecrack with the guys, and have a byline known round the world. My father wanted me to be a mathematician." So Byars set out to become mathematician, but when she couldn't grasp calculus in college, she turned to English. Even then, writing was not on her immediate horizon.First, she married and started a family. The writing career didn't emerge until she was 28, a mother of two children, and living in a small place she called the barracks apartment, in Urbana, Illinois. She and her husband, Ed, had moved there in 1956 so he could attend graduate school at the University of Illinois. She was bored, had no friends, and so turned to writing to fill her time. Byars started writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post, Look,and other magazines. As her family grew and her children started to read, she began to write books for young people and, fortunately for her readers, discovered that there was more to being a writer than sitting in front of a typewriter."Making up stories and characters is so interesting that I'm never bored. Each book has been a different writing experience. It takes me about a year to write a book, but I spend another year thinking about it, polishing it, and making improvements. I always put something of myself intomy books -- something that happened to me. Once a wanderer came by my house and showed me how to brush my teeth with a cherry twig; that went in The House of Wingscopyright 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

Reviews

"Byars has a gift for writing dialgue, and here she uses a spare, almost poetic style to craft an accessible story that grapples with life-altering issues."

Gr 3-7-Betsy Byars' family saga of one summer in the life of a family at the turn of the century is a simple story, but it contains a powerful message (Viking, 2002). The book's theme revolves around words, their beauty and their power to change lives. The tale is told by Amen, the youngest of six daughters in the McBee family, all of whose names begin with the letter A, as does their father's name. Their mother is a detached, reclusive woman named Lily, separated from the family by her delicacy and her name. The girls spend much time together, and are parented by their very much unloved Aunt Pauline. Amen, or Amie as she is called, is a "wordsmith" according to her grandmother, since she uses words and poems to understand and celebrate the world around her. She is introduced to the recluse, Mr. Tominski, who lives in their chapel, by her identical twin sisters who are known collectively as the Bellas. The twins delight in scaring Amie with their games, and they paint Mr. Tominski as a child-eating monster. Amie is intrigued by the man and his gentle way with the doves he has tamed. When a cruel remark by the Bellas causes Mr. Tominski to react with terror, Amie commemorates his life and his place in their family with a poem. The book's 26 short chapters each begin with a letter of the alphabet, and are filled with wonderful symbolism and symmetry. Cassandra Campbell reads Amen's words as dexterously as if they are poems, and her inflections reflect the assorted personalities of the McBee family. The result is a wonderful portrait of family life at the end of the 19th century, as well as a thought-provoking tale about judging people and the sometimes elusive quality of truth.-MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.