The Not-Just-Anybody Family is a book my whole classroom enjoyed. It has action, humor, a missing dog, an out-of-town mom, and a grandpa in jail. The children in the book are very real and my students could relate to their feelings and difficulties. The settings change from chapter to chapter and Betsy Byars writes just enough about each situation to keep you wanting more. This book helped my students learn the meaning of "suspense" and almost all of them gave the book a rating of nine or ten on a one to ten scale. I plan on ordering the audio version for some of my students next year.

When Pap Blossom goes into town that's when it all started. Breaking into jail, jumping off the roof, missing mom and lost dog are some of the interesting things that happen to the Blossom family. If I could I would give it a hundred stars. I think this book is a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade book. Now you know what it is about so go get the book NOW!!

This book is a very good book for a third or fourth grader. It tells about all of the family and where they are and then it brings them together with various means. this is a great book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a delight! This book humerously delivers anecdotes of "brotherly love"! As a mother of two boys, I found it very endearing. My oldest son must have been able to relate to Ant's big brother's methods of tender teasing. I've never seen him laugh so hard. Hurray Besty Cromer Byars, we'll be looking for more of your cleverly written "brother" stories!

"My Brother, Ant" has the stories of the boy who is afraid of the monster under his bed, who draws a picture on his brother's homework, who insists his brother read a story the way it's written, and who writes a thank you letter to Santa in July. It is also the story of his older brother who vanquishes the monster, who finds a solution to the picture on his homework, who finally begins to read the story the way it's written, and who takes dictation of the letter to Santa. This book accomplishes something that most easy readers do not: it appeals to the younger child for whom this level of readers are generally written, but it also appeals to a slower reader of an age group several years older. Ingeniously, it has all of the best features of an easy reader: many sight words but an easy vocabulary--including recognizable compound words, and short sentences amidst a lot of space on the pages. Best of all, it's funny, and the dialog and pictures are magnificent!

My Brother, Ant, written by the great Betsy Byars, and Illustrated by Marc Simont, is sure to be just the ticket to encourage your child to enjoy reading. Unlike the sing-songy, uneventful easy readers of days past, this story is delightful and engaging.

Ant's older brother tells the story, and while he is often exasperated by his younger siblings "ANT-ics", the love shines through. The words are simple, but they are woven skillfully to create an enjoyable read. Mix that with the humorous, jump off the page illustrations and you've got a winner!

Tarot says Beware is about a girl named Herculeah and meat Herculeah's best friend.Herculeah finds out that Tarot is outside so then Herculeah calls Meat and tells him to come over and go to the house with her.When Meat arived at Mandom Rosa's house they went to find Madom Rosa but Herculeah found Mandom Rosa dead underneath the table. So Herculeh called Meat to the table and Herculeh showed Meat the dead body.Then the night that Madom Rosa got killed a person called Herculeah's house and said "bring Tarot over to my houses so then Herculeh did and found out that it was the puppeter that killed Madom Rosa.

Tarot Says Beware is a really great book for kids 10-14. it is about this girl herculeah who looks out her window one day and sees madame rosa's parrot outside, and she knows that madame rosa would never let tarot out because how much she loves the bird, so she goes to madame rosa's and no one is there and the bird is saying beware beware! you will have to read it to see what all happens!

When Herculeah checks over at Madem Rosas home she sees that Tarot [the bird] is out of its cage which is very rare. She walks into the house and... 'IT WILL KEEP YOU TURNING THE PAGE FOR MORE' 'A MIX OF NANCY DREW AND GOOSBUMPS'For ages 10 and 13

Why is Mud Blossom wanted?? What did she do?? In this book a dog named Mud Blossom who is accused of eating Junior's pet gerble. But in the story a very old lady named "Mad Mary" is missing!!! Did Mud eat the gerble, and has "Mad Mary" been kidnapped? Read the book to find out.

~Andrew Leace

This book is an exciting,never now what's going to happen kind of book.While Junior finds out what responsibility is like by taking Care of the class hamster,his friend Mad Mary is missing!Ralphy and Maggy are in a tangled up mess of love that they can't seem to figure out.

I like this book because I like golden retrievers. I also liked it because it was mysterious. It was hard to know if Mud was guilty of eating the hamster. At first I felt excited because Junior did a lot for the class hamster, but then I was sad because Mud might get into trouble.Giancarlo, 3rd grader, Seattle

This is a great example of what children's literature should be about. It tells a lot in a very few pages about how sad a child's life can be when the adults are less responsible than the children. We see Alfie's grim world through his eyes.

Alfie lives with his mother, grandfather and sister. Alfie's only interest in life is to draw cartoons. He draws at night, at school and any other time he can manage to sneak away. In the evening, he climbs up to the attic and closes the world of his loud abusive obnoxious mother behind so he can draw and dream about a better life.

Betsy Byars does a wonderful job of realistically portraying a grim world with an alcoholic mother and grandfather who do nothing but argue and watch television without beating the reader over the head with the harshness of it all. I felt real hope in Alfie as he tried to control his little world and keep it out of the hands of the irritating mother who fails to understand his artistic interests.

This book is really good. It's about a boy who loves to draw cartoons but his mother doesn't. He stays up in the attic drawing all the time. One day he finds out his older brother, who he dislikes, is moving in with them. Also he will be staying in the attic. Read the book to find out how Alfie defends his attic

I have read many of the Herculeah Jones Mysteries but this one is my favorint! It had a certain pull to the book some would say the same effect of Harry Potter. With this having two stories to it you had to keep on reading more if you wanted to know what was going to happen in the other story. An exilent book! Read it!

I love the book Dissapering Acts. It is such a great book. Usually I am good at putting books down but this I could not put down ! It is so exciting and you never know what way they'll solve it . Every chapter in the book is so exciting! Now I am a big fan of Betsy Byars!

2 women with spunk, humor and caracter go west to make their fortunes. Each chapter is a self-contained story that has good dialogue, character and keeps you laughing. My 6 year old daughter loves these stories.

My seven year old daughter has had this book for a year and loves it. I started reading it to her and now she reads it herself; its one of her favorites. The characters of the two sisters are easy for her to identify with and she finds the stories very funny. Her favorite chapter is about the sisters competing for the princess role in a proposed play, The Princess and the Troll.

This is a wonderful book that was read over and over and (need I say) over again to my 3 year old daughter once upon a time. Our copy finally fell apart from all the "loving" it took. My daughter is now 20 years old and a sophomore in college and in an early childhood ed program. I am so excited to have found that I can still get this book to surprise her!

"Perfect the Pig," is a story about a pig who rises from a lowly birth and sees its dreams come true. The relationship between Perfect and his guardian Olive is lovely. Young children I know who have read this book have simply adored it, even the tenth or twelfth time.

The book is about two boys named Jackson and Goat, and they have seven treasure hunts. Jackson has a bigger sister and likes to bother her.They also sometimes bury treasure so they can have fun finding it later.The seven chapters are very neat and cool. Chapter four is called The Hunt for the Missing Treasure. Read to find out what treasure they find. I would say that other kids my age will like to read this book it is funny and they will get a blast out of it.

My son and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My son is entering third grade, but is struggling with reading at the level he should be at. This book is aimed for his age, but is still an easy reader. It helped give him the confidence he needs as it is aimed towards third and fourth graders and he could read it! Thank you Betsy Byars for realizing not all children read at the same level, but still need books appropriate for their age to keep their interest. The Seven Treasure Hunts is about two boys, Jackson and Goat, who use maps and clues to find eachothers treasures. Each boy takes a turn hiding stuff of their own and gives the other either a map or clue to find it. Of course things don't always go according to plans. There is the stolen chocolate popsicle which will make kids want to keep reading to find out what happened with it. And then dealing with Goats sister, Rachael a.k.a the ogre, will leave kids laughing. It is written with much humor for young and old alike. My son read this out loud to me and we both really enjoyed it. Thank you, thank you Betsy Byars.

I worked as a school librarian for a number of years and this is my favorite Betsy Byars book of all. It is a tender, yet funny, story of how every child has talents and is worthy of love. It's a great read-aloud or independent reader -- I used it for third grade on up.