The Blossoms and the Green Phantom - Hardcover

Betsy Byars has written more than sixty books for young readers. Her books have been translated into nine languages and have appeared on national television. She writes based on real-life experiences; and many friends, enemies, and interesting people she has met often show up in her fiction. In 1971 her "Summer of the Swans" was awarded the Newbery Medal. She lives in Seneca, South Carolina.

Amanda Haley is a contributor for Holiday House titles including: "The Blossoms and the Green Phantom".

Grade 4-6 Junior Blossom is inventing again, but this time no one cares enough to ask about the secret his ``KEEP OUT'' signs conceal. A remark of his mother's brings Junior's world crashing down, as she tells his sister Maggie how proud her father would have been of her. Junior's grief makes him the focus of everyone's concern, and getting his newest invention, a flying saucer, off the ground becomes a family project. Byars develops her story subtly, using shifting points of view to delineate her characters. Each chapter leads logically and simply into the next; yet by the end of the story readers understand several different viewpoints and have followed a subplot involving Pap, Mud, and an abandoned puppy. This is no small accomplishment for independent readers in fourth or fifth grade and is excellent preparation for more complex reading. The Blossoms are totally real and believable, yet quirky enough to be fun. Maggie yearns for her mother's approval and companionship, but values friend Ralphie for his flamboyance as well as his faithfulness. Vern is anxious to win a friend of his own, to separate himself from his ``different'' family and be like other people; like Junior, he misses his dead father. Junior is a free spirit, inventive and adventurous but in need of support. And in Pap, imprisoned in and rescued from a garbage dumpster, Byars conveys the poignance of aging and the value of deep and lasting affection. This is a story about love in its many forms. Like Byars' best, it is rock-solid and full of chuckles, and it lingers in the mind. Dudley B. Carlson, Princeton Public Library, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.