Showing results by author "Betsy Byars" in All Categories

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....

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?