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!
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 forty 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?
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. In fact, it will be the sudden disappearance of Charlie that will compel Sara to abandon her own small, annoying miseries, and lose herself in searching for him. In her anguish, Sara turns to Joe Melby, whom she has long despised, and together they search through the dense woods and rough fields to find him. Sara knows that she will never be the same again.
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. Betsy Byars, the National Book Award-winning author of McMummy, writes stories that are beloved by young listeners, their parents and teachers alike. Her thoroughly believable but quirky characters have captivated countless fans; The Pinballs was chosen by almost sixty thousand children in Georgia as their favorite book. The American Library Association agrees, designating it an ALA Notable Children's Book.
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. How will they solve their family problems?
Tom hates having to spend the summer on a farm . . . until he discovers the midnight fox.
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.
What's Junior Blossom up to this time?
When we first met Junior in The Not-Just-Anybody Family, he was trying to fly with his homemade wings. Now, having recovered from two broken legs, he's ready to startle the world by inventing the best coyote trap ever.
But Junior's great ideas have a way of backfiring. Like his wings, his trap leads him into disaster. He soon finds himself in a dark cave with Mad Mary, the vulture lady, who eats varmint stew.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Blossom family sets out to search for the missing young inventor. They find the trap, but where's Junior?
Junior Blossom has finally created the ultimate invention--the Green Phantom. It's big, black, Day-Glo green, and it's beautiful! All it needs is the secret ingredient.
The whole family makes a promise to ensure that Junior's invention will be a success, a Blossom promise that can never be broken.
Family and friends gather to launch the Green Phantom, but where are Pap and his dog, Mud? They wouldn't break a Blossom promise unless they were in serious trouble....
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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 until she gets to the bottom of this mystery.
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.
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?
For aspiring writer Amen McBee, life at the end of the nineteenth century with her four older sisters (Augusta, Abigail, and the "Bellas," twins Annabella and Arabella) is full of adventure. The only trouble in Amen's life is Mr. Tominski, the strange old man who lives in the woods and keeps a trained flock of doves. Her sisters warn Amen that the dove keeper is not the be trusted, but Amen's father insists that Mr. Tominski wouldn't hurt a soul. Who is right?
