Allison's Book Bag

It didn’t surprise me to read that Betsy Byars has received more letters about The Pinballs than about any of her other books. Of all her books that I have read, The Pinballs is one of my favorites. I love the three main characters. The plot is perfectly balanced. Even the writing style immediately impressed me. The Pinballs is a classic for many sound reasons.

More than anything, the characters are distinct and memorable. Meet Carlie. Byars tells us she is as hard to crack as a coconut. Carlie also never says anything polite. And yet despite her negative attitude, which includes being suspicious of everyone, I like Carlie. Partly I feel sympathy for her. One paragraph particularly stands out in Byars description of Carlie, “For some reason insults didn’t hurt her. People could insult her all day long, and she would insult them right back. But let somebody say something polite or nice to her—it made her feel terrible.” Partly I like her because, over time, Carlie lets down her defenses. She begins to have normal conversations with others, even to the point of being concerned when one of the foster kids emotionally shuts down.

That would be Harvey. He has two broken legs. He got them when he was run over by his father’s new Grand Am. Of course, Harvey prefers that others think that instead he got injured while playing football. Then everyone would sign his cast and girls would even kiss his cast and leave their lipstick prints. What keeps Harvey going, despite the tragedies in his life, is the belief that his mom will one day return for him. She left three years ago for a commune in Virginia, where she went to find herself and reconnect with nature. Oddly, given Carlie’s attitude that foster kids are pinballs who have no control over their lives, it’s Harvey whom the foster parents feel needs the most support. And they feel Carlie is the one who is most likely to be able to give that support, which Harvey desperately needs when he finally accepts that his mother doesn’t care about her family.

The third character is Thomas J. His story and personality are also unique. Byars writes that Thomas J didn’t know to whom he belonged. When he was only two years old, someone left him in front of the Benson farmhouse like an unwanted puppy. The Bensons were the oldest living twins in the state and he had stayed with them for six years, until at age eighty-eight they broke their hips. Thomas J had lived with the Benson twins so long that when he moves into his new foster home, he about everything because that’s the only way the Bensons could hear him. Even when he learns to speak quietly, Thomas J still barely talks to anyone. Communicating how he feels is something that Thomas J never learned to do, a fact which weighs on him most when he visits the Benson twins in the hospital and aches to tell them that he loves them.

When an author stacks as much against their characters as Byars does in The Pinballs, two approaches are common. One is to weigh down the characters with such misery that their lives are devoid of happiness. I dislike this approach because, when I read fiction, I want my books to reassure me that life has hope. Byars avoids this by providing the foster kids with foster parents who empathize with their situations. A memorable example is that of Mr. Mason’s conversation with Thomas J, when Mr. Mason shares that he took five years to tell his own wife that he loved her. Byars also avoids this approach by infusing humor and warmth into her story. The second approach is to give the antagonists a change of heart, allowing the characters to live well-adjusted lives. While this is a valid solution, it can also feel unrealistic. In The Pinballs, besides the three foster kids being given a safe place to live, the most important change instead occurs within each of them.

Before I conclude this review, I want to mention the writing style. I read a lot of young adult books, where emotional pathos is the norm. While that is part of their appeal to me, I also found myself struck by how little emotional pathos exists within The Pinballs. We find out how insecure Carlie is not through introspection but through learning that she’s developed a certain way of smiling to hide her crooked teeth. We discover how troubled Harvey is not through introspection either, but by the multiple lists he keeps, which Carlie keeps trying to see. With Thomas J, Byars does provide some introspection. This is how we learn that Thomas J remains curious about that morning when the twins first discovered him in their yard. However, even here, Byars mostly uses fleshed-out flashbacks filled with revealing dialog. In The Pinballs, Byars tackles topics often covered only in young adult books, but with such a controlled style that the result is a book appropriate to younger readers too.

The first day I read The Pinballs, I loved it. The feeling never changes, no matter how times I reread it. If you haven’t yet discovered Byars, start with The Pinballs and then move on to any of her other numerous books.

My rating? Bag it: Carry it with you. Make it a top priority to read.

How would you rate this book?

Related Posts

• The Moon and I: A Memoir
• Teaser for The Pinballs
• Growing up the Daughters of Betsy Byars, Guest Post by Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers

The Writing Sisters (Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers) have been writing for children for over twenty years, publishing more than thirty-five books with a variety of companies: Viking, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Clarion, HarperCollins, Henry Holt. They write primarily chapter books, and have published both individually and together with their mother, Newbery winner Betsy Byars. They graciously accepted my request to write about life growing up as the daughters of Betsy Byars.

Growing up the Daughters of Betsy Byars
Guest Post by Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers

Growing up with a mother who was a writer shaped us. From our early days we listened to our mother tell us stories. Even when she read a book, the story often came out of her mouth differently. She could not resist adding, embellishing, pumping it up. Later millions of other children would hear her stories as she went on to win many awards for her 60+ children’s books.
More importantly we came from a family of storytellers. The stories we heard growing up did not always start with “Once upon a time.” They started with, “You will not believe what happened to me….” or “Guess what I did yesterday….” From when we were little girls, we heard the cadence of stories, the pause before the punch line, the sense of timing. And the oral tradition of telling stories was the beginning of a writing life.

Our grandfather was a wonderful storyteller and so were a number of other relatives. And there were plenty of writers in the family too, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents–writing books and articles, fiction and non-fiction. There was lots of variety in what they wrote.

But unquestionably, our mother was the greatest influence. Mom loved books and we also love to read. Our mother, writer and reader that she is, always made a great effort to put books into our hands. Our first library was the book mobile, a truck packed with books that came through our neighborhood once a week. The most memorable library growing up in West Virginia was in the basement of the fire station.

When it came to writing, we literally learned at our mother’s feet. She read to us as children and, as soon as we could read on our own, we read her manuscripts. We also learned early on what it takes to be a writer–hours and hours of writing and rewriting, years of persistence in spite of rejection. We went in to writing with our eyes open.

When you feel called to write it can seem like an impossible dream. Seeing our mother write gave us a realistic idea about what it takes to be a writer. She would write for hours every day at a desk in the corner of her bedroom. We shared the joys and pains of writing even as children. She is still our inspiration.

We have written independently and together for over twenty years collaborating on four books with our mother. It is nice to be able to share the writing, along with the pain of rejection and the joys of success.

When our mother decided to retire, we formed the Writing Sisters, specifically to show the power of God’s word to change lives. Our writing has shifted from children’s books to adult and from general publishing to Christian. Although change is a challenge, it has brought new life into our careers and our writing.

Our first book for adults, The Shepherd’s Song was released in March by Howard Books.

• The Writing Sisters, Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers, are celebrating the release of their new book, The Shepherd’s Song. You can find them at:
  Writing Sisters
  Facebook Writing Sisters

On Friday I’ll write a review of The Pinballs, which Byars says she’s received more letters about than other book. Save the dates: September 19! I’ve also put a request in at my library for her autobiography, The Moon and I, and plan to report on it later this month too.

Related Posts

• The Moon and I: A Memoir
• Teaser for The Pinballs
• Review of The Pinballs