The Not-Just-Anybody Family

Betsy Byars

Feb 2013 · The Blossom Family Books Book 1 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

The first book in the beloved series by the Newbery Medal–winning author “races without pause between hilarious, suspenseful and touching crises” (Publishers Weekly).

Newbery Award–winning author Betsy Byars’s heartwarming and timeless books about the irrepressible Blossom family are back. In this introduction to the one-of-a-kind clan, Pap, the Blossoms’ grandfather, has landed himself in jail for disturbing the peace. Even though Junior is laid up in the hospital with two broken legs after jumping off the barn roof to test his new homemade wings, he and his sister and brother, Maggie and Vern, have come up with a plan to rescue Pap. A new generation of readers will fall head over heels for this engaging, hilarious family. 

Ratings and reviews

One of my favorite books.

About the author

Betsy Byars (1928–2020) was a Newbery Medal winner (The Summer of the Swans) and a National Book Award winner (The Night Swimmers).  She also received an Edgar Award for Wanted . . . Mud Blossom. Byars began writing in college and submitted stories to magazines while raising four children. Her first novel, Clementine, was published in 1962, and in the decades following, she wrote more than fifty children’s and young adult titles. Her works appeared on the best books list of the American Library Association, School Library Journal, and American Bookseller. She is best known for her Blossom Family and Bingo Brown book series. Byars was a licensed aircraft pilot, along with her husband of sixty-nine years, Ed. She lived with him above their own private hangar on an airstrip in Seneca, South Carolina.