With her husband preoccupied at graduate school, Byars began writing short articles for magazines to fill her time. I would wear smashing hats, wisecrack with the guys, and have a byline known round the world.”Īt age twenty-eight, Byars had young children and no friends and lived in a small place she called the barracks apartment.

If I was going to be a writer at all, I was going to be a foreign correspondent like Claudette Colbert in Arise My Love. You sat in a room all day by yourself and typed. not one single teacher ever said to me, ‘Perhaps you should consider becoming a writer,'” Byars recalls. In 1956, the family moved to Illinois so her husband could pursue further graduate work. After graduating, Byars met her husband, a student in engineering. In 1950, she set out to be mathematician liker her sister but couldn’t grasp calculus and so instead graduated from Queens College with a bachelor’s degree in English. Mabel could also communicate with animals. Mabel was everything Byars wanted to be: pretty, adventuresome, and a good horseback rider. I still read all the time–usually a book a day.” Her favorite book was a book called The Adventures of Mabel. In Questions, Byars writes, “It wasn’t like a subject. Byars grew up during the Depression.īyars attended public schools in North Carolina, where her favorite subject was reading. Byars had an older sister who according to ClassZone was sometimes an inspiration and sometimes an evil nemesis. Her mother was a homemaker, who loved acting and music. In Questions, Byars writes, “I was born in the same year as bubble gum and Mickey Mouse, 1928, a very good year for all three of us.” Her dad was a cotton mill executive, with a stern and hardworking personality, along with a strong sense of humor. In 1987, The Catholic Library Association also bestowed the Regina Medal to Byars for the body of her work. Among them are the Newbery Medal in 1971 for her novel The Summer of the Swans, the American Book Award in 1981 for The Night Swimmers, and The Edgar (for the best mystery for young people) in 1992 for Wanted. Due to the popularity of her books with children, she has been listed as one of the Educational Paperback Association’s top 100 authors. Author of over sixty books for young people, her books have been translated into nineteen languages and she gets thousands of letters from readers from all over the world including the United States. If you enjoy children’s literature, you should know something about Betsy Byars.

The Night Swimmers by Betsy Byars