Betsy Byars

As they wait out a tornado in their storm cellar, a family listens to their farmhand tell stories about the dog that was blown into his life by another tornado when he was a boy.

Looking after an eccentric scientist's greenhouse doesn't seem any stranger than the other odd jobs taken by Mozie and his partner Battie--until Mozie discovers a large, mummy-shaped pod on one of the plants.

Bingo's ultimate guide to finding love might need a few more chapters when his long-distance girlfriend returns home. Bingo Brown is confident that he can write the definitive guidebook for middle-school boys trying to win over girls. With his baby brother, Jamie, in mind, he jots down notes about the lessons he's learned: Should you worry if the girl you like grows taller than you? (No.) What do you do when hauling your family's dirty clothes to...

When Birch agreed to one last flight in her grandfather's Piper Cub, neither knew it would be a life-changing trip. Birch's grandfather, "Pop," wants to take his plane out for one more trip before moving into a retirement home. He wants to take Birch along with him, which sounds like a fine plan - until the two decide to turn the short flight into a cross-country adventure without telling Birch's parents. As grandfather and granddaughter soar westward...

From the depths of the sewers comes a monster so gargantuan that no fishbowl can hold it. Warren Otis wants to make horror films when he grows up. But as an eight-year-old boy, he has to settle for imagining movies instead of making them. He's thought up some real nightmares, including Bubbles, an innocent goldfish flushed down the toilet and exposed to a chemical that turned her into a one-ton monster. Warren's life sometimes feels like it's a bad...

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...

Anna Bean goes to the roof in search of inspiration, and soon her family will follow her into a new world just a few floors above their home. The Bean children are not allowed to play on the roof of their apartment building. One evening Anna Bean goes up to the roof - not to play, but to be alone so she can write a poem for school. Her poetry writing fever is contagious; one by one, the rest of the Bean family visits the roof to write amongst pigeons...

In four separate stories, Ant's older brother gets rid of the monster under Ant's bed, forgives Ant for drawing on his homework, tries to read a story, and helps Ant writes a letter to Santa.

Ant and his brother play a game, discuss growing up, hear a scary noise, and learn to be friends.