Available:*
Library | Audience | Home Location | Material Type | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Central | Kid/Juvenile | Open Stacks Fiction | Open Stacks Kids Book | BYARS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Central | Kid/Juvenile | Open Stacks Fiction | Open Stacks Kids Book | BYARS | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
As twelve-year-old Bingo Brown strives for the triumphs of today and steels himself against the tribulations of tomorrow, he discovers that he will have to undergo a few more trials and triumphs before growing up.
Author Notes
Betsy Cromer Byars was born in1928. She graduated from Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina. While she was in graduate school, she began writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post and Look.
Byars writes novels for young people. She is an expert at tapping in to the pain of adolescence, using bits of her own experience to flavor her characters. She is author of more than 60 books and has won numerous awards. Her book about a 14-year-old girl and her mentally retarded brother, The Summer of the Swans (1970), won the Newberry Award as the most distinguished contribution to children's literature that year. Other books include The 18th Emergency (1973), The TV Kid (1976), and After the Goat Man (1995).
Betsy Byars died on February 26,2020 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-- Will Bingo survive the summer, now that the love of his life, Melissa, has moved to Bixby, Okla.? Can he actually produce 36 dinners for his parents to pay off the gigantic phone bill for calls to Bixby? How will he and his dad manage when his mom goes home to her mom with a problem Bingo can't figure out? After he does find out, how will he handle becoming a brother at the advanced age of 12? Most important, can he really teach his pesky neighbor, Wentworth, how to have a successful mixed-sex conversation, while he himself becomes an expert in ``the language of love?'' In this rollicking sequel to The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown (Viking, 1988), Bingo's parents become major players, and their sympathetic portrayal helps to illuminate Bingo's character as well. The very different reactions of the Browns to the news of the impending birth of Bingo's sibling form the basis of the plot. This is not as serious or gripping a theme as the suicide issue confronting the sixth grade class in the first book, but Bingo's groping steps toward maturity as he accepts and deals with the changes in his family provide a foil for the humorous, often hilarious anecdotes. Byars is at her best when creating believable situations and dialogue for her pre-adolescent character, and the crazy love triangles featuring Bingo at the uncomfortable center are right on target. Bingo is certainly having an eventful summer, and sharing his vacation woes and triumphs will provide pleasurable reading for all seasons. --Martha Rosen, Edgewood School, Scarsdale, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bingo, that incomparable optimist from The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown , returns with even bigger issues to challenge him and charm readers. Melissa, the love of his life, has moved away, and Bingo is hit first with an enormous long-distance telephone bill and then with the empty feeling that comes when love wanes. In addition to his romantic problems, his parents have acquired strange habits (his mother runs away to her own mother's house) and a girl who is physically well-developed keeps forcing Bingo to engage in conversation. Bingo, with his wry, self-mocking tone, is just enough of a stumble-bum to bring laughs, but sensitive and thoughtful enough to make his exploits seem grounded in realism. He is such a romantic, and a heart-breaker to boot--surely one of Byars's most enduring characters. Ages 8-12. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Fiction: I Bingo Brown continues his poignantly funny journey through puberty, trying to understand himself, other people, life, and love. An extraordinarily funny book about a sensitive, engaging hero. Review, p. 619. Horn Rating: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration. Reviewed by: ckj (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
As pungent and wholesome as the gingersnaps whose smell reminds Bingo of Melissa--his girlfriend, who has now moved to Oklahoma--a welcome sequel to The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown (1988). Still in awe of ""mixed-sex conversations,"" Bingo is making new lists, now headed ""Trials"" (long) and ""Triumphs' (chronically blank). He seems to be falling out of love with the absent Melissa; her large, precociously developed friend is pursuing him; worse, his mother is pregnant and has responded to the unexpected interruption of her new career by an irrational retreat to her own mother. In fact, for a while, both Bingo's parents seem to be acting like children, so that Bingo sees himself as suffering adult problems--including the empty-nest syndrome (in reverse), and dreams of drowning in the mainstream of life. Still, like the fifth-grader he really is, ""his sympathies were all for himself""--a natural self-absorption later reiterated when he is more interested in answering Melissa's long-awaited letter than in reading it. In a premature shaving venture, Bingo creates a quizzical eyebrow, to his own amusement. Byars' second look at this questing, likable boy is sure to amuse her fans and his. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-8. Bingo Brown returns with more questions about love and life. Now that his girlfriend, Melissa, has moved to Bixby, Oklahoma, Bingo tries to fortify himself by writing in his journal and phoning her--$54 worth of calls. His parents are not happy when they learn of his long-distance romance, but they have problems of their own. Mrs. Brown, happily pursuing a real-estate career, is shocked to discover that she's pregnant. Leaving Bingo and his father to fend for themselves while she stays with her mother, Mrs. Brown struggles with the decision of what to do about this unexpected turn in her life. Byars gives Bingo a unique, authoritative voice, one that in some ways seems much older than that of an 11-year-old boy. While there are wonderful, real-life scenes, as when Bingo is asked by Melissa's friend to pose for a photograph, some moments don't quite ring true. (Bingo, for instance, takes over cooking dinner to pay for his phone bills and has no problem whipping up ambitious meals, everything from tarragon chicken to tuna lasagna--from scratch.) While this sequel to The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown [BKL Ap 15 88] is at times off kilter, it still stands above much of today's contemporary fiction and should prove popular with kids, especially more perceptive readers. --Ilene Cooper
