Children's novelist, born in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. She began to write in the 1960s, but had no great impact until The Summer of the Swans (1970) was awarded the Newbery Medal. Specializing in kitchen sink drama - contemporary realism - she produced a number of popular novels, including The Eighteenth Emergency (1973) and Goodbye, Chicken Little (1979). Later works are A Bean Birthday and Tarot Says Beware (both 1996)
Betsy Cromen Byars (born August 7, 1928) is an American children's author. In 1971, she won the Newbery Medal for her book Summer of the Swans. She has also received a National Book Award, for The Night Swimmers (1980), and an Edgar Award, for Wanted...Mud Blossom (1991).
She was born Betsy Cromer in Charlotte, North Carolina. She attended Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, from 1946 to 1948, and graduated in 1950 from Queens College in Charlotte, with a bachelor's degree in English.
Her other novels include Cracker Jackson, The Cybil War, The Not-Just-Anybody Family, and The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown.
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