My Brother, Ant (Penguin Young Readers, Level 3) - Softcover

Byars, Betsy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014038345X ISBN 13: 9780140383454

Publisher: Penguin Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

Meet Ant, the little brother who's big on laughs. In four upbeat stories, Ant and his big brother confront the monster under the bed, recreate the story of the three little pigs, and write a letter to Santa—in July! Sometimes funny, always endearing, Ant is invariably entertaining.? "A great storyteller and a great illustrator are at their very best in this tender, funny easy-to-read."—Booklist, starred review

About this title

Review

Ages 5 & up. This book for beginning readers is a perfect match between a Newbery award-winning author and a Caldecott award-winning illustrator. Told in the first person, the four short chapters depict a warm, funny relationship between a boy and his sweet but sometimes pesky younger brother. Readers will enjoy the dry humor of the narrative, the likeable characters and the expressive and fanciful illustrations. In a starred review, Booklist wrote, "The pictures are achingly affectionate... the economy of line and language will grab new readers."

About the Author

Betsy Byars began her writing career rather late in life. "In all of my school years, . . . not one single teacher ever said to me, 'Perhaps you should consider becoming a writer,'" Byars recalls. "Anyway, I didn't want to be a writer. Writing seemed boring. You sat in a room all day by yourself and typed. 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. I would wear smashing hats, wisecrack with the guys, and have a byline known round the world. My father wanted me to be a mathematician." So Byars set out to become mathematician, but when she couldn't grasp calculus in college, she turned to English. Even then, writing was not on her immediate horizon.

First, she married and started a family. The writing career didn't emerge until she was 28, a mother of two children, and living in a small place she called the barracks apartment, in Urbana, Illinois. She and her husband, Ed, had moved there in 1956 so he could attend graduate school at the University of Illinois. She was bored, had no friends, and so turned to writing to fill her time. Byars started writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post, Look,and other magazines. As her family grew and her children started to read, she began to write books for young people and, fortunately for her readers, discovered that there was more to being a writer than sitting in front of a typewriter.

"Making up stories and characters is so interesting that I'm never bored. Each book has been a different writing experience. It takes me about a year to write a book, but I spend another year thinking about it, polishing it, and making improvements. I always put something of myself intomy books -- something that happened to me. Once a wanderer came by my house and showed me how to brush my teeth with a cherry twig; that went in The House of Wingscopyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 014038345X
• ISBN 13: 9780140383454
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Simont Marc