Bingo Brown, Gypsy Lover - Hardcover

Byars, Betsy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670833223 ISBN 13: 9780670833221

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 1990

Synopsis

A sixth-grade boy deals with the prospect of a new baby brother and a long-distance love relationship.

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Reviews

Grade 5-8 --The saga of Harrison "Bingo" Brown continues in a third book in which he faces not only the vicissitudes of puberty and first love but also the imminent arrival of a baby brother whose presence threatens to disrupt the order of things. As the story opens, however, this is a minor annoyance. Bingo's main problem is the announcement by his beloved Melissa (still far away in Bixby, Oklahoma) that she is sending him a present for Christmas, news that promptly dispatches him into the minefield of boy-girl present buying. Bingo feels somewhat overwhelmed until his mother gives birth prematurely to baby brother Jamie, whose precarious early days inspire in him a depth of emotion that places things in perspective, a situation Byars depicts with particular tenderness. Byars brings to immediate life Bingo's thoughts and feelings, and gently comments on them as well. Bingo continues to grow as a character in each book, and here he progresses from slightly cocky self-preoccupation to vulnerable concern for others. Nevertheless, he's still a wry, moderately fumbling Bingo--he just handles things better. Language, characterization, and the use of incident to advance them continue to be stronger than plot in this series. Thus, the books, while enjoyable in themselves, work best taken together as chapters in the chronicle of the coming of age of a wonderfully likable, interesting, and original character. --Christine Behrmann, New York Public Library
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The irrepressible Bingo Brown is back, in his most delightful tale yet. It's Christmastime at the Brown house, and what a holiday this is shaping up to be. Bingo's mother is pregnant, and as if the prospect of a sibling isn't enough--at 12, Bingo feels "like a very, very young grandfather"--the hapless hero also has female trouble. It seems that Bingo is simultaneously carrying on a complicated long-distance romance with Melissa (an object of Bingo's affections in The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown ), and fending off the unwelcome attentions of someone nearer at hand, a girl by the name of Boots ("certainly it could not be pleasant to be named for footwear"). As Bingo careens from one Wodehousian scrape to another in this impeccably paced novel, readers will find themselves laughing out loud. Byars is pure gold. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670833223
• ISBN 13: 9780670833221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 122