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Disappearing Acts
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Disappearing Acts Paperback - 2006

by Byars, Betsy

  • Used

When Herculeah Jones's best friend, Meat, decides to take a comedy class, he just expects to get a few laughs. Then he discovers a dead body in the bathroom, and realizes that there's nothing funny about murder.

Description

Penguin Young Readers Group. Used - Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Used - Good
NZ$12.89
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Details

  • Title Disappearing Acts
  • Author Byars, Betsy
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reissue
  • Condition Used - Good
  • Pages 144
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Young Readers Group
  • Date September 21, 2006
  • Features Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 2224948-6
  • ISBN 9780142405666 / 0142405663
  • Weight 0.23 lbs (0.10 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.14 x 5.1 x 0.41 in (18.14 x 12.95 x 1.04 cm)
  • Ages 08 to 12 years
  • Grade levels 3 - 7
  • Reading level 570
  • Themes
    • Topical: Friendship
    • Topical: Self-Esteem
  • Library of Congress subjects Mystery fiction, Fathers and sons
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

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Summary

When Herculeah Jones's best friend, Meat, decides to take a comedy class, he just expects to get a few laughs. But then he discovers a dead body in the bathroom, and realizes that there's nothing funny about murder. Things can't get any worse—until the body disappears! Meat needs Herculeah's help to uncover the clues, but she's busy investigating a case of her own . . . one that might just change Meat's life forever!

From the publisher

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 into my 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.

First line

"I'm supposed to be watching the motel across the street for my mom."

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 (c) 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.