The Cybil War [Paperback]

Young love, told by the Newbery Medal-winning author ofSummer of the Swans

Simon is in fifth grade, and every time he sees Cybil Ackerman, his heart pounds. Falling in love with her was easy, but winning her is not. Simon's best friend, Tony, is also swooning over Cybil, and he'll stop at nothing to ruin Simon's chances of impressing her. When Simon realizes what Tony is up to, the war is on... but only Cybil can decide the outcome. Who will be the lucky winner of Cybil's heart?

Young love, fifth-grade variety, portrayed with warmth and humor and that extra, penetrating touch one expects of Byars. —Kirkus Reviews

An ALA Notable BookBetsy 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 inArise 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 forThe Saturday Evening Post,Look,and other magazines. As her family grew and her children started to read, she began to write booksló,