Tarot Says Beware, Betsy Byars
Tarot Says Beware, Betsy Byars
List: $14.00 | Sale: $9.80
Club: $7.00

Tarot Says Beware

Author: Betsy Byars

Narrator: Lauren Davis

Unabridged: 3 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/17/2018


Synopsis

Madame Rosa, the eccentric local fortune teller, has been murdered, and the only witness is her parrot,Tarot. But he’s not talking. Herculeah Jones thinks she knows who the killer is, but she’s not the only one. . . . Someone else knows—someone who wants to make sure Herculeah won’t be around to see the future.

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julie on March 11, 2018

Tarot Says Beware is the second book in the middle-grade Herculeah Jones Mystery series. Herculeah, named after Hercules, lives next door to her friend, Meat. Meat is overweight and a bit of a coward, but he is a loyal friend and always helps Herculeah in her investigations. The daughter of a cop an......more

Goodreads review by Josiah on October 21, 2024

Is Herculeah Jones prepared for a more intense mystery, only a month after what happened in book one, The Dark Stairs? Tarot Says Beware dives right into the action as Herculeah sees something that bothers her across the street from her house. Tarot, the parrot who belongs to Madame Rosa, is flappin......more

Goodreads review by Ivelis on December 30, 2019

I enjoyed it for the most part. It's a quick read definitely geared towards a young audience. I did feel like the ending was a little thrown together to be quite honest.......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on February 08, 2024

My daughter actually picked up this book from the library to read, and since I own another of Betsy Byars books (The Pinballs) from when I was a kid, I thought I would check this one out. The synopsis on the back sounded promising, and the excerpt on inside was positively chilling, so I expected it......more

Goodreads review by Katie on November 23, 2018

My thoughts on the entire Herculeah Jones series can be found here in my review of the first book, The Dark Stairs. This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.......more