The House of Wings

Betsy Byars (author)

Puffin, USA: 1972, 1982; 144pp

ISBN: 978-0140315233

Genres: realistic fiction

Issues: family, grief/loss, identity

Sammy, the youngest of eight children, thinks he is going to Detroit with his parents. Having travelled with them as far as his grandfather's farm in northern Ohio, he expects to travel on with them in the morning.

He wakes to find every child's nightmare come true - his parents have left without him, feeling that he would be better off living with his grandfather until they have found jobs and a place to live. Sammy finds his grandfather rather frightening - his obsession with birds and the house full of flying things is startling to even Sammy's easy-going attitude towards daily routines like eating and washing.

Sammy and his grandfather find each other through their shared caring for an injured crane.

Same Author: The Pinballs; The Eighteenth Emergency; The Midnight Fox