The Pinballs

THE PINBALLS
By Betsy Byars
HarperCollins, 1977

Category: Middle grade fiction

Like Judy Blume’s BLUBBER, THE PINBALLS left an impression on my childhood. I have been certain for a good many years now (twenty-five? more?) that this book was Important. Somewhere along the way, however, I forgot why. Was it the characters? The plot? The message? I wasn’t sure. Yesterday I decided to remember.

Harvey.

Thomas J.

Carlie.

How could I have forgotten them? The awful car accident that landed Harvey in a wheelchair and a foster home; the well-meaning and ancient Aunts Benson who cared for Thomas J. as best they were able; tough-as-a-nut Carlie and her bad attitude. How could I have forgotten? When these three misfits end up in the same foster home, Carlie likens them to pinballs being flung hither and yon without any say in the matter. But they find a way to be a family. And they realize they are not careening, out-of-control objects after all. They are human beings who make decisions every day about their own lives … mostly how to face it.

“…as long as we are trying, Thomas J, we are not pinballs.”

Oh, Carlie. I’ve missed you.