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    The Night Swimmers
    The Night Swimmers
    The Night Swimmers
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    The Night Swimmers

    By Betsy Byars and Troy Howell

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Retta, Johnny, and Roy have no parental rules to follow, so they’ve made up their own
    After their mother passes away, Retta, Johnny, and Roy don’t have much parenting in their lives. Their dad is a country singer who keeps them well fed but isn’t around much. Older sister Retta takes control, leading her brothers on all sorts of unwise adventures and promising that one day they’ll have money, safety, and a nice home. When their dad is away performing at night, they slip into a neighbor’s pool to swim and pretend to have a glamorous life beneath the light of the moon. But freedom doesn’t mean happiness, especially when a new crisis emerges. National Book Award winner The Night Swimmers is a moving story of siblings who can count on nobody but one another. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Betsy Byars including rare images from the author’s personal collection.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateFeb 12, 2013
    ISBN9781453294185
    The Night Swimmers
    Author

    Betsy Byars

    <p><strong>Betsy Byars</strong> is the author of many award-winning books for children, including <em>The Summer of the Swans</em>, a Newbery Medal winner. <em>The Pinballs </em>was an ALA Notable Book. She is also the author of <em>Goodbye, Chicken Little</em>; <em>The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish</em>; and the popular Golly Sisters trilogy.</p>

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    • 3/5
      The Night Swimmers by Betsy Byars tells the story of three children who have essentially lost both their parents the night their mother died. These children struggle to experience life and friendship because they have no one at home to support them or push them to do better than they are. One night Retta takes the boys to swim in a neighbor's pool. It is something they've never experienced before and it seems like this might be the one taste of a happy life -- a free life -- they'll ever get. But this freedom they've discovered by their father's lack of parental oversight just might be the demise of their very family.Retta is who I consider to be the voice of reason in this story. Ever since her mother passed away, she had to step into the role of mother and she struggles with the desire to be a normal kid too. It's hard for her to watch other people live their lives, make friends, have good memories, and act like they don't have a care in the world. Rarely does she appear selfish in the story, mostly because she devotes so much of her time and effort to her brothers that I think she forgets about herself along the way. She faces the greatest challenges and the greatest losses as she fights to be her own person and controlling her brothers like only a parent can. Johnny and Roy are typically boys, growing up in a world where they want to have adventure but on their own terms. They both struggle with the idea of Retta being the boss of them and that she basically has become the mother of the two of them. I think along the way the boys lose sight of all the things she has given up for them which makes them come off as selfish but it's hard not to acknowledge that children are like that. It seems like during the story, the two of them lose their innocence towards the outside world. They realize that not everything is good out there. They learn that there are consequences for their choices and these consequences just might not be the ones they want.I always figured that when I found that one person I wanted to spend my life with, it would be even harder when the situation arose that I would lose them. It's something that I think a lot of people struggle with once a loved one passes away. How do they move on? What's the point in living when the one person who made it all better is no longer there? The children's father, Shorty, deals a lot with these sort of issues over the course of the book. I don't believe that he is selfish because he ignores his children and wants to live in the glory days of his music career. No, I think that he is just struggling to grasp at the few things he can control and the ruin left behind when his wife died. I think that if his wife were alive and the story was different, Shorty would've been a great father but things happened. He lost sight of his family and himself.Overall it was a decent read. I had some troubles sticking with the characters at times but it is an interesting and very real idea that makes up the plot.

    Book preview

    The Night Swimmers - Betsy Byars

    WHEN THE SWIMMING POOL lights were turned out and Colonel and Mrs. Roberts had gone to bed, the Anderson kids came out of the bushes in their underwear. They moved silently over the moss-smooth lawn, across the Moroccan tiled terrace.

    At the edge of the pool they stopped. Retta, the girl, said, See, I told you it was beautiful. She stared at the shimmering water as proudly as if she had made the pool instead of just discovered it one day.

    But what if somebody sees us? Roy asked. He hiked up his underwear uneasily. The elastic was sprung, and he wasn’t sure the safety pin was going to hold.

    No one’s going to see us. It’s too dark. She shrugged as if it didn’t matter anyway. The shallow end’s down here. Come on.

    She led them to the end of the pool, and together the three of them started down the steps.

    It’s cold, Roy said. He clutched his underwear tighter, pulling it toward his chest.

    You’ll get used to it.

    Abruptly Johnny pulled away. I want to go down the ladder, he said. He started around the pool.

    Retta frowned slightly. Lately Johnny had started doing things his own way. All right, she called after him, belatedly giving permission, but then you swim right over to the shallow end, you hear me? I don’t want to have to come in and save you.

    You won’t. As Johnny took hold of the smooth metal ladder, an adult feeling came over him. He entered the water slowly—it was cold—and then pushed off. He dog-paddled to Retta and Roy, turning his head from side to side in a motion he thought made his dog paddle look more powerful.

    Now you two play here in the shallow end while I do some swimming, Retta said when Johnny joined them.

    "I don’t see why I have to stay in the shallow end," Johnny said.

    Because only one can go in the deep water at a time. That’s a rule, and you already had your turn.

    Beside them Roy was pretending to swim. He had one hand on the bottom of the pool and was lifting the other arm in an elaborate swimming stroke. Then he put that hand on the bottom and lifted the other. Want to see me swim, Retta?

    That’s nice, Roy, she said. She moved toward the deep end and began to swim silently. She was aware that Johnny was watching her, hoping to find fault, so she moved with deliberate grace. She copied the movements she had seen the Aquamaids do on television. She turned on her back. Then she swirled and dived under the water. Her bare feet rose, toes pointed, and shone in the moonlight.

    Johnny was both impressed and irritated. Since he could find no fault with Retta, he looked down at Roy and said meanly, You aren’t really swimming.

    I am too! Roy paused in the middle of the stroke to look back at Johnny.

    Your hand is on the bottom.

    It is not, Roy said. Here’s my hand right here.

    The other one is on the bottom.

    Roy made a quick switch. It is not. See, here’s the other one.

    You aren’t fooling anybody.

    Johnny turned back to watch Retta. She was under the diving board now. She reached up and grabbed the board with both hands. She glanced around to see if Johnny and Roy were watching. When she was sure they were, she skinned the cat and dropped into the water without a sound.

    She swam to the side and pulled herself out of the water without bothering to use the ladder. Then she got the inflated mattress that Mrs. Roberts always used. She carried it to her brothers at the shallow end of the pool. Want a ride?

    Roy paused in the middle of a swimming stroke; one arm was raised as high as if he wanted to be called on. Is it all right if we use that? he asked, peering at Retta from under his arm.

    Sure, get on.

    The boys crawled onto the mattress and stretched out self-consciously. Their arms were stiff at their sides.

    I’ll push you around the pool. Retta began to move the float into deeper water. Doesn’t it make you feel elegant?

    Johnny nodded. He was shivering in his wet underwear, chilled with the excitement and the evening air. He tried to relax, to feel the elegance Retta mentioned. He tried to imagine that he was a movie star in his own swimming pool. It began to work. He relaxed. He pantomimed smoking with a long cigarette holder.

    Aren’t you glad you came? Retta asked, spitting water out of her mouth. She was now in the deep water, kicking silently, moving the mattress under the diving board.

    Roy reached up and touched the diving board. Retta smiled. She had a wonderful feeling of belonging tonight, as if it really were her pool.

    Want to go around again?

    Without waiting for an answer, she turned the corner. Retta considered herself a sort of social director for her brothers. She often told them, We’re going to do all the things rich people do. Then she usually added, Only we have to do them at night, that’s the only difference.

    Both of the boys were relaxing now. In the brief time they had been at the pool, they had come to associate the smell of chlorine with elegance. They breathed deeply as their sister pushed them through the water. Johnny had his hands folded behind his head, a pose he associated with famous people. Roy was waiting, arm lifted, to grab the diving board again.

    Suddenly a light went on in the upstairs of the Roberts’s house. The Anderson kids froze. All three faces turned to the window. Retta stopped kicking and waited, froglike, in the shimmering water.

    Retta! Roy wailed. He turned to her. In the moonlight his twisted face revealed his fear. He was the youngest and the most sensitive to being caught.

    It’s all right, Retta assured him. She reached forward and put her hand on his trembling shoulder. That’s just the bathroom light.

    How do you know?

    "I know. If you’d shut up, you could probably hear the toilet flush."

    I’m getting off this thing, Johnny said. He felt exposed. If somebody looked out the window, he thought, the first thing they would see would be him. The water was safer. He rolled off the mattress with a splash.

    "Be quiet or they will hear us," Retta warned.

    Don’t topple me! Roy cried. He struggled to get in the middle, but the mattress tipped. With his arms clutching Retta’s neck, he plopped into the water.

    His head went under, and he came up sputtering. Don’t let me drown!

    "Shut up!" Retta said.

    The three of them were at the side of the pool now. Johnny was holding on to the mattress; Retta was holding Roy. Their faces were turned up to the square of light above them.

    I’m scared, Johnny said. He was shivering hard now. His teeth began to chatter.

    There’s nothing to be afraid of.

    Let’s go home.

    Not yet.

    "I hate it when people run us off," Johnny said.

    "Me too," Roy said. He always spoke in a loud, positive voice when he was agreeing with his brother. And I want to go home too!

    "Look, the reason people run you off is to make you feel bad, Retta explained. They figure they’ll run you off and you’ll feel

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