37 pages • 1 hour read
Betsy ByarsTornado
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Betsy Byars
Betsy Byars (1928-2020) was born in North Carolina. Part of her childhood was spent in the country raising animals, followed by several years in the city of Charlotte. After graduating from Queen’s College with a degree in English, Betsy married Edward Byars and began writing. Her first book, Clementine, was published in 1962. Byars wrote more than 65 books during her career. She had three daughters and a son and, in the early 2000s, wrote two dog-focused books in collaboration with her daughters: My Dog, My Hero (2002) and Dog Diaries (2007). Her novels often feature complex emotions and themes, which she blends with engaging narratives geared toward middle grade readers.
One of her notable works is the Newbery Medal award-winning The Summer of the Swans (1970), in which a flock of swans moves to a lake near Sara Godfrey’s home. Sara shows the swans to her younger brother, but then he goes missing when he goes to look at them in the middle of the night. Sara and a classmate go looking for Charlie together. Of winning the 1971 Newbery Medal, Byars said it “literally changed my life overnight […] For the first time in my life I started feeling like an author” (Maughan, Shannon. “Obituary: Betsy Byars.” Publishers Weekly, 2 Mar. 2020). Byars also published The Midnight Fox (1968), in which a nine-year-old boy spends time with his aunt and uncle on their farm, and The Pinballs (1976), which follows several adolescents who are placed in a foster home after experiencing child abuse.
Geographical Context: Tornado Alley
The geographical location and likelihood of natural disasters provide important context for Tornado. When Pete begins his story and begins to recount the tornado in which the dog, Tornado, arrived, he notes that “folks didn’t call our part of the country Tornado Alley for nothing” (6). Tornado Alley is a general term used to describe the part of the US (sometimes including the Canadian plains) that is most prone to tornado activity, even though it hasn’t been officially defined by the National Weather Service. In the US, tornados occur most frequently in the states between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. Tornado Alley has been traditionally understood as including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Ohio, parts of Michigan, southern Ontario, Canada, Michigan, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The term originated when it was used as the title of a research study about tornado activity in the Central US. The geographic features of the Tornado Alley region facilitate the development of tornados, with the potential for dry air from the Mexican Plateau to meet warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico alongside high wind conditions. April to June tends to be the time of year with the most potential for tornado activity (Kuhne, Michael. “What Is Tornado Alley?” AccuWeather). Those who live in active parts of Tornado Alley often choose to install storm cellars or tornado sirens on their property as protection against tornado activity.
Related Titles
By Betsy Byars
