The Pinballs is a 1976 middle grade realistic novel by Betsy Byars. Byars is an acclaimed author of middle grade fiction. Between 1962 and 2010, she wrote more than 60 books for young people. Byars’s books have won prestigious awards, such as the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award. She was born in 1928 and given the name Betsy Cromer. She grew up in North Carolina during the Great Depression and graduated Queen’s College with a B.A. in English in 1950. She and Edward Ford Byars, whom she married in 1950, had four children. Two of their daughters, Betsy Ann and Laurie, would become co-authors with Betsy on four books between 2000 and 2010. She passed on February 26, 2020, at the age of 91.

Like many of Byars’s books, The Pinballs follows a small group of adolescents as they navigate personal struggles and adverse circumstances. Carlie, Harvey, and Thomas J are all placed into the Masons’ foster home together due to abuse and neglect they face at home. There, they must work through how the trauma of their past affects their thoughts and behavior. The novel deals openly with various types of domestic child abuse and its effects on the children who experience it. At the same time, it emphasizes the resiliency and strength of the three protagonists and highlights the ways people can love and support those they care about while they work through their struggles. Though it explores heavy themes, Byars’s book provides a relatable and positive portrayal of children and teens dealing with difficult and unfair circumstances.

The year after its publication, The Pinballs received multiple awards, including the Josette Frank Award and the California Young Reader Medal. In 1977, it was made into an ABC Afterschool Special. Other works by Byars include The Midnight Fox, The Summer of the Swans, and Tornado.

This guide uses the Harper & Row Publishers 1977 hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source material deals openly and frequently with mental, emotional, and physical abuse of children. This abuse and its psychological ramifications are discussed in detail through the entirety of the source text and are one of its primary themes. The source text also briefly discusses abandonment, alcoholism, and suicidal ideation. Resources for those affected by these topics are linked in Further Reading & Resources.

Plot Summary

During summer in the mid-1970s, three children enter foster care at the Masons’ home. Harvey, 13, was run over by his father, who was driving drunk. He suffered two broken legs, so he uses a wheelchair. Thomas J, eight, was kept a secret by the elderly Benson twins after they found him when he was two. Authorities only discovered him when the twins both broke their hips. Carlie, a teenager, was moved to the Masons’ after being repeatedly physically abused by her stepfather.

Carlie is suspicious and skeptical about her new home. She doesn’t trust Mrs. Mason and teases Harvey. When she loses an earring, she accuses everyone of taking it. When Thomas J finds the earring by the sink, he thinks Carlie will be pleased, but she is suspicious.

Harvey has a difficult time getting out of bed. He thinks about his mother, who left for a communal living farm years prior. Mrs. Mason thinks Carlie can help Harvey, but Carlie disagrees. She says they are all just “Pinballs” being bounced from one place to another against their will, so they cannot help each other.

Over the next few days, Carlie slowly begins getting more curious about the boys, especially the various Lists Harvey writes to entertain himself and make sense of his past. Because of the lists, she and Thomas J learn a bit about Harvey’s past, such as how he wanted a puppy, but his mother left right before his birthday and his father wouldn’t get him one.

Harvey and Carlie go to the library so Harvey can search for an old magazine article he once saw that showed his mother living on the commune. He thinks that if he writes to her about what his father did, she will return and take him away. On the way there, Harvey and Carlie talk about some of the abuse they have experienced from their fathers.

Harvey’s father comes to take Harvey to dinner, where Harvey tells him about the letter he wrote his mother. His father reveals that his mother never sent him a letter or contacted him, even when his father wrote to her about Harvey’s being ill. Though Harvey used to think that she had written and that his father tore up the letters, he finally understands his father is telling the truth. After this realization, Harvey confesses to Carlie that he doesn’t think he can “make it” any longer. Carlie adamantly supports him and tells him that the three children need each other and are a “set.”

When one of the Benson twins dies in the hospital, Thomas J and Mr. Mason visit the remaining twin before the funeral. They had previously visited the hospital so Thomas J could see both twins, but Thomas J hadn’t known how to express his emotions. Mr. Mason tells Thomas J relatable stories about his own youth and struggles with expressing emotions. These stories make Thomas J feel seen and validated.

Harvey’s listlessness grows worse. Carlie notices the toes on his right foot are red and swollen, and Harvey is admitted to the hospital with a serious infection around his compound fracture. Carlie and Thomas J visit him to cheer him up but are shocked by how unemotional and lethargic Harvey is. Through the week he worsens. He stops talking and eating.

Carlie sees an ad in the paper for free puppies, and she and Thomas J resolve to get one and sneak it into the hospital for Harvey’s birthday to cheer him up. When Harvey sees the puppy, he sobs uncontrollably, releasing all the pent-up emotion about his mother’s abandonment and his father’s mistreatment of him. Carlie, Thomas J, and Mrs. Mason are all relieved that the surprise worked.

After receiving the puppy, Harvey begins to improve. Carlie and Thomas J are pleased they could help their friend. The second Benson twin dies, and Mr. Mason takes Thomas J to the second funeral. As Carlie and Thomas J walk the puppy around Thomas J’s future elementary school, she says she has changed her mind about the three of them being “pinballs”: She now looks forward to applying herself and trying to do her best in life.