From Newsgroup: rec.arts.mystery
I knew her best for "The 18th Emergency," about a boy trying to dodge a bully he's carelessly angered. (Many modern readers might be shocked at how it turns out. The author of "Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong" speaks in glowing terms of the book - partly for that reason.) The book was filmed for TV in 1974.
The first 17 emergencies are mostly imaginary and some are fantastic - such as vampires and werewolves. However, at least four are worth reading about - the ones about gorillas, parachuting, sharks, and quicksand.
"Mouse" - real name, Benjie - is likely 11 and Hammerman is at least 14.
From Chapter 2 - after "Mouse" tells his friend Ezzie about what started it all:
rCLMarv Hammerman!rCY Ezzie sighed. It was a mournful sound that seemed to have come from a culture used to sorrow. rCLAnybody else in the school would have been better. I would rather have the principal after me than Marv Hammerman.rCY
rCLI know.rCY
rCLHammerman's big, Mouse. He's flunked a lot.rCY
rCLI know,rCY Mouse said again. There was an unwritten law that it was all right to fight anyone in your own grade. The fact that Hammerman was older and stronger made no difference. They were both in the sixth grade.
(end)
As a kid, I thought the "unwritten law" was created by the ADULTS! (It never occurred to me that "laws" could be made by kids.)
By the way, Byars had 5 entries in the "Something About the Author" encyclopedias - one was a long autobiographical essay she wrote in 2000. She also had an entry in the "Children's Literature Review" encyclopedias, vol. 72.
Lenona.
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