Blossom family

Newbery Award-winning author Betsy Byars's heartwarming and timeless books about the irrepressible Blossom family are back. In this introduction to the one-of-a-kind clan, Pap, the Blossoms' grandfather, has landed himself in jail for disturbing the peace. Even though Junior is laid up in the hospital with two broken legs after jumping off the barn roof to test his new homemade wings, he and his sister and brother, Maggie and Vern, have come up with...

Disasters befall the Blossom family as Pap falls into a dumpster and cannot get out, Junior tries desperately to make a success of his secret invention, and Vern dreads letting a new friend meet his unusual family.

Convinced that Mud is responsible for the disappearance of the school hamster that was his responsibility for the weekend, Junior Blossom is determined that the dog should be tried for his "crime."