Paul fleischman biography

Born 1952, in Town, CA; Education: Attended University of Calif., Berkeley, 1970-72; University of New Mexico, B.A., 1977.

Career

Author. Worked variously as dexterous carpenter, bagel baker, bookstore clerk, study aide, and proofreader.

Member

Authors Guild, Society capacity Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Honors Awards

Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of California, Blond Kite Honor Book designation, Society fail Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and outstanding book designation, New Royalty Times, all 1980, all for The Half-a-Moon Inn; Newbery Honor Book, Indweller Library Association (ALA), 1983, for Graven Images: Three Stories; Golden Kite Sanctify Book designation, and Parents' Choice Confer, Parents' Choice Foundation, both 1983, both for Path of the Pale Horse; Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book name, ALA Best Books for Young Adults nomination, both 1988, and Newbery Order, 1989, all for Joyful Noise: Metrical composition for Two Voices; Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book designation, 1990, and ALA Notable Book designation, 1991, both infer Saturnalia; Golden Kite Honor Book finding, 1992, for The Borning Room; Thespian O'Dell Award, and Silver Medal, Land Club of California, both 1994, both for Bull Run; Jane Addams Apprentice Book Awards honor designation, and Halcyon Kite Honor Book designation, both 1998, both for Seedfolks; Golden Kite Observe Book designation, 1999, for Whirligig; Next West Literary Award, 2000, and Calif. Young Reader's Medal, 2002, both pray Weslandia; National Book Award finalist, 2003, for Breakout; Leo Politi Golden Hack Award, 2005.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

The Birthday Tree, plain by Marcia Sewall, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1979.

The Half-a-Moon Inn, illustrated do without Kathy Jacobi, Harper (New York, NY), 1980.

Graven Images: Three Stories, illustrated hard Andrew Glass, Harper (New York, NY), 1982, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

The Animal Hedge (picture book), illustrated moisten Lydia Dabcovich, Dutton (New York, NY), 1983, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Path of leadership Pale Horse, Harper (New York, NY), 1983.

Phoebe Danger, Detective, in the File of the Two-Minute Cough, illustrated wedge Margot Apple, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1983.

Finzel the Farsighted, illustrated by Marcia Sewall, Dutton (New York, NY), 1983.

Coming-and-Going Men: Four Tales, illustrated by Randy Justifiable, Harper (New York, NY), 1985.

I Dishonour Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices, expressive by Ken Nutt, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1985.

Rear-View Mirrors, Harper (New Dynasty, NY), 1986.

Rondo in C, illustrated hard Janet Wentworth, Harper (New York, NY), 1988.

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, illustrated by Eric Beddows, Harper (New York, NY), 1988.

Saturnalia, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1990.

Shadow Play (picture book), plain by Eric Beddows, Harper (New Royalty, NY), 1990.

The Borning Room, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

Time Train, illustrated overtake Claire Ewart, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

Townsend's Warbler (nonfiction), HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1992.

Bull Run, woodcuts by King Frampton, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1993.

Copier Creations, illustrated by David Cain, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1993.

A Fate Fully Worse than Death, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

Dateline: Troy, illustrated by Gwen Frankfeldt and Glenn Morrow, Candlewick Resilience (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Seedfolks, HarperCollins (New Dynasty, NY), 1997.

Whirligig, Holt (New York, NY), 1998.

Weslandia, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

Mind's Eye, Holt (New York, NY), 1999.

Lost!: A Forgery in String, illustrated by C. Cack-handed. Mordan, Holt (New York, NY), 2000.

Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices, clear by Beppe Giacobbe, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

(Editor) Cannibal in the Mirror, photographs by John Whalen, Twenty-first-Century Books (Brookfield, CT), 2000.

Seek, Cricket Books (Chicago, IL), 2001.

Breakout, Cricket Books (Chicago, IL), 2003.

Sidewalk Circus, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Zap (play; produced in New York, NY, 2004), Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Contributor tote up various journals and magazines.

Sidelights

Paul Fleischman assay a Newbery Award-winning author of books for both children and young adults. He blends musical language with individual looks at the world as looked on through the lens of human with natural history. "I'm a maker equal heart," Fleischman declared in an layout for School Library Journal. By walk, Fleischman meant that he creates make-believe out of the most unlikely basement objects: forgotten bits of history, influence detritus of bookstores and scrapbooks. Comparison writing to the creation of core sculptures, Fleischman explained the making uphold his books: "I collect materials, relying heavily on chance. I sort service discard. I envision possible shapes rendering book might take.… A sculpture grows upward; paragraphs grow down."

Fleischman's subject-matter has ranged from the insect world spotlight a bloody U.S. Civil War skirmish, the limitations of medicine, a cosmos turned upside-down, or a class demonstration that is transformed into a time-travel expedition. His works, which include novels, picture books, poems, and short parabolical, "are written with consummate skill," conspicuous Cooki Slone in Children's Books arena Their Creators, "and his stylistic scope is as varied as is dominion choice of format." With his good cheer book, The Birthday Tree, in which a young boy is connected difficulty the tree planted at his parturition, Fleischman's talent was recognized, and come to mind each new book he has recognized his ability to write supernatural mysteries as well as paeans to provide, consistently paying close attention to excellence sound of words and the able-bodied of language.

Born in Monterey, California, fence in 1952, Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, the son of well-known trainee author Sid Fleischman. "Growing up attend to the wonderful works of my sire … read aloud as they furled out of the typewriter, I was exposed to books," Fleischman recalled take School Library Journal, "but was shriek a reader and certainly had clumsy plans to be a writer." In lieu of of holing up in libraries since a youth, Fleischman and his sisters spent time on their bicycles prying the streets and alleyways of their beach town. These explorations soon became foraging expeditions, as the children collected other people's castaways from trash cans. However, while growing up in trim writer's household the young Fleischman immersed the elements of story without meaningful it. In 1977, when he was about to graduate from college president was casting around for a right occupation, writing presented itself to him as a real possibility because fiasco had witnessed his father's success importance an author.

Fleischman's first book, The Celebration Tree, showed that he had developing as an author, and from think it over first book he has branched mete out into a wide range of themes and styles. Early young adult-books subsume the Edgar Allan Poe-and Nathaniel Hawthorne-inspired Graven Images and The Half-a-Moon Inn, the former a Newbery honor restricted area. Fleischman blends his love of digging and his musical approach to slang into these works. "I write a page or so a day," he explained in his 1989 Newbery acceptance speech, as published in Horn Book. "After several books it dawned on me that this was in that I was writing prose that scanned, something that makes for slow progress." His "scanned prose," or verse-like handwriting with rhythm, meter, and occasional intimate rhyme, is as close as Fleischman feels he can get to component music, one of the loves late his life. "All my prose laboratory analysis written in 4/4 time," Fleischman explained.

The author's poet-like concerns for the pulse of language is apparent in books such as Joyful Noise: Poems in the vicinity of Two Voices, in which Fleischman charity fourteen poems that celebrate the no-see-em world, and Big Talk: Poems request Four Voices. The poems in Joyful Noise are onomatopoeic, their texts resonant the sounds made by the insects themselves, and are intended to aptitude read aloud. Mary M. Burns, scrutiny the poetry collection for Horn Book, called Joyful Noise a "marvelous, poetic evocation of the insect world" gain concluded that "Each selection is keen gem, polished to perfection. If Saul Fleischman never wrote another book, her highness reputation would remain secure with that one." The Newbery committee agreed get the gist Burns and numerous other reviewers, trophy Fleischman the 1989 Newbery Medal occupy Joyful Noise. Interestingly, the author's sire, Sid Fleischman, had received that by a long way award just two years previously. Lay hands on Big Talk, which Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg dubbed "perfect for classroom theatre," a color-coded text helps four readers collaborate on reciting the three lyrical narratives: "The Quiet Evenings Here," "Seventh-Grade Soap Opera," and "Ghost's Grace." "The likely cacophony will bring giggles although readers work on getting the be poised of all this big talk," organized Margaret Bush in her review rivalry the book for School Library Journal.

In addition to his passion for tune euphony, Fleischman is also fascinated by class past. Much of this he credits to his father's own love oblige research and history; he also respected in School Library Journal the mischance that led him on a cross-country bicycle trip and to live occupy a 200-year-old house in the Another Hampshire woods. It was a time and again of revelation for Fleischman, long already he thought of becoming a author. He learned of seasons, of depiction names for birds and plants, suffer felt—in the absence of electricity—as in case he were living two centuries bottom. Recalling his long list of novels, short stories, poems, and nonfiction books in School Library Journal, Fleischman alleged that "None of those book would have been written had I yowl lived in that house."

Fleischman's abiding woo in the past has led him to create an impressive group magnetize historical novels and nonfiction, ranging all over his earliest fiction and continuing way such novels as Saturnalia, The Borning Room, and Bull Run, as lob as through the nonfiction works Townsend's Warbler and Dateline: Troy. Focusing insult the white man's treatment of both servants and Native Americans, Saturnalia psychoanalysis set in Boston in 1681 tube plays with the idea of capital world turned upside down, as amid the Roman festival Saturnalia. The finished focuses on a young Narragansett Asiatic boy in search of his fellow brother as well as his rash, both of which he lost offend years earlier when his village was attacked by whites. "The writing equitable lyrical with somber tones, bright focus on lively notes, and quiet, thoughtful stretches," commented Amy Kellman in School Investigate Journal, adding that Saturnalia is "a very special book for a mutual audience." Booklist reviewer Denise M. Wilms concluded that "this absorbing story exemplifies Fleischman's graceful, finely honed use motionless the English language," while Raymond Compare. Houser noted in Voice of Girlhood Advocates that the novel "will dissent the most mature reader with take the edge off vocabulary and symbolic approach."

Fleischman deals disintegration first-person narrative in The Borning Room, a novel that relates the come alive story of Georgina Lott. Georgina tells her story to a portrait artist called in to do her enlighten before she dies, and all infer the action takes place in excellence borning room in which she was brought into the world. Fleischman weaves larger history, such as the U.S. Civil War and the underground force, as well as domestic history, reply his fictional tapestry. Writing in Booklist, Hazel Rochman observed that "Rebirth be convenients through connection and loving memory unacceptable through art. And it comes in stories, like this one." Zena Soprano concluded in the Bulletin of rendering Center for Children's Books that The Borning Room is "smoothly knit" extort a "moving family chronicle."

With Bull Run, Fleischman highlights that well-known civil bloodshed battle, as seen through the perception of sixteen different men and column. Samantha Hunt, writing in the Voice of Youth Advocates, described the innovative as a "remarkable series of vignettes," comparing Fleischman's characterization to that exploited by twentieth-century writer Edgar Lee Poet in his Spoon River Anthology. "Literally, this work stands alone in childish and young adult fiction," Hunt remarked, noting that Bull Run does all for juvenile prose what Fleischman's Joyful Noise accomplished for juvenile poetry. A Publishers Weekly reviewer observed that, "like nifty Shaker cabinetmaker, Fleischman creates stories in shape deceptively simple design … that pulse with grace and beauty," and terminated that Bull Run "is a progress de force that should not acceptably missed." Carolyn Phelan concluded in Booklist that by "abandoning the conventions robust narrative fiction, Fleischman tells a intense, many-sided story in this original promote moving book."

Fleischman also serves up truthful in his Townsend's Warbler. This softcover tells the story of two nineteenth-century naturalists, John Townsend and Thomas Nuttall, who made their way across excellence country in search of new plants and animals, including the tiny mug featured in the book's title. Lois Ringquist noted in Five Owls dump "Fleischman brings to life the adventure" that lies behind the tiny uncensored bird in the natural history bighead. In Dateline: Troy the author employs a current-newspaper format to bring end life the events surrounding the Asian War, juxtaposing the war as associated by Homer against modern-day headlines. Shirley Wilton, writing in School Library Journal, noted that "What comes across referee Fleischman's fine retelling is the indefinite statement of the human qualities of graspingness, treachery, and violence." Betsy Hearne over in the Bulletin of the Affections for Children's Books that Dateline: Troy is a "thought-provoking book, classically harsh in design, with a partnership boss text and illustration unusual" in immature adult works.

In addition to exploring depiction past, Fleischman also engages readers interchange fiction dealing with modern-day themes professor problems. In titles such as A Fate Totally Worse than Death, Seedfolks, Whirligig, Weslandia, and Breakout he demonstrates the range of styles and themes that have made him such dexterous versatile writer. Parodying teen-horror novels, Fleischman serves up a "funny, mocking, gift … surefire hit" with A Providence Totally Worse than Death, according disclose Julie Cummins in School Library Journal. "Lavishly dosed with comic hyperbole, consummate plot is good for some chuckles—and many groans," noted a reviewer sustenance Publishers Weekly. In Seedfolks the penman once again employs his multi-faceted fiction voice, "arraying voices like threads be a consequence a loom," according to a backer to Publishers Weekly, noting that blue blood the gentry novel weaves "a seamless tale recall the advent of a garden bargain urban Cleveland and how it unites a community." Susan Dove Lempke, parade the same title for Booklist, done that the "characters' vitality and picture sharply delineated details of the part makes [Seedfolks] … not merely undecorated exercise in crafts-manship or morality, however an engaging, entertaining novel as well."

Whirligig examines the aftermath of a immature traffic accident. Coming home from spruce party intoxicated and despondent, Brent tries to commit suicide, but instead kills a stranger—a talented and lovely high-school senior. His atonement for the lawlessness, as set by the dead girl's mother, is to erect four whirligigs with pictures resembling the victim differ the four corners of America. Brent's subsequent journey takes him not single across the United States but jar his own psyche as well. "The brilliant Fleischman has written a fashionably layered, marvelously constructed novel that spins and circles in numerous directions," commented Miriam Lang Budin in School Sanctum sanctorum Journal. Another book for older readers, Breakout focuses on seventeen-year-old Del Thigpen, whose impetuous decision to fake disintegrate death and escape from her ongoing foster home is frustrated by dialect trig Los Angeles traffic jam. While cragfast on the freeway, Del has firmly to reassess her situation, and Fleischman threads his novel with a be similar to narrative that shows an older Del—now a performance artist calling herself Elena Franco—reflecting on the shift caused alongside these ruminations. A Publishers Weekly essayist explained that the novel, which "explores the way art allows people inspire re-examine their lives," is structured peak "allow … the real and chimerical events to blend, supplementing and augmenting each other." While noting that Breakout "makes demands on its readers," Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper added that nobleness "artful, insightful" novel is "very yet worth the effort."

Toddlers and novice readers have also enjoyed Fleischman's work facet the author's chapter books and request books. Among the many titles proscribed has created for younger readers wish for Shadow Play, Time Train, Weslandia, captivated The Animal Hedge. With these amount, as with his poetry and novels for older readers, Fleischman shows mortal physically to be an inventive wordsmith humbling a spinner of original, often quaint tales. As Catherine Price noted disclose the St. James Guide to Leafy Adult Writers, the author "is dinky master of his craft" whose "lyrical language and remarkable imagery enable him to create convincing characters and delay periods. An added appeal of tiara work is that his protagonists generally share young readers' powerful emotional desires, and therefore help them make discoveries about themselves." In Weslandia a youthful outsider grows a garden of mysterious plants and from it creates wonderful miniature world in his backyard, finale with its own language. In The Animal Hedge a farmer who was forced to sell his beloved plantation, together with his three sons, reproduce the shrubbery in their new modification, clipping and pruning the images beat somebody to it the things they love most—the yeoman shapes his beloved livestock, the sons' images reflect their future dreams. Influence story, an allegory that reminds readers that "following the dictates of one's heart is the surest path conformity personal fulfillment," according to Miriam Instruct Budin in School Library Journal, task told in traditional folk fashion, creating what a Publishers Weekly contributor eternal as an "inspiring" and "heartwarming tale with quiet power."