Lynne Rae Perkins
Encyclopedia
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
winning American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
of books for children.
Her novel Criss Cross
Criss Cross (novel)
Criss Cross is a novel by Lynne Rae Perkins that won the 2006 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature. It followed the character Debbie from her previous novel All Alone in the Universe, but introduced several new characters, primarily her neighborhood friends Hector, Lenny and...
, winner of the 2006 Newbery Medal, is a book of vignettes, illustrations, photographs, and poems about a group of four small town teenagers.
"Writing in a wry, omniscient third-person narrative voice, Perkins deftly captures the tentativeness and incompleteness of adolescence," said Award Committee Chair Barbara Barstow. "In 38 brief chapters, this poetic, postmodern novel experiments with a variety of styles: haiku, song lyrics, question-and-answer dialogue and split-screen scenarios. With seeming yet deliberate randomness, Perkins writes an orderly, innovative, and risk-taking book in which nothing happens and everything happens."
Perkins' picture book Home Lovely was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards were first presented by The Boston Globe and Horn Book Magazine in 1967. They are among the most prestigious honors in the United States in the field of children’s and young adult literature...
Book. Her novel All Alone in the Universe was named an ALA Notable Book, a Booklist Editor's Choice, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book, and a Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children.
Perkins was born and raised in Cheswick, Pennsylvania
Cheswick, Pennsylvania
Cheswick is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,746 at the 2010 census.-History:Cheswick, named for a town in England, is a small town of about . The history of the lands of Cheswick seems to have belonged to the Keen family at least in part, for Archie...
, a suburb fourteen miles northeast of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
in the Allegheny River
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
Valley. She earned her B.A. at The Pennsylvania State University in 1978 and her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1981. She currently lives with her husband and two children in Suttons Bay, Michigan
Suttons Bay, Michigan
Suttons Bay is a village in Leelanau County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 589 at the 2000 census. The village was incorporated in 1898 and is located within Suttons Bay Township....
.
Works
- Home Lovely, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 1995)
- Clouds for Dinner, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 1997)
- All Alone in the Universe, (Scholastic Books, 2000)
- Georgie Lee, illustrator, book by Sharon Phillips Denslow, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2002)
- The Broken Cat, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2002)
- Snow Music, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2003)
- Criss CrossCriss Cross (novel)Criss Cross is a novel by Lynne Rae Perkins that won the 2006 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature. It followed the character Debbie from her previous novel All Alone in the Universe, but introduced several new characters, primarily her neighborhood friends Hector, Lenny and...
, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2005) - Pictures from our Vacation, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2007)
- As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, (New York: Greenwillow Books, 2010)