SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Green Promises
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.jeannineatkins.com/
CITY: Whately
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 388
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 14, 1953, in Montclair, NJ; daughter of David (an engineer and guidance counselor) and Marjorie (a homemaker) Atkins; married; children: one daughter.
EDUCATION:University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.A., 1980; University of New Hampshire, M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Teacher of high-school English, 1994-98; University of Massachusetts—Amherst, instructor, 2006; Simmons College, Boston, MA, member of adjunct faculty.
AVOCATIONS:Swimming, cross-country skiing, yoga, knitting.
AWARDS:Notable Book for Children citation, Smithsonian magazine, 1996, for Aani and the Tree Huggers; Pick of the Lists selection, American Bookseller, 1999, for A Name on the Quilt; Society of School Librarians International Honor Book citation and Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People selection, National Council for the Social Studies/Children’s Book Council (NCSS/CBC), both 2000, both for Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon; Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 selection, National Science Teachers Association/CBC, and Benjamin Franklin Award finalist, Independent Book Publishers Association, both 2001, both for Girls Who Looked under Rocks; Amelia Bloomer Project selection, American Library Association, c. 2003, for Wings and Rockets; Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People selection, 2006, for How High Can We Climb?; Best Children’s Books selection, Bank Street College of Education, 2011, for Borrowed Names.
WRITINGS
Contributor to “Poetry Friday” anthologies, Pomelo Books. Contributor of stories to periodicals, including Boston Review, North American Review, and San Francisco Review of Books. Also author of a blog.
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 1998, Ilene Cooper, review of Get Set! Swim!, p. 1629; January 1, 1999, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of A Name on the Quilt: A Story of Remembrance, p. 885; September 1, 1999, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon, p. 135; March 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review of Robin’s Home, p. 1402; November 15, 2001, Marta Segal, review of Becoming Little Women: A Novel about Louisa May at Fruitlands, p. 566; October 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of How High Can We Climb? The Story of Women Explorers, p. 44; July 1, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of Anne Hutchinson’s Way, p. 60; February 1, 2010, Carolyn Phelan, review of Borrowed Names: Poems about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters, p. 44; June 1, 2020, Carolyn Phelan, review of Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math, p. 86; December 15, 2021, Carolyn Phelan, review of Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner’s Call to Science, p. 98.
BookPage, January, 2017, Anita Lock, review of Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis, p. 26.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, October, 2001, review of Becoming Little Women, p. 49.
Horn Book, September, 2001, review of Becoming Little Women, p. 580; May-June, 2010, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Borrowed Names, p. 99; July-August, 2016, Sarah Rettger, review of Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science, p. 151; May-June, 2025, Sylvia Yardell, review of Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth, p. 81.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2003, review of Wings and Rockets: The Story of Women in Air and Space, p. 56; July 15, 2005, review of How High Can We Climb?, p. 785; August 1, 2007, review of Anne Hutchinson’s Way; February 15, 2010, review of Borrowed Names; June 15, 2016, review of Finding Wonders; October 1, 2016, review of Stone Mirrors; May 1, 2020, review of Grasping Mysteries; November 15, 2021, review of Hidden Powers; January 1, 2025, review of Green Promises.
Library Journal, September 1, 2015, review of Little Woman in Blue: A Novel of May Alcott, p. 89.
Publishers Weekly, January 11, 1999, review of A Name on the Quilt, p. 72; August 16, 1999, review of Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon, p. 85; February 26, 2001, review of Robin’s Home, p. 84; May 19, 2025, review of Knocking on Windows: A Memoir, p. 74.
School Library Journal, March, 1999, Judith Gloyer, review of A Name on the Quilt, p. 162; October, 1999, review of Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon, p. 132; April, 2001, Carolyn Jenks, review of Robin’s Home, p. 98; October, 2001, Patti Gonzales, review of Becoming Little Women, p. 148; March, 2003, Linda Wadleigh, review of Wings and Rockets, p. 244; September, 2005, Ann G. Brouse, review of How High Can We Climb?, p. 218; March, 2006, John Peters, review of How High Can We Climb?, p. 89; August, 2007, Barbara Auerbach, review of Anne Hutchinson’s Way, p. 76; February, 2010, Tracy Weiskind, review of Borrowed Names, p. 127; November, 2016, Kristin Anderson, review of Stone Mirrors, p. 98; March, 2022, MaryAnn Kane, review of Hidden Powers, p. 125.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), July 20, 2003, review of Wings and Rockets, p. 4.
Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2010, Geri Diorio, review of Borrowed Names, p. 276.
ONLINE
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, Deborah Kalb, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (March 2, 2017), author interview; (August 6, 2020), Deborah Kalb, author interview.
Dawn Publications website, http://www.dawnpub.com/ (September 1, 2015), Glenn Hovemann, author interview.
Jeannine Atkins website, http://www.jeannineatkins.com (July 8, 2025).
Jeannine Atkins
Genres: Children's Fiction
Series
Girls Who Love Science
Green Promises (2025)
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Novels
Little Woman in Blue (2015)
Finding Wonders (2016)
Stone Mirrors (2017)
Grasping Mysteries (2020)
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Collections
Borrowed Names (poems) (2010)
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Picture Books hide
Get Set! Swim! (2008)
Mary Anning and The Sea Dragon (2012)
Anne Hutchinson's Way (2012)
Aani and the Tree Huggers (2013)
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Non fiction hide
Girls Who Looked Under Rocks (2000)
Views from a Window Seat (2013)
Hidden Powers (2022)
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
How did you decide to become a writer?
I was a shy girl, but I liked my own company. Writing things down in a diary made them seem more real to me, though I didn’t write down everything. As a grown-up, I’m writing about some of the things I noticed as a child but didn’t have words for then.
Do you write every day?
Yes, even on weekends and holidays. I like the quiet and routine, and I don’t waste time trying to pick up a thread I’ve put down for too long. I learned to discipline myself when I had a baby who never seemed too keen on sleeping. If she took a ten-minute nap, I wrote for approximately 9 minutes and 55 seconds.
What do you do in your spare time?
I’m happy that writing and teaching take up most of my time, since reading, daydreaming, and often laughing or wonder are part of the job. I like swimming when it’s warm and cross country skiing when the snow is thick and soft, which isn’t often. Yoga is good. Doing almost anything with my grown daughter is best. Since I write slowly, I sometimes wonder why I took up knitting, work which gets bigger only small stitch by small stitch. But my best friend from high school asked me to take lessons with her, and while it wasn’t folding notes into origami shapes and passing them in class, we had a lot of fun. I made the Gryffindor House scarf pictured here for my daughter.
Do you like to write?
Most of the time, yes. There are few sentences I don’t struggle with, but when they fall into place I smile.
What inspires you?
Much of my writing begins by noticing women who seem a little hidden in history, then looking for words to bring them back into sight. While I like books that let me slip into other worlds through, say, a wardrobe or train station wall, and novels where people talk and dress and eat pretty much the way I do, ever since I was girl playing dress-up I was drawn to books like those written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott. History shows me what changes as well as what stays the same.
What is your best writing advice?
Find people who believe in you so it’s easier to believe in yourself. Find one person. And learn to feel friendly with silence. Solitude sometimes feel itchy, but stick with it and after a while one word after another starts to make sense. And even lead you down new and fascinating roads.
Are you in a critique group?
Yes, and its three members became some of my best friends. I started exchanging manuscripts with Lisa Kleinholz, Dina Friedman, and Bruce Carson when my daughter was a baby. For more than twenty years, we’ve been meeting about every other week. Clearly we trust each other’s eyes and ears, and cheering each other on when things are tough, and cheering louder when things are good, makes the writing life more fun. On some happy days I also meet other writers friends. We drink tea, catch up on news, then take out our laptops or yellow pads and write.
After writing mostly historical fiction, why did you decide to write poetry?
Reading and writing poetry has long had a place in my life, but writing Borrowed Names was the first time I put it at the center. I like poetry’s nudges to silence and the slow pace it demands. Poetry may create a space where facts and imagination meet, letting us carry on a kind of conversation with the past.
Atkins, Jeannine GREEN PROMISES Atheneum (Children's None) $17.99 2, 11 ISBN: 9781665950572
A biographical verse novel about women born decades apart who followed their passions to become pioneers in their respective scientific fields.
Irish American Mary Agnes discovered her love for drawing and observing patches of nature around her late-19th-century Chicago home as a child. She dreamed of studying botany but left school after eighth grade, working as a newspaper proofreader to help her struggling family. For years she did illustrations on the side, eventually becoming a botanical illustrator at the Smithsonian Institution and, later, a senior botanist. In early-20th-century Washington, D.C., young Marguerite studied the rocks and soil along the Anacostia River. She was torn between her burgeoning dream of being a teacher and the need to help her family financially. As a Black girl, Marguerite struggled to allow herself to admit her ambitions, but, surrounded by trailblazing Black women, she persevered, ultimately chairing the geography department at Miner Teachers College and becoming the first African American person to earn a PhD in geology. This story, rich in historical details, is a love letter to the power of individuals to bring about change and uplift others. Atkins deftly brings Mary Agnes Chase's and Marguerite Thomas Williams' environments and scientific pursuits to life through language that's alternately poetic and direct, making the decades of history she covers both thought-provoking and accessible to young readers.
An inspiring account of women who pursued scientific excellence and opened doors for others. (author's note, timelines, character notes)(Verse historical fiction. 10-14)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Atkins, Jeannine: GREEN PROMISES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A821608556/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6c190bff. Accessed 10 June 2025.
Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth
by Jeannine Atkins
Intermediate, Middle School Atheneum 320 pp. 2/25 9781665950572 $17.99
e-book ed. 9781665950596 $10.99
Atkins (Hidden Powers, rev. 5/22, and others) continues uncovering stories of real women of science who have made unsung contributions to their fields. Here, her focus is on (Mary) Agnes Chase (1869--1963), who rose to the position of senior botanist at the Smithsonian Institution despite receiving no formal education beyond eighth grade; and Marguerite Thomas Williams (1895-1991), the first African American to earn a PhD in geology. This novel in verse goes back and forth between the two women as their childhoods and early schooling set the stage for their fascination with rocks, rivers, grasses, and nature. Atkins weaves together important historical details with spare, lyrical verse that is descriptive and illuminating: "Once they were girls whose dreams, / dark and rich as good earth, / were invisible even to them." We learn of their struggles and their hard-won successes, as both women uplift those who come after them and will inspire young readers today. Helpful back matter includes an author's note, a timeline of major events in each woman's life, and short biographical entries that serve as a "who's who" of the scientists and artists in their respective circles.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Yardell, Sylvia. "Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 101, no. 3, May-June 2025, p. 81. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A839824620/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=15969179. Accessed 10 June 2025.Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth
by Jeannine Atkins
Intermediate, Middle School Atheneum 320 pp. 2/25 9781665950572 $17.99
e-book ed. 9781665950596 $10.99
Atkins (Hidden Powers, rev. 5/22, and others) continues uncovering stories of real women of science who have made unsung contributions to their fields. Here, her focus is on (Mary) Agnes Chase (1869--1963), who rose to the position of senior botanist at the Smithsonian Institution despite receiving no formal education beyond eighth grade; and Marguerite Thomas Williams (1895-1991), the first African American to earn a PhD in geology. This novel in verse goes back and forth between the two women as their childhoods and early schooling set the stage for their fascination with rocks, rivers, grasses, and nature. Atkins weaves together important historical details with spare, lyrical verse that is descriptive and illuminating: "Once they were girls whose dreams, / dark and rich as good earth, / were invisible even to them." We learn of their struggles and their hard-won successes, as both women uplift those who come after them and will inspire young readers today. Helpful back matter includes an author's note, a timeline of major events in each woman's life, and short biographical entries that serve as a "who's who" of the scientists and artists in their respective circles.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Yardell, Sylvia. "Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 101, no. 3, May-June 2025, p. 81. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A839824620/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=15969179. Accessed 10 June 2025.
Knocking on Windows
Jeannine Atkins. Atheneum, $19.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-1-6659-7754-8
In this lucid, accessible verse memoir, Atkins (Green Promises) chronicles her experiences as a college freshman healing from the trauma of sexual violence and finding her voice through poetry. Circa 1972, 18-year-old Atkins returns to her Massachusetts childhood home to process "the word that ends one story and starts another." When her stoic parents offer little support, she gains fleeting comfort from Sylvia Plath's poetry. Even as Atkins tries keeping busy with state college, therapy, and a string of jobs, it becomes harder to ignore misogynistic attitudes within her family, her community, and academia that strive to silence her and excuse her rapist's actions. Atkins's clarity-seeking letter-poems addressed to Plath, Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, and more bristle with honesty. Using symbolic language ("I want to find courage to wrestle out/ what hunkers inside me/ like a wounded bird flapping, ruffling wings"), the author contemplates what it means to be a writer, a woman, and a woman who writes. With empowering eloquence, Atkins reflects on suffering, survival, and sexism as she lived it within the context of the Vietnam War and civil rights legislation. It's a brave, searing autobiography that recalls the work of Laurie Halse Anderson and Amber Smith. Includes an author's note and bibliography. Ages 14-up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Sara Crowe Literary. (Aug.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Knocking on Windows." Publishers Weekly, vol. 272, no. 20, 19 May 2025, p. 74. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A841723034/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=61c5e5cb. Accessed 10 June 2025.