SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Violet and Jobie in the Wild
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://lynnerae.com/
CITY: Suttons Bay
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 376
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 31, 1956, in Pittsburgh, PA; daughter of a lab technician and educator; married Bill Perkins (a furniture maker); children: Lucy, Frank.
EDUCATION:Pennsylvania State University, B.F.A., 1978; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, M.A., 1981.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Children’s book writer and illustrator. Formerly worked as a picture framer, drawing and watercolor teacher, cashier in a grocery store, waitress at a jazz club, and for a model railroad company. Also worked as a graphic designer in Boston, MA.
AWARDS:Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book designation, 1995, for Home Lovely, and 2004, for Snow Music; 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing selection, New York Public Library, Booklist Best Books designation, Blue Ribbon for Fiction, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, and American Library Association Best Book designation, all 1999, all for All Alone in the Universe; Newbery Medal, 2006, for Criss Cross.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
(open new1)Lynne Rae Perkins is an award-winning writer and artist. On her personal website, Perkins admitted that she did not see herself ever becoming a writer or artist when she was younger. She recalled: “I have always liked to draw and I have always liked books, but I have always liked a lot of things: riding my bike, walking, listening to people talk, making things, food, music, jokes, being outside, being inside, adventures, figuring stuff out, daydreaming. Besides, I grew up in a small working-class town and being a writer or an artist didn’t seem like a job a real person could have. I didn’t know how to go about it. It took me a long time to figure it out.”(close new1)
In her picture books and longer fiction, Perkins creates worlds that “are individual yet palpable, with people who could walk right into the real world without any adjustment,” observed Deborah Stevenson in the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Perkins’s work is unusual because she incorporates illustrations even in her novels for older readers, an audience that is typically targeted with text alone. This combination—which includes the pen-and-ink drawings in her Newbery Award-winning novel Criss Cross as well as the colorful paintings that grace the pages of her picture books—creates what Stevenson called an “offhand verisimilitude of moments in text and image that catch readers, hooking them on for the ride to wherever Perkins wants to take them.”
In an interview in Reading Rockets, Perkins talked about the importance of storytelling in her family when she was growing up. She recalled “There was a lot of sitting on porches at night, you know in warm weather of course and my mother is something of a storyteller and it was always interesting to me that I think I became aware fairly early on that you could edit a story to make it communicate what you wanted to communicate and to make your side of the story be the good side.” Perkins continued: “I would hear stories about myself, about something that had happened to me that maybe to me seemed like a disaster but in my mother’s story I was the hero of the story so that was an interesting thing to learn about.”
Perkins’s picture book Home Lovely concerns Janelle and her young daughter Tiffany, a girl who combats her loneliness by planting a garden near the family’s trailer home. As the plants grow, Tiffany imagines a garden full of trees and flowers, but she is devastated when their mailman, Bob, compliments her instead on the wonderful-looking tomatoes, melons, and other vegetables she has mistakenly planted. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Home Lovely “a spacious story that allows ordinary loneliness and unexpected kindness to assume their proper proportions.” Horn Book contributor Martha V. Parravano praised Perkins for her “rich” characterizations and her theme that “a home does not have to be a palace to feel like one.”
Clouds for Dinner, which is also accompanied by Perkins’s pen-and-ink drawings, tells the story of Janet and her unorthodox home life. The family home is eighty-seven steps up, in an observatory, and the girl’s astronomy-loving parents spend more time gazing at the sky than they do preparing dinner. Janet longs for an ordinary life, and her wish comes true when she is invited to stay with her suburban, traditional, and totally practical aunt. At her aunt’s house the girl immerses herself in the slow pace of everyday life, including regular dinner and even a car wash, but she realizes what is missing when she tries to describe the magic of nature to her aunt. In a “strong text” accompanied by pictures that “do justice to the beauty of the northern Michigan landscape,” according to Horn Book contributor Parravano, Perkins “once again celebrates the nontraditional.”
The picture book The Broken Cat tells two parallel stories: in one tale Andy’s cat is at the veterinarian, while the other goes back in time to when Andy’s mother was a child and broke her arm. Called a “quirky, effective slice-of-life memoir” by a Publishers Weekly contributor, The Broken Cat was dubbed a “charming book” and a “captivating family story” by Caroline Ward in School Library Journal. “The cat (and … an arm) may be broken, but the picture book itself is indisputably a whole, imaginatively conceived and emotionally satisfying,” wrote Parravano.
A winter scene in which the young narrator searches for his dog is the setting for Snow Music, which draws on Perkins’s own experiences living in a cabin in rural Michigan. The self-illustrated title features hints of where the dog has gone as the boy walks through a winter wonderland to find it. “Perkins spectacularly recreates the music of a winter’s day,” declared a Publishers Weekly critic, while Joanna Rudge Long commented in Horn Book that “onomatopoeic language, offbeat details, and skillfully nuanced tones of earth and sky all convey the charms of quiet observation.” Shelly A. Robinson, writing in Childhood Education, noted that Perkins’s “beautiful illustrations give a peaceful glimpse into the snowy world,” while Horn Book contributor Rudine Sims Bishop deemed the text of Snow Music “a delightful word song.” According to Dennis Duffy in the New York Times, “ Snow Music offers a sophisticated experience” that is “accessible to all.”
A summer holiday with a disappointing start is commemorated in a series of poignantly melancholy watercolor images in Pictures from Our Vacation, a picture book containing “the insights, warm humor, and close observation [readers have] … come to expect” from Perkins, according to Horn Book contributor Martha V. Parravano. The young narrator of this vacation story looks forward to visiting the farm that has been in her family for generations, but rain, mud, and overgrown vegetation are not the stuff of holidays. Fortunately, the farmhouse is soon full of family members—cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents—and the weeds and bad weather cease to matter. “Perkins is exhilaratingly free in her approach to the picture book form,” asserted Parravano in her review of Pictures from Our Vacation, while Catherine Threadgill wrote in School Library Journal that the “deceptively simple, thoroughly engaging story” is paired with “colorful, line-intensive illustrations” to produce “a journey into family dynamics, shared experience, and memory that is well worth the trip.” In Booklist, Cooper praised Perkins’s skill as an illustrator, writing that her images for the book show “overhead perspectives and … an eye for small details.”
Debbie and Tina, the stars of The Cardboard Piano, are neighbors as well as the best of friends, but they also have many differences. Debbie now wants to learn to play the piano, and to share her activity with Tina she constructs a pretend piano made out of cardboard. When Tina balks at the prospect of learning scales on a cardboard keyboard, her reaction causes Debbie to ponder what friendship really means and what it looks like. Nina Lindsay noted that the book’s “straightforward yet emotionally complex narrative” combines with comic-book-style word balloons and Perkins’s acrylic paintings to craft a multi-dimensional exploration of “the delicate nature of friendship.” The author/illustrator’s message about “the necessity of understanding differences between friends” will be conveyed effectively to story-hour audiences, asserted School Library Journal contributor Barbara Elleman, and a Kirkus Reviews critic deemed the conversations between Tina and Debbie in The Cardboard Piano “pitch-perfect.”
In addition to creating picture books, Perkins has written several award-winning novels for teen readers. Called “a quiet story about growing up” by Roxanne Burg in School Library Journal, All Alone in the Universe follows best friends Debbie and Maureen as they grow apart during a school year full of changes and growth. “The agony of change is depicted well” in this powerful telling of “the all-too-familiar experience,” commented Deborah Stevenson in her review of the book for the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books.
Debbie returns in Criss Cross, which is told through a series of vignettes featuring a variety of different perspectives and follows the relationship between Debbie and new best friend Hector. Photographs, drawings, haiku, and dialogue are all used by Perkins to move the story along. Her “writing sparkles with inventive, often dazzling metaphors,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who found the novel to be “a poignantly funny coming-of-age story.” According to B. Allison Gray in School Library Journal, “young teens will certainly relate to the self-consciousness and uncertainty of all of the characters, each of whom is straining toward clarity and awareness.” As Myrna Marler wrote in her Kliatt review, Criss Cross “is not a novel for those addicted to adrenaline, but rewards those who patiently explore the story’s treasures.”
The adventures of a teen stranded far from home and family is Perkins’s focus in her middle-grade novel As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth. On his way to an archaeology summer camp that was not expecting him, Ry becomes stranded through a series of oversights and miscommunications. The sixteen-year-old ultimately finds himself alone at a train stop in rural Montana and, with no cell reception and no family members alerted to his situation, walks (with one shoe lost) to the nearest town in search of a ride home. When a helpful handyman named Del offers to drive the teen all the way to Wisconsin, the two begin a road trip that winds as far as the Caribbean and encompasses what a Publishers Weekly critic described as an “implausible and existential journey” that makes for a “contemplative and energetic novel.” Citing Perkins’s “relentlessly entertaining” prose and a “plot with more personality than many could squeeze out of an entire cast,” Booklist critic Ian Chipman dubbed As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth “an absolute delight,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer praised it as “a long, immensely enjoyable, curiously comforting ramble through an absurd-but-benign world.”
In her self-illustrated novel Nuts to You, Perkins tells the story of two squirrels out to save a friend taken by a hawk. Jed, TsTs, and Chai are best friends. However, Jed is snatched up by a hawk who spirits the squirrel off but then ends up dropping him as Chai and TsTs give chase. “My squirrels became quite real and individual to me while I worked on this book, and they are clearly more human than squirrels actually are,” Perkins told Alyson Beecher in an interview for the Kid Lit Frenzy website, adding: “But it was fun to imagine the world from a squirrel’s point-of-view.”
Believing Jed may still be alive, the two friends face dangers from both the animal and human world but also make some new friends as they go on their quest to find Jed. Meanwhile, Jed used martial arts to make his escape and is trying to find his way home. The novel includes an introduction, epilogue, and footnotes. Nuts to You “begs to be read aloud, except that you’d miss the wacky digressions, the goofy footnotes, and the black-and-white illustrations with … built-in micro-plots,” wrote Sarah Ellis in Horn Book. Andrew Medlar, writing in Booklist, remarked: “Perkins clearly respects both her text and her reader while deftly managing many moving parts within a relatively small space.”
The picture book Frank and Lucky Get Schooled introduces a boy named Frank and his dog, Lucky. Frank goes with his parents to the shelter to get a dog. Frank and Lucky end up doing everything together, and the story shows both the boy and the dog learning about the world around them. Lucky learns about all the animal, from squirrels and deer to an unfortunate encounter with a skunk. Each encounter or experience results in a lesson, from the chemistry lesson stemming from Lucky’s skunk encounter to math when Frank and Lucky share a bed and the question is asked of how much of the bed belongs to either one. “From interdisciplinary connections to unanswerable questions, Perkins demonstrates the value and rewards of investigating one’s world,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Wendy Lukehart wrote in School Library Journal: “Discovering school subjects through imaginative scenarios makes learning a delight for the two characters and their audience.”
Perkins provides the black-and-white illustrations for her novel Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea. Alex Treffrey and her older sister, Jools, are excited by the prospect of going on vacation with their family at the beach. Alix imagines what the vacation will be like, picturing beautiful palm trees and a turquoise ocean. However, once the family arrives at their destination, the ocean looks dirty and there are no palm trees. Nevertheless, the sisters have plenty of adventures investigating the natural world around them. “Themes of family, friendship, growing up and trying new things are a perfect fit for Perkins’ middle grade audience,” wrote Billie B. Little in BookPage. Ilene Cooper, writing in Booklist, called Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea “old-fashioned in the best sense of the phrase.”
In Wintercake, Thomas cannot find the fruit ingredients he needs to bake a cake for Winter’s Eve. Lucy, his bird friend, notices a tall animal carrying a basket and thinks it might have the fruit inside it. The animal brings Thomas the basket of fruit and then leaves. It is then that Lucy realizes that he was being kind in returning the fruit, not stealing it. Thomas decides to bake a wintercake for him. Although they have some difficulty getting to his house, they finally arrive and enjoy the cake together.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the book to be “cozy,” as well as being “potentially provocative.” The same reviewer commented that “Perkins’ art, with its warm yellows, opulent blues, and soft browns of wintry forest and cozy dens, nicely complements the fine narrative arc.” In a review in Horn Book, Julie Danielson observed that “Perkins’s earth-toned illustrations are rich in detail, patterns, and textures.” Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Steven Engelfried pointed out that “rich language shifts smoothly between evocative description and engaging dialogue, moving the story forward at just the right pace.”
With Little Bird, the titular character is the smallest bird in her flock of crows. She is tasked with protecting the fledglings from attacks. But when one of the fledgling dies and the flocks sacred treasure goes missing, Little Bird sets out to find it and prove her worth. As she hunts for it, she learns a great deal about the world. A contributor to Publishers Weekly called Little Bird “a plucky protagonist, whose joy at discovering her wings … makes this a sweet and uplifting read.”
In The Museum of Everything, a narrator ponders all the little things that most people overlook. Ideas tossed out to readers often attempt to combine the microscopic aspects in life with the telescopic, putting the big and the small into perspective together. Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Kimberly Olson Fakih claimed that the author “connects with readers who daydream, validating that act as a way to see the world and learn of its many interlocking pieces, and makes imaginative mental musings into a story.”
(open new2)Violet and Jobie in the Wild introduces Jobie and Violet, a brother and sister pair of mice. They live comfortably in a home, where their only concerns are the family cat and the occasional mouse trap. However, after they are captured and released in the nearby state park, the siblings must learn to fend for themselves in the outdoors. Violet tries to remember what she saw on television about life in nature. They manage to escape several predators while trying to figure out the best way to adapt to their new environment. The elderly mouse, Zolian, gives them some pointers to help out, and each goes off on their own paths in life all the wiser.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor opined that “Perkins handles her unique blend of mouseness and anthropomorphism well, occasionally addressing readers with humor.” The same critic called it “a marvelous heroic journey in miniature.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly concluded that “sprightly b&w pencil drawings add finely wrought detail to a narrative centering family bonds and new experiences.”(close new2)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of All Alone in the Universe, p. 127; March 15, 2005, Ilene Cooper, review of The Broken Cat, p. 1264; September 1, 2003, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Snow Music, p. 130; October 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Criss Cross, p. 47; May 1, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of Pictures from Our Vacation, p. 88; January 1, 2009, Hazel Rochman, review of The Cardboard Piano, p. 90; April 15, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth, p. 45; July 1, 2012, Ann Kelley, review of Seed by Seed: The Legend and Legacy of Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman, p. 51; August 1, 2014, Andrew Medlar, review of Nuts to You, p. 74; March 1, 2018, Ilene Cooper, review of Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea, p. 66.
BookPage, June 1, 2016, Julie Danielson, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, p. 30; May 1, 2018, Billie B. Little, review of Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea, p. 31.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, October 1, 1999, Deborah Stevenson, review of All Alone in the Universe, pp. 65-66; May 1, 2010, Deborah Stevenson, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth, p. 393.
Childhood Education, March 22, 2005, Shelly A. Robinson, review of Snow Music, p. 167.
Horn Book, November 1, 1995, Martha V. Parravano, review of Home Lovely, p. 736; September 1, 1997, Martha V. Parravano, review of Clouds for Dinner, pp. 562-63; May 1, 2002, Martha V. Parravano, review of The Broken Cat, p. 320; November 1, 2003, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Snow Music, p. 734; September 1, 2005, Christine M. Hepperman, review of Criss Cross, p. 585; July 1, 2006, Lynne Rae Perkins, transcript of Newbery Medal acceptance speech, p. 377, and Virginia Duncan, interview with Perkins, p. 385; May 1, 2007, Martha V. Parravano, review of Pictures from Our Vacation, p. 273; September 1, 2008, Nina Lindsay, review of The Cardboard Piano, p. 571; May 1, 2010, Christine M. Hepperman, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth, p. 88; September 1, 2012, Thom Barthelmess, review of Seed by Seed, p. 115; November 1, 2014, Sarah Ellis, review of Nuts to You, p. 103; May 1, 2016, Roger Sutton, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, p. 89; January 1, 2017, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, p. 13; September 1, 2019, Julie Danielson, review of Wintercake, p. 68.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1997, review of Clouds for Dinner, p. 955; August 15, 2005, review of Criss Cross, p. 920; September 15, 2008, review of The Cardboard Piano; April 15, 2010, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth; August 15, 2012, review of Seed by Seed; July 15, 2014, review of Nuts to You; June 1, 2016, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled; March 1, 2018, review of Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea; July 1, 2019, review of Wintercake; August 1, 2022, review of Violet and Jobie in the Wild.
Kliatt, September 1, 2005, Myrna Marler, review of Criss Cross, p. 12.
New York Times, January 18, 2004, Dennis Duffy, review of Snow Music; August 12, 2007, Julie Just, review of Pictures from Our Vacation, p. 17.
Publishers Weekly, October 9, 1995, review of Home Lovely, p. 86; October 18, 1999, review of All Alone in the Universe, p. 84; December 20, 1999, Kate Pavao, “Writing from Experience” (interview), p. 25; April 1, 2002, review of The Broken Cat, p. 81; October 27, 2003, review of Snow Music, p. 67; October 31, 2005, review of Criss Cross, p. 58; June 11, 2007, review of Pictures from Our Vacation, p. 59; May 10, 2010, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth, p. 46; July 7, 2014, review of Nuts to You, p. 69; March 21, 2016, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, p. 72; December 2, 2016, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, p. 21; February 19, 2018, review of Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea, p. 77; July 27, 2020, review of Little Bird, p. 64; November 23, 2022, review of Violet and Jobie in the Wild, p. 72.
School Library Journal, October 1, 1999, Roxanne Burg, review of All Alone in the Universe, pp. 156-57; June 1, 2002, Caroline Ward, review of The Broken Cat, p. 107; November 1, 2003, Carolyn Janssen, review of Snow Music, p. 112; September 1, 2005, B. Allison Gray, review of Criss Cross, p. 210; March 1, 2006, Barb Barstow, “Private I,” pp. 66-69; June 1, 2007, Catherine Threadgill, review of Pictures from Our Vacation, p. 119; November 1, 2008, Barbara Elleman, review of The Cardboard Piano, p. 98; July 1, 2010, Leah Krippner, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth, p. 95; September 1, 2012, Susan Scheps, review of Seed by Seed, p. 129; July 1, 2014, Miriam Lang Budin, review of Nuts to You, p. 91; April 1, 2016, Wendy Lukehart, review of Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, p. 138; March 1, 2018, Murie Orlando, review of Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea, p. 104; October 1, 2019, Steven Engelfried, review of Wintercake, p. 72; May 1, 2021, Kimberly Olson Fakih, review of The Museum of Everything, p. 69.
Voice of Youth Advocates, August 1, 2010, Ed Goldberg, review of As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth, p. 254.
Washington Post, January 25, 2006, “Lynne Rae Perkins Wins Newbery Medal for Criss Cross,” p. C3.
ONLINE
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, http://bccb.lis.uiuc.edu/ (February 1, 2000), Deborah Stevenson, “Rising Star: Lynne Rae Perkins.”
Horn Book, https://www.hbook.com/ (November 29, 2016), Roger Sutton, “Lynne Rae Perkins Talks with Roger.”
Kid Lit Frenzy, http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com/ (October 9, 2014), Alyson Beecher, “Interview with Nuts to You Author Lynn Rae Perkins.”
Lynne Rae Perkins website, http://www.lynnerae.com (June 7, 2023).
National Public Radio website, https://www.npr.org/ (June 19, 2016), Lucy Perkins, “Why My Mom Left Me Out of Her Book.”
Northern Express, https://www.northernexpress.com/ (May 29, 2021), Kathleen Stocking, “The Museum Inside Author Lynne Rae Perkins’ Mind.”
Reading Rockets, https://www.readingrockets.org/ (August 16, 2021), author interview.
Tehran Times, https://www.tehrantimes.com/ (May 9, 2023), “Lynne Rae Perkins’ ‘All Alone in the Universe’ Published in Persian.”
Lynne Rae Perkins
USA flag (b.1956)
Perkins was born and raised in Cheswick, Pennsylvania, a suburb fourteen miles northeast of Pittsburgh in the Allegheny River 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.
Novels
All Alone in the Universe (1999)
Criss Cross (2005)
As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth (2010)
Nuts to You (2014)
Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea (2018)
Violet and Jobie in the Wild (2022)
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Picture Books
Home Lovely (1995)
Clouds for Dinner (1997)
The Broken Cat (2002)
Snow Music (2003)
Pictures from Our Vacation (2007)
The Cardboard Piano (2008)
Frank and Lucky Get Schooled (2016)
Wintercake (2019)
The Museum of Everything (2021)
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Awards
Newbery Medal Best Novel winner (2006) : Criss Cross
About
Iwas born in the summer of 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up not far from there in Cheswick, a town on the Allegheny River. My mother taught elementary school and my dad was a lab technician. My sister Cathie taught me to read when she was six and I was four.
We lived in a little brick house on a street full of nearly identical brick houses, one of several such streets on top of a hill, right next to some woods and a place called “the Boney Dump.” Nearly three dozen kids lived on our street alone. We rode our bikes everywhere. We played wiffle ball and dodge ball on the street, jumped rope, spun hula hoops, ate birthday cake, rooted for the Pirates, caught lightning bugs, ran through the sprinkler, went sledding, hiked through the woods to the creek (where we were supposed to watch out for hobos), waited for the ice cream truck, played board games, went to church, played cards, went to school, got measles, did our chores, clamped skates to our shoes, watched TV, sat on porches and curbs and around kitchen tables, talking, or listening to the grownups talking.
Lynne Rae a long time ago Lynne Rae more recently
We went on vacations to the seashore and to see our cousins in West Virginia. There were quiet times, too: time to read, to lie in the hammock, to be bored, to make projects, to play piano, to daydream.
It was a pretty wonderful world to be a child in.
And the future was bright. Something was bound to happen. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm sold soap to a man who turned out to be rich and kind and generous. Anne of Green Gables went to college and eventually married Gilbert. Heidi got Clara to walk and melted the grandfather’s frozen heart. I was sure something like that would happen to me, too, only with modern clothing and appliances.
Which, if you leave out the rich guy part and the medical miracle part and add in a whole tremendous pile of other stuff– the 1970’s, the fun and not-fun parts of adolescence, finding out that the world was more complicated than I had imagined, wonderful people, other kinds of people, conflict, resolution, the 1980’s, my twenties–is more or less what happened.
I studied art at Penn State University and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After that I framed pictures, taught drawing and watercolor classes, worked as a cashier and at the deli of a natural foods grocery store, waitressed at a jazz club, worked for a model railroad company. I moved to Boston and worked as a graphic designer. I met my husband, Bill, and he whisked me away from Boston to Michigan where we grew Christmas trees and lived in a tiny cabin on a hillside. As time went by, we had children and the cabin grew into a house. All the while, I drew and painted. I had always loved to read, but I never really thought about writing books myself until the day in 1993 when I showed my illustration portfolio to Mrs. Ava Weiss, who was the art director of Greenwillow Books. She liked my drawings, and asked if I was a writer. I found out later that she always asked this question when reviewing portfolios, but I didn’t know that. I thought she had spotted some hidden writerly quality in me that no one else had ever noticed. I went home and worked out a little story that I had been thinking up, just for the sake of a subject for my drawings. I typed the story up and sent it to Greenwillow Books. It was called Home Lovely.
They published it. I illustrated it. And that is what I am still doing: writing stories and illustrating them. I have written and illustrated half a dozen picture books as well as three novels for older readers. In 2006, I was honored to be awarded the Newbery Medal for the novel Criss Cross.
My husband Bill makes beautiful furniture from twigs and bark. Our children are practically grown up by now. We moved a while ago from our hillside house into a small town on an inlet of Lake Michigan.
What happens next? More writing and drawing, I hope. Maybe some adventures. I’ll keep you posted.
Here is a link to a video of a 2014 interview with me, arranged, filmed, and edited by Vanessa Walstra and Heather Wood-Gramza of Kent District Library in East Grand Rapids, Michigan.
FAQ
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer or an artist?
No, I didn’t. I have always liked to draw and I have always liked books, but I have always liked a lot of things: riding my bike, walking, listening to people talk, making things, food, music, jokes, being outside, being inside, adventures, figuring stuff out, daydreaming.
Besides, I grew up in a small working-class town and being a writer or an artist didn’t seem like a job a real person could have. I didn’t know how to go about it. It took me a long time to figure it out. But here I am. (Actually, I’m still trying to figure it out.)
To tell the truth, I don’t often think of myself as a writer. An artist? Maybe a little more. I think of myself as an ornery person who likes to make things.
Which do you like better, writing or drawing?
I think what I like best are ideas. I don’t mean big complicated abstract ideas, though sometimes they might be. I mean:
A cat sits serenely on top of a chair. The chair back is in shreds because that same cat has used it to sharpen her claws. This is an idea for a picture. You could write about it, but a picture lets the viewer figure out the joke.
Or: Someone tells you about being on a sailboat where, because a wrench was set down too close to the compass, the trip went dangerously off course. To me, that seems like a story that would work better with words.
I once saw an egg-shaped woman in a lavender sweatsuit and red ankle boots. The word “ovoid” popped into my head. I also admired her fashion fearlessness. That was an idea that had both a picture and a word.
The thing I like best is having an idea and trying to figure out how to share it so someone else gets it, too.
Which comes first?
It goes back and forth. While I am drawing, words pop into mind. While I am writing, ideas for pictures appear.
Where do you get your ideas?
The same place that you do. Everyone has ideas every day. Maybe you think, I wonder how it would taste to dip this cheese in this barbecue sauce? (answer: great!) That’s an idea.
Or you might think, My toes are starting to look like raisins. I better get out of the tub. That’s an idea. It might not be a great idea, or an idea you can do anything with, but it might be. Some ideas are better than others, but they’re all ideas.
I make a job out of spending time with my ideas and seeing which ones seem to be worth sharing. A book is made up of some main ideas and a bejillion smaller ideas. I feel happy if I have one or two good ideas in a day. But doing this professionally means I have to try for more than that. You can train your brain to spot ideas, just like you can learn to fish. And while I try to figure out how to share ideas, interesting and fun and mysterious things happen.
Did some of the things in your books happen in real life? Are the people based on real people?
Some of the things are like things that really happened. And the people often start out being like people I have known. But a mysterious thing happens while working on the story: The events change and the people take on their own personalities.
What is the hardest part of making books? What is the most fun part?
I like to be surprised. When I work on a book, I have a feeling about how I want it to go, but I don’t know exactly how to get there. So I think the hardest part is being patient while I put one foot in front of the other. Especially at the beginning.
The most fun part might be when my brain, unbeknownst to me, has been working away in the backroom at solving some puzzle, and it surprises me by figuring it out. All of a sudden, Eureka!
But I also like: Trying to think of the right word. Trying to make a drawing look the way I want it to. Doing some more mechanical part of a drawing, like crosshatching or painting woodgrain, while listening to music. Rewriting. (Really. You know how you have a conversation with someone, and you walk away and suddenly you realize what you should have said? That’s what rewriting is. You get to say it way you wish you had the first time.)
Which of your books do you like the best?
Many authors answer this question by saying, “That’s like asking which of my children I love the most.” And that’s exactly right. It’s an impossible question. I hope that, like people, they each have something to offer.
What is your favorite book that you have ever read?
Another impossible question. But I am going to put a partial list on the “favorites” page of this website.
How did you get your first book published?
I was trying to get work as an illustrator. A friend arranged for me to have my portfolio reviewed by the Art Director of Greenwillow Books, who was Mrs. Ava Weiss. I made up a story, just for the sake of having something to make illustrations of, for my portfolio. The story was about a girl who moves into a mobile home with her mom. She finds some seedlings growing near the garbage can and transplants them to the front yard, thinking they might be flowers or trees. They turn out to be potatoes, tomatoes and melons that grew from kitchen scraps that didn’t make it into the garbage can.
Mrs. Weiss was very encouraging about my artwork and she asked me if I wrote. “Send us your ideas,” she said. So I typed up the story about the girl, sent it to Greenwillow Books, and they published it and contracted me to illustrate it. That was my first book, Home Lovely.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to be a writer?
Read a lot. Pay attention to everything. Listen to people’s stories. Learn how to tell a joke. Have an adventure. Send postcards that say more than “Wish you were here.” Also, if you are an adult, try to find a cheap way to live so you can concentrate on your work instead of on paying the bills.
What was it like to get the phone call about the Newbery Medal?
I had heard just a few days before the announcement that Criss Cross had been mentioned by some people as a possible Newbery candidate. Part of me said, Don’t even think about it. Another part of me said, If you don’t win, this is your only chance to feel what it’s like to think you might win. So you should enjoy that. That’s what I went with. We were building a new house out of mostly recycled materials, so I spent the day before the announcement scraping paint from an old radiator, listening to the radio and thinking, “I could win the Newbery!” It was a very happy day.
The next morning, I got up very early and had my cup of coffee and planned how I was going to have a really great day even without the Newbery. All I can remember about that plan was that it included taking the dog for a long, long walk.
The committee called at about 7:15 a.m. It was a conference call – the whole committee was on the phone. It was pretty amazing. My family was dancing and hollering around the house. A few minutes later, Virginia Duncan, my editor, called and said I had to fly to New York that day, to be on TV the next morning. I didn’t even have any clean clothes, and we were living in a rental cottage while we finished our house, so I spend the morning at the laundromat, taking phone calls on my cell phone from USA Today and The Today Show. That was a funny juxtaposition.
How has winning the Newbery made a difference?
Writing is a solitary activity, but its purpose is to connect. It’s like putting your ideas in a bottle and tossing it out into the ocean. The most likely result is that it will never be seen again. Even being considered for the Newbery means that a bunch of people found the bottle, read the message, and thought it was interesting enough to talk about. That’s a pretty good feeling right there. And if those people decide to give your book the award, it’s even better. It’s a huge yes from the world. It doesn’t mean everyone will like what you do. People like different stuff. But it means that you get to join in that big noisy conversation that is always going on. I mean the conversation made of all the things people do to say what they think: music, photographs, laws, buildings, movies, books, TV, the internet, graffiti, theatre, clothing, billboards. You get to be part of it in a way that is kicked up several notches from the way you were part of it before. Practically speaking, it makes earning a living as a writer a more likely proposition. Which is nothing to sneeze at.
What are you working on now?
A picture book I illustrated, Seed by Seed, written by Esme Raji Codell, was recently published. It’s about Johnny Appleseed. I had a wonderful time researching and making the pictures. It’s very cool to see it as an actual book.
And now I am puttering around with some new ideas. That’s all I can say at the moment, because sometimes if I talk about things, I don’t do them, and I would so much rather do them.
Lynne Rae Perkins’ “All Alone in the Universe” published in Persian
Culture
May 9, 2023 - 18:33
TEHRAN – “All Alone in the Universe” by the American writer and illustrator of children’s books Lynne Rae Perkins has been published in Persian.
Originally published in 1999, the book has been translated into Persian by Tina Gharab. Peydayesh is the publisher of the Persian edition.
When her best friend since the third grade starts acting as though Debbie doesn’t exist, Debbie finds out the hard way that life can be a lonesome place.
But in the end, the heroine of this wryly funny coming-of-age story – a girl who lives in a house covered with material that is supposed to look like bricks but is just an artificial brick veneer – discovers that even the hourly tragedies of junior high school can have silver linings, just as a house covered with Insul-Brick can protect a real home.
“All Alone in the Universe” is Rae Perkins’ first published novel. Her other works include the picture books “The Broken Cat” and “Snow Music” and the Newbery Medal-winning novel, “Criss Cross”.
Photo: A combination photo shows Lynne Rae Perkins and the front cover of the Persian edition of “All Alone in the Universe”.
MMS/YAW
Violet and Jobie in the Wild
Lynne Rae Perkins. Greenwillow, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-249969-1
Indoor mice accustomed to cushy conditions learn to survive outdoors in this endearing novel by Perkins (Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea). Brother and sister mice Jobie and Violet are happy living in a warm human home, where their biggest dangers are "the cheese game"--the spring-loaded contraption from which they wrest snacks--and the household's two cats. When they are captured one day and left at a nearby state park, they're thrust into a life that Violet has seen only on TV program Nature Magnificent. They fumble mightily, and often humorously, in their naivete, just barely escaping predators, until they meet kind Zolian, self-proclaimed as "the oldest mouse ever." Zolian's wise counsel ("D.E.F.: Don't Exit the Foliage") proves invaluable to their survival and growing confidence. And as days pass, and Violet and Jobie follow separate paths, each forming a deep bond, both come to appreciate the shared beauty and peril around every corner. Balancing funny notes with a newfound sense of wonder, nimble text cleverly imagines the details ot moving through the natural world in a mouse's body. Sprightly b&w pencil drawings add finely wrought detail to a narrative centering family bonds and new experiences. Ages 8-12.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Violet and Jobie in the Wild." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 49, 23 Nov. 2022, p. 72. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A728493888/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c474d0dc. Accessed 20 May 2023.
Perkins, Lynne Rae VIOLET AND JOBIE IN THE WILD Greenwillow Books (Children's None) $16.99 9, 13 ISBN: 978-0-06-249969-1
Can losing the life they knew turn out well for a pair of mice?
When mouse siblings Violet and Jobie are trapped and rehomed from their comfortable human habitat to the state park ("It's like paradise for them," says the human mom, reassuring her son), they are completely out of their element. The pair are slightly acquainted with the outside world, having seen some episodes of Nature Magnificent when the human family watched television. Fortunately, older, wiser mouse Zolian offers key advice and expands their appreciation of the wild world with a sense of fun. Newly aware of dangers they had never before faced, Violet is overwhelmed until Zolian offers some perspective: "There's always an owl," he says, "but there are ways to live so that you're not always afraid of the owl." As with all good survival stories, the mice learn by trial and error and by paying attention to their environment. There's the sourcing of food, recognizing dangers, and beginning to find connection and pleasure in what is now home. Perkins handles her unique blend of mouseness and anthropomorphism well, occasionally addressing readers with humor. Her art throughout is filled with lighthearted depictions of expressive mice. By the time Violet is carried off on an adventure all her own, the gentle lesson and expectation have been conveyed: Change is the norm, going "home" is an internal rather than external journey, and cherished connections may be impermanent yet nevertheless lasting.
A marvelous heroic journey in miniature. (Animal fantasy. 7-11)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Perkins, Lynne Rae: VIOLET AND JOBIE IN THE WILD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711906448/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=74e2b884. Accessed 20 May 2023.