Hermes, Patricia

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Patricia Hermes

Personal

Born February 21, 1936, in Brooklyn, NY; daughter of Frederick Joseph (a bank vice-president) and Jessie (Gould) Martin; married Matthew E. Hermes (a research and development director for a chemical company), August 24, 1957 (divorced, 1984); children: Paul, Mark, Timothy, Matthew Jr., Jennifer. Education: St. John's University, Jamaica, NY, B.A., 1957. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Roman Catholic.

Addresses

Home and office—1414 Melville Ave., Fairfield, CT 06432. Agent—Edward Necarsulmer IV (juvenile books) and Julie Fallowfield (adult books), McIntosh & Otis, Inc., 310 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer. Rollingcrest Junior High School, Takoma Park, MD, teacher of English and social studies, 1957-58; Delcastle Technical High School, Delcastle, DE, teacher of home-bound children, 1972-73; Norfolk Public School System, Norfolk, VA, writer in residence, beginning 1981; Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, teacher of English and writing, 1986-87.

Member

Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

California Young Reader Medal, Iowa Teen Award, Hawaii Nene Award, and Michigan Pine Tree Book Award, all for You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye; A Solitary Secret was named Best Book for Young Adults for 1985, American Library Association; Best Books for the Teen Years, New York Public Library, 1987, for A Time to Listen; Children's Choice awards, International Reading Association/Children's Book Council, for What If They Knew?, A Place for Jeremy, Kevin Corbett Eats Flies, Heads I Win, and Nothing but Trouble, Trouble, Trouble; Notable Book, Smithsonian Magazine, for When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain; C. S. Lewis Honor Book, for On Winter's Wind.

Writings

What If They Knew?, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1980.

Nobody's Fault?, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1981.

You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1982.

Who Will Take Care of Me?, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1983.

Friends Are Like That, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1984.

A Solitary Secret, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1985.

Kevin Corbett Eats Flies, illustrations by Carol Newsom, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1986.

A Place for Jeremy (sequel to What If They Knew?), Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1987.

A Time to Listen: Preventing Youth Suicide (nonfiction), Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1987.

Heads, I Win (sequel to Kevin Corbett Eats Flies), Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1988.

Be Still My Heart, Putnam (New York, NY), 1989.

I Hate Being Gifted, Putnam (New York, NY), 1990.

Mama, Let's Dance, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1991.

My Girl (novel based on a screenplay by Laurice Elehwany), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1991.

Take Care of My Girl, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1992.

Someone to Count On, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.

Nothing but Trouble, Trouble, Trouble, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.

My Girl 2 (novel based on a screenplay by Janet Kovalcik, with characters created by Laurice Elehwany), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1994.

On Winter's Wind, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1995.

When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain (picture book), illustrated by Leslie Baker, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

Fly Away Home (based on the screenplay by Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin from the autobiography of Bill Lisham), Newmarket (New York, NY), 1996.

Christmas Magic, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Zeus and Roxanne (based on the movie of the same title), Minstrel (New York, NY), 1997.

Calling Me Home, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

Cheat the Moon: A Novel, Little, Brown (Boston, MI), 1998.

Our Strange New Land, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.

Westward to Home, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

The Starving Time, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

Sweet By and By, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

A Perfect Place, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

Season of Promise, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

The Wild Year, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2003.

Summer Secrets, Cavendish Children's Books (Tarrytown, NY), 2004.

"COUSINS CLUB" SERIES

I'll Pulverize You, William, Minstrel (New York, NY), 1994.

Everything Stinks, Minstrel (New York, NY), 1995.

Thirteen Things Not to Tell a Parent, Minstrel (New York, NY) 1995.

OTHER

Contributor to periodicals, including Woman's Day, Life and Health, Connecticut, County, American Baby, and Mother's Day. Hermes's work has been translated into French, Italian, Danish, and Portuguese.

Sidelights

The award-winning author of over forty novels for young readers, Patricia Hermes is known for fiction that entertains, challenges, and informs. With novels such as What If They Knew?, You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, Mama, Let's Dance, The Sweet By and By, and Summer Secrets, Hermes has dealt with hot-button topics from parental abandonment to dealing with alcohol abuse, racism, and death of a close relative. She manages to confront such topics without resorting to sermonizing or condescension. Part of her method of success is Hermes's ability to get into the persona of her characters, to tell the story not only from their points of view, but often in their voices, as well.

"An author is a spy," Hermes once admitted. "I watch children, how they act with each other and with their teachers. I listen to their conversations. I write down things I see and hear that are interesting. And yes, sometimes I do use these things in my books." For Hermes, finding the opportunity to spy on young people is not as easy as it used to be. As the mother of five, watching children interact with each other and with adults used to be an integral part of her daily life. Her own children are grown now, though, so Hermes finds that the best way to gather material is through frequent visits to elementary schools. She goes to the schools to discuss writing, but these visits also allow her to gather bits and pieces of information that become the telling details that are sprinkled throughout her work. These little things are important in writing because, as Hermes expressed it in The Sixth Book of Junior Authors, "no writer is worth the paper the books are written on if she or he is not in tune with the details of the lives of children."

Sometimes the things Hermes observes can spark her imagination and lead to something larger than those telling details. "Once," Hermes explained, "I was visiting an elementary school and a tiny girl, about six years old, ran past, chasing a little boy and yelling, 'I'll pulverize you, William.' At the time I thought, what a great piece of dialogue that would make. Right off the bat, those four words tell you so much about this child—she's intelligent, she's spunky, and she's really mad at William. Later, I realized that those four words would also make a great title." Eventually that little girl grew into Meghann, the feisty heroine of I'll Pulverize You, William, the first book in Hermes's "Cousins Club" series.

A Painful Childhood

For the overall thrust of her stories, Hermes generally relies on personal experiences and memories. Hermes has what one friend has termed "a dangerous memory," because she remembers almost everything. By her own account in The Sixth Book of Junior Authors, "the joy, the sadness, the vulnerability, the sense of powerlessness" of childhood are still very clear in her mind. "I think that each of us has a little kid who lives inside us, and mine is ten or eleven years old," she recounted. Many of Hermes's characters are fifth-or sixth-graders, and her stories seem fairly realistic. Hermes remembers well what it was like to be a child—and passes those memories along through her characters.

Hermes's own childhood was sometimes lonely and painful. The third of four children, she has described herself as having been "very much a middle child," and said that "like everyone, I wanted to feel special, but always felt sort of lost in the family." Most difficult, however, was the fact that she had rheumatic fever and was often ill. This disease—and later, epilepsy—made her feel weird and different from other children, and frequent hospital stays added to her feelings of isolation. Hermes points out that the year she was ten happened to be particularly traumatic, partly due to having surgery for a burst appendix and partly because her family moved from a small community to a much bigger one. "I was a smart kid in my first school," she explained, "but they were way ahead of us in the new school, and I wasn't so smart anymore." To make matters worse, her new class had fifty-seven children in it, which made it particularly difficult to get any attention or recognition.

Ironically, though, Hermes's illnesses and sense of isolation also led her to discover one of the greatest joys of her childhood: a love of books. "In a book," she stated in The Sixth Book of Junior Authors, "I was never lonely, never sad. Open a book, and I was surrounded by a world of people, imaginary ones, true, but imaginary ones who were sometimes more real to me than the ones with whom I lived." The author's love of books continued into adulthood, but for many years Hermes did not seriously consider becoming a writer. Upon graduating from college, she married and immediately took a job teaching junior high school. She left that position when her first child was born, and during the next nine years she had five more children, one of whom died in infancy. For the next several years, Hermes mainly devoted herself to raising her children, although she did return to teaching for short periods of time in the early 1970s and again in the early 1980s.

From Full-Time Mother to Novelist

Even though she did not consider getting her work published during this time, Hermes did write for herself and for her children. Then, in the late 1970s, she began to seriously consider trying to get published, and submitted an essay to the New York Times editorial page. The Times published the piece, in which Hermes described the experience of returning to an important place from her childhood with one of her own children. As luck would have it, a children's book editor read the essay and liked it, and called to ask Hermes if she had ever considered writing a novel for children. Hermes had not—at least not seriously—but enthusiastically rose to the challenge. The result was What If They Knew?, Hermes's first published novel.

With What If They Knew? Hermes began her own tradition of mixing her memories of childhood with what she calls "lies"—fiction. "Children sometimes ask me if the things that happen in my stories really happened to me," Hermes once stated—a testament, it would seem, to her convincing first-person voice. "I tell them authors tell lies. We take one little thing that's true, and tell lots of lies about it. I write fiction. But everything I write has a little bit of truth in it." The "little bit of truth" in What If They Knew? can be found in the main character's feelings about having epilepsy, which are drawn directly from Hermes's own life. Jeremy is a ten-year-old girl who is apprehensive about attending a new school, because she is afraid she might have a seizure and be labeled as weird by her new friends. In spite of the serious subject at its core, however, the novel also details the lighter side of childhood. What If They Knew? was a success, and in 1981 was selected as a Children's Choice book by a joint committee of the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council. The book's sequel, A Place for Jeremy, was published in 1987, and was also named a Children's Choice book.

A Reputation for "Doing Death"

Many of the novels that followed What If They Knew? deal with even more serious and painful subjects. Among these are You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye and Mama, Let's Dance, two of the author's most critically acclaimed works. You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye is the story of a thirteen-year-old girl who must come to terms with her mother's terminal illness. Mama, Let's Dance concerns three children who attempt to cover up their mother's abandonment by carrying on as if she had never left. Both books deal with death and grief, as do several of Hermes's other novels, including Nobody's Fault? and Who Will Take Care of Me? In fact, as Hermes once said jokingly, she has earned a reputation in the children's publishing industry as an author who "does death." That does not mean that her books are somber or morbid, but simply that she is not afraid to take a close look at grief through a child's eyes.

In doing so, Hermes infuses her characters with emotions she has experienced first-hand. "Children will often ask if my mother died when I was thirteen, or if my brother or sister died. The answer is no—but I did lose a child in infancy, and in writing about a character's feelings about death, I know I go back to that. When Mary Belle is grieving for her sister Callie in Mama, Let's Dance, her feelings are definitely drawn from my own," the author explained. Hermes's infant daughter died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Like all SIDS victims, the baby was apparently healthy until she suddenly died in her sleep. "One day I was calling everyone to invite them to the christening, and the next I was calling them back to tell them to come to the funeral instead. It was terrible," Hermes recalled.

However Hermes achieves her characterizations, they generally seem to ring true with critics as well as with readers. Kevin Corbett Eats Flies "has both humor and warmth as well as solid characterizations," according to Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper, and Vicki Hardesty of Voice of Youth Advocates called You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye "an excellent portrayal of a teenager adjusting to the terminal illness of a parent." Similarly, Donna S. Rodda, writing in School Library Journal, praised Friends Are Like That for its "real and believable" characterizations, and Booklist reviewer Karen Stang Hanley called Who Will Take Care of Me? "an affecting story that is especially moving in its portrayal of the complex, tender relationship between two brothers."

In creating realistic characters and portraying their feelings about things like death, child abandonment, and life in foster care, Hermes attempts to reach out to young people who, for one reason or another, may be having a difficult time. "As adults," she once commented, "we often try to deceive ourselves that childhood is a safe, pleasant place to be. It isn't—at least not much of the time. For me, it is important to say this to young people, to let them know they are not alone and that others share their feelings, their dreams and fears and hopes. It is important for them to know that things aren't so great in other children's lives either, because I have long believed that anything is bearable when we know that we are not alone." In addition, whether she is dealing with the really tough problems, like grieving, or more common ones, like the desire to be popular, Hermes likes to give her readers hope that things will get better. "Hope is the most important thing I can hold out to them."

Children seem to be getting the message, but some parents do not always understand why Hermes finds it important to speak to these issues. "People sometimes say to me, 'I won't let my child readthat,'" Hermes explained. "But I think children know everything there is to know about emotions by the time they are three or four. As parents we sometimes want to protect our children from anything that is painful, but what we're really trying to do is protect ourselves, and in doing so, we harm them. When you're dealing with these things in a book—if it gets too scary or too painful—you can close it, or go talk to someone about it. I think its ironic," she added, "that no one tries very hard to protect children from TV."

Hermes's ability to create realistic characters and write about grief may have led, in part, to her being asked to write the novelization of the movie My Girl, in which a child dies. Turning the screenplay into a novel was an enjoyable experience because the author had such a good script to work from. Although the plot was established, Hermes had a relatively free hand with the character's "voice" and what is known as "backfilling"—developing the character's thoughts, feelings, and memories—so Hermes was able to put her own stamp on the story. The author was essentially happy with the finished product, and was pleased to have the opportunity to write the sequel, My Girl 2.

The Lighter Side of Childhood

While Hermes may be known for taking on tough subjects, even her most serious books are infused with a healthy dose of humor. As she once commented, "I also write about the fun, and nonsense and glee of childhood." Throughout the author's writing career, Hermes's five children have helped provide some of the material for these lighter moments. Her children "teach me the language of childhood that I have long forgotten. They teach me the tricks that children can play on the adult world," she noted.

Hermes's children are all grown now, but that has not stopped her from continuing to explore childhood's more humorous moments. In fact, if there is a trend in her latest novels, it seems to be a tendency to lighten up. Her characters still have their painful moments, but in books like those in the "Cousins Club" series, the overall tone is decidedly less serious. For example, in I'll Pulverize You, William, Meghann's biggest problem is finding the escaped baby boa constrictor that she is supposed to be taking care of (the boa is trapped in the house, so Meghann does not have to look far). However, Hermes explained that any change in subject matter was not really a conscious decision: "As an author," she noted, "if you're at all lucky, you are well-rounded. It just feels like it's time to do this now."

It is also time for branching out into previously unexplored genres. Hermes began work on her first historical novel, On Winter's Wind, which is set in the 1850s, and on a picture book, When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain. These books add up to a big increase in productivity for Hermes, who for many years published just one novel a year. The increase in her output, she said, is largely due to the fact that she no longer has children at home. Her house, which was once a gathering place for all the neighborhood children, is mostly quiet, except when her grandchildren come to visit.

The quiet gives Hermes the opportunity to work on her novels and, when her busy schedule permits, answer some of the many fan letters she receives. She loves getting letters from her readers, she said, although she is not as crazy about those that are done as part of a class assignment. Still, the unprompted letters help keep her connected with her readers and allow her glimpses—sometimes funny, sometimes sad—into their lives. "Some of the letters about You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye were just heartbreaking," she explained in her AAYA interview, citing one from a girl who had received the book from her mother, who was dying of cancer. "I corresponded with her for years, until she went away to college."

Other letters provide a chuckle, Hermes remembered the one from the boy who wrote: "My name is ________. My mother says I'm cute. If you would like me to be a character in one of your books, write back." Hermes does not plan to take him up on his generous offer at the moment. But that little boy might want to read her future books carefully, because he sounds like just the kind of exuberant child who could spark Hermes's imagination—and maybe inspire a new character.

Mining the Past

Many of Hermes's juvenile novels written since the mid-1990s are set in the past. On Winter's Wind takes place in Massachusetts in the nineteenth century during the time of slavery. Eleven-year-old Genevieve and her family are having a hard time of it, with the father presumed lost at sea. When she learns that there is a bounty on a slave hidden in her little town, she is sorely tempted to turn the fugitive in, but she is convinced to do otherwise by the Quakers sheltering the young runaway. Reviewers appreciated this change of direction for Hermes. "Hermes does a fine job of depicting the situation," thought Booklist's Chris Sherman. Maeve Visser Knoth, writing in Horn Book, also found this historical tale "poignant." while a contributor for Publishers Weekly commended Hermes's knack for historical detail, writing that the author "weaves the historical backdrop admirably." However, this contributor felt that "the conflicts here are trumped up."

Hermes remains on the historical track with Calling Me Home, set on the Nebraska prairie in the 1850s. Abbie is twelve when her father takes the family from St. Joseph, Missouri, to homestead in Nebraska. She goes from living in a proper house with a piano to a sod house on the prairie; there is no school; no other children are nearby. She enjoys the freedom of the prairie, but also misses the ease of the city, especially when her brother dies during a cholera outbreak. Hermes "takes a fresh path with a feminist angle" on this familiar territory, according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, who also found the story "solid . . . [and] neatly told." Janet Gillen, writing in School Library Journal, found that the novel's "strengths lie in Hermes's ability to convey sensitive issues of death and the loss of faith through succinct, well-written scenes." And though Kay Weisman, writing in Booklist, did not care for the climax of the novel, she still felt that "Hermes' strength is her attention to period and setting detail."

Closer to contemporary times is the 2002 title Sweet By and By, set during the Second World War and reminiscent of earlier novels by Hermes dealing with the effects of the death of an adult on a child. Blessing is eleven and has lived with her grandmother in the Tennessee mountains since she was only two. She is secure in the love of her grandmother and is bonded partly by the music they share. Now she must acknowledge the fact that her beloved grandmother is dying and she will have to go on with her life in a new home. A reviewer forPublishers Weekly highly commended this "gracefully composed story of love, loss and courage." Other reviewers heaped more praise on the title. Booklist's Weisman felt that the "loving relationship between grandmother and grandchild will touch the heart," and Barbara Auerbach, writing in School Library Journal, lauded the "poetic prose" used in this "heartfelt story."

Writing in Scholastic's "My America" series—fictionalized diary accounts of historical times for young readers—Hermes details life in the seventeenth-century Jamestown Colony with several books about a young girl called Elizabeth, and also follows nineteenth-century pioneers along the Oregon Trail in the journals of young Joshua. Our Strange Land initiates the adventures of Elizabeth, nine, as she records her experiences with Indians, building a new home, and dealing with hunger and death. Shawn Brommer, writing in School Library Journal, found the book to be a "quick, easy read." The Starving Time furthers Elizabeth's tale, a book in which the "historical details are woven so intricately into the plot that they become an integral part of the story," according to Kristen Oravec in School Library Journal. Season of Promise continues the story of Elizabeth, now ten, and the plans of her father to remarry. Leslie Barban, writing in School Library Journal, found this installment "beautifully written," and a work that provides young readers a "glimpse at colonial life through the eyes of a warm, spunky, and heroic young girl."

Hermes writes of the West in Westward to Home, the first diary entries of nine-year-old Joshua as he and his family follow the Oregon Trail from St. Joseph, Missouri. John McAndrew, writing in Childhood Education, praised the way that Joshua "vividly records his dreams, hopes, frustrations, and fears." Ellen Mandel, writing in Booklist, also had praise for the novel, noting that it "will stick in the readers' minds and enrich their studies of the era." Joshua records further adventures in A Perfect Place, in which he and his family are settling down to life in Oregon's Willamette Valley. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called this addition to the series "fascinating history," and Sally Bates Goodroe, writing in School Library Journal, had similar praise, noting that "details of the life in Oregon Country . . . are vividly integrated." Booklist's Todd Morning further felt that Joshua's diary entries "are historically accurate and compelling," and that Joshua himself is a "believable character with real emotions." The third entry of Joshua's story, The Wild Year, takes a look at frontier life in the Willamette Valley and at the development of a government for the territory. School days return for Joshua, a lost sister returns safely, and a pair of orphans are added to the family in this "smooth, economical narrative," as Sue Sherif described it in School Library Journal.

Hermes's 2004 novel, Summer Secrets, again moves the reader closer to contemporary times. Set in a "long, lazy 1940s Mississippi summer," as Cindy Darling Codell noted in a School Library Journal review, the book tells the story of twelve-year-old Missy, who tries to discover why her mother is behaving so oddly. Missy also passes time and shares secrets with her two best friends, both of whom have gone "boy crazy," much to Missy's disgust. Additionally she learns hard truths about the racial divide, when Almay, the daughter of her understanding black housekeeper, is barred from joining her at the swimming pool. Missy survives a serious sickness and saves two lives during this summer. Codell felt that "Hermes's child's-eye view of a small southern town is on target" in this "evocative and satisfying coming-of-age story." Similarly, a critic for Kirkus Reviews lauded the novel as a "loving glimpse of a young girl's struggle to understand her world."

If you enjoy the works of Patricia Hermes

If you enjoy the works of Patricia Hermes, you may also want to check out the following books:

Richard Peck, Unfinished Portrait of Jessica, 1991.

Jennifer Armstrong, Steal Away, 1992.

Cynthia Voigt, When She Hollers, 1994.

Part of becoming a children's writer, Hermes once noted, is that there is a childlike part of us "we never lose, if we're lucky. Every good teacher has that. I think that child is a part of me, and she needs to speak—and does—through my books. I don't write for some child out there, I write for the child in me."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Holtze, Sally Holmes, editor, The Sixth Book of JuniorAuthors, H. W. Wilson (New York, NY), 1989.

St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, 2nd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1983, Karen Stang Hanley, review of Who Will Take Care of Me?, p. 171; August, 1986, Ilene Cooper, review of Kevin Corbett Eats Flies, p. 1688; October 15, 1993, Hazel Rochman, review of Someone to Count On, p. 443; March 15, 1994, Julie Corsaro, review of Nothing but Trouble, Trouble, Trouble, p. 1365; January 15, 1995, Mary Harris Veeder, review of "The Cousins Club," p. 928; October 1, 1995, Chris Sherman, review of On Winter's Wind, p. 314; June 1, 1998, Debbie Carton, review of Cheat the Moon, p. 1766; January 1, 1999, Kay Weisman, review of CallingMe Home, p. 876; February 1, 2001, Ellen Mandel, review of Westward to Home, p. 1053; October 1, 2002, Kay Weisman, review of Sweet By and By, pp. 341-342; January 1, 2003, Todd Morning, review of A Perfect Place, p. 890.

Childhood Education, fall, 2001, John McAndrew, review of Westward to Home, p. 50.

Horn Book Magazine, January-February, 1994, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of Someone to Count On, pp. 69-70; November-December, 1995, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of On Winter's Wind, pp. 742-743; September-October, 1998, Susan P. Bloom, review of Cheat the Moon, pp. 608-609.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2002, review of A PerfectPlace, and Sweet By and By, pp. 1530-1531; March, 15, 2004, review of Summer Secrets, p. 270.

Publishers Weekly, November 23, 1990, Diane Roback and Richard Donahue, review of I Hate Being Gifted!, p. 66; October 4, 1991, review of Mama, Let's Dance, p. 89; November 2, 1992, review of Take Care of My Girl, p. 72; November 8, 1993, review of Someone to Count On, p. 78; January 24, 1994, review of Nothing but Trouble, Trouble, Trouble, p. 56; November 21, 1994, review of I'll Pulverize You, William, pp. 76-77; October 30, 1995, review of On Winter's Wind, p. 62; October 21, 1996, review of When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain, p. 82; December 14, 1998, review of Calling Me Home, p. 76; November 11, 2002, review of Sweet By and By, p. 64.

School Library Journal, May, 1984, Donna Rodda, review of Friends Are Like That, p. 80; December, 1998, Janet Gillen, review of Calling Me Home, p. 1998; September, 1999, Tegan J. Blackwood, review of Cheat the Moon, p. 20; June, 2001, Kristen Oravec, review of The Starving Time, p. 118; October, 2002, Barbara Auerbach, review of Sweet By and By, p. 164; November, 2002, Sally Bates Goodroe, review of A Perfect Place, p. 124; February, 2003, Leslie Barban, review of Season of Promise, p. 112; May, 2004, Sue Sherif, review of The Wild Year, p. 114, and Cindy Darling Codell, review of Summer Secrets, p. 148.

Storyworks, September, 2002, Kayla Penning, review of You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, p. 7.

Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 1993, Vicki Hardesty, review of You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, p. 203.