Hermes, Patricia 1936-

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Hermes, Patricia 1936-

PERSONAL:

Born February 21, 1936, in Brooklyn, NY; daughter of Fred Joseph (a bank vice president) and Jessie 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, B.A., 1957.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Fairfield, CT. Agent—Dorothy Markinko, McIntosh & Otis, Inc., 310 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and educator. 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; writer, beginning 1977. Teacher of gifted middle-grade children, Norfolk, VA, 1981-82; adult education instructor.

MEMBER:

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

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best Book for Young Adults citation, American Library Association, 1985, and Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies citation, National Council for Social Studies (NCSS)/Children's Book Council (CBC), both for A Solitary Secret; Children's Choice Award, 1987, for Kevin Corbett Eats Flies; CRABbery Award and Children's Choice Award, International Reading Association/CBC, both for What If They Knew?; Children's Choice Award, for Friends Are like That; Pine Tree Book Award, Iowa Young Reader Medal, Hawaii Nene Award, California Young Reader Medal, Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies citation, NCSS/CBC, all for You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye; Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies citation, NCSS/CBC, for Who Will Take Care of Me?; Children's Choice Award for Heads, I Win; Best Book of the Year citation, School Library Journal, and Children's Choice Award, both for Mama, Let's Dance; C.S. Lewis Honor Book designation; New York Library Best Book for the Teen Age designation.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN

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, illustrated by Carol Newsom, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1986.

A Place for Jeremy, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1987.

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

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

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

(With Laurice Elehwany) My Girl (novelization), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1991.

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

I'll Pulverize You, William ("Cousins Club" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Janet Kovalcik) My Girl II, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1994.

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

Everything Stinks ("Cousins Club" series), Minstrel Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Thirteen Things Not to Tell a Parent ("Cousins Club" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Boys Are Even Worse than I Thought ("Cousins Club" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1995.

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

My Secret Valentine, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Something Scary, illustrated by John Gurney, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Turkey Trouble, illustrated by John Gurney, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Christmas Magic, illustrated by John Gurney, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Fly away Home (novelization; based on the motion picture by Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin), Newmarket (New York, NY), 1996.

Zeus and Roxanne (novelization; based on the motion picture by Tom Benedek), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Hoppy Easter, illustrated by Amy Wummer, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1998.

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

Cheat the Moon, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary ("My America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.

In God's Novel, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2000.

Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary ("My America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

The Starving Time: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book Two ("My America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

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

Season of Promise: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book Three ("My America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

A Perfect Place: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, Book Two ("My America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

The Wild Year: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, Book Three ("My America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2003.

Summer Secrets, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2004.

The Brothers' War ("My Side of the Story" series; includes Melody's Story and Marshall's Story), Kingfisher (Boston, MA), 2005.

Salem Witch ("My Side of the Story" series; includes Elizabeth's Story and George's Story), Kingfisher (Boston, MA), 2006.

Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny, Marshall Cavendish (Tarrytown, NY), 2006.

Emma Dilemma and the Two Nannies, Marshall Cavendish (Tarrytown, NY), 2007.

Emma Dilemma and the Soccer Nanny, Marshall Cavendish (Tarrytown, NY), 2008.

OTHER

A Time to Listen: Preventing Youth Suicide, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Stanley Rosner) The Self-Sabotage Cycle: Why We Repeat Behaviors That Create Hardships and Ruin Relationships, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2006.

Contributor to textbooks, including On Reading and Writing for Kids. Contributor to periodicals, including Woman's Day, Life and Health, Connecticut, American Baby, Mother's Day, and New York Times.

Author's work has been translated into Danish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese.

SIDELIGHTS:

The author of dozens of books for middle-grade readers and young adults, Patricia Hermes does not shy away from difficult topics. A young girl attempting to come to terms with her mother's terminal illness is the subject of her novel You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, while in Mama, Let's Dance she turns to abandoned children, and Cheat the Moon finds a girl dealing with both her mother's death and her father's alcoholic neglect. "As adults, we often try to deceive ourselves that childhood is a safe, pleasant place to be," Hermes once commented. "It isn't—at least, some of the time. For me, it is important to say this to young people so children know they are not alone."

While many of Hermes's characters experience difficult and trying times—life in foster care, uncaring parents, unaccepting classmates—most of the author's young protagonists use these unsettling periods to gain strength and wisdom. And in spite of these difficulties, they manage to have fun, mischief, and a great deal of joy. Several of her books take a lighter tone, such as the books in her "Cousins' Club" and "Emma Dilemma" series. She also turns her hand to historical themes in On Winter's Wind, In God's Novel, and Sweet By and By, as well as in her contributions to Scholastic's popular "My America" series and the unusual "My Side of the Story" flip-book novels Salem Witch and The Brothers' War, in which two distinct and contemporary points of view regarding an historic controversy are woven into compelling contrasting narratives.

Although she enjoyed being active, Hermes was also interested in books and writing as a child. "I loved to write when I was a kid," she once commented. "I was an avid reader as a kid, just buried in books." She got a lot of practice reading and writing after she contracted rheumatic fever, "which in those days was a big deal. You recuperated by spending months in bed."

In college, Hermes majored in speech and English. After graduating, she married and taught school for a short time; she also raised a large family. She returned to teaching after her children were older, but eventually became interested in writing professionally. "I've always written for myself. I never thought of writing for anybody else," she once explained. This changed when she took a class in writing nonfiction for adults offered at New York City's New School for Social Research and taught by biographer Russell Freedman. Hermes "took some things I wrote in the course and sent them out to publishers and to my utter amazement, people started buying them. You get hooked pretty quickly that way." She continued to write nonfiction articles for several years, including many pieces on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a condition that had caused the death of one of her children.

Hermes quickly turned to fiction writing for children. Her first novel, What If They Knew?, features a main character who has epilepsy and is afraid as a new kid in school that her secret will be discovered by her new schoolmates. While establishing her willingness to deal with a serious subject, What If They Knew? also employs a refreshingly light approach. In A Place for Jeremy, Hermes's sequel to What If They Knew?, Jeremy spends part of her fifth-grade year with her grandparents in Brooklyn while her parents are abroad and in the process of adopting a baby. Jeremy calls the unknown child "Stupid Baby," fearing that the infant will steal her parents' affections. A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked of the novel that "scenes between Jeremy and her grandfather are heartwarming."

Hermes deals with the difficult subject of death in several books for children. You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye presents twelve-year-old Sarah, who is losing her mother to cancer. While confronting this crisis, Sarah moves between fear for her mother and her own daily concerns. In the end, Sarah is left with a journal her mother has written, a book that offers guidance in dealing with life's various trials. You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye was described as "moving, but … not maudlin" by a Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books contributor, and Vicki Hardesty described the book in Voice of Youth Advocates as "an excellent portrayal of a teenager adjusting to the terminal illness of a parent." Geared for younger children, Who Will Take Care of Me? introduces Mark and his retarded younger brother Pete, who live with their grandmother. When the elderly woman dies, the boys run away to the woods to keep Pete from being sent away to a special school. Reviewing Hermes's story, School Library Journal critic Nancy Berkowitz found Mark "sympathetic" and Pete's characterization "honest and unsentimental."

Mama, Let's Dance "tugs at the heart without manipulating its audience," according to Horn Book contributor Mary M. Burns. The story involves three children—ages sixteen, eleven, and seven—who are left to fend for themselves when their mother leaves home and abandons them. The children pretend nothing has changed until the youngest becomes seriously ill and the siblings realize that they must reach out to their neighbors for help. Carolyn Noah, reviewing the novel for School Library Journal, described Mama, Let's Dance as a "tightly woven tale" in which "rhythmic, homey text and genuine characters resonate with authenticity."

Young girls are forced to make difficult decisions after the death of a parent in Hermes's novels Someone to Count On and Cheat the Moon. In the former title, Sam and her mother have been traveling around the country since the death of her father, but now they are moving to Colorado to stay on her grandfather's ranch. Just as Sam is settling in, her mother informs her that they are moving on, and Sam is faced with a difficult choice in this "powerful" and "engaging" story with "richly drawn" characters, according to Horn Book critic Maeve Visser Knoth. In Cheat the Moon, Gabrielle has to take responsibility for her younger brother Will and herself after her mother dies and her father disappears on alcoholic binges. A budding writer, Gabrielle records her feelings in a journal in an novel that Susan P. Bloom described as "bittersweet" in her Horn Book review. Debbie Carton, reviewing Cheat the Moon for Booklist, praised Hermes for offering readers a "poignant, compassionate story."

Although Hermes does not shy from difficult topics, she also shows her lighthearted side in books such as Kevin Corbett Eats Flies and Heads, I Win. In Kevin Corbett Eats Flies the titular hero regularly gains his classmates' attention by tackling bizarre stunts, like eating flies or swallowing the class goldfish. Kevin meets his match, however, in tough but likeable Bailey, who eventually becomes his friend. Heads, I Win focuses on Bailey's life both in school and with foster mother Ms. Henderson and her four-year-old son. Bailey is afraid that her social worker will decide to transfer her to yet another foster home; to help combat this fear, she decides to run for the class presidency to show everyone how well she is doing in school. Kevin volunteers to be Bailey's campaign manager, "and their analysis of how best to ‘buy’ individual students makes up much of the humor of the book," wrote Candy Colborn in School Library Journal. Hermes's "characters are well drawn, and the fifth-grade in-fighting is very realistic," added Colborn.

Hermes's "Cousins' Club" series kicks off with I'll Pulverize You, William, in which best friends and cousins, Marcie and Meghann, are introduced. The two eleven-year-olds are looking forward to summer until they learn that another, less-enjoyable cousin—William—is due to show up. The cousins quickly develop a plan to keep William at a distance: Knowing that he is allergic to animals, they start a pet-sitting service. Of course, things do not go according to plan in this "chipper start" to the series, according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. The series continues in Everything Stinks, as Meghann and Marcie visit their twin cousins, Jennifer and Amy. Jennifer is of the opinion that everything stinks because she is always treated like a little kid, and she dreams of the time when she will be in charge of everything. When her parents go on vacation, Jennifer thinks that time has come, with near disastrous and rather humorous results. Mary Harris Veeder, writing in Booklist, felt that Hermes gives some "good descriptions of fifth-grade embarrassments" in her book. The humorous "Cousins' Club" books continue in Thirteen Things Not to Tell a Parent and Boys Are Even Worse than I Thought.

Readers are introduced to spunky young Emma O'Fallon and her four siblings in Hermes's chapter book Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny. When her pet ferret, Marmaduke, escapes from his cage and winds up inside her mom's mattress, Emma finds her role as pet owner somewhat tenuous. Fortunately, a new nanny named Annie O'Reilly enters the household and soon sets things to rights, managing to keep the children's good-natured mishaps under wraps. Emma Dilemma and the Two Nannies finds Annie scheduled to depart on a three-week holiday in Ireland. While Emma and her two brothers and two sisters will miss Annie no matter what, the replacement nanny, the grouchy, ferret-hating Mrs. Potts, is totally inadequate. The O'Fallon children team up and go on strike in Emma Dilemma and the Soccer Nanny. Their demands: that Annie be allowed to chaperone Emma's upcoming soccer team away game, and that the younger O'Fallons be allowed to expand their menagerie to include a kitten and a second ferret. Comparing Emma to literary heroines such as Beverly Cleary's Ramona and Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones, Terrie Dorio wrote in School Library Journal that Hermes's "lively" character "goes about living in her own way and in her own style." Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny "will leave thoughtful young readers mulling issues of trust and responsibility," noted John Peters, who added that in the chapter book Hermes "lightly but effectively" shows the value in admitting mistakes. The "headstrong but sympathetic heroine" in Emma Dilemma and the Two Nannies "learns from her mistakes," explained Booklist critic Abby Nolan, and with the help of well-meaning adults "recognizes her missteps and makes amends."

Hermes's first book for young adults, the award-winning A Solitary Secret, "is a spellbinding book that drops the reader deep into the soul" of a girl who has endured incest, noted Voice of Youth Advocates contributor Marijo Duncan. The unnamed teen, who ages from fourteen to eighteen during the story, tells her story via a journal. Eventually, she shares her secret with a friend's parent. Be Still My Heart, another young-adult offering, finds Allison infatuated with David, who loves Leslie, Allison's best friend. David and Allison are ultimately brought together when a teacher's husband develops AIDS and becomes a victim of discrimination. Be Still My Heart "shows through its female characters that looks aren't everything to all boys, and that intelligence, enthusiasm, and conviction are just as appealing," declared School Library Journal contributor Kathryn Havris of the novel.

One of two nonfiction books authored by Hermes, A Time to Listen: Preventing Youth Suicide is intended to help young adults in understand issues related to suicide. The book consists of interviews with teens who have tried suicide, parents and friends of victims, and a therapist specializing in the problems confronting contemporary young people. "The interviews are probing, but sensitive to the privacy of subjects," commented Libby K. White in School Library Journal, adding that "the great myths of teen suicide … are refuted" in Hermes's account. Of special use to teens, A Time to Listen also includes suggestions for helping depressed friends. Overall, it serves as "a sensible, approachable book for those who need it," concluded Rosemary Moran in a review for Voice of Youth Advocates.

In a further change of pace, Hermes's first picture book, When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain, lets readers meet up with Hallie as she copes during a difficult winter on Hairy Bear Mountain and attempts to care for her ill father. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain a "sweet and sentimental tale," and a Publishers Weekly critic felt that the book "should satisfy readers in the mood for an old-fashioned moral tale."

Many of Hermes's books have focused on historical eras. Set in the early 1800s, On Winter's Wind takes readers back to the time of slavery. Eleven-year-old Genevieve and her family are enduring hardship since her father is presumed lost at sea. When she learns that there is a bounty on a slave hidden in her little town, Genevieve is sorely tempted to turn the fugitive in, but she is convinced to do otherwise by the Quakers who are sheltering the young runaway. "Hermes does a fine job of depicting the situation," wrote Booklist contributor Chris Sherman, while Knoth praised On Winter's Wind as "poignant" in her Horn Book review.

Hermes sets Calling Me Home 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, and no other children live nearby. Although Abbie enjoys the freedom of the prairie, she 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" in this familiar territory, according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, who deemed the story "solid … [and] neatly told." Janet Gillen, writing in School Library Journal, wrote that the novel's "strengths lie in Hermes' ability to convey sensitive issues of death and the loss of faith through succinct, well-written scenes."

Drawing readers closer to their own era, Sweet By and By is set during World War II and deals with the effects of the death of an adult on a child. Blessing is eleven years old 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 gift for music that they share. Now she must acknowledge the fact that her beloved grandmother is dying, a fact that means she will soon have to adapt to life in a new home. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly commended Sweet By and By as a "gracefully composed story of love, loss and courage," while Kay Weisman wrote in Booklist that the "loving relationship between grandmother and grandchild will touch the heart." Barbara Auerbach, writing in School Library Journal, lauded the "poetic prose" that enriches Hermes's "heartfelt story."

Also featuring a World War II setting, In God's Novel takes readers to rural Mississippi and introduces an eleven-year-old girl named Missy. When her mother suddenly goes "sick crazy," the condition makes Missy wonder why God allows such bad things to happen. Fortunately, the family maid, Geneva, is there for the young girl in her search for security and answers. In a sequel, Summer Secrets, Missy is now a year older and a year wiser as she continues to try to understand her mother's condition. In addition to confiding her concerns to her new diary, the twelve-year-old and her two boy-crazy best friends also share some secrets during the long, hot summer, as news comes that the war is winding down. In Kirkus Reviews a contributor commended Hermes for her characterization of Missie as a "delightful, multifaceted" protagonist "who is at once innocent, strong-willed, compassionate, insightful, and curious." "An evocative and satisfying coming-of-age story," according to School Library Journal contributor Cindy Darling Codell, Summer Secrets features a "child's-eye view of a small southern town [that] is on target."

Scholastic's "My America" series presents fictionalized diary accounts of that bring to life historical times for young readers. As part of this series, Hermes details life in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia in a sequence of books about nine-year-old Elizabeth, and also follows a pioneer family along the Oregon Trail in the journals of a boy named Joshua. Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary initiates the adventures of Elizabeth, as she records her experiences with Native Americans, helps her family build a new home, and deals with hunger and death in the first years of the seventeenth century. Shawn Brommer, writing in School Library Journal, found Our Strange New Land to be a "quick, easy read." The Starving Time: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book Two furthers Elizabeth's saga, the "historical details … 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: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book Three continues the story as Elizabeth, now age ten, learns of her newly widowed father's plan to remarry. "Beautifully written," according to School Library Journal contributor Leslie Barban, Season of Promise "gives children a glimpse of colonial life through the eyes of a warm, spunky, and heroic young girl."

Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary presents the first diary entries of nine-year-old Joshua McCullough as he and his family follow the Oregon Trail from their home in St. Joseph, Missouri. John McAndrew, writing in Childhood Education, praised the way that Joshua "vividly records his dreams, hopes, frustrations, and fears" in the book's journal-like format. Ellen Mandel, writing in Booklist, also had praise for the novel, noting that Westward to Home "will stick in the readers' minds and enrich their studies of the era" of U.S. westward expansion. Joshua records further adventures in A Perfect Place: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, Book Two, in which the boy and his family settle down to life in Oregon's Willamette Valley, and in The Wild Year: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, Book Three, where the nine-year-old finds frontier life normalizing as the territory establishes a new government and he begins to attend school. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called A Perfect Place "fascinating history," and Sally Bates Goodroe wrote in School Library Journal that "details of the life in Oregon Country … are vividly integrated" into Hermes's historical narrative. "Despite the diary format, Hermes creates a smooth, economical narrative" in The Wild Year, concluded Sue Sherif in School Library Journal.

Part of becoming a children's writer, Hermes once commented, is remembering 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." When asked if she had any advice for young writers, Hermes said: "If I could preach for a minute, I'd say, ‘If you're going to be a writer, you must be a reader.’ It doesn't matter what you read. Forget what those teachers tell you. You don't have to read ‘good’ literature. Read anything, because eventually, if you become a reader you will someday find good literature. No, there's nothing wrong with trivial reading. Also don't throw away anything you've ever written. I tell kids that if their mothers get in cleaning fits, tell them they can throw away their school books, or their baby brother, but do not throw away anything they've written."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, edited by Bernice E. Cullinan and Diane G. Person, Continuum (New York, NY), 2001.

St. James Guide to Young-Adult Writers, 2nd edition, edited by Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 1992, Janice Del Negro, review of Take Care of My Girl; January 15, 1995, Mary Harris Veeder, review of Everything Stinks, 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 Calling Me Home, p. 876; February 1, 2001, Ellen Mandel, review of Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, 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: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, Book Two p. 890; April 15, 2006, John Peters, review of Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny, p. 47; May 15, 2007, Abby Nolan, review of Emma Dilemma and the Two Nannies, p. 50.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March, 1983, review of You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, p. 127; November, 1995, review of On Winter's Wind, p. 92; June, 2004, Karen Coats, review of Summer Secrets, p. 421.

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

Horn Book, January-February, 1992, Mary M. Burns, review of Mama, Let's Dance, p. 70; 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, December, 15, 1994, review of I'll Pulverize You, William, p. 1564; September 15, 1996, review of When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain, p. 1401; November 15, 1998, review of Calling Me Home, p. 1669; October 15, 2002, review of Sweet By and By, p. 1531, review of A Perfect Place, pp. 1530-1531.

New York Times Book Review, May 20, 1984, review of You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, p. 29; January 10, 1988, review of A Time to Listen: Preventing Youth Suicide, p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, April 24, 1987, review of A Place for Jeremy, p. 70; November 23, 1990, review of I Hate Being Gifted!, p. 66; 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; May 27, 2002, review of Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, p. 62; November 11, 2002, review of Sweet By and By, p. 64.

School Library Journal, October, 1983, Nancy Berkowitz, review of Who Will Take Care of Me?, p. 158; March, 1988, Libby K. White, review of A Time to Listen, p. 220; August, 1988, Candy Colborn, review of Heads, I Win, p. 95; December, 1989, Kathryn Havris, review of Be Still My Heart, p. 118; September, 1991, Carol Noah, review of Mama, Let's Dance, p. 253; December, 1992, Cindy Darling Codell, review of Take Care of My Girl, p. 112; March, 1995, Elaine Lesh Morgan, review of Everything Stinks, p. 204; September, 1995, Nancy P. Veeder, review of On Winter's Wind, p. 200; January, 1997, Mollie Bynum, review of When Snow Lay Soft on the Mountain, p. 83; June, 1998, Connie Tyrrell Burns, review of Cheat the Moon, p. 146; December, 1998, Janet Gillen, review of Calling Me Home, p. 1998; August, 2000, Shawn Brommer, review of Our Strange New Land, p. 156; June, 2001, Kristen Oravec, review of Westward to Home, 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: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary, Book Three, p. 114, and Cindy Darling Codell, review of Summer Secrets, p. 148; November, 2005, S.K. Joiner, review of The Brother's War, p. 137; May, 2006, Terrie Dorio, review of Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny, p. 89; February, 2007, Kristen Oravec, review of Salem Witch, p. 118; April, 2007, Kelly Roth, review of Emma Dilemma and the Two Nannies, p. 108.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 1985, Marijo Duncan, review of A Solitary Secret, p. 320; June, 1988, Rosemary Moran, review of A Time to Listen, p. 101; October, 1993, Vicki Hardesty, review of You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye, p. 203; December, 1995, review of On Winter's Wind, p. 302; February, 1997, Susan Dunn, review of Fly away Home, pp. 327-328; August, 1998, review of Cheat the Moon, p. 201; August, 2004, Pam Carlson, review of Summer Secrets, p. 216.