Porter, Pamela 1956–

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Porter, Pamela 1956–

PERSONAL:

Born 1956, in NM; married; children: Cecilia, Drew.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.

CAREER:

Author.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Fiction, 2005, Canadian Children's Literature Award, and Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, both 2006, and Silver Birch Award nomination, and Rocky Mountain Book Award shortlist, both 2007, all for The Crazy Man; Jane Addams Award, Jane Addams Peace Association, 2006.

WRITINGS:

JUVENILE FICTION

Sky, illustrated by Mary Jane Gerber, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

The Crazy Man, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

Stones Call Out, Coteau Books (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada), 2006.

Yellow Moon, Apple Moon, illustrated by Matt James, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2008.

OTHER

Poems for the Luminous World, Frog Hollow Press (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), 2002.

Also author of lyrics for Songs for the Journey of Remembrance (sound recording).

SIDELIGHTS:

Award-winning young-adult writer Pamela Porter takes her inspiration from the significant settings in her life. Her adopted country of Canada, as well as her native state of New Mexico, figures prominently in her work. Porter's skill at weaving fact and fiction into inspirational narratives is considered a hallmark of her fiction, which includes the novels The Crazy Man and Stones Call Out.

Porter's first book for middle-grade readers, Sky, is based on a first-person account of the major floods that washed over the northwestern United States in 1964. The novel focuses on eleven-year-old Georgia, who lives with her grandparents in Blackfoot Nation territory in Montana. After days of rain, the family narrowly escapes a flood that destroys their home and barn. Taking shelter in a local school, the girl and her grandparents become the focus of mistreatment and prejudice when their Caucasian neighbors receive better treatment than they do. Returning home to clean up the rubble that is all that remains of her grandparents' home, Georgia discovers that a young foal has escaped the calamity. She turns all her energy into saving the foal, which she names Sky, and through her caring actions Georgia turns a tragic situation into something positive. Susan P. Bloom, reviewing Sky for Horn Book, asserted that readers will be "won over by Georgia's forthright personality and fresh, first-person voice." Kristen Oravec, writing in School Library Journal, believed that Porter's "simple tale elegantly showcases a girl's story, of triumph over adversity."

Porter's award-winning novel The Crazy Man was based on the family wheat farm in rural Saskatchewan where her husband was raised. In the novel, which is set in the mid-1960s, twelve-year-old Emaline endures an accident in which she loses a leg. Distraught by this tragedy, the girl's newly widowed mother must now hire Angus, a man from the local mental hospital, to help put in the new crop. Finding Angus to be an odd but gentle man, Emaline befriends him and finds jobs to keep him busy around the farm. Although she is confused that Angus is feared by many in town, when the man saves a local girl from tragedy, Emaline is reassured about human nature. Martha V. Parravano, writing in Horn Book, called The Crazy Man "a touching portrait of a real-seeming girl, set in a well-delineated time and place." School Library Journal critic Julie Webb noted that, "subtle in its themes and organization," Porter's novel "is pure pleasure, offering lessons about love, loyalty, and loss." In Resource Links, Angela Thompson praised the verse novel, asserting that "what makes this book interesting is the format, a story written as poetry." Vikki VanSickle, writing in Canadian Review of Materials, concluded of The Crazy Man that in this "deceptively simple" novel "Porter explores large issues such as prejudice, fear, and disability with grace and honesty," studding the story with "beautiful, shining moments of hope."

Featuring artwork by Matt James, Porter's picture book Yellow Moon, Apple Moon was inspired by a family story. "One night late in summer when I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, I looked out of the window and saw the great harvest moon rising just beyond the hills over the valley …," she recalled on the Groundwood Books Web site. "We all watched in awe, quietly, when little Drew said, ‘Yellow moon. Apple moon.’" This phrase, woven into a New Mexico lullaby Porter had heard as a child, became the core of the picture book. A Kirkus Reviews writer praised Yellow Moon, Apple Moon, writing that "verbal and visual images of nighttime guarantee safe passage to dreamland." Jessica Kelley, writing in Quill & Quire, concluded that the picture book "has its own brand of charm, and many young readers will identify with the contented child sleeping peacefully under the moon."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Review of Materials, December 9, 2005, Vikki VanSickle, review of The Crazy Man.

Horn Book, January-February, 2005, Susan P. Bloom, review of Sky, p. 97; January-February, 2006, Martha V. Parravano, review of The Crazy Man, p. 86.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2008, review of Yellow Moon, Apple Moon.

Quill & Quire, March, 2008, Jessica Kelley, review of Yellow Moon, Apple Moon.

Resource Links, February, 2005, Elaine Rospad, review of Sky, p. 20; December, 2005, Angela Thompson, review of The Crazy Man, p. 35.

School Library Journal, April, 2005, Kristen Oravec, review of Sky, p. 108; December, 2005, Julie Webb, review of The Crazy Man, p. 152.