Bauer, Marion Dane 1938-

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Bauer, Marion Dane 1938-

Personal

Born November 20, 1938, in Oglesby, IL; daughter of Chester (a chemist) and Elsie (a kindergarten teacher) Dane; married Ronald Bauer (an Episcopal priest), June 25, 1959 (divorced); children: Peter Dane, Elisabeth Alison. Education: Attended La Salle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, 1956-58, and University of Missouri, 1958-59; University of Oklahoma, B.A., 1962. Religion: Unitarian Universalist.

Addresses

Home and office—Eden Prairie, MN. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Educator and author. High-school teacher, Waukesha, WI, 1962-64; Hennepin Technical Center, Minneapolis, MN, instructor in creative writing for adult education program, 1975-78; instructor at University of Minnesota Continuing Education for Women, 1978-85, and Institute for Children's Literature, 1982-85; Crestwood House, editor, 1989; Vermont College of Norwich University (now Vermont College of Fine Arts), faculty chair of MFA program in writing for children, 1997-2000, faculty member, 1997—.

Member

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

Awards, Honors

American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book Award, 1976, and Japanese Library Association Award, both for Shelter from the Wind; Golden Kite Honor Book Award, Society of Children's Book Writers, 1977, for Foster Child; Jane Addams Peace Association Children's Book Award, 1984, for Rain of Fire; Notable Children's Book Award, ALA, and Best Books list,

School Library Journal, both 1986, Booklist Editors' Choice, Newbery Honor Book Award, and British Children's Book Award runner-up, all 1987, Golden Archer Award, 1988, Flicker Tale Children's Book Award, William Allen White Award, and West Virginia Children's Book Award, all 1989, all for On My Honor; Children's Book of Distinction, Hungry Mind Review, 1992, for Face to Face; Notable Children's Book citation, ALA, 1992, for What's Your Story?; Pick of the Lists citation, American Booksellers Association, and School Library Journal Best Books citation, both 1995, both for A Question of Trust; Best Book for Young Adults designation, and Recommended Book for Young Adult Readers citation, ALA, Minnesota Book Award for older children, and Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Book Award for Literature, all for Am I Blue?; Minnesota Book Award for Children, Outstanding Achievement in Children's Literature designation, Wisconsin Library Association, Society of School Librarians International Honor Book, Charlotte Zolotow Award highly commended title, and ABC Choices for Children, all 1998, all for If You Were Born a Kitten; Kerlan Award, Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota, 1996; 100 Best Books listee, New York Public Library, 1999, for An Early Winter; Rebecca Caudill Award nomination, 2002, Children's Crown Award, 2005, and Gorgia Book Award, 2006, all for Runt.

Writings

MIDDLE-GRADE NOVELS

Shelter from the Wind, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Foster Child, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1977.

Tangled Butterfly, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1980.

Rain of Fire, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Like Mother, like Daughter, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1985.

On My Honor, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1986.

Touch the Moon, illustrated by Alix Berenzy, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1987.

A Dream of Queens and Castles, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Face to Face, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1991.

Ghost Eye, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1992.

A Taste of Smoke, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1993.

A Question of Trust, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.

An Early Winter, illustrated by Susan Winter, Clarion (New York, NY), 1999.

Runt, Clarion (New York, NY), 2002.

Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota ("Dear America" series), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2003.

The Double Digit Club, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2004.

A Bear Named Trouble, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2005.

PICTURE BOOKS

When I Go Camping with Grandma, illustrated by Allen Garns, BridgeWater Books (Mahwah, NJ), 1995.

If You Were Born a Kitten, illustrated by JoEllen McAllister Stammen, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

Sleep, Little One, Sleep, illustrated by JoEllen McAllister Stammen, Clarion (New York, NY), 1999.

Jason's Bears, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

Grandmother's Song, illustrated by Pamela Rossi, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

If You Had a Nose like an Elephant's Trunk, illustrated by Susan Winter, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2001.

My Mother Is Mine, illustrated by Peter Elwell, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

The Kissing Monster: A Lift-the-Flap Story, illustrated by Kathi Couri, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2002.

Love Song for a Baby, illustrated by Dan Andreasen, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Uh-Oh!: A Lift-the-Flap Story, illustrated by Valeria Petrone, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Why Do Kittens Purr?, illustrated by Henry Cole, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

Toes, Ears, and Nose!, illustrated by Karen Katz, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

A Recipe for Valentine's Day: A Rebus Lift-the-Flap Story, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2005.

Waiting for Christmas, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2005.

If Frogs Made Weather, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2005.

Easter Is Coming, illustrated by Jayoung Cho, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2005.

I'm Not Afraid of Halloween!: A Pop-Up and Flap Book, illustrated by Rusty Fletcher, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2006.

Baby Bear Discovers the World, photographs by Stan Tekiela, Adventure Publications, 2007.

The Very Best Daddy of All, illustrated by Leslie Wu, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2007.

A Mama for Owen, illustrated by John Butler, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2007.

Some Babies Are Wild, photographs by Stan Tekiela, Adventure Publications, 2007.

One Brown Bunny, illustrated by Ivan Bates, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2008.

The Christmas Baby, illustrated by Richard Cowdrey, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2008.

The Longest Night, illustrated by Ted Lewin, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2009.

Thank You for Me, illustrated by Kristina Stephenson, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2010.

YOUNG-ADULT FICTION

Killing Miss Kitty, and Other Sins, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2007.

READERS

Alison's Wings, illustrated by Roger Roth, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1996.

Turtle Dreams, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1997.

Alison's Fierce and Ugly Halloween, illustrated by Laurie Spencer, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.

Alison's Puppy, illustrated by Laurie Spencer, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.

Beyond the Playhouse Wall, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1997.

Bear's Hiccups, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1998.

Christmas in the Forest, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1998.

Frog's Best Friend, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2002.

The Blue Ghost, illustrated by Suling Wang, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

The Secret of the Painted House, illustrated by Leonid Gore, Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

The Red Ghost, illustrated by Peter Ferguson, Random House (New York, NY), 2008.

The Green Ghost, illustrated by Peter Ferguson, Random House (New York, NY), 2008.

JUVENILE NONFICTION

Rain, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2003.

Snow, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2003.

Clouds, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2004.

Wind, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2004.

"WONDERS OF AMERICA" SERIES; JUVENILE NONFICTION

The Rocky Mountains, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2006.

Niagara Falls, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2006.

The Grand Canyon, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2006.

The Statue of Liberty, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2007.

Mount Rushmore, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2007.

The Mighty Mississippi, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2007.

Yellowstone, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2008.

"NATURAL DISASTERS" SERIES; JUVENILE NONFICTION

Volcano!, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2008.

Flood!, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2008.

Earthquake!, illustrated by John Wallace, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2009.

OTHER

What's Your Story?: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor and contributor) Am I Blue?: Coming out from the Silence (short stories), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

A Writer's Story: From Life to Fiction, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Our Stories: A Fiction Workshop for Young Authors, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Also author of God's Tears: A Woman's Journey, a chancel drama performed as a one-woman show. Contributing editor of stories and articles to periodicals, including Cricket, Horn Book, ALAN Review, Writers' Journal, School Library Journal, and Boy's Life.

Bauer's work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Adaptations

An ABC Afterschool Special titled Rodeo Red and the Runaway was based on Shelter from the Wind.

Sidelights

Marion Dane Bauer is the award-winning author of middle-grade novels, chapter books, picture books, and nonfiction works. Although she sometimes focuses her fiction for young teen readers on fantastic themes and situations, books such as Shelter from the Wind, Rain of Fire, On My Honor, An Early Winter, and Killing Miss Kitty, and Other Sins focus on young people persevere by confronting problems that have no easy solutions. These books are often drawn from personal experiences and feature places where Bauer has lived or visited often; as a result, her prose is enriched by her inclusion of subtle detail.

In addition to her work for older readers, Bauer has increasingly written for a younger audience: the result includes easy-reading chapter books such as the "Alison" series, nonfiction in her "Wonders of America" series; beginning readers; and picture books such as My Mother Is Mine, If You Were Born a Kitten, If Frogs Made Weather, and The Very Best Daddy of All. A prolific writer, she has also penned several how-to books for would-be young writers, including the well-received What's Your Story?: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction, and edited the award-winning short-story anthology Am I Blue?: Coming out from the Silence. In all her genres, Bauer's enthusiasm for the written word is evident. At its best, noted Karin Snelson in Booklist, the author's prose "communicates that all is right with the world."

Bauer grew up in a small Illinois prairie town and experienced a childhood that she once described as "idyllic." As she gained maturity, there was less and less time for Bauer to spend on her writing; first came college, then marriage and a family and teaching English. Writing remained Bauer's self-proclaimed "secret vice" until her daughter began grade school. After educating herself on the writing process, she began work on Foster Child, a middle-grade novel loosely based on her experiences as a foster parent.

The publication of the early novels Shelter from the Wind and Foster Child gave Bauer the boost of confidence she needed to commit herself to writing. In Shelter from the Wind, Stacy is at odds with her pregnant stepmother who steals the attention of Stacy's father. Running away from home, the girl discovers she is ill-prepared for such a momentous change. Wandering on the Oklahoma prairie, she is taken in by Old Ella, and when Ella is injured in a fall Stacy must take charge. Another early novel, Rain of Fire, focuses on a young boy's relationship with his older brother who has just returned from action in World War II. Rain of Fire was lauded by a reviewer for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books as "serious, but not somber, beautifully laminated and perceptive in unfolding the intricacies of human relationships … it has good pace and momentum within its tight frame." Also reviewing the novel, a critic for Publishers Weekly commented that Bauer "has the notable ability to relate a story so that it never deviates from the viewpoint of the child," while a Booklist contributor declared that the author's "characters and the dilemmas she creates for them grow in power" as the book "builds to its riveting conclusion."

On My Honor also explores human reaction to tragedy. When two friends impulsively swim in a forbidden and dangerous river and one boy drowns, the survivor must make some difficult decisions at a very confusing moment. Claudia Lepman-Logan, writing in Horn Book, noted that the moral dilemma at the core of Bauer's middle-grade novel makes for "an exciting reading experience," largely due to the book's "richness and strength." On My Honor was a personal triumph for Bauer as well, for she was just going through a painful divorce after nearly three decades of marriage. After the publication of the novel, she poured renewed energy into her writing, soon breaking through to new levels of popularity and critical success and paving the way to becoming a completely self-supporting writer.

In the middle-grade novel Face to Face thirteen-year-old Michael is reunited with his long-lost father on a rafting trip in Colorado, but soon learns that the man he has distantly idealized is far different from what he has imagined. Reviewing the book in Kliatt, Elaine S. Patterson dubbed it "an excellent read" that discusses a common problem for children of broken homes: "unrealistic ideas about an absent parent and the inability to accept stepparents." Another broken family is at the heart of A Question of Trust, in which the parents of Brad and Charlie have recently separated. The brothers refuse to have anything to do with their mother, hoping this will make her come home, while a subplot details their care for a stray cat and its kitten despite their father's objections. Ilene Cooper, writing in Booklist, noted that Bauer "writes with an intensity and honesty that propel readers through the story, stirring their feelings, too. She makes them see how much love and hate are intertwined."

With An Early Winter Bauer describes a boy's encounter with Alzheimer's disease. Tim refuses to admit anything is wrong with his beloved grandfather, but when the two go on a fishing trip together he is forced to confront the truth. A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked that "Tim's experience with his grandfather may convince readers with Alzheimer's-stricken relatives that denial serves no purpose." In Booklist, Susan Dove Lempke maintained that Bauer "also develops a delicately layered story about blame and truth…. With its humane, complicated characters, this makes a good choice for discussion."

In The Double-Digit Club nine-year-old Sarah is bereft one summer when best friend Paige chooses membership in a club of older girls over spending time with her. In a funk, Sarah spends time reading or at Mrs. Berglund's house next door. Nosing through Mrs. B.'s possessions, she "borrows" the blind woman's antique doll in the hopes she can use it to lure Paige back to best-friend status. When her scheme backfires, Sarah confronts what a Kirkus Reviews writer described as "a classic Bauer struggle with conscience," and her struggle is "thoroughly believable." In Publishers Weekly a critic praised The Double-Digit Club as a "compassionately wrought coming-of-age story [that] features a bossy but likable heroine."

Shifting her focus to the natural world in Runt, Bauer explores life within a wolf pack from the point of view of one of its smallest members. Born last, and not as physically adept as his siblings, Runt struggles to gain his father's attention and improve his standing in the pack. Instead all seems to go amiss, culminating with human intervention to help the wolf cub survive an attack by a porcupine. Eventually, however, fate provides Runt with a chance to show his usefulness to his family. Although the wolf characters speak to one another, Bauer's tale is closely based upon actual wolf-pack biology and on the observations scientists have made in the wild. This YA title was well reviewed, with Julie Cummins in Booklist calling it a "compelling, poignant story" and a Publishers Weekly reviewer commending it

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as a "tightly plotted, swiftly paced tale." Several reviewers felt that Runt would increase readers' sympathy for and understanding of wild wolves. As School Library Journal correspondent Terrie Dorio concluded, "Bauer portrays the wolves' place in the natural world with compassion, respect, and warmth."

A collection of five interlinking short stories, Killing Miss Kitty and Other Sins returns readers to the Midwest of the 1950s, as eleven-year-old Claire attempts to deal with sexual confusion, racial issues, differences of religious faith, and problems with her parents. Inspired by Bauer's own experiences growing up, the volume features a "sympathetic" narrator "whose inability to acknowledge her heart's truth will resonate with questioning teens," according to Booklist critic Jennifer Mattson. Although noting that the novel's intended audience is uncertain, Faith Brautigam concluded in School Library Journal that Killing Miss Kitty, and Other Sins features writing that is "thought-provoking and beautifully literary." In Kirkus Reviews the critic found the stories mature in theme, featuring "skilled and graceful writing," and "tinged with nostalgia and a world long gone."

Among Bauer's middle-grade novels is a contribution to the "Dear America" series—a fictional book in diary form that features actual historical events. Bauer's initial contribution to the series, Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rogers, an English Girl in Minnesota, is based on actual events from Bauer's family history. In the novel, fourteen-year-old Polly Rodgers arrives in Minnesota with her pastor father and a congregation of families that have followed him from England to America. Full of unbridled optimism, the settlers soon discover that their new land is hardly a paradise; it is a hostile environment of extreme temperatures, insect plagues, and poverty. Eva Mitnick, writing in Booklist, described the work as "an engrossing look at the hardships faced by many pioneers."

Since the early 1990s, Bauer has expanded her writing repertoire to include nonfiction as well as picture books and chapter books for younger readers. In The Red Ghost and The Blue Ghost she mixes easy vocabulary with a scary story that features a "perfect formula" for attracting "transitional readers," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. Her "Alison" early-chapter-book series for beginning readers focuses on a spunky young girl who is up for most sorts of challenges. Reviewing Alison's Fierce and Ugly Halloween, in which the heroine is having trouble scaring people with her Halloween outfit, Rochman noted that Bauer's "simple words make this an appealing easy reader about a girl who wants to get beyond cute stereotypes."

Bauer's "Wonders of America" nonfiction series features artwork by John Wallace and includes books on some of the most fascinating sites in North America, from Mount Rushmore to the Grand Canyon. Budding bookworms are also treated to the Bauer style in titles

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including Turtle Dreams, Bear's Hiccups, and Christmas in the Forest. Rochman concluded in a Booklist review of Turtle Dreams that young readers "will see that simple words can make you think and take you far," and Shelley Townsend-Hudson wrote in Booklist that Christmas in the Forest, in which Cat and Mousling become unlikely friends, is "perfect for new readers." The beginning reader Frog's Best Friend, which finds Frog hoping that Turtle will be his very best friend, was praised by Cooper who wrote in Booklist that Bauer's "text is meaty enough to involve children [with some] … reading under their belts."

In the picture-book arena, If You Were Born a Kitten features a text that a critic for Publishers Weekly described as "lovingly maternal, soothing and perfect for bedtime." In Love Song for a Baby Bauer's "quiet but powerful" text pairs with "stunning" artwork by Dan Andreasen, according to Booklist critic Kathy Broderick, while a Kirkus Reviews writer concluded that the provocatively titled If Frogs Made Weather "introduces a thought-provoking theme for young poetry readers."

In What's Your Story? Bauer provides practical suggestions on focusing story ideas, on plot and character development,

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and on revision. Cathi Dunn MacRae, writing in the Wilson Library Bulletin, called the how-to "a model of lucid organization, written as elegantly as [Bauer's] YA novels." Other Bauer books on writing include A Writer's Story: From Life to Fiction and Our Stories: A Fiction Workshop for Young Authors, the latter which pairs short stories by young writers with Bauer's critiques and commentary. A collection of short stories on gay and lesbian themes, Am I Blue? contains stories from fifteen popular YA writers, including Bauer, all of which explore the concerns of adolescents who are homosexual. Booklist correspondent Stephanie Zvirin called the anthology "wonderfully diverse in tone and setting" while Katherine Paterson concluded in the Washington Post Book World that "when a book that sets out to do good turns out to be as good as this one, we are all the winners."

In her writing, Bauer is careful to include moral choices in each of her books. "To have hope [children] must believe that the choices they make matter, that they have the power to change human history," the author once told Horn Book. She added that she is "convinced that one of the most fundamental experiences of being human is the discovery each of us makes in our cribs: that we are alone…. Fiction can cut through our isolation … because fiction can move us inside another human being, allow us to share the thoughts and feelings and to see the world through those other eyes."

As Bauer explained to SATA, Bauer's stories "are meant to ask unanswerable questions, to share pain, to test insights, and most of all, to make connections." "I am always writing toward that moment when a reader will say, ‘But I thought I was the only one who felt that, thought that, wanted that’," she added, "and when that moment comes, my story has found its reason for being."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Brown, Jean, and Elaine Stephens, Teaching Young Adult Literature: Sharing the Connection, Wadsworth (Belmont, CA), 1995.

Fisher, Bonnie, Social Influences on the Writing of Marion Dane Bauer and Katherine Paterson: Writing as a Social Act, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 2001.

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

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1983, review of Rain of Fire, p. 162; January 15, 1994, Ilene Cooper, review of A Question of Trust, p. 924; May 1, 1994, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Am I Blue?: Coming out from the Silence, p. 1598; September 1, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Alison's Fierce and Ugly Halloween, p. 137; February 1, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of Turtle Dreams, p. 925; May 1, 1998, Lauren Peterson, review of Bear's Hiccups, p. 1524; December 1, 1998, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of Christmas in the Forest, pp. 665-666; December 1, 1999, Susan Dove Lempke, review of An Early Winter; September 15, 2001, Helen Rosenberg, review of If You Had Nose like an Elephant's Trunk, p. 230; May 1, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of Frog's Best Friend, p. 1530; September 1, 2002, Kathy Broderick, review of Love Song for a Baby, p. 134; October 15, 2002, Julie Cummins, review of Runt, p. 406; January 1, 2003, Karin Snelson, review of Why Do Kittens Purr?, p. 904; May 15, 2003, Eva Mitnick, review of Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rogers, an English Girl in Minnesota, p. 1665; February 1, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Clouds, p. 978; September 1, 2005, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of The Blue Ghost, p. 128; February 15, 2007, Jennifer Mattson, review of Killing Miss Kitty, and Other Sins, p. 87; May 1, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Secret of the Painted House, p. 48; April 15, 2008, Ilene Cooper, review of The Red Ghost, p. 45; May 15, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Yellowstone, p. 46.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 1983, review of Rain of Fire; October, 1999, review of An Early Winter, p. 46; January, 2004, Elizabeth Bush, review of Snow, p. 179; April, 2004, Hope Morrison, review of The Double-Digit Club, p. 315; October, 2007, Hope Morrison, review of The Secret of the Painted House, p. 73.

Horn Book, November-December, 1987, Marion Dane Bauer, "Peace in Story, Peace in the World"; January-February, 1989, Claudia Lepman-Logan, "Books in the Classroom: Moral Choices in Literature," pp. 108-111; January-February, 1994, Elizabeth S. Watson, review of A Taste of Smoke, p. 68; July-August, 1994, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of A Question of Trust, p. 448.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 1999, review of An Early Winter, p. 1050; October 1, 2002, review of Runt, p. 1463; February 15, 2003, review of Why Do Kittens Purr?, p. 299; February 15, 2004, review of The Double-Digit Club, p. 173; April 1, 2005, review of If Frogs Made Weather, p. 412; July 1, 2005, review of The Blue Ghost, p. 73; May 1, 2007, review of Killing Miss Kitty, and Other Sins; June 1, 2007, review of The Secret of the Painted House; March 15, 2008, review of The Red Ghost.

Kliatt, July, 1993, Elaine S. Patterson, review of Face to Face, p. 5.

Publishers Weekly, November 25, 1983, review of Rain of Fire, p. 64; October 6, 1997, review of If You Were Born a Kitten, p. 82; April 3, 2000, review of Jason's Bear, p. 79; March 26, 2001, review of My Mother Is Mine, p. 91; July 8, 2002, review of Love Song for a Baby, p. 48; October 14, 2002, review of Runt, p. 84; December 9, 2002, review of Why Do Kittens Purr?, p. 82; April 5, 2004, review of The Double-Digit Club, p. 62.

School Library Journal, April, 2001, Linda Ludke, review of My Mother Is Mine, p. 98; September, 2001, Shara Alpern, review of If You Had a Nose like an Elephant's Trunk, p. 183; June, 2002, Sandra Welzenbach, review of Frog's Best Friend, p. 87; September, 2002, Terrie Dorio, review of Runt, p. 219; March, 2003, Carolyn Janssen, review of Why Do Kittens Purr?, p. 176; June, 2004, Martha Topol, review of The Very Best Daddy of All, p. 96; August, 2005, Elaine E. Knight, review of The Blue Ghost, p. 84; July, 2006, Susan E. Murray, review of The Grand Canyon, p. 90; May, 2007, Farida S. Dowler, review of The Mighty Mississippi, p. 114; May, 2007, Faith Brautigam, review of Killing Miss Kitty, and Other Sins, p. 129; August, 2007, Debbie Whitbeck, review of The Secret of the Painted House, p. 76; December, 2007, Colleen D. Bocka, review of Mount Rushmore, p. 104; April, 2008, Debbie S. Hoskins, review of The Red Ghost, p. 102.