Harness, Cheryl 1951–

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Harness, Cheryl 1951–

Personal

Born July 6, 1951, in CA; daughter of Raymond and Elaine Harness. Education: Central Missouri State University, B.A. (art education), 1973. Politics: Democrat. Religion: "Optimistic agnostic." Hobbies and other interests: Books, pets, movie theaters, sewing, sculpting.

Addresses

Home—Independence, MO.

Career

Author and illustrator. Worked variously as a student teacher, waitress, short-order cook, portrait artist, and needlework designer. Greeting-card artist for Hallmark Cards and Current. Presenter at schools.

Awards, Honors

Republic of San Marino postage-stamp painting prize; West Virginia Children's Award and KC Three award, both 1988-90, Nene Award, Young Hoosier commendation, and Sequoyah Children's award, all 1990, and Iowa Children's Choice designation and Sunshine State award, both 1992, all for Fudge, by Charlotte Graeber; Notable Book in the Social Studies designations, Center for Children's Books, 1998, for Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi; Missouri Association of School Librarians Award, 1998, for Ghosts of the White House; Friend of the School Libraries Award, 2001; Colorado Children's Book Award, 2002.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN; SELF-ILLUSTRATED UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

(Adaptor) The Night-Light Mother Goose, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

The Windchild, Holt (New York, NY), 1991.

Three Young Pilgrims, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1992.

The Queen with Bees in Her Hair, Holt (New York, NY), 1993.

Young John Quincy, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Papa's Christmas Gift: Around the World on the Night before Christmas, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

Young Abe Lincoln: The Frontier Days, 1809-1837, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1996.

They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1996.

Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, 1837-1865, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1996.

Young Teddy Roosevelt, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1998.

Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

Ghosts of the White House, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

Midnight in the Cemetery: A Spooky Search-and-Find Alphabet Book, illustrated by Robin Brickman, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

Ghosts of the Twentieth Century, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

George Washington, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2000.

Remember the Ladies: One Hundred Great American Women, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

Ghosts of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

The Revolutionary John Adams, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2003.

Rabble Rousers: Twenty Women Who Made a Difference, Dutton (New York, NY), 2003.

Franklin and Eleanor, Dutton Children's Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Ghosts of the Nile, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Thomas Jefferson, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2004.

Our Colonial Year, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.

The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2005.

Just for You to Know, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the Amazing-but-True Survival Story of the Plymouth Colony, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2006.

The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2006.

The Remarkable, Rough-Riding Life of Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Empire America, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2007.

ILLUSTRATOR

Deborah Gould, Grandpa's Slide Show, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (New York, NY), 1987.

Charlotte Towner Graeber, Fudge, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (New York, NY), 1987.

George Shannon, Oh, I Love!, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Alice Schertle, Gus Wanders Off, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (New York, NY), 1988.

Deborah Gould, Aaron's Shirt, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Joanne Ryder, Under the Moon, Random House (New York, NY), 1989.

Clement C. Moore, The Night before Christmas, Random House (New York, NY), 1989.

Carolyn Magner, reteller, Little Red Riding Hood, Book Club of America (Fort Salonga, NY), 1993.

Thomas B. Allen, George Washington, Spymaster: How America Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2004.

William Anderson, M Is for Mount Rushmore: A South Dakota Alphabet, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2005.

Sidelights

Since her start as an author and illustrator with the 1992 picture book The Windchild, Cheryl Harness has gone on to specialize in crafting compelling—and sometimes haunting—mixes of fact and fiction. She brings to life fascinating episodes in American's panoramic history through the life stories she presents in Rabble Rousers: Twenty Women Who Made a Difference, The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin, and Young Abe Lincoln: The Frontier Days, 1809-1837, as well as in off-beat histories such as Ghosts of the Twentieth Century, Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, and The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal. Critics have praised Harness's unique way of framing her histories and her ability to "present a large amount of information succinctly and clearly," according to a Publishers Weekly

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contributor. In Ghosts of the Twentieth Century and Ghosts of the White House, for example, a student on a school field trip to an historic locale meets up with a loquacious member of the spirit world who serves as a guide through history. Harness's artistic talents are also consistently praised by critics. In a review of The Queen with Bees in Her Hair, a Publishers Weekly contributor cited Harness's picture book for its "meticulously wrought scenes" and concluded that in the "visually captivating tale" the author/illustrator's "artwork impresses."

Born in 1951 in California, Harness eventually moved to the Midwest. "My favorite books when I was growing up were all of those by Laura Ingalls Wilder," she noted on her home page. "They were wonderful stories that just happened to have happened in the past. I like imagining other times. If you can't have a real time-machine, books make a swell consolation prize. Besides, the past you visit in your imagination can be just as lively and not nearly so sweaty and dangerous as the real deal."

Although Harness graduated from Central Missouri State University with the intention of becoming an art teacher, she realized that teaching was not for her by the end of her first student-teaching assignment. Instead, she became a working artist, illustrating greeting cards for several national companies. In the mid-1980s Harness decided to branch out into book illustration. Assembling her best paintings into a portfolio, she traveled to New York City and made the rounds of publishers. The trip proved worthwhile: once back at home, she was soon busily at work in her home studio, creating book illustrations for Bradbury Press at night and drawing card art during the day. In 1984 Harness went to Oneonta, New York and attended a workshop on children's books led by noted illustrator Uri Shulevitz. This workshop inspired her to not only illustrate but write stories for young readers.

Harness's first original picture book, The Windchild, tells a fanciful tale of a boy who accidentally wounds the wind with his arrow so that no breeze will blow through his small village. Praising both text and illustrations, School Library Journal contributor Marianne Pilla dubbed the book "an imaginative and touching tale, just right for a hot summer's day." The Windchild was followed by another fanciful tale, The Queen with Bees in Her Hair, which tells the story of a vain monarch whose massive hairdo creates problems when it is confused by her wingéd subjects with a beehive.

Three Young Pilgrims was Harness's first foray into history-based writing. Taking place in the Plymouth colony, her story recounts the experiences of the three Allerton children—Mary, Bartholomew, and Remember—who traveled with their parents to the New World aboard the Mayflower. The 363-mile-long waterway dug from Albany to Buffalo, New York, and completed in 1825 after eight years of construction is the subject of The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal. In this book, Harness pairs her text and detailed illustrations to bring to life this monumental undertaking, which was done before the days of backhoes, dynamite, and jackhammers.

The Erie Canal was one of several methods Americans devised in order to trade and communicate with one another during the expansion westward in the early years of the nineteenth century. Communication from coast to coast, which presented an equally daunting challenge in the 1800s, is explored by Harness in They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express. Recounting the short but dramatic history of the Pony Express from the first relay from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in the spring of 1860, the author-illustrator includes "busy and elaborate illustrations" that "create a panorama of the age," according to School Library Journal contributor Louise L. Sherman. A bibliography and a list of the 182 riders who risked their lives in the ten-day gallop across often-dangerous territory are included alongside a text which focuses on "the youth and instincts of the riders, who battled weather and fatigue," according to a Kirkus Reviews critic.

Beginning with her 1994 biography of the young John Quincy Adams, Harness has gone on to create a number of engaging books that allow young readers to gain an appreciation of several U.S. presidents noted for their character and vision. In Young John Quincy the childhood of the sixth president of the United States is depicted, from his childhood spent on a farm in Massachusetts to his experiences during the Revolutionary War at age nine. As the son of Samuel and Abigail Adams, John Quincy witnesses the formation of the nation he would eventually serve as a diplomat and congressman as well as lead as president. In Young Teddy Roosevelt Harness takes readers on a similar tour, following Roosevelt's life before he became the country's twenty-sixth president, and includes coverage of his stint in the Spanish-American War and his term as governor of New York State. The man who took over the reins of the nation from George Washington is the focus of The Revolutionary John Adams, in which Harness discusses the feud between Adams and Thomas Jefferson as well as Adams' work as ambassador to England, his contributions to the Declaration of Independence, and his family life with wife Abigail and son John Quincy. Moving forward in time, Franklin and Eleanor profiles the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt as they weather the Great Depression, Franklin's battle with polio, and Eleanor's inspiring work on behalf of social causes.

While noting that Harness's text is sometimes uneven, School Library Journal contributor Alicia Eames praised Young Teddy Roosevelt for its "spirited full-color illustrations that offer a sense of excitement" and noted that the illustrator's design "packs instant visual success" in recounting the early life of one of the most intriguing presidents of the twentieth century. Equally enthusiastic over the book's format, Booklist contributor Lauren Peterson praised the diversity of page design, in particular Harness's decisions to "mix several scenes and use a variety of elements, such as borders, maps, and captions." Praising The Revolutionary John Adams as "an accessible, appealing, and informative look at the second president," School Library Journal contributor Edith Ching also cited Harness's "large, colorful illustrations." In Franklin and Eleanor Harness "distills a traumatic, complex period of U.S. history while credibly portraying two inspiring personalities," noted a Publishers Weekly contributor, while in School Library Journal Ann Welton noted that Harnett's "lively text will engage even reluctant readers" of the book.

President Abraham Lincoln is such a pivotal figure in U.S. history that Harness has devoted two books to his life. Readers can begin with Young Abe Lincoln, which finds Lincoln growing up in rural Kentucky with a thirst for learning. Calling the book a "credible, highly personal portrait" of the sixteenth president of the United States, a Publishers Weekly contributor praised Harness's "realistic, vividly colored illustrations." The companion to Young Abe Lincoln is Harness's 1997 picture book Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, 1837-1965, which begins by showing readers the wet-behind-the-ears, Kentucky-born lawyer and newly elected state leg- islator arriving in Springfield, Illinois, to make his mark. Painting a realistic portrait of a man who has become an American myth, Harness's "informal style lends a familiarity to the narrative, interspersing quotes, excerpts, anecdotes, and speeches" into her text, according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. Commending the illustrations in particular for their ability to "convey Lincoln's private and public personalities," a Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded of Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington that between the book's covers "solid storytelling meets sound history."

Harness delves into U.S. history in other books, including the picture book Our Colonial Year, The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the Amazing-but-True Survival Story of Plymouth Colony, and Thomas Jefferson. A time-travel story that combines fact and fiction, Ghosts of the Civil War finds the ghost of Lincoln's son Willie serving as a guide to nineteenth-century American history. When Lindsay grudgingly accompanies her family to the reenactment of a U.S. Civil War battle, she meets Willie Lincoln, who at first appears to be one of the actors, but when his true identity is discovered, she follows him on a tour through time, watching the events leading up to the war between the states unfold. In Kirkus Reviews a writer praised Ghosts of the Civil War as "engrossing, wide-ranging, refresher course" for young students of civil-war history, and in Booklist Carolyn Phelan deemed the book "imaginative

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and strongly visual." Harnett employs a similar time-travel format in Ghosts of the Twentieth Century, Ghosts of the White House, and Ghost of the Nile, while in The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the Amazing-but-True Survival Story of Plymouth Colony she "combines a breezy tone with exhaustively researched texts to produce not only exemplary life stories, but also snapshots" of the difficult life of the early Massachusetts Bay colonists," according to Ann Welton in Booklist.

Somewhat of a change of pace for Harness, Just for You to Know is a coming-of-age novel set in the 1960s that focuses on a young teen trying to deal with the death of her mother. The oldest daughter in a large family, thirteen-year-old Carmen Cathcart has been used to change because of her family's frequent moves. However, as her narration makes clear, getting used to life in her new Missouri town is more difficult due to the fact that she is starting middle school. When Carmen's mother dies during childbirth, Carmen finds herself emotionally alone, especially when her father withdraws due to his grief. Faced with caring for her six younger siblings, Carmen ultimately learns compassion, and rises to the circumstances of her life in a novel that School Library Journal contributor Carly Wiskoff dubbed alternately "true and tender" and "heart-wrenching"

In her work as an illustrator, Harness's favorite mediums include watercolor, colored pencil, and pastel, giving her images a soft, gentle look. As both author and illustrator, she divides her time between traveling to various sites around the country to research her books and working in her home studio. She shares her small, book-filled house in Independence, Missouri, with two cats.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 1992, Carolyn Phelan, review of Three Young Pilgrims, p. 56; March 1, 1993, Deborah Abbott, review of The Queen with Bees in Her Hair, p. 1235; March 1, 1994, Carolyn Phelan, review of Young John Quincy, p. 1257; May 15, 1995, Carolyn Phelan, The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, p. 1643; September 15, 1995, Kathy Broderick, review of Papa's Christmas Gift: Around the World on the Night before Christmas, p. 170; January 1, 1997, Carolyn Phelan, review of Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, p. 863; March 1, 1998, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Ghosts of the White House, p. 1128; March 15, 1998, Lauren Peterson, review of Young Teddy Roosevelt, p. 1238; January 1, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, p. 865; November 15, 1999, John Peters, review of Midnight in the Cemetery: A Spooky Search-and-Find Alphabet Book, p. 626; November 15, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of Ghosts of the Twentieth Century, p. 620; March 1, 2000, Carolyn Phelan, review of George Washington, p. 1239; April 15, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of Remember the Ladies: One Hundred Great American Women, p. 1548; January 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, review of Ghosts of the Civil War, p. 857; December 1, 2002, Kay Weisman, review of The Revolutionary John Adams, p. 659; January 1, 2003, Lauren Peterson, review of Rabble Rousers: Twenty Women Who Made a Difference, p. 878; December 1, 2005, Carolyn Phelan, review of Our Colonial Year, p. 50; December 1, 2006, Kay Weisman, review of The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail, p. 40; December 15, 2006, Linda Perkins, review of The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the Amazing-but-True Survival Story of Plymouth Colony, p. 41.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 1, 1996, Kay Weisman, review of Young Abe Lincoln: The Frontier Days, 1809-1837, p. 139; November 15, 1996, Lauren Peterson, review of They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express, p. 582; January, 1999, Deborah Stevenson, review of Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, p. 168; November 15, 2001, review of Ghost of the Civil War, p. 1611; February, 2003, review of Rabble Rousers, p. 235; October, 2006, Karen Coats, review of Just for You to Know, p. 72; March, 2007, Elizabeth Bush, review of The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail, p. 292.

Children's Book Review Service, winter, 1992, review of The Windchild, p. 63.

Instructor, October, 1997, Judy Freeman, review of Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, p. 26.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1992, review of Three Young Pilgrims, p. 1061; February 1, 1994, review of Young John Quincy, p. 144; October 15, 1995, review of Papa's Christmas Gift, p. 1492; November 15, 1996, review of They're Off!, p. 1669; January 1, 1997, review of Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, 1837-1865, p. 58; November 1, 1998, review of Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, p. 1600; December 1, 1999, review of Ghosts of the Twentieth Century, p. 1885; November 15, 2001, review of Ghosts of the Civil War, p. 1161; November 15, 2002, review of The Revolutionary John Adams, p. 1693; December 1, 2002, review of Rabble Rousers, p. 1768; November 15, 2003, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 1360; August 1, 2004, review of Ghost of the Nile, p. 742; December 15, 2004, review of Franklin and Eleanor, p. 1202; November 15, 2005, review of The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin and Our Colonial Year, p. 1232.

Publishers Weekly, August 31, 1992, review of Three Young Pilgrims, p. 204; February 8, 1993, review of The Queen with Bees in Her Hair, p. 86; January 10, 1994, review of Young John Quincy, p. 62; September 18, 1995, review of Papa's Christmas Gift, p. 103; May 20, 1996, review of Young Abe Lincoln, p. 259; January 6, 1997, review of Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, p. 73; December 15, 1997, review of Ghosts of the White House, p. 58; November 23, 1998, re- view of Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, p. 67; September 27, 1999, review of Midnight in the Cemetery, p. 48; January 3, 2000, "Back in Time," p. 78; January 29, 2001, review of Remember the Ladies, p. 91; January 17, 2005, review of Franklin and Eleanor, p. 55.

School Library Journal, March, 1992, Marianne Pilla, review of The Windchild, p. 215; September, 1992, Alexandra Marris, review of Three Young Pilgrims, p. 204; June, 1993, Anna Biagioni Hart, review of The Queen with Bees in Her Hair, p. 76; April, 1994, Cyrisse Jaffee, review of Young John Quincy, p. 120; August, 1995, Kate Hegarty Bouman, review of The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, p. 134; October, 1995, Jane Marino, review of Papa's Christmas Gift, p. 38; June, 1996, Rosie Peasley, review of Young Abe Lincoln, p. 141; December, 1996, Louise L. Sherman, review of They're Off!, pp. 113-114; March, 1997, Shirley Wilton, review of Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington, p. 175; April, 1998, Alicia Eames, review of Ghosts of the White House, p. 117; July, 1998, Alice Eames, review of Young Teddy Roosevelt, p. 88; December, 1998, Barbara Elleman, review of Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, p. 104; November, 1999, Marian Drabkin, review of Midnight in the Cemetery, p. 118; February, 2000, Steven Engelfried, review of Ghosts of the Twentieth Century, p. 111; April, 2000, Edith Ching, review of George Washington, p. 120; February, 2001, Anne Chapman Callaghan, review of Remember the Ladies, p. 111; January, 2002, Rita Hunt Smith, review of Ghosts of the Civil War, p. 100; February, 2003, Edith Ching, review of The Revolutionary John Adams, p. 161; February, 2004, Grace Oliff, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 131; May, 2004, Joyce Adams, review of George Washington, Spymaster, p. 160; October, 2004, Anne Chapman Callaghan, review of Ghosts of the Nile, p. 142; August, 2005, Blair Christolon, review of George Washington, Spymaster, p. 48; November, 2005, Deanna Romriell, review of The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin, p. 116; December, 2005, Grace Oliff, review of Our Colonial Year, p. 126; September, 2006, Carly B. Wiskoff, review of Just for You to Know, p. 208; January, 2007, Ann Welton, review of The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the Amazing-but-True Survival Story of Plymouth Colony, p. 149.