Jonell, Lynne 1956-

Personal

Born November 1, 1956, in Little Falls, MN; daughter of Arvid (a pastor) and Marian (an organist and music teacher) Kingsriter; married Bill Kratoska (a mechanical engineer), July 22, 1978; children: Chris, Rob. Education: Attended University of Minnesota; University of Colorado, B.S., 1979. Politics: "Independent." Religion: Lutheran. Hobbies and other interests: Music, sailing, travel, volunteering.

Addresses

Home—Plymouth, MN. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Author and illustrator. City of Lakewood, Lakewood, CO, graphic designer, 1980-81; Boulder Public Library, Boulder, CO, director of graphics, 1981-82; City of Boulder, director of graphics, 1982-83; freelance artist and writer, 1983—. Also teaches writing at Loft Literary Center.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

Don Freeman Memorial grant-in-aid, 1987; Best Children's Books of the Year selection, Bank Street College of Education, for I Need a Snake; Children's Choice listee, International Reading Association/Children's Book Council, and Best Children's Books of the Year selection, Bank Street College of Education, both for It's My Birthday, Too!; Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award, 2003, for Bravemole; Minnesota Writers career initiative grant, 2006; Minnesota Book Award for Children's Literature, for Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Mommy Go Away!, illustrated by Petra Mathers, Putnam (New York, NY), 1997.

I Need A Snake, illustrated by Petra Mathers, Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.

It's My Birthday, Too!, illustrated by Petra Mathers, Putnam (New York, NY), 1999.

Let's Play Rough!, illustrated by Ted Rand, Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.

Mom Pie, illustrated by Petra Mathers, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

When Mommy Was Mad, illustrated by Petra Mathers, Putnam (New York, NY), 2002.

(Self-illustrated) Bravemole, Putnam (New York, NY), 2002.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, illustrated by Jonathan Bean, Holt (New York, NY), 2007.

Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, illustrated by Jonathan Bean, Holt (New York, NY), 2008.

Jonell's books have been published in Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, German, and French.

OTHER

(With mother, Arvid Kingsriter) Move, and I Will Move: How the Great Church Builder Taught Me Step by Step, North Central University Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2006.

Sidelights

In her highly regarded works for young readers, including When Mommy Was Mad and Emmy and the Incred-ible Shrinking Rat, Lynne Jonell examines parental authority, sibling rivalry, and other themes that are important to her audience. "Little children feel these great big emotions," Jonell told Minneapolis Star Tribune contributor Kay Miller. "If my little books can speak for children—give them a voice so that their parents can understand what it's like to be small—that's really what I'm after."

Jonell once told SATA that she developed an early interest in art and literature. "I have fond memories of a little corner in my childhood bedroom," she remarked. "If I opened my closet door very wide, a small triangular space was enclosed behind it; just the right size for me, my crayons, and a piece of paper. There, in a place all my own, I made my first drawings. The busy household washed like a thundering surf all around me, but I had a small island all my own where I had what every writer and artist needs—privacy.

"Later on, I found another space—behind the overstuffed chair in my big sister's room. She had on her shelf an old, tattered copy of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit; what a find! I couldn't read all the words yet, but I understood the pictures. I shall never forget the picture of Benjamin Bunny's father walking on top of the garden wall with a switch, looking for his son.

"By the time I was school age, I had outgrown these two corners, and needed a new one. I found it in a little storage area beneath the stairs. There was a clothes-bar across the front where long coats and dresses were hung, and they made a sort of curtain, hiding the recess behind. But if you had been invited, you could have pushed past the coats to find yourself in a small and cozy hideaway, carpeted with thick rugs, lit by my old nursery lamp, with a large floor cushion, a tiny table, and an orange-crate bookshelf filled with old copies of Highlights for Children and Boys' Life.

"I felt loved and accepted in my family, but there was something very appealing about having a world of my own. And so I would go there often, taking a favorite book, and plunge into piracy with Captain Hook, or stumble upon magic with the Bastable children, or find myself drawn into the enchantment that was Narnia. I loved all kinds of books, but fantasy was my meat and drink, and my golden ticket to wonders.

"When I was in grade school, I shared a bed with my little sister, Boni. Boni was less heavy than I, with the result that when we shared one mattress, she would roll right down next to me and stay there, a little bundle of a toddler with a habit of elbowing me in her sleep. To get her to stay on her side of the bed (always a difficult task, because she liked cuddling right up next to me), I would tell her stories. If she rolled down next to me, the story would stop. She was my first and most appreciative audience, and later I would write down little tales that I had made up, illustrate them, and give them to her. She liked every story I ever thought of, and asked me for more…. I did not appreciate this enough at the time, of course, and no one has been so uncritical since.

"I had a third grade teacher, Marlene Glaus, of whom I was very fond. Miss Glaus encouraged me in my writing and drawing, even when little pictures began showing up on all my school papers … and once showed me a special drawer in which she said she would keep any story or poem or piece of art that I wanted to do just for fun. In later years, I would visit her now and then, and one time mentioned that I was planning to be an artist. She said, ‘Really? I always thought you would be a writer.’ And I think it was from that time on that I seriously thought of myself as someone who would one day write books. What is more, I didn't want to write just any books—I wanted to write for children. Books had been such a wonderful gift to me as a child, and had filled my life with such riches, that I thought it would be the most delightful thing in the world to give that gift back to other children someday.

"I knew that writing was a chancy occupation, and not one I could count on to pay the bills. So I studied advertising and journalism in college, thinking that I could use my skills as an artist in the advertising business and write on the side, hoping to be published someday. I wrote three middle grade novels in my twenties—long ones—which garnered the usual number of rejection slips from every publisher in New York. My husband, Bill, read them faithfully, and never once told me I was wasting my time. But it wasn't until I had my first child that I set aside the fantasy novels that I loved so much and turned my attention to picture books.

"When I was thirty, I took a writing class from Jane Resh Thomas, an established children's author living in Minneapolis. And when I read one of my very simple picture books in class—I think it was Let's Play Rough!—she said what I though was an interesting thing. ‘Lynne,’ she said, ‘you have an unusual gift. You can think like a toddler.’

"I wasn't sure this was a compliment! After all, I thought I had grown up a long time before. But I was truly fascinated with watching my two small sons. I saw with amusement, and great sympathy, that what Christopher and Robbie wanted more than anything was total world domination. Quite simply, each of my children was born with an instinctive desire to rule the world—or at least the little part of it that they could see—and it was my sad but necessary task to let them know that they couldn't. Worse than that, they couldn't rule me or their father.

"Poor Chris. Poor Rob. Those little boys wanted everything—they wanted to cross the street without holding my hand, and wear shorts in the winter, and eat spaghetti upside down. They wanted to sing Batman songs in church, and get a new toy every day, and they did not want me telling them what to do. I kept having to

say ‘No,’ but secretly I wished I didn't have to because I understood so completely what it was to want my own way, every day, every minute, all the time. Maybe I really am a toddler at heart … even if I don't have screaming tantrums, I know what it is to want something passionately, and know I can't have it, and wonder if I will ever get it.

"So I decided to give my children, in fantasy, what I could not give them in reality. In Mommy Go Away! I let Christopher be big, while I got small. In I Need A Snake, I had Robbie's pretend snakes turn into the real ones he so desperately wanted."

In Mommy Go Away!, Jonell's first published book for children, Christopher's mother shrinks in size and is set afloat on a toy boat in the bathtub. As Mommy expresses her fears about being so small, Christopher reassures her and tells her to have a good time with the other small mommies. Mommy is returned to full size after she admits that it is hard to be small. A Kirkus Reviews critic described Mommy Go Away! as "a highly original book that will strike a chord in every child's experience, and one that parents will enjoy immensely." School Library Journal critic Lucy Rafael commented that Jonell's "story will draw a smile from independent preschoolers who hope the adults in their lives can remember what it means to be small," and Booklist critic Hazel Rochman predicted that "toddlers and their caregivers will enjoy the gleeful role reversal in this picture book."

During her career, Jonell has enjoyed a successful partnership with illustrator Petra Mathers. In addition to Mommy Go Away!, the pair team up to create I Need a Snake, which details young Robbie's desire to own a pet snake. Robbie's mother does not want a snake, so to satisfy the boy's "need" she reads him books about snakes, then takes him to a museum, a pet store, and the zoo. Robbie still wants a snake, but Mommy says he must wait until he has a house of his own. Robbie then creates his own snakes out of a shoelace, a belt, and a jump rope; when Mommy is scared of these snakes, Robbie tells her that is why she needs him. Angela J. Reynolds, writing for School Library Journal, called I Need a Snake "a true commentary on a loving parent-child relationship." "The boy's creative spirit will win the applause of the many children who have unsuccessfully begged for a pet," Reynolds added, and a Publishers Weekly critic wrote that "Jonell understands the passions of boyhood, and her observations harbor a dry wit that parents will recognize." Rochman described I Need a Snake by saying "the simple, immediate text … express[es] the push and pull in a loving family and the child's natural attraction for what makes grown-ups shudder."

Another Jonell/Mathers collaboration, It's My Birthday, Too!, focuses on a feud between brothers Christopher and Robbie. As Christopher's birthday approaches, he informs his younger brother that he will not be allowed to attend, prompting Robbie to devise a unique solution to his dilemma. "The wonderfully simple dialogue is like a fistfight," Rochman observed, and a Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that Jonell's narrative "is as credible as if she were eavesdropping on two primary-school-age brothers."

The brothers make a return appearance in Mom Pie. As their mother prepares a magnificent holiday feast, Christopher and Robbie begin vying for her attention until she orders them from the kitchen. To pass the time, the boys create an unusual but touching tribute to their busy parent. "The children's creative method for coping with Mom's temporary unavailability effectively expresses their feelings," a Horn Book reviewer commented, and Luann Toth wrote in School Library Journal that "this slice of everyday life is told with humor and panache." In When Mommy Was Mad, Jonell "dramatizes intense family feelings from a small child's viewpoint," Rochman stated. Not realizing his parents have had an argument, Robbie becomes confused by his mother's terse mood and later displays some crankiness of his own. Praising the work in the New York Times Book Review, Dwight Garner observed that Jonell and Mathers "have become a sublime and dependable team."

A middle-grade novel, Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat centers on a goodhearted but lonely young girl, Emmy Addison, who learns that her controlling nanny, Miss Barmy, has plans to take over the Addison fortune. Emmy confronts the evil governess with the help of a sarcastic talking rat that possesses incredible powers. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the work "a lustrous affair, a droll fantasy with an old-fashioned sweep and a positively cinematic cast." In a follow-up, Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, the youngster at-

tempts to save five miniaturized girls who are held prisoner by Barmy and her evil associates. Reviewing the sequel in School Library Journal, Eva Mitnick predicted that "fans will find plenty of adventure, fun, and all the rodents they could wish for" in Jonell's story. Discussing the evolution of Emmy's character in a Macmillan interview, Jonell stated: "I guess you could say that the big question of the first book is, ‘Am I going to stand up for myself?’ And the question of the second book is, ‘Will I stand up for my friends?’ The theme running through both is courage, but it is explored in different ways."

Jonell has also published a self-illustrated work titled Bravemole, a response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. "We use fantasy—‘long ago and far away,’ talking animals, and mythical characters—to give the child a sense of distance from the awful reality, give them a safe way to look at their fears, and to reassure them that they will be cared for in spite of everything," the author remarked to Families.com interviewer Tristi Pinkston. "I attempted to use this device in Bravemole, a story about the events of September 11, 2001." The story concerns an ordinary creature who rescues members of his community after dragons destroy their tallest molehills. Jonathan Bean's "illustrations, rendered in water-soluble crayons, will appeal to young audiences," Shelley B. Sutherland commented in School Library Journal, and a Kirkus Reviews critic described the work as "purposeful and honorable."

Discussing the imaginative elements in her work, Jonell once told SATA that "there is always an element of fantasy—some wonderful surprise that is exciting and fun, but doesn't always work out the way it is supposed to. Come to think of it, maybe that's how I see life. It seems to meander along in its old boring way, when suddenly, around the corner, is something wonderful or terrifying or tender and joyous or incredibly gutwrenching—but you never know. You can't predict it!"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Mommy Go Away!, p. 415; May 15, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of I Need a Snake, p. 1632; March 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of It's My Birthday, Too!, p. 1207; March 15, 2001, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Mom Pie, p. 1404; May 15, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of When Mommy Was Mad, p. 1601; August, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, p. 68; July 1, 2008, Ilene Cooper, review of Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, p. 61.

Horn Book, May, 1999, review of It's My Birthday, Too!, p. 316; January, 2001, review of Mom Pie, p. 83.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1997, review of Mommy Go Away!, p. 1036; April 1, 2002, review of When Mommy Was Mad, p. 494; July 1, 2002, review of Bravemole, p. 956; July 1, 2007, review of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat; July 1, 2008, review of Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls.

New York Times Book Review, November 17, 2002, Dwight Garner, review of When Mommy Was Mad, p. 42.

Publishers Weekly, May 11, 1998, review of I Need a Snake, p. 66; March 1, 1999, review of It's My Birthday, Too!, p. 68; February 28, 2000, review of Let's Play Rough!, p. 79; January 1, 2001, review of Mom Pie, p. 92; July 29, 2002, review of Bravemole, p. 71; August 27, 2007, review of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, p. 90.

School Library Journal, December, 1997, Lucy Rafael, review of Mommy Go Away!, p. 94; June, 1998, Angela J. Reynolds, review of I Need a Snake, p. 111; March, 2000, Linda M. Kenton, review of Let's Play Rough!, p. 208; July, 2001, Luann Toth, review of Mom Pie, p. 84; June, 2002, Helen Foster James, review of When Mommy Was Mad, p. 98; September, 2002, Shelley B. Sutherland, review of Bravemole, p. 194; September, 2007, Robyn Gioia, review of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, p. 200; August, 2008, Eva Mitnick, review of Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, p. 124.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), September 16, 1998, Kay Miller, "Wanting the World; Author Lynne Jonell Understands the Power Struggles of Childhood," p. 1E.

ONLINE

Lynne Jonell Home Page,http://www.lynnejonell.com (January 1, 2009).

Families.com,http://media.families.com/ (May 25, 2007), Tristi Pinkston, "Lynne Jonell: When Inspiration Strikes"; (May 26, 2007) Tristi Pinkston, "Lynne Jonell: The Publishing Process"; (May 28, 2007) Tristi Pinkston, "Lynne Jonell Reader Feedback and about Her Books."

Macmillan Web site,http://us.macmillan.com/ (January 1, 2009), "Lynne Jonell."