Perkins, Lynne Rae 1957–

Personal

Born 1957; married; husband's name Bill; children: two. Education: Pennsylvania State University, B.A., 1978; Wisconsin University, M.A., 1981.

Addresses

Home—Cedar, MI. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Greenwillow Books, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.

Career

Children's book writer and illustrator.

Awards, Honors

Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book award, 1995, for Home Lovely, and 2004, for Snow Music; named among 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, New York Public Library, Booklist Best Books designation, Blue Ribbon for Fiction, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and American Library Association best book designation, all 1999, all for All Alone in the Universe; Newbery Medal, 2006, for Criss Cross.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Home Lovely (picture book), Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Clouds for Dinner (picture book), Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 1997.

All Alone in the Universe, Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Broken Cat (picture book), Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Snow Music (picture book), Greenwillow (New York, NY), 2003.

Criss Cross, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 2005.

ILLUSTRATOR

Sharon Phillips Denslow, Georgie Lee, Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Sidelights

In her picture books and longer fiction, Lynne Rae Perkins creates worlds that "are individual yet palpable, with people who could walk right into the real world without any adjustment," observed Deborah Stevenson in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Perkins' work is unusual because she uses illustrations even in her novels for older readers, which are typically targeted with text alone. This combination, which can be found in the Newbery Award-winning novel Criss Cross as well as in Perkins' picture books, creates what Stevenson called an "offhand verisimilitude of moments in text and image that catch readers, hooking them on for the ride to wherever Perkins wants to take them."

Perkins' first novel, Home Lovely, concerns Janelle and her young daughter, Tiffany, a girl who combats her loneliness by planting a garden near the family's trailer home. As the plants grow, Tiffany imagines a garden full of trees and flowers, but she is devastated when their mailman, Bob, compliments her instead on the wonderful-looking tomatoes, melons, and other vegetables she has mistakenly planted. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Home Lovely "a spacious story that allows ordinary loneliness and unexpected kindness to assume their proper proportions." Horn Book contributor Martha V. Parravano praised Perkins for her "rich" characterizations and her theme that "a home does not have to be a palace to feel like one."

Clouds for Dinner, which is also accompanied by Perkins' pen-and-ink drawings, tells the story of Janet and her unorthodox home life. The family home is eighty-seven steps up, because her astronomy-loving parents spend more time gazing at the sky than they do preparing dinner. Janet longs for an ordinary life, and her wish comes true when she is invited to stay with her suburban, traditional, and totally practical aunt. At her aunt's house the girl immerses herself in the slow pace of everyday life, including regular dinner and even a car wash, until the first time she tries to describe the magic of nature to her aunt. In a "strong text" accompanied by pictures that "do justice to the beauty of the northern Michigan landscape," according to Horn Book contributor Parravano, Perkins "once again celebrates the nontraditional."

The picture book The Broken Cat tells two parallel stories: in one tale Andy's cat is at the vet, while the other goes back in time to when Andy's mother was a child and broke her arm. Called a "quirky, effective slice-of-life

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memoir" by a Publishers Weekly contributor, The Broken Cat was dubbed a "charming book" and "captivating family story" by Caroline Ward in School Library Journal. "The cat (and,… an arm) may be broken, but the picture book itself is indisputably a whole, imaginatively conceived and emotionally satisfying," wrote Parravano.

A winter scene in which the young narrator searches for his dog is the setting for Snow Music. The self-illustrated title features hints of where the dog has gone as the boy walks through a winter wonderland to find him. "Perkins spectacularly recreates the music of a winter's day," declared a Publishers Weekly critic, while Joanna Rudge Long commented in Horn Book that "onomatopoeic language, offbeat details, and skillfully nuanced tones of earth and sky all convey the charms of quiet observation." Shelly A. Robinson, writing in Childhood Education, noted that Perkins' "beautiful illustrations gives a peaceful glimpse into the snowy world," while Horn Book contributor Rudine Sims Bishop deemed the text "a delightful word song." According to Dennis Duffy in the New York Times, "Snow Music offers a sophisticated experience" that is "accessible to all."

Along with her picture books, Perkins has written several award-winning novels. Called "a quiet story about growing up" by Roxanne Burg in School Library Journal, All Alone in the Universe follows best friends Debbie and Maureen as they grow apart during a school year full of changes and growth. "The agony of change is depicted well" in this powerful telling of "the all-too-familiar experience," commented Deborah Stevenson in her review of the book for the Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books.

Debbie returns in Criss Cross, which is told through a series of vignettes featuring a variety of different perspectives and follows the relationship between Debbie and best friend Hector. Photographs, drawings, haiku, and dialogue are all used by Perkins to move the story along. Her "writing sparkles with inventive, often dazzling metaphors," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who found the novel to be "a poignantly funny coming-of-age story." According to B. Allison Gray in School Library Journal, "young teens will certainly relate to the self-consciousness and uncertainty of all of the characters, each of whom is straining toward clarity and awareness." As Myrna Marler wrote in her Kliatt review, Criss Cross "is not a novel for those addicted to adrenaline, but rewards those who patiently explore the story's treasures."

Asked where she came up with the idea for Criss Cross, Perkins explained to Bar Barstow in School Library Journal: "I had this mental image that isn't in the book of four people riding in different cars to the same event. And maybe, just based on what they were listening to on the radio, having a completely different experience." "I just liked the idea of having these four characters come together," Perkins went on to say, "maybe even

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just having driven down the same stretch of road, but in completely different mindsets." Discussing her New-bery win with Diane Roback of Publishers Weekly, the author/illustrator explained: "It's the most you can hope for. When I was in art school, in my 20s, I remember thinking to myself that I don't want to peak until I'm fifty. And I'm going to be fifty this summer. I'm hoping that I can plateau for awhile and don't start sliding downhill!"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of All Alone in the Universe, p. 127; March 15, 2005, Ilene Cooper, review of The Broken Cat, p. 1264; September 1, 2003, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Snow Music, p. 130; October 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Criss Cross, p. 47.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 1999, Deborah Stevenson, review of All Alone in the Universe, pp. 65-66.

Childhood Education, spring, 2005, Shelly A. Robinson, review of Snow Music, p. 167.

Horn Book, November, 1995, Martha V. Parravano, review of Home Lovely, p. 736; September, 1997, Martha V. Parravano, review of Clouds for Dinner, pp. 562-563; May-June, 2002, Martha V. Parravano, review of The Broken Cat, p. 320; November-December, 2003, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Snow Music, p. 734; September-October, 2005, Christine M. Hepperman, review of Criss Cross, p. 585; January-February, 2006, review of Criss Cross, p. 11; March-April, 2006, "Newbery Medal," p. 235.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1997, review of Clouds for Dinner, p. 955; August 15, 2005, review of Criss Cross, p. 920.

Kliatt, September, 2005, Myrna Marler, review of Criss Cross, p. 12.

New York Times, January 18, 2004, Dennis Duffy, review of Snow Music.

Publishers Weekly, October 9, 1995, review of Home Lovely, p. 86; October 18, 1999, review of All Alone in the Universe, p. 84; December 20, 1999, Kate Pavao, "Writing from Experience" (interview), p. 25; April 1, 2002, review of The Broken Cat, p. 81; October 27, 2003, review of Snow Music, p. 67; October 31, 2005, review of Criss Cross, p. 58; January 30, 2006, Diane Roback, "Greenwillow, Hyperion Win Newbery, Caldecott," p. 10.

School Library Journal, October, 1999, Roxanne Burg, review of All Alone in the Universe, pp. 156-157; June, 2002, Caroline Ward, review of The Broken Cat, p. 107; November, 2003, Carolyn Janssen, review of Snow Music, p. 112; September, 2005, B. Allison Gray, review of Criss Cross, p. 210; October, 2005, review of Criss Cross, p. S65; March, 2006, Barb Barstow, "Private I," pp. 66-69.

Washington Post, January 25, 2006, "Lynne Rae Perkins Wins Newbery Medal for 'Criss Cross,'" p. C03.

ONLINE

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Online, http://bccb.lis.uiuc.edu/ (February 1, 2000), Deborah Stevenson, "Rising Star: Lynn Rae Perkins."

Lynne Rae Perkins Home Page, http://www.lynneraeperkins.com (June 21, 2006).