Karen Hesse
Karen Hesse (born on August 29, 1952 Baltimore, Maryland) is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.[1]
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[edit] Life
She studied theatre at Towson State College, and married Randy Hesse in 1971 before completing her studies.[2] She finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland in English, Psychology, and Anthropology,[3] during which she began writing poetry. After graduating, she moved with her husband to Brattleboro, Vermont, had two children, Rachel and Kate, took jobs in publishing, and started writing children's books. Her first novel was a rejected story about meeting Bigfoot, but her next proposal became the novel Wish on a Unicorn.[2]
Out of the Dust is a story of a girl living through the dust bowl of the depression. The central character is framed for killing her pregnant mother by leaving a bucket of boiling kerosene next to the stove. After the mother dies, Billie Jo and her father try and continue on with their lives. Billy Jo isn't comfortable with her father, but does as what she's told. "I don't know who he is anymore, he looks like my father, smells like my father, but he's like a stranger." Hesse has written this book with much thoughtfulness.
She tackled a more disturbing subject in her book Witness. Here, the newly invigorated Klan of the 1920s (in this book, 1924 and '25) tries to take over a small Vermont town. The book is written from the perspectives of several people- Merlin Van Tornhout and Johnny Reeves, both members of the Ku Klux Klan, Sara Chickering, a farmer, Esther Hirsh, a six-year-old Jewish girl, Leonora Sutter, an African American girl, Iris Weaver, a resteraunteur, Harvey and Viola Pettibone, who are shop owners, Reynard Alexander, a newspaper editor, Fitzgerald Flitt, the doctor, and Percelle Johnson, the town constable. In Witness Hesse continues the distinctive poetic/prose style she pioneered in Out of the Dust.
Hesse also wrote The Music of Dolphins, about a girl who was raised by dolphins. Stowaway, based on the true story of an 11-year-old boy who stowed away on Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour in 1768. Brooklyn Bridge is based on the true story of the family that created the teddy bear in Brooklyn in 1903.
If you are a fan of Karen Hesse, try reading one of Ellen Hopkins' books including Crank and Perfect!
[edit] Awards
- 2002 MacArthur Fellows Program
- 1998 Newbery Medal for Out of the Dust
- Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Out of the Dust
- [International Reading Association Award] For "Letters from Rifka"
[edit] Works
- 1991 Wish on a Unicorn (H. Holt, ISBN 9780805015720, reprint Google Books edition, Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 9780312376116)
- 1992 Letters from Rifka (reprint Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 9780312535612)
- 1993 Lester's Dog, Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (Crown, ISBN 9780517583579)
- 1993 Poppy's Chair, Illustrated by Kay Life (Macmillan, ISBN 9780027437058)
- 1994 Phoenix Rising (Macmillan, ISBN 9780805031089)
- 1995 Lavender, Illustrated by Andrew Glass (Google Books edition, Macmillan, ISBN 9780805042573)
- 1996 The Music of Dolphins (Google Books edition, Scholastic Press, ISBN 9780590897976)
- 1997 Out of the Dust (Google Books edition, Scholastic Inc., ISBN 9780590360807)
- 1997 A Time of Angels (Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, ISBN 9780786812097)
- 1998 Just Juice, Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker (Google Books edition, Scholastic Inc., ISBN 9780590033831)
- 1998 Sable (Google Books edition, San Val, ISBN 9780613086899)
- 1999 Come on, Rain, Illustrated by Jon J. Muth (Scholastic Press, ISBN 9780590331258)
- 1999 A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin (Scholastic, ISBN 9780439445573)
- 2000 Stowaway (Google Books edition, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 9780689839870)
- 2001 Witness (Google Books edition, Scholastic Inc., ISBN 9780439272001)
- 2003 Aleutian Sparrow (Google Books edition, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 9780689861895)
- 2003 The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories of Hanukkah through History, Illustrated by J. Brian Pinkney (Hyperion Books for Children, ISBN 9780786806195)
- 2004 The Cats in Krasinski Square, Illustrated by Wendy Watson (Google Books edition, Scholastic Press, ISBN 9780439435406)
- 2005 The Young Hans Christian Andersen (Scholastic Press, ISBN 9780439679909)
- 2008 Spuds, Illustrated by Wendy Watson (Scholastic Press, ISBN 9780439879934)
- 2008 Brooklyn Bridge (Google Books edition, Macmillan, ISBN 9780312378868)
- 2011 "Nell," a short story included in the young adult anthology What You Wish For (G.P. Putnam's Sons, ISBN 9780399254543)
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/aifolder/aipages/ai_h/hesse.html
- ^ a b EPA biography
- ^ KidsReads biography
