Avi

• Born in New York City in 1937 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
• Did not do well in school, requiring special tutoring, especially in writing, but because writing was important to his family and friends, he decided to prove that he could do it.
• Decided to become a writer in his senior year of high school.
• Began writing as a playwright, but started writing for children when he had children of his own.
• Writes mostly in chapter book form, and for young-adult audiences.
• Writes in a variety of genres; his books fit into categories including adventure, animal tales, comedy, fantasy, ghost, historical fiction, mystery, and short stories.

Quotes:

Speaking on the relationship between the reader and writer: “The writer tries to create the letter o, but he only writes the letter c.  But if the gap is too big, then the reader can’t fill it.  If it’s too small, there’s no reason for the reader to fill it, but if it’s just right, then the reader fills it with himself/herself, and the circle is complete.  And I think it’s a wonderful metaphor for what the writer does, and what the reader does to complete the connection.”

Speaking on writing for young adults, “I like kids, I believe in them… I believe, more than anything in the power of a good story.  The job of a writer is always to tell a good story.  And the job of a writer for young people is to tell a good story is such a way that the reader can connect to that story and make sense of it and move with it and feel it.”

Speaking on Crispin, the Cross of Lead “The fourteenth century is fascinating because it marks the beginning of some of our cherished ideals and goals, the ideal of “all men are created equal” is expressed during that time for the first time in our culture… The character in the book called John Ball, is an historical character, he’s real.  And he did talk about this notion of freedom.  Not quite the way we talk about it today, but that’s when you begin to hear that kind of talk.  It must have been extraordinary to hear it in those days, because it was truly radical.  And we’re talking 1370, and it’s not going to be for another couple of hundred years, three-hundred years, in our culture, that these notions come to real life… I think the struggle for freedom, the struggle for security safety, is probably a struggle that has existed as long as humans have lived in societies and governments. I think that particularly for young people, the notion being that they need to think for themselves, they need to realize themselves… we all struggle to find out who we are.  We have our names, but they begin to shift… [It is] a struggle that every human being goes through.”  

Major Awards:

Newbery Award – Crispin: the Cross of Lead

Newbery Honor – True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Newbery Honor – Nothing but the Truth

Boston Glove-Horn Award – True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award – Poppy

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award – Nothing But the Truth

Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award – The Fighting Ground

Christopher Award – Encounter at Easton

Reflection:

Crispin, the Cross of Lead

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: the late 14^th century, England. 

Summary: The main character, Crispin is the poorest peasant serf working the land owned by a Lord in rural England; he was not even given a name when he was born.  Through this book, Crispin explores issues of identity, freedom, and reconsideration for what is right and wrong in a strict social caste system.  This kind of peasant life was being questioned in the story, and the setting takes place just after the Plague and just before the bloody “peasants’ rebellion” of 1381.   

Personal Response: I enjoyed reading this book, it was adventurous, set in an interesting time in history, and follows an unlikely character.  The ideas of identity and freedom were viewed from an intriguing angle.  I enjoyed discovering more about this time in history as he discovered his own identity and place in the world.

Silent Movie

Genre: Historical Fiction, Picture Book

Setting: The late 19^th century, the Old World (Europe), across the Atlantic Ocean, to the American East Coast

Summary: This picture book (one of only two Avi has published) reads like a silent move.  There are black-and-white images telling the story of an immigrant family from the ship to the big city; where they find themselves separated. The images show close-ups of a mother, a son, and a father whose facial expressions tell much of the story.  The story is inspired by Charlie Chaplin and his ilk of foreign-born silent actors who didn’t need to know English to be movie stars. 

Personal Response: I thought this was a unique picture book to read. The title sets up the reader to expect an experience like watching a silent movie, and the book delivers.  There is everything a silent movie would have had: action, excitement, and melodrama (if you’re quiet you can hear the accompanying piano).  The captions read as a silent movie's would, and the illustrations show the expressive physical drama that is crucial to silent acting.  As a fellow Charlie Chaplin fan, I found it to be an effectively told, moving story.

Bibliography

http://www.avi-writer.com/ Author Website

http://www.goodconversations.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=40%3Agood-conversations&id=66%3Aa-talk-with-avi&Itemid=91  Good Conversations Website

Titles of notable picture books:

Silent Movie

Titles of notable chapter books:

City of Orphans

Crispin: Cross of Lead

Crispin: at the Edge of the World

Crispin: the End of Time

End of the Beginning

Finding Providence: the Story of Roger Williams

Nothing But the Truth

Poppy

Poppy and Erath

Poppy and Rye

Romeo and Juliet, Together (And Alive!) At Last

Secret School

Sophia’s War: a Tale of the Revolution

Strange Happenings

True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle