- 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 14th
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 19th
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
