Virginia Hamilton: America's Storyteller

by Julie K. Rubini

Overview

A Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of 2018 (Outstanding Merit selection) • Finalist, 2018 Ohioana Book Award

Long before she wrote The House of Dies Drear, M. C. Higgins, the Great, and many other children’s classics, Virginia Hamilton grew up among her extended family near Yellow Springs, Ohio, where her grandfather had been brought as a baby through the Underground Railroad. The family stories she heard as a child fueled her imagination, and the freedom to roam the farms and woods nearby trained her to be a great observer. In all, Hamilton wrote forty-one books, each driven by a focus on “the known, the remembered, and the imagined”—particularly within the lives of African Americans.

Over her thirty-five-year career, Hamilton received every major award for children’s literature. This new biography gives us the whole story of Virginia’s creative genius, her passion for nurturing young readers, and her clever way of crafting stories they’d love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821422694
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	06/29/2017
Series:	Biographies for Young Readers
Edition description:	1
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	7 - 12 Years

About the Author

Julie K. Rubini is the founder of Claire’s Day, a children’s book festival in honor of her late daughter. She is the author of Hidden Ohio, Missing Millie Benson: The Secret Case of the Nancy Drew Ghostwriter and Journalist, and Virginia Hamilton: America’s Storyteller. But most of all, she cherishes her roles as wife to Brad and mother to daughter Kyle and son Ian.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Chapter 1 Characters 1

Chapter 2 Setting 14

Chapter 3 Plot Twist 24

Chapter 4 Voice 37

Chapter 5 Flashback 48

Chapter 6 Turning Point 57

Chapter 7 Flash Forward 65

Chapter 8 First Person 75

Chapter 9 Resolution 86

Chapter 10 Conclusion 100

Virginia's Timeline 115

Virginia's Awards and Recognition 117

Virginia's Chronological List of Works 121

Glossary 127

Acknowledgments 131

Notes 133

Bibliography 141

Editorial Reviews

If the children you know think biographies are boring, this one will make them reconsider. The tapestry of words Rubini weaves together brilliantly portrays the amazing, quirky, shy, frog-loving woman and extraordinary writer who was Virginia Hamilton.… Young readers will find this a quick, accessible, and memorable read.… A biography worthy of the larger-than-life Virginia Hamilton.”—Kirkus (starred review)


“Julie Rubini has created a well-researched, empathetic, and thoughtful biography for young readers and their older allies. All the facts and chronologies are here, of course, but Virginia herself also shines through.”—Arnold Adoff, Virginia Hamilton's husband


“[Hamilton's] life is presented in a way that will inspire young females to follow their dreams. Rubini interviewed Hamilton’s husband and friends, and their accounts and memories are weaved throughout the pages.…Children, teachers, public and school librarians, and parents alike will appreciate the stories of multiculturalism and diversity within the focal story.”—Melissa Martion, Portsmouth Daily Times


“Virginia Hamilton: America’s Storyteller is an inspiring, conscientiously researched, and clear-cut biography of America’s most awarded author of children’s literature.…I loved the fact that Julie K. Rubini researched Virginia’s life with the beautiful awareness that she was writing about someone whose story could arouse the dreams of aspiring young writers and artists who might think it is impossible to become larger than life because of their background, race, ethnic group, gender, or heritage.”—Yolimari Garcia, Bookworms and Owls

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
Gr 6 Up—A biography of Virginia Hamilton—the award-winning author of such classics as Zeely and M.C. Higgins, the Great—for middle schoolers. Rubini presents Hamilton's life story as one filled with both triumphs and struggles, focusing on what it was like to be an African American woman author in the 1960s. The work offers insight into what inspired Hamilton to craft her groundbreaking books. "Did You Know?" inserts accompany the text and provide background on the civil rights movement and more, though the boxes occasionally disrupt the narrative flow. By contrast, the photographs and back matter contribute greatly to the reading experience. VERDICT A general addition to nonfiction biography collections, especially wherever Hamilton's titles are in demand.—Aileen Barton, Choctaw Public Library, OK

School Library Journal

★ 2017-06-19
If the children you know think biographies are boring, this one will make them reconsider. The tapestry of words Rubini weaves together brilliantly portrays the amazing, quirky, shy, frog-loving woman and extraordinary writer who was Virginia Hamilton. Since Hamilton constantly dipped into the well of her own family history for book details, Rubini wisely begins several generations back, with Hamilton's enslaved great-grandmother Mary Cloud, who smuggled her son from Virginia to Ohio and delivered him to free relatives then disappeared. Descended from a long line of storytellers and "plain out-and-out liars," Hamilton relied heavily on what she called Rememory, "an exquisitely textured recollection, real or imagined, which is otherwise indescribable." Rubini traces Hamilton's evolution from aspiring writer to becoming "the most honored author of children's literature." Hamilton received award after award and in 1975 became the first African-American winner of the coveted Newbery Medal. (To date, only three other African-Americans have won the Newbery.) Rubini's biography entertains and informs in equal measure, and because she writes short paragraphs and highlights challenging words, young readers will find this a quick, accessible, and memorable read. Photographs and book covers punctuate the chapters, as do useful explanations of Hamilton's historical context and impact. Rich backmatter will also make this a useful classroom text. A biography worthy of the larger-than-life Virginia Hamilton. (Biography. 10-16)

Kirkus Reviews