Deborah Hopkinson is an American writer of children's books, primarily
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
,
nonfiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
and
picture books
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
. She was born in
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...
.
Selected books
*''Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt'' (1993)
*''Maria's Comet'' (1999)
*''Pioneer Summer'' (2002)
*''Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings'' (2003)
*''Shutting Out the Sky'' (2003)
*''Apples to Oregon'' (2004)
*''Sky Boys'' (2005)
*''Into the Firestorm'' (2006)
*''Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek'' (2008)
*''Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole'' (2009)
*''Titanic: Voices from the Disaster'' (2012)
*''The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel'' (2013)
*''Steamboat School'' (2016)
*''A Letter to my Teacher'' (2017)
Awards
*''Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt'' won the
International Reading Association
The International Literacy Association (ILA), formerly the International Reading Association (IRA), is an international global advocacy and member professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialo ...
Award.
*''Sky Boys'', about the builders of the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
, was a
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award
The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are a set of American literary awards conferred by
''The Boston Globe'' and ''The Horn Book Magazine'' annually from 1967. One book is recognized in each of four categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and P ...
Honor book.
*''Keep On!'', about
Matthew Henson
Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years. They spent a total of 18 years on expeditions together. , won the
Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature for 2009/2010.
*''Titanic: Voices from the Disaster'' was a
Robert F. Sibert Honor book and a
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction finalist.
*''The Great Trouble'', a novel about Dr.
John Snow
John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the so ...
and a
cholera outbreak in Victorian London, was an
Oregon Book Award
The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. ...
finalist and winner of the Oregon Spirit Award.
*''Steamboat School'', about
John Berry Meachum
John Berry Meachum (1789–1854) was an American pastor, businessman, educator and founder of the First African Baptist Church in St. Louis, the oldest black church west of the Mississippi River. At a time when it was illegal in the city to teac ...
and his students, received the 2017
Jane Addams Children's Book Award
The Jane Addams Children's Book Award is given annually to a children's book published the preceding year that advances the causes of peace and social equality. The awards have been presented annually since 1953. They were previously given joint ...
, given annually to a children's book that advances the causes of peace and social equality.
*Two of her books won a Jane Addams Book Honor Award in 2004: ''Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings'' about
Alta Weiss
Alta Weiss Hisrich (February 9, 1890 – February 12, 1964), born Alta Weiss, was an American minor league baseball pitcher from Ohio who drew large crowds to exhibition games at minor league and major league venues in the US state of Ohio and K ...
, for younger readers and ''Shutting Out the Sky'', about immigrants in 1900s New York, for older readers.
*''Shutting Out the Sky'' was also an
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book.
*She received Mathical Honors for ''The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel.''
*''Follow the Moon Home'' won the Green Book Award for children's picture book in 2017, and in 2021 she received the award again for her book ''Butterflies Belong Here''.
See also
References
External links
*
*
Deborah Hopkinson at Fantastic Fiction
Living people
American children's writers
American historical novelists
Writers from Lowell, Massachusetts
American women children's writers
1942 births
21st-century American women
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