Maia Teresa Wojciechowska (August 7, 1927 – June 13, 2002) was a

Polish-American Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Poles, Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing abou ...

writer best known for

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

and

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

. Her first book and two books for adults were published under her married name Maia Rodman.

Life

Wojciechowska was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Poland, and was schooled in Poland, France, and England. After the 1939

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, the family fled to France, where she attended dozens of schools. They moved to California, USA, in 1942. Wojciechowska married Selden Rodman in 1950 and they had one daughter, Oriana. They divorced in 1957, as did she and her second husband Richard Larkin, who were married between 1970 and 1981. For some time in the 1980s–90s she lived in New Jersey with her adopted daughter Leonara. A resident of

Mahwah, New Jersey Mahwah is the northernmost and largest municipality by geographic area () in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population of the township was 25,487, a decline of 403 from the 25,890 counted in the ...

,McAleavey, Teresa
"One Life – Maia Wojiechowska of Mahwah, Author"
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and P ...

'', January 7, 1995. Accessed May 16, 2016. Wojciechowska died of a stroke at age 74 in

Long Branch, New Jersey Long Branch is a beachside City (New Jersey), city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 30,719,< ...

Awards

In 1965, her book ''

Shadow of a Bull ''Shadow of a Bull'' is a novel by Maia Wojciechowska that was awarded the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1965. Plot summary Twelve-year-old Manolo Olivar is the son of Juan Olivar, a renowned bullfighter who ...

'' (1964), features a Spanish boy destined to be a

bullfighter A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...

. It won the 1965

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

recognizing the year's best contribution to American children's literature. Its German-language edition won the Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis for youth books in 1968. *''Market Day for Ti Andre'' (1952), as Maia Rodman *”Shadow of a Bull” (1964) *''Odyssey of Courage: The Story of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca'' (New York:

Atheneum Books Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Athene ...

, 1965) *''A Kingdom in a Horse'' (New York:

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, 1965) *''The Hollywood Kid'' (Harper & Row, 1966) *''A Single Light'' (Harper & Row, 1968) *''Tuned Out'' (Harper & Row, 1968); Laurel-Leaf edition, *'' Hey, What's Wrong with This One?'' (Harper & Row, 1969) *''Don't Play Dead Before You Have To: A Novel'' (Harper & Row, 1970) * ''The Rotten Years'' (New York:

Doubleday & Company Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...

), 1971 *''The Life and Death of a Brave Bull'' (New York:

Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City a ...

BJ 1972), *''Till the Break of Day: Memories: 1939-1942'' (HBJ, 1972) *''Through the Broken Mirror with Alice: Including parts of''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

(HBJ, 1972), *''Winter Tales from Poland'' (Doubleday, 1973), *''The People in His Life: A Novel'' (New York:

Stein and Day Stein and Day, Inc. was an American publishing company founded by Sol Stein and his wife Patricia Day in 1962. Stein was both the publisher and the editor-in-chief. The firm was based in New York City, and was in business for 27 years, until clos ...

, 1980), *''How God Got Christian into Trouble'', (Philadelphia: Westminster Press), 1984, * ''Dreams of Golf'' (Pebble Beach, CA: Pebble Beach Press, 1993), * ''Dreams of Soccer'' (Pebble Beach, 1993) * ''Dreams of the Super Bowl'' (Pebble Beach, 1993)

References

External links

* – primarily listed under 'Wojciechowska, Maia, 1927-' without '2002' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wojciechowska, Maia American children's writers Newbery Medal winners People from Mahwah, New Jersey Polish emigrants to the United States 1927 births 2002 deaths Polish expatriates in France Polish expatriates in the United Kingdom