Phillip Hoose
To write a history of the United States highlighting the role young people have played in creating our nation would be a formidable challenge for a team of historians, much less one person. But challenges have never stopped Phil Hoose (pronounced "hose"). His love of history, his respect for young people, and the energy he's always found for the passions in his life's work helped sustain him during the six years it took him to research and write We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History.
For the past twenty-four years, he has been a staff member of The Nature Conservancy, where he is part of an international team of biologists, statisticians, and conservationists working to save plant and animal species found within ecosystems shared by the United States and Canada. Phil is also a songwriter and performing musician. For several years The Hoose Family Band-Phillip, Shoshana, Hannah, and Ruby Hoose-sang widely throughout New England, performing original songs about the joys, sorrows, tactics, and sheer velocity of their family's life. Their music was featured on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. Phillip is a founder and director of the Children's Music Network, established in 1986 as a resource for parents, educators, and performers of music by and for children.
In addition, Phil is an award-winning author of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles. He is the author of two books for adults. Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sports (Random House, 1989) was described by USA Today as "the essential primer in any discussion about racism in sports." Hoosiers: The Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana (Vintage, 1995) has been repeatedly anthologized in classic works by Indiana authors. Although he first wrote for adults, he turned his attention to children and young adults in part to keep up with his own daughters. His It's Our World, Too!: Stories of Young People Who Are Making a Difference (Little, Brown, 1993) won the Christopher Award for "artistic excellence in books affirming the highest values of the human spirit." His children's book Hey, Little Ant (Tricycle Press, 1998), was named by the Jane Addams Children's Book Committee as one of four children's books that "most effectively promote the cause of peace, social change and world community."
Phil was born in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up in the towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, Indiana. Described as "small but slow" by one coach, he was repeatedly cut from the Speedway High basketball team. He finally got the hint and turned to long-distance running. At fifty-three, he still competes in local road races. Phillip was educated at Indiana University and the Yale School of Forestry. He lives with his family in Portland, Maine.
Reviews
We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. HistoryPhillip Hoose
History is often written in such a way that the stories of the lives of our ancestors are lost in a sea of seemingly endless names, dates and places. Yet what makes history so compelling is that it encompasses the most interesting possible material, namely, the stories of people who have gone before us. In this stellar book we are exposed not only to the tales of ancestors but those of young people who influenced the times they lived in. Meet George Tifton who, as a young teenager, set out to sea in a whaling ship from New Bedford. Understand what the Dust Bowl was like through the eyewitness account of thirteen-year-old Harley Halliday. Relive the Civil War via the words of Elisha Stockwell, a fifteen-year-old Union soldier from Wisconsin. Learn about Jennie Curtis, a young woman who was a leader in the 1893 Pullman Strike and then disappeared from history. These and approximately sixty-five other stories, drawn from the experiences of young people reaching back to the pre-Revolutionary era, make for fascinating reading. Each segment of this book draws heavily on primary source materials and the writings of the individuals in question. Written with great care and compassion, this is one of the finest children's books dealing with American history that this writer has come across in recent years. A five star literary work, We Were There, Too! brings history to life through the lives, words and actions of common young people who accomplished uncommon deeds. 2001, Melanie Kroupa Books, Ages 10 up, $26.00. Reviewer: Greg M. Romaneck
ISBN: 0-374-38252-2
Added 10/31/01
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