Mary Lyons
Mary Lyons is a former librarian and teacher. She grew up in the South, which has served as the setting for most of her work. Mary's biographies are about people who are not widely know-Horace Pipin (artist), Tom Day (furniture maker), Bill Traylor (artist), Minnie Evans (artist) and Harriet Powers (quilt maker). She notes "There's a special challenge in going beyond what others have already said about my subject. Being a biographer is like being a detective-I spend many hours searching for new evidence about the person's life."
In a recent talk, Mary showed slides that revealed the depth of her research, which included visits to the homes where her subjects lived, walking the streets or touching objects that were part of their households. Other rich sources of information have been manuscript collections and interviews with people who knew the person she is researching or who were familiar with the time and place. During her travels, Mary tries to absorb everything she can about the locale- noting such things as the tempo of life and weather conditions, graveyards and tombstones. She also researches the phrases and choice of words to make sure that they fit the period. For her books, Mary often prepares endnotes and includes bibliographies.
Children's book writers are masters of compression, she said. It is imperative to sift through the details and find that which would appeal to children. Mary told her audience that "Historical fiction should be as well researched as biography, and biography should be as well written as historical fiction." That she has succeeded is evidenced by the awards she has received: Carter G. Woodson, Golden Kite, and Jefferson Cup to name a few, and high praise in numerous review media.
Children's Literature has reviewed and recommended the following biographies by Mary Lyons: Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist (1996, Houghton, Ages 8 up, $14.95); Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter (1993, Simon & Schuster, Ages 8 up, $15.95); Keeping Secrets: The Girlhood Diaries of Seven Women Writers (1995, Holt, Ages 12 up, $15.95).
To learn more about this author, visit Mary's web page at The Children's Book Guild or her website www.lyonsdenbooks.com
Conributor: Marilyn Courtot
Reviews
Keeping Secrets: The Girlhood Diaries of Seven Women WritersMary E. Lyons
The author skillfully brings together excerpts from the journals of seven special 19th century American women. These selections, along with other biographical information, create fascinating portraits of young women who often struggled with the challenges of growing up, becoming independent and reconciling personal desires with the constraints of family, tradition and society. Of the seven women, (Louisa Mae Alcott, Charlotte Forten, Sarah Jane Foster, Kate Chopin, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Ida B. Wells and Charlotte Perkins Gilman), three are African American. All of them faced problems related to women's limited roles of that period. This book could well inspire young writers to keep a journal and to delve further into the lives of the women that we meet in such a personal, intriguing way. 1995, Holt, Ages 12 up, $15.95. Reviewer: Gisela Jernigan
ISBN: 0-8050-3065-4
Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs
Mary E. Lyons
For most of seven years, slave Harriet Jacobs hid in a garret seven feet wide, nine feet long, with a ceiling that sloped up from the floor to a high of three feet. The tiny cubicle had been quickly constructed between the roof and ceiling of a storeroom in her grandmother's house so that Harriet could escape the abuse of her master. Mary E. Lyons recounts the life of this indomitable woman through a series of fictionalized Letters from a Slave Girl. Addressed to family members and friends, they describe Harriet's childhood days, the harsh indignities of slavery, her escape to the tiny room and eventual freedom. Ms. Lyons based her letters on Harriet Jacobs' 1861 autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and in a note to the readers explains what is fact and what is fiction. She also provides a drawing of Harriet's secret hiding place. 1992, Scribners, Ages 12 up, $13.95 and $3.95. Reviewer: Beverly Kobrin
ISBN: 0-684-19446-5
ISBN: 0-689-80015-0
Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist
Mary E. Lyons
Despite great odds, Minnie Evans became a widely respected and well-exhibited folk artist. As a little girl, Minnie Evans kept to herself because she felt she was different from the other kids. Plagued by vivid dreams as a child, her grandmother told her that these dreams made her special. The dreams continued until she became an adult. At the age of 43, she began to draw images from these dreams on scraps of paper. Although her family ridiculed her--she persevered and eventually created hundreds of drawings and paintings. A photographer discovered her unique work and helped Minnie sell her paintings and eventually exhibit them in museums. Children and adults will enjoy all of the examples of Minnie's work included in this remarkable book. 1996, Houghton, Ages 8 up, $14.95. Reviewer: Kristin Harris
ISBN: 0-395-72032-X
The Poison Place
Mary E. Lyons
The story of the Peale family and their famous museum in Philadelphia is told through the eyes of a former slave. The book opens with Moses, a slave, recounting his life and all the Peale family dirty laundry to his almost twelve year old daughter. Charles Wilson Peale was an amazing man, married three times, the father of more than a dozen children many of whom he named after great artists. Peale was master of several trades including portrait painting, but it was the museum that he was obsessed with, and the methods used to preserve the specimens may have contributed to his son Raphael's illness and eventual death. Moses paints an unflattering picture of Rembrandt Peale and in spite of his professed friendship for Raphael Peale he doesn't paint him in a very good light either. The story opens readers' eyes to the life of a slave and those of lesser means during the early 1800s. 1997, Atheneum, Ages 12 up, $16.00. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot
ISBN: 0-689-81146-2
Raw Head, Bloody Bones: African-American Tales of the Supernatural
Selected by Mary E. Lyons
In an all-pervading market of Goosebumps, this is the real thing. Lyons presents ghost and monster tales of lilting words and imagery, of remarkable humor and fright. These are stories that cry out to be read aloud with passion and enthusiasm. They come primarily from the Sea Islands and Bahamas and present rhythms and phrases from Gullah and other African-American dialects that actually justify the term 'black English.' With the addition of a fine introduction and notes, Raw Head is a truly intelligent and exciting collection of stories to whet the appetites of blasé kids. 1995, Aladdin, Ages 10 up, $14.00 and $3.95. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr
ISBN: 0-684-19333-7
ISBN: 0-689-80306-0
Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers
Mary Lyons
Picture book biographies help to provide valuable historical perspective. New in paperback is Mary Lyons' Stitching Stars: The Story Quilt of Harriet Powers. The full color quilt photographs help tell the story of a woman, born into slavery, who was gifted in telling her story with thread and cloth. 1997 (orig. 1993), Aladdin, Ages 8 to 11, $17.00 and $6.99. Reviewer: Susie Wilde
ISBN: 0-684-19576-3
ISBN: 0-689-81707-X
Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter
Mary Lyons
Horace Pippin, one of the African-American artists featured in Children of Promise didn't begin painting until he was 43 years old. Intermediate-grade and older can learn more about him in Mary E. Lyons' biography, which is illustrated with photos and reproductions of his "primitive" works. 1993, Simon & Schuster, Ages 8 to 14, $15.95. Reviewer: Beverly Kobrin
ISBN: 0-684-19534-8
Talking with Tebé: Clementine Hunter, Memory Artist
Edited by Mary E. Lyons
This compelling biography of an African-American sharecropper who gained national recognition as a self-taught artist blends southern history with the story of a spirited, independent woman worth knowing about. Born in 1886, Clementine Hunter remembered seeing her father pick four hundred pounds of cotton in a day. She herself set babies on the end of a cotton row, while she worked for less than two dollars a day. Clementine painted her first picture on a shoebox top with old tubes of paint found in a wastebasket. Before she died in 1988, at the age of 101, her work had been displayed in museums across the country. Editor Mary Lyons has masterfully pieced together audio and print interviews to allow Clementine to tell her amazing story in her own words. The result is an intimate visit with a woman who expressed her soul through art created late at night after a full day's work. Color illustrations give examples of Hunter's work with informative captions. Art teachers will be delighted by the elegant explanation of folk art. Social studies teachers will love the vivid historical lessons. Every reader who comes in contact with this book will be enriched. 1998, Houghton Mifflin, Ages 9 to 12, $16.00. Reviewer: Jackie Hechtkopf
ISBN: 0-395-72031-1
Added 1999
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If you're interested in reviewing children's and young adult books, then send a resume and writing sample to marilyn@childrenslit.com.