Armstrong, Jennifer 1961-
ARMSTRONG, Jennifer 1961-
(Kate William, Julia Winfield)
PERSONAL: Born May 12, 1961, in Waltham, MA; daughter of John (a physicist) and Elizabeth (a master gardener; maiden name, Saunders) Armstrong; married James Howard Kunstler (a writer and painter), 1996. Education: Smith College, B.A., 1983. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, teaching, music, reading.
ADDRESSES: Office—P.O. Box 335, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Agent—Susan Cohen, Writers House, 21 West 26th St., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—mail@jennifer-armstrong.com.
CAREER: Author of children's fiction. Cloverdale Press, New York, NY, assistant editor, 1983-85; freelance writer, 1985—. Girl Scout leader, 1987-89; Smith College, recruiter, 1990—; Literacy Volunteers of Saratoga, board president, 1991-93; Guiding Eyes for the Blind, puppy raiser; leader of writing workshops. Also worked as a teacher.
MEMBER: Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Saratoga County Arts Council.
AWARDS, HONORS: Best Book Award, American Library Association (ALA), and Golden Kite Honor Book Award, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, both 1992, both for Steal Away; Notable Book citations, ALA, 1992, for Steal Away and Hugh Can Do; Children's Book Choices, International Reading Association/Children's Book Council, 1995, for That Terrible Baby; Children's Books of Distinction (young adult fiction), Hungry Mind Review, 1997, for The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan; Children's Books of Distinction (young adult fiction), Riverbank Review, 1998, for Mary Mehan Awake; Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction, National Council of Teachers of English, Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book in nonfiction, and Children's Books of Distinction (nonfiction), Riverbank Review, all 1999, all for Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance; Cuffies Award for Best Autobiography, Publishers Weekly, 1999, Children's Books of Distinction (nonfiction), Riverbank Review, 2000, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2000, and Children's Booksellers Choices Award in nonfiction, Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), 2000, all for In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer; Children's Booksellers Choices Award in nonfiction, ABC, 2000, for The Century for Young People; Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College, 2001, for Spirit of Endurance: The True Story of the Shackleton Expedition to the Antarctic; Best Books for Young Adults selection, and Notable Book in Social Studies, National Council for the Social Studies/CBC, both 2002, both for Shattered: Stories of Children in War; Book Links Lasting Connections, 2002, for The Kindling. Various titles have been selected by Horn Book, the New York Public Library, and the American Library Association as "Best Books" on a yearly basis.
WRITINGS:
PICTURE BOOKS
Hugh Can Do (picture book), illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root, Crown (New York, NY), 1992.
Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat (picture book), illustrated by Mary GrandPré, Crown (New York, NY), 1993.
That Terrible Baby (picture book), illustrated by Susan Meddaugh, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1994.
Little Salt Lick and the Sun King (picture book), illustrated by Jon Goodell, Crown (New York, NY), 1994.
The Whittler's Tale (picture book), illustrated by Valery Vasiliev, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1994.
Wan Hu Is in the Stars, illustrated by Barry Root, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1995.
King Crow, illustrated by Eric Rohmann, Crown (New York, NY), 1995.
Pockets, illustrated by Mary GrandPré, Crown (New York, NY), 1998.
Pierre's Dream, illustrated by Susan Gaber, Dial (New York, NY), 1999.
Sign of the Times, illustrated by David Jarvis, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.
Magnus at the Fire, illustrated by Owen Smith, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.
FICTION FOR MIDDLE-GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT READERS
Steal Away (novel), Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1992.
Black-Eyed Susan, illustrated by Emily Martindale, Crown (New York, NY), 1995.
The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan (young adult novel; also see below), Knopf (New York, NY), 1996.
Patrick Doyle Is Full of Blarney (chapter book), illustrated by Krista Brauckmann-Towns, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.
Lili the Brave (chapter book), illustrated by Uldis Klavins, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.
Foolish Gretel (chapter book), illustrated by Donna Diamond, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.
Mary Mehan Awake (young adult novel; also see below), Knopf (New York, NY), 1997.
Theodore Roosevelt: Letters from a Young Coal Miner (middle-grade novel), Winslow Press (Delray Beach, FL), 2000.
Thomas Jefferson: Letters from a Philadelphia Bookworm (middle-grade novel), Winslow Press (Delray Beach, FL), 2000.
Becoming Mary Mehan: Two Novels (includes the novels The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan and Mary Mehan Awake) Random House (New York, NY), 2002.
(Editor) Shattered: Stories of Children and War (short story anthology), Knopf (New York, NY), 2002.
(With Nancy Butcher) The Kindling (young adult novel; first book in the "Fire-us" series), Harper-Collins (New York, NY), 2002.
(With Nancy Butcher) The Keepers of the Flame (young adult novel; second book in the "Fire-us" series), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.
(With Nancy Butcher) The Kiln (young adult novel; third book in the "Fire-us" series), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
(Editor) What a Song Can Do: Twelve Riffs on the Power of Music (short story anthology), Knopf (New York, NY), 2004.
"PETS, INC." SERIES; MIDDLE-GRADE FICTION
The Puppy Project, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.
Too Many Pets, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.
Hillary to the Rescue, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.
That Champion Chimp, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.
"WILD ROSE INN" SERIES; YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION
Bridie of the Wild Rose Inn, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.
Ann of the Wild Rose Inn, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.
Emily of the Wild Rose Inn, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.
Laura of the Wild Rose Inn, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.
Claire of the Wild Rose Inn, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.
Grace of the Wild Rose Inn, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.
NONFICTION
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance, Crown (New York, NY), 1998.
The Century for Young People (adapted from The Century by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster), Random House (New York, NY), 1999.
(With Irene Gut Opdyke) In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer, Knopf (New York, NY), 1999.
Spirit of Endurance: The True Story of the Shackleton Expedition to the Antarctic (picture book), illustrated by William Maughan, Crown (New York, NY), 2000.
Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier (picture book), illustrated by Jos. A. Smith, Abrams (New York, NY), 2003.
A Three-Minute Speech: Lincoln's Remarks at Gettysburg, illustrated by Albert Lorenz, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.
Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.
UNDER PSEUDONYM JULIA WINFIELD; YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Only Make-Believe (part of "Sweet Dreams" series), Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.
Private Eyes (part of "Sweet Dreams" series), Bantam (New York, NY), 1989.
Partners in Crime (part of "Private Eyes" series), Bantam (New York, NY), 1989.
Tug of Hearts (part of "Private Eyes" series), Bantam (New York, NY), 1989.
On Dangerous (part of "Private Eyes" series), Bantam (New York, NY), 1989.
OTHER
The Snowball (beginning reader), illustrated by Jean Pidgeon, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.
Sunshine, Moonshine (beginning reader), illustrated by Lucia Washburn, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.
Also worked as a ghostwriter, under the pseudonym Kate William, for the "Sweet Valley High" and "Sweet Valley Kids" series. Contributor to periodicals, including Riverbank Review, Horn Book, and Five Owls.
WORK IN PROGRESS: Researching nineteenth-century American history.
SIDELIGHTS: Jennifer Armstrong once commented, "I came to write children's books by accident. When I left college I took the first publishing job I could get, and it turned out to be with the packager of many of the best-known juvenile and young adult series on the market. After a year and a half of working on these books, I was convinced that I could do a creditable job of writing them, too. And so I began to write for 'Sweet Valley High.'" She continued, "After a number of years working as a full-time writer for the packager, I teamed up with my agent, Susan Cohen of Writers House. With my mass market experience firmly behind me, I was ready to set to work on my own projects.
"The idea for my novel, Steal Away, came to me a number of years before I wrote it. At first, it was conceived of as a straightforward adventure story. Having written so many of those books, however, I felt I was ready to tackle something more complex and ambitious. And so, after much thought and nail biting, I settled on the form of the novel as I wrote it—with two narratives interwoven, emphasizing the effect that telling and hearing stories has on us. I intertwined so many threads in Steal Away that I was often in danger of getting hopelessly confused. But those issues—race relations, feminism, friendship, and loyalty, and the importance of telling stories—were and still are important to me."
Armstrong's desire to write about what is important to her is evident in Steal Away. The book begins in the year 1896 when Mary, a thirteen-year-old, travels with her grandmother to visit Gran's sick friend, Bethlehem. Gran (Susannah) and Bethlehem soon relate the story of how they became fast friends when they, too, were thirteen years old. Steal Away is a tale of courage, friendship, and interracial understanding. The title is derived from a spiritual which was used in those days as a signal to slaves that the time had come for them to run for freedom.
In the story, both of Susannah's parents die in an accident in 1855, and she is sent to live with an uncle who keeps slaves on a plantation in Virginia. Susannah believes that slavery is wrong, and so, when she is given Bethlehem as her own personal slave, Susannah befriends her. The basic difference between her uncle's beliefs and what Susannah believes drives the story, becoming the catalyst for relationships among the characters. Emotions in the story run high as Bethlehem deals with her hatred of slavery, resentment of her white "friend," and her need to leave Susannah and go her own way. Young Susannah must resolve her own feelings about black people just as her granddaughter, Mary, must do when Susannah, or Gran, tells her the story years later. Ann Welton, writing in School Library Journal, commented that "the issues explored in this book run deep. . . . This will go a long way toward explicating the damage done by slavery."
After the success of Steal Away, Armstrong wrote a series of historical fiction novels, the "Wild Rose Inn" series, revolving around six girls in a single family over three centuries. A family-run tavern in the town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, provided the setting for the novels. By maintaining a single setting and family, she was able to plunge into the historical periods spanned by three centuries and create a cumulative narrative that transcended the individual volumes. She once commented, "This is one of the great attractions of writing series books—although the books stand on their own, the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts."
The versatile Armstrong has also written several picture books, including Hugh Can Do and Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat. The first of these books, with its cumulative theme and rhythmic text, is similar to poetry and is fun to read aloud, as many reviewers have noted. Moreover, as is typical of many folktales, the story offers "a valuable lesson presented in a book to be valued," wrote a contributor to Publishers Weekly. Kate McClelland, in a School Library Journal review, decided that Hugh Can Do is "an especially nice balance of dramatic tension, droll humor, and positive philosophy."
Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat is based on a tale that Armstrong learned from a Chinese visitor to upstate New York. She developed her version of the story and set it appropriately, she thought, in China. The response of the critics was mixed. Armstrong commented, "The illustrator of this book, Mary GrandPré, later took some hits for what some critics thought was chinoiserie—old-fashioned stereotypes of Chinese people. I am convinced that if either of us had been Chinese, the critics would have agreed wholeheartedly that this was a wonderful book with fabulous pictures."
She mused, "I have learned that some critics will not allow writers to be writers. . . . There is a widely held belief that only an African American can write the African-American experience . . . and so on. There were people who thought that Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat was some kind of scam—as though we had tricked people into believing it was an authentic Chinese folktale. . . . It didn't occur to me that I should be limited to setting my stories in the Westchester County, New York, of the 1960s and 1970s."
Black-Eyed Susan is set far from contemporary Westchester County, during frontier days on the western prairie, where young Susan lives with her parents in a sod house. The prairie was a bleak place in those days: primitive, isolated, and for the most part colorless. The theme of the book is, according to the author, "the geography of the prairie, and its power to uplift or crush a human soul." Susan's mother has fallen into a malaise of depression and loneliness, and the girl's challenge is to revive her mother's sagging spirits. She does so with the gift of a bright, yellow canary, acquired from a family of passers-by. "Told in a highly readable text that is almost poetic at times," Elizabeth S. Watson wrote in Horn Book, "the story has a satisfying roundness that will elicit contented sighs from young readers."
This novel was followed by The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan, a work that Armstrong called "the most challenging one I have yet written." In it, she relates the tale of an Irish family transported to America at the time of the Civil War. Mairhe's peace of mind is torn apart by her father, a sad, defeated man who wants nothing more than to return to his native Ireland, and her brother, who joins the Union forces to fight for his new homeland. As the war progresses, Mairhe retreats into a series of dreams, fractured by flashes of ancient myth and contemporary events. "Everything she sees is falling into fragments," Armstrong once explained, "and her frantic attempts to keep all things together is breaking her heart." A Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan a "finely wrought historical novel [that] also captures a powerful measure of the magnitude and depth of the pain" of war.
A sequel, Mary Mehan Awake, follows the Americanized Mairhe of the first novel to upstate New York, where she has moved with the help of the poet Walt Whitman, who had befriended her during the war. Mary, devastated by the war and the death of her brother, has so completely withdrawn from life that she has lost much of the intensity of her senses. In a new setting on Lake Ontario, rich with plant and animal life and other sensory delights, and under the care of a kindly naturalist and his wife, Mary slowly begins to recover. Jennifer M. Brabander commented in Horn Book, "The story unfolds effortlessly and richly; the metaphors and similes allow the reader to experience what Mary cannot." Brabander called the novel "The Secret Garden for an older audience," a story of "healing and wholeness." In 2002, Armstrong combined The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan and Mary Mehan Awake into one volume titled Becoming Mary Mehan.
Many of Armstrong's books challenge young readers' minds and inspire them to imagine the world from a different perspective. In Pockets, Armstrong tells the story of a woman who arrives in a sheltered town and becomes the town's seamstress. The people of the town like plain clothes, in plain colors, but when the woman lines the pockets of their clothing with images of ships, oceans, and faraway lands, the townspeople change their way of thinking. Booklist's John Peters called the book a "grand, lyrical tale of imagination's transformative power."
In Pierre's Dream, Armstrong weaves a tale that mixes fantasy and reality. Armstrong describes Pierre as a lazy man who enjoys naps under the olive trees. When Pierre falls asleep and wakes up in the middle of a circus, he assumes he is dreaming. With no fear, Pierre joins the circus and catches an escaped lion, rides horses, and swings from the trapeze. After a long day, he takes a nap and awakens to find the ringmaster's top hat and a parasol lying beside him, only to realize that his dream was reality. Pierre's Dream is "a wonderfully imaginative tale that reveals the potential that each of us carefully hides within," noted Karyn Miller-Medzon in the Boston Herald.
Armstrong teamed with Nancy Butcher to pen the "Fire-us" series of young adult science-fiction novels. The first book in the trilogy, The Kindling, begins five years after a strange virus (Fire-us) has wiped out most of the adult population. A group of teens and children have banded together to go on a quest to find the president and learn more about the virus. In the second book, The Keepers of the Flame, the children are taken in by a group of adults who call themselves the "Keepers of the Flame." The children soon learn that the adults are members of a religious cult who have plans to put the youngest children to "the test." After escaping from the cult, the determined youngsters continue their journey to find the president. In the final book, The Kiln, the children discover a retirement community filled with elderly women who somehow survived the virus. Using the retirement community's solar-powered golf carts, the kids finally reach the president, who turns out to be the Supreme Leader of the Keepers of the Flame, and the person responsible for releasing the virus. Together, the children must figure out a way to stop the president from releasing a second wave of Fire-us. School Library Journal's Mara Alpert called the "Fire-us" series "an exhilarating thrill-ride of a tale." In her review of the final book in the series, Alpert noted, "Armstrong and Butcher have crafted a chillingly realistic picture of events that unfortunately isn't that hard to imagine. . . . A strong finish to an engrossing . . . series."
In addition to her fiction, Armstrong has written several nonfiction works, including The Century for Young People, an adaptation of Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster's best-selling The Century. The book outlines some of the most amazing and radical changes brought about during the twentieth century. In Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier, Armstrong presents the life of John James Audubon, and the adventures he had while painting birds in uncharted territories. Calling the work "stunning," School Library Journal's Robyn Walker commented, "The flowing narrative engages readers' interest and simply does not let go."
Two of Armstrong's nonfiction books, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance and Spirit of Endurance: The True Story of the Shackleton Expedition to the Antarctic, describe the adventures of Ernest Shackleton and his crew, who were trapped in the ice packs of the Antarctic for almost a year. As Stephanie Zvirin noted in Booklist, Spirit of Endurance, a picture book meant for younger readers, "provides an excellent outline of the extraordinary expedition." School Library Journal's Patricia Manning mentioned that the book "presents a good picture of human survival under almost unimaginable conditions."
Armstrong coauthored Irene Gut Opdyke's autobiography titled In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. The book details Opdyke's life as the servant to a Nazi officer during World War II. The book describes the sacrifices Opdyke made to hide twelve Jews in the basement of the officer's home. Some of the scenes are shocking and disturbing, noted reviewers, but they capture the truth and reality of war. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented, "Armstrong and Opdyke demonstrate an almost uncanny power to place readers in the young Irene's shoes."
Another war-themed book, Shattered: Stories of Children and War, is a collection of short stories edited by Armstrong. Each story describes not only the physical toll of war on children, but the mental and emotional toll as well. Each story features a footnote that describes the facts of the war behind the story. While the stories are fictional in nature, the reality of the wars about which they are written is captured in detail. "It puts a human face on conflicts in various parts of the world . . . , driving home the point that no one is left untouched in wartime," wrote School Library Journal's Saleena L. Davidson.
On the topic of books in general, Armstrong once commented, "In my experience there are two broad categories of writers for children . . . those who write for children because they have a teaching agenda, and . . . those who write for children because they are writers and children's books are what they happen to write." Armstrong wants herself to be considered one of the latter. "Art enriches our lives, feeds our spirits, strengthens the ties between one human being and all others. Children should be allowed to participate in the experience of art equally with adults. . . . Art does not have a didactic soul. Art has an artistic soul."
She wrote, "More and more these days I see people—grown-up people—trying to control what kids can see and do and read. I know teachers and librarians who scorn the mass market books which I wrote . . . , and insist on giving kids exclusively 'good' books. But adults have access to a variety of fiction, and I think all kinds of fiction should be available to kids so that they can make their own decisions about what they enjoy."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Children's Literature Review, Volume 66, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.
St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, 2nd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.
Something about the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 24, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1997.
PERIODICALS
Audubon, December, 2003, David Seideman, review of Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier, p. 98.
Booklist, October 1, 1990, p. 344; August, 1998, John Peters, review of Pockets, p. 2012; December 1, 1998, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance, p. 657; March 15, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 1308; June 1, 1999, Ilene Cooper, review of In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer, p. 1826; August, 1999, Kay Weisman, review of Pierre's Dream, p. 2062; January 1, 2000, review of In My Hands, p. 820; March 15, 2000, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 1339; April 1, 2000, Stephanie Zvirin, review of In My Hands, p. 1430; June 1, 2000, Ted Hipple, review of In My Hands, p. 1921; July, 2000, Karen Harris, review of In My Hands, p. 2052; September 15, 2000, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Spirit of Endurance: The True Story of the Shackleton Expedition to the Antarctic, p. 233; March 1, 2001, Kay Weisman, review of Theodore Roosevelt: Letters from a Young Coal Miner, p. 1275; May 15, 2001, Randy Meyer, review of Thomas Jefferson: Letters from a Philadelphia Bookworm, p. 1749; December 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Shattered: Stories of Children and War, p. 722; April 15, 2002, Sally Estes, review of The Kindling, p. 1412; August, 2002, Sally Estes, review of The Keepers of the Flame, p. 1962; January 1, 2003, review of The Kindling, p. 795; April 1, 2003, Carolyn Phelan, review of Audubon, p. 1391; April 15, 2003, Sally Estes, review of The Kiln, p. 1464; September 1, 2003, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Three-Minute Speech: Lincoln's Remarks at Gettysburg, p. 117.
Book Report, March, 1998, review of Mary Mehan Awake, p. 28.
Boston Herald, May 30, 1999, Karyn Miller-Medzon, review of Pierre's Dream, p. 59.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March, 1992, p. 173; February, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 195; July, 1999, review of Pierre's Dream, p. 379; May, 2001, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 330; May, 2002, review of Shattered, p. 309.
Children's Digest, June, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 28.
Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), February 16, 2002, review of Shattered, p. D14.
Guardian (London, England), January 30, 2001, Lindsey Fraser, review of In My Hands, p. 55.
Horn Book, March-April, 1996, Elizabeth S. Watson, review of Black-Eyed Susan, p. 193; November-December, 1997, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of Mary Mehan Awake, p. 675; July, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 478, review of In My Hands, p. 486; January, 2000, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 50; May, 2000, Kristi Beavin, review of In My Hands, p. 341, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 340; May-June, 2002, Peter D. Sieruta, review of Shattered, pp. 323-324; November-December, 2003, Kristi Elle Jemtegaard, review of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 773-774.
Instructor, May, 2001, review of Spirit of Endurance, p. 37.
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, November, 1998, review of The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan, p. 231.
Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1992, p. 917; December 1, 1998, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 1730; May 1, 1999, review of Pierre's Dream, p. 718; December 1, 2001, review of Shattered, p. 1681; March 1, 2002, review of The Kindling, p. 329; October 15, 2002, review of The Keepers of the Flame, p. 1526; March 1, 2003, review of The Kiln, p. 379; March 15, 2003, review of Audubon, p. 458.
Kliatt, March, 1998, review of The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan, p. 6; November, 1998, review of Mary Mehan Awake, p. 10; July, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 3; March, 2002, review of The Kindling, p. 6; November, 2002, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Keepers of the Flame, pp. 5-6; March, 2003, review of The Kiln, pp. 5-6; May, 2003, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Kindling, p. 23; November, 2003, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Keepers of the Flame, pp. 20-21; June 1, 2004, review of What a Song Can Do: Twelve Riffs on the Power of Music, p. 533.
New York Times Book Review, April 15, 2001, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 24.
Publishers Weekly, March 24, 1989, p. 73; July 13, 1990, p. 55; June 29, 1992, review of Hugh Can Do, p. 62; April 17, 1995, p. 59; May 8, 1995, p. 295; July 10, 1995, p. 58; July 8, 1996, review of The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan, p. 84; July 13, 1998, review of Mary Mehan Awake, p. 79; October 19, 1998, review of Pockets, p. 78; January 25, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 97; May 31, 1999, review of Pierre's Dream, p. 92; July 19, 1999, review of In My Hands, p. 197; November 1, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 58, review of In My Hands, p. 58; July 17, 2000, review of Spirit of Endurance, p. 196; February 25, 2001, review of Becoming Mary Mehan, p. 69; January 21, 2002, review of Shattered, p. 90.
Reading Teacher, December, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 349; May, 2001, review of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 827.
Reading Today, February-March, 2002, Lynne T. Burke, review of Shattered, p. 32.
School Library Journal, June, 1989, p. 125; July, 1990, p. 74; February, 1992, p. 85; October, 1992, Kate McClelland, review of Hugh Can Do, p. 78; January, 1998, Marie Wright, review of Mary Mehan Awake, p. 108; August, 1998, Ann Welton, review of Steal Away, p. 25; October, 1998, Miriam Lang Budin, review of Pockets, p. 86; April, 1999, Edward Sullivan, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 144; June, 1999, Barbara Elleman, review of Pierre's Dream, p. 85, Cyrisse Jaffe, review of In My Hands, p. 151; October, 2000, Patricia Manning, review of Spirit of Endurance, p. 177; April, 2001, Janie Schomberg, review of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 138; June, 2001, Janet Gillen, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 142; January, 2002, Saleena L. Davidson, review of Shattered, p. 131; April, 2002, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 66; October, 2002, Trish Anderson, review of The Kindling, p. 154; December, 2002, Mara Alpert, review of The Keepers of the Flame, p. 132; April, 2003, Cindy Lombardo, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 87; May, 2003, Robyn Walker, review of Audubon, p. 134, Mara Alpert, review of The Kiln, p. 144; September, 2003, Laura Scott, review of A Three-Minute Speech, p. 224; July, 2004, Renee Steinberg, review of What a Song Can Do, p. 98.
Science Books & Films, May, 1999, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 130; March, 2002, review of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, p. 348.
Times Educational Supplement, January 12, 2001, Victoria Neumark, review of In My Hands, p. B21.
Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1992, p. 165; April, 1998, review of Steal Away, p. 43; August, 2001, review of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 196, review of Thomas Jefferson, p. 196.
ONLINE
Jennifer Armstrong Web site,http://www.jenniferarmstrong.com/ (April 2, 2004).
What You Need to Know about Women Writers Web site,http://womenwriters.about.com/ (February 1, 2003), review of Shattered.*