Edwards, Pamela Duncan

views updated

Edwards, Pamela Duncan

Personal

Born in northern England; immigrated to United States, c. 1980s; married; children: two sons.

Addresses

Home—Vienna, VA.

Career

Author. Worked as a preschool teacher in England for eleven years; children's librarian.

Writings

Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Livingstone Mouse, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Some Smug Slug, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

Dinorella: A Prehistoric Fairy Tale, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 1997.

Honk!, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 1998.

Warthogs in the Kitchen: A Sloppy Counting Book, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 1998.

The Grumpy Morning, illustrated by Darcia Labrosse, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 1998.

The Worrywarts, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

Ed and Fred Flea, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 1999.

Bravo, Livingston Mouse!, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2000.

Roar: A Noisy Counting Book, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

Slop Goes the Soup: A Noisy Warthog Word Book, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2001.

Warthogs Paint: A Messy Color Book, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2001.

Boston Tea Party, illustrated by Henry Cole, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

Clara Caterpillar, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

Wake-up Kisses, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

Little Brown Hen's Shower, illustrated by Darcia LaBrosse, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2002.

Rude Mule, illustrated by Barbara Nascimbeni, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2002.

Muldoon, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2002.

Dear Tooth Fairy, illustrated by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Miss Polly Has a Dolly, illustrated by Elicia Castaldi, Putnam's (New York, NY), 2003.

Rosie's Roses, illustrated by Henry Cole, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

The Wright Brothers, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2003.

The Leprechaun's Gold, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Gigi and Lulu's Gigantic Fight, illustrated by Henry Cole, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2004.

O Is for Old Dominion: A Virginia Alphabet, illustrated by Troy Howell, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea MI), 2005.

The Neat Line: Scribbling through Mother Goose, illustrated by Diana Cain Bluthenthal, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2005.

McGillycuddy Could!, illustrated by Sue Porter, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Bus Ride That Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks, illustrated by Danny Shanahan, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005.

Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten, illustrated by Henry Cole, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 2005.

The Mixed-up Rooster, illustrated by Megan Lloyd, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Why the Stomach Growls, illustrated by Bridget Starr Taylor, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2006.

The Old House, illustrated by Henry Cole, Dutton Children's Books (New York, NY), 2007.

B Is for Big Ben: An England Alphabet, illustrated by Melanie Rose, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2008.

Jack's Treehouse, illustrated by Henry Cole, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2008.

While the World Is Sleeping, illustrated by Dan Kirk, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2009.

Sidelights

Humor is abundant in many of the picture-book stories created by Pamela Duncan Edwards. A former children's librarian and preschool teacher, Edwards incorporates alliteration and other wordplay in many of her simple texts, as evidenced by her titles Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke, Some Smug Slug, Warthogs in the Kitchen: A Sloppy Counting Book, and Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten. Reviewing Edwards' picture-book debut, a Publishers Weekly dubbed Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke "fantastically fun," while in School Library Journal Joan Kindig wrote of The Old House that "Edwards's colloquial text is accessible for young readers to tackle on their own."

Edwards was raised in northern England and worked as a teacher for several years before moving to the United States in the mid-1980s. Her love of children's books and storytelling was inspired by her father, a writer who published stories for young readers in British magazines while Edwards was growing up. Her background as a teacher allowed Edwards to gear her simple texts for beginning and pre-readers by incorporating early-learning concepts into entertaining tales. "I feel that I am just passing on the legacy that my father gave to me," the author explained in an interview posted on the HarperCollins Children's Books Web site. "Through him I learned to love books. I hope that through my stories I might do the same for all the unknown children who read them."

In many of her books, Edwards teams up with illustrator Henry Cole, and the two work in active collaboration on books such as Some Smug Slug, The Old House, Rosie's Roses, and Jack's Treehouse. The focus on the letter S encompasses both S shapes and S sounds in Some Smug Slug, a book in which Edwards' "silly, suspenseful saga … will make kids laugh and learn," according to Booklist critic Hazel Rochman. In Rosie's Roses "Edwards and Cole offer an alliterative run of R to cheer a story of graceful, if unintentional, gift-giving," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer, while in Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten Cole's art reinforces Edwards' "message of school as a safe, cheerful place" in which children can experience "cozy security," according to Booklist critic Jennifer Mattson. Honing on letter C, Clara Caterpillar finds a cabbage butterfly attempting to hide from a hungry crow in a patch of camellias. In Booklist, Carolyn Phelan remarked on the effective pairing of Edwards' "well-told" story and Cole's "child-friendly artwork" for the book. A Publishers Weekly critic dubbed Edwards and Cole "a pair of seasoned collaborators" in a review of The Wright Brothers, a picture-book biography about the early years of flight. In The Old House, in which the author and illustrator anthropomorphize an abandoned family home, "readers should readily pick up on the numerous themes Edwards balances" against Cole's colorful artwork, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

In addition to the many Edwards-Cole collaborations, the author has also worked with a number of other illustrators. As noted by a Publishers Weekly critic, Diana Cain Bluthenthal creates "a book-within-a-book effect" with the collage-and-colored-pencil art she contributes to Edwards' The Neat Line: Scribbling through Mother Goose, in which the "straightforward" text follows the development of a young child's penmanship. Civil-rights history is the focus of The Bus Ride That Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks, in which Edwards and cartoonist Danny Shanahan focus on a famous act of civil disobedience, while Rude Mule presents readers with what a Kirkus Reviews writer dubbed "an appealing and laugh-inducing introduction to civilized living." According to the Kirkus Review critic, Rude Mule is studded with richly colored, "saturated mixed-media illustrations" by artist Barbara Nascimbeni that "provide vivid accompaniment" to Edwards' introduction to table manners. The Bus Ride That Changed History serves as "an excellent tribute to Parks and to her role in history, told in a child-friendly style," in the opinion of School Library Journal reviewer Tracy Bell.

Megan Lloyd teams up with Edwards for the humorous picture book The Mixed-up Rooster, in which a sleepy farmyard timekeeper becomes a night-watcher and warns the farm of nocturnal predators. Lloyd's art contains "comic details that illustrate the verbal puns" in the book's text, according to Rochman, and in School Library Journal Linda L. Walkins described The Mixed-up Rooster as a "lighthearted story … written in an uncomplicated, comical style" and brought to life in "vibrant" images by Lloyd "that are full of personality and charm."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of Some Smug Slug, p. 1511; February 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Barefoot: Escape on the Underground

Railroad, p. 1025; July, 2001, Carolyn Phelan, review of Clara Caterpillar, p. 2018; April 1, 2002, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of Little Brown Hen's Shower, p. 1332; January 1, 2004, Lauren Peterson, review of The Leprechaun's Gold, p. 874; September 1, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of Gigi and Lulu's Gigantic Fight, p. 130; March 15, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of The Neat Line: Scribbling through Mother Goose, p. 1299; August, 2005, Jennifer Sheridan, review of Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten, p. 2083; September 1, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of Same Old Horse, p. 138; September 1, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of The Bus Ride That Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks, p. 138; July 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of The Mixed-up Rooster, p. 64; October 1, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Old House, p. 65.

Horn Book, November, 1998, Martha V. Parravano, review of Honk!, p. 713; March-April, 2005, Kitty Flynn, review of McGillycuddy Could!, p. 187.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2001, review of Wake-up Kisses, p. 1611; July 1, 2002, review of Rude Mule, p. 953; March 1, 2003, review of Rosie's Roses, p. 382; June 1, 2003, review of The Wright Brothers, p. 802; January 1, 2004, review of The Leprechaun's Gold, p. 35; August 15, 2004, review of Gigi and Lulu's Giant Fight, p. 805; January 15, 2005, review of McGillycuddy Could!, p. 119; April 15, 2005, review of TheNeat Line, p. 472; September 1, 2005, review of The Bus Ride That Changed History, p. 972; August 1, 2005, review of Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten, p. 847; July 15, 2006, review of The Mixed-up Rooster, p. 721; September 15, 2007, review of The Old House.

Publishers Weekly, October 2, 1995, review of Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke, p. 74; March 18, 2002, review of Little Brown Hen's Shower, p. 101; March 17, 2003, review of Rosie's Roses, p. 75; January 5, 2004, review of The Leprechaun's Gold, p. 60; November 1, 2004, review of Gig and Lulu's Gigantic Fight, p. 60; April 25, 2005, review of The Neat Line, p. 56; June 16, 2003, review of The Wright Brothers, p. 70; July 11, 2005, review of Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten, p. 91; August, 29, 2005, review of The Bus Ride That Changed History, p. 56; November 5, 2007, review of The Old House, p. 62.

School Library Journal, December, 2001, Susan Hepler, review of Wake-up Kisses, p. 99; July, 2002, Joy Fleishhacker, review of Little Brown Hen's Shower, p. 88; December, 2002, Judith Constantinides, review of Muldoon, p. 94; January, 2004, Sandra Kitain, review of Dear Tooth Fairy, p. 97; February, 2004, Wendy Lukehart, review of The Leprechaun's Gold, p. 111; March, 2005, Rebecca Sheridan, review of McGillycuddy Could!, p. 170; May, 2005, Marianne Saccardi, review of The Neat Line, p. 82; August, 2005, Blair Christolon, review of Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten, p. 93; October, 2005, Tracy Bell, review of The Bus Ride That Changed History, p. 137; August, 2006, Linda L. Walkins, review of The Mixed-up Rooster, p. 81; November, 2007, Joan Kindig, review of The Old House, p. 90.