Nevius, Carol 1955–

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Nevius, Carol 1955–

Personal

Born 1955, in upstate NY; married Hugh Jones; children: three children. Education: Brandeis University, B.A. (psychology), 1976; attended University of Manchester (Manchester, England), 1974-75. Hobbies and other interests: Sailing, travel, swimming, music, growing orchids.

Addresses

Home—Coral Springs, FL.

Career

Children's author and educator. Worked variously as a sailing charter cook, snorkeling and fishing guide, and U.S. Coast Guard-licensed boat captain. Westglades Middle School, Coral Gables, FL, language arts teacher. Visiting teacher and writing instructor in public schools.

Writings

Karate Hour, illustrated by Bill Thomson, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2004.

Building with Dad, illustrated by Bill Thomson, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2006.

Baseball Hour, illustrated by Bill Thomson, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2008.

Also author of 911 to Ten, illustrated by Kimberly Kulaff, RBC Publishing.

Sidelights

Teaming up with artist Bill Thomson, Carol Nevius has created several picture-book stories that are designed to appeal to active youngsters. In Karate Hour, which she was inspired to write when her youngest child began taking karate lessons, she introduces young children to karate. As class begins, students—both boys and girls—practice stances, blocks, and kicks under the guidance of their sensei, their efforts documented in Nevius's simple, rhythmic text. Similar in focus, Baseball Hour focuses on a young team in the making. Beginning their practice with calisthenics, teammates hone their fielding and base-running skills before dividing up into teams to play a game. Praising the text of Karate Hour for effectively "capturing both the precepts and the movements in relatively few words," Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper also praised Thomson's "amazing artwork," with its dramatic use of contrast and detail. Young readers "will definitely feel like participants in this visit to a children's karate class," concluded a Kirkus Reviews contributor in another favorable appraisal of Karate Hour.

Featuring dramatic acrylic-and-colored pencil artwork by Thomson that reflects a young child's view of the adult world, Building with Dad finds a boy accompanying his father to work: a local construction site where a new school building is underway. Fans of heavy machinery will enjoy the detailed images of dump trucks, graders, steamrollers, and other earth-moving machines that work to prepare the ground, while fans of building blocks can follow the steps required to create floors, walls, and ceilings in the new building. Building with Dad was described as an "energetic picture book with visual punch" by Booklist critic Gillian Engberg, and "Nevius's simple, incisive rhymes capture what's salient from a kid's point of view," according to a Publishers Weekly critic. "Thomson's dramatically foreshortened framing" pairs with his use of dramatic perspective to "make for an experience that's both larger than life and deliciously dizzying," the critic added.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of Karate Hour, p. 114; September 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Building with Dad, p. 138.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2004, review of Karate Hour, p. 810; August 1, 2006, review of Building with Dad, p. 793.

Publishers Weekly, October 9, 2006, review of Building with Dad, p. 55.

School Library Journal, December, 2004, Grace Oliff, review of Karate Hour, p. 114; October, 2006, Judith Constantinides, review of Building with Dad, p. 120.