Raven, Margot Theis

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Raven, Margot Theis

Personal

Married. Education: Rosemont College, B.A. (English); attended Villanova University and Kent State University; studied painting at De Cordova Museum.

Addresses

Home—Charleston, SC.

Career

Author, journalist, storyteller, and artist.

Member

Charleston Artist Guild.

Awards, Honors

Storytelling World Honor Award; Martin Luther King, Jr., Living the Dream Award; Fielder Freedom Award; Children's Crown Honor Book Award; James Madison Book Award nomination; Teacher's Choice Award, International Reading Association, for Angels in the Dust; Texas Bluebonnet Award finalist, 2004, for Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot; Children's Africana Book Awards honor book, African Studies Association, 2005, for Circle Unbroken; Eric Hoffer Award Notable Book designation, 2006, for America's White Table; Carter G. Woodson Award Book, 2006, for Let Them Play; Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Books for Younger Children Category, 2007, for Night Boat to Freedom.

Writings

Angels in the Dust, illustrated by Roger Essley, BridgeWater Books (Mahwah, NJ), 1997.

M Is for Mayflower: A Massachusetts Alphabet, illustrated by Jeannie Brett, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2002.

Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot: A True Story of the Berlin Airlift and the Candy That Dropped from the Sky, illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2002.

Circle Unbroken: The Story of a Basket and Its People, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2004.

America's White Table, illustrated by Mike Benny, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2005.

Challenger: America's Favorite Eagle, illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2005.

Let Them Play, illustrated by Chris Ellison, Sleeping Bear Press (Chelsea, MI), 2005.

Night Boat to Freedom, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to newspapers and magazines.

Adaptations

Circle Unbroken was adapted for orchestra by composer William Grant Still; America's White Table, was adapted for orchestra by Chamber Music Charleston.

Sidelights

Margot Theis Raven is the author of several award-winning picture books for children, among them Circle Unbroken: The Story of a Basket and Its People and Night Boat to Freedom. Raven, who has written for radio, television, and newspapers over the course of her career, often bases her works on events from U.S. history.

Raven published her debut title, Angels in the Dust, in 1997. Inspired by a National Geographic article the author once read, the work concerns an Oklahoma family struggling to maintain their farm during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. Narrated by Annie, an elderly woman recalling her childhood, the tale depicts the family's strength in the face of adversity. A critic in Publishers Weekly praised Angels in the Dust, citing the work's

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"heartland setting, simile-laden prose and uplifting message about weathering hard times," and Hazel Rochman wrote in Booklist that Raven's novel may encourage young readers "to ask about their own family histories of hardship and community."

A seven-year-old German girl and an American lieutenant form an unlikely relationship in Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot: A True Story of the Berlin Airlift and the Candy That Dropped from the Sky. In the work, Raven chronicles the tale of young Mercedes, a West Berliner trapped behind the Soviet blockade of the German city in 1948, and Lt. Gail Halvorsen, a pilot who dropped chocolate bars to the children as he delivered supplies to those trapped by the communists. "Raven's uplifting account imparts a positive humanitarian message," noted a Kirkus Reviews critic. According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, in Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot "a sketch of an uncommonly giving man and a rare friendship emerges."

In Circle Unbroken Raven examines the ties that bind successive generations. As an elderly woman teaches her grandchild how to fashion a sweetgrass Gullah basket, she recounts their family history, beginning with the youngster's "old-timey grandfather," an African vil- lager who was captured and sold into slavery. "Raven's text masterfully frames several hundred years of African-American history within the picture-book format," observed Mary N. Oluonye in School Library Journal. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly called Circle Unbroken a "gracefully constructed tale, as intricate as the baskets and the history to which it pays tribute."

Challenger: America's Favorite Eagle tells the story of an abandoned eaglet that was rescued by humans and retrained as a free-flying bird. Challenger ultimately performed at the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Para-Olympics. Patricia Manning, writing in School Library Journal, described the work as "a fervent plea for the continued protection of the American bald eagle." Let Them Play centers on an all-black Little League baseball team that faced discrimination in 1955. "The poignant message of this tale rings true even today," noted School Library Journal critic Marilyn Taniguchi. In America's White Table, Raven describes a little-known military tradition. In the work, a young girl prepares a white table, a remembrance of prisoners of war and missing service members, to honor her uncle, a Vietnam War veteran. A white table is "the most important image we can ever have, and it's not political," Raven explained to Bruce Smith in the Boston Globe. "Even the flag can get politicized. This has no party and no agenda except that a person said ‘yes’ to duty, and that is always to be honored."

Drawn from accounts found in the Slave Narrative Collection, Night Boat to Freedom follows the efforts of Christmas John, a twelve-year-old Kentucky slave, and John's mentor, Granny Judith, an elderly plantation woman who creates dyed quilts, to help other escaped slaves cross the river to the free state of Ohio. "Raven both highlights the historical import of fabric arts in slave life and incorporates them metaphorically," remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor while Nina Lindsay stated in School Library Journal that the author's "moving story is full of particulars that lend it authenticity."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Angels in the Dust, p. 1430; July, 2002, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot: A True Story of the Berlin Airlift and the Candy That Dropped from the Sky, p. 1841; February 15, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Circle Unbroken: The Story of a Basket and Its People, p. 1078; October 15, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Night Boat to Freedom, p. 47.

Boston Globe, May 30, 2005, Bruce Smith, "Dinner Table Tradition Memorializes Wars' Missing."

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2002, review of Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, p. 810; February 1, 2004, review of Circle Unbroken, p. 137; October 15, 2006, review of Night Boat to Freedom, p. 1077.

Publishers Weekly, January 20, 1997, review of Angels in the Dust, p. 401; April 15, 2002, review of Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, p. 64; December 22, 2003, review of Circle Unbroken, p. 60.

School Library Journal, August, 2002, Robyn Ryan Vandenbroek, review of Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, p. 179; April, 2004, Mary N. Oluonye, review of Circle Unbroken, p. 122; November, 2005, Marilyn Taniguchi, review of Let Them Play, p. 120; July, 2006, Patricia Manning, review of Challenger: America's Favorite Eagle, p. 92; November, 2006, Nina Lindsay, review of Night Boat to Freedom, p. 109.