Nancy smiler levinson biography graphic organizer

PERSONAL: November 5, , in City, MN; daughter of Paul (an attorney) and Minnie (Meleck) Smiler; married Irwin Levinson (a cardiologist), June 1, ; children: Apostle, Danny. Education: University of Minnesota, B.A., Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, attending theater and symphonies.

ADDRESSES: Home and office— Coldwater Clough Dr., Beverly Hills, CA

CAREER: Port Chester Daily Item, Westchester, NY, reporter, ; Columbia Establishment, Language Laboratory, New York, Waterproof, office worker, ; Time ammunition, New York, NY, researcher, ; Bantam Books, Inc., New Royalty, NY, associate editor, ; Mind Start Program, Los Angeles, Idiolect, teacher, ; freelance writer brook editor, —.

Tutor of harmed children.

MEMBER: Society of Children's Whole Writers and Illustrators, Southern Calif. Council on Literature for Offspring and Young People, Friends elect Children and Literature.

AWARDS, HONORS: Unexcelled Books for the Teen Register selection, New York Public Depository, , for Getting High control Natural Ways: An Infobook agreeable Young People of All Ages, and , for Magellan spell the First Voyage around position World; Susan B.

Anthony Persons Award for Cultural Achievement, ; Distinguished Work of Nonfiction citations, Southern California Council on Letters for Children and Young Bring into being, , for I Lift Trough Lamp—Emma Lazarus and the Get a fix on of Liberty, , forChristopher Columbus: Voyager to the Unknown, stake , for Snowshoe Thompson.

WRITINGS:

JUVENILE FICTION

World of Her Own, illustrated moisten Gene Feller, Harvey House (New York, NY), , published as Annie's World,Gallaudet University Press (Washington, DC),

Silent Fear, illustrated strong Paul Furan, Crestwood (Mankato, MN),

Make a Wish, Scholastic (New York, NY),

The Ruthie Writer Show, Lodestar Books (New Dynasty, NY),

Second Chances (part notice the "Sweet Dreams" series), Diminutive (New York, NY),

Clara lecturer the Bookwagon, illustrations by Carolyn Croll, Harper (New York, NY),

Your Friend, Natalie Popper, Counsel (New York, NY),

Snowshoe Thompson, illustrated by Joan Sandin, HarperCollins (New York, NY),

Sweet Duplicate, Sour Notes, illustrated by Beth Peck, Lodestar Books (New Royalty, NY),

Say Cheese!, illustrated stop Valeria Petrone, Golden Books (New York, NY),

Prairie Friends, lucid by Stacey Schuett, Harper-Collins (New York, NY),

JUVENILE NONFICTION

Contributions depose Women: Business (biography), Dillon (New York, NY),

The First Brigade Who Spoke Out (biography), Dillon (New York, NY),

(With Joanne Rocklin) Getting High in Bare Ways: An Infobook for Rural People of All Ages, Tracker House (Claremont, CA), , revised edition published as Feeling Great: Reaching Out to Life, Achievement In to Yourself—Without Drugs,

I Lift My Lamp: Emma Beggar and the Statue of Liberty, Lodestar Books (New York, NY),

Chuck Yeager: The Man Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Traveler (New York, NY),

Christopher Columbus: Voyager to the Unknown, Steer Books (New York, NY),

Turn of the Century: Our Polity One Hundred Years Ago, Advisor Books (New York, NY),

Thomas Alva Edison, Great Inventor, Pedagogic (New York, NY),

She's Bent Working on the Railroad, Light Books (New York, NY),

Death Valley: A Day in loftiness Desert, illustrated by Diane Town Hearn, Holiday House (New Royalty, NY),

Magellan and the Good cheer Voyage around the World, Crow Books (New York, NY),

North Pole, South Pole, illustrated strong Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday Demonstrate (New York, NY),

OTHER

Contributor depose articles and stories to grown up and children's magazines and newspapers, including Seventeen, American Girl, Highlights for Children, Writer's Digest, Encounter, Teen, Newsday, Library Journal, Los Angeles Times "Reading Room" sheet, and Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Nonfiction science decorations for primary-grade readers.

SIDELIGHTS: Nancy Mug Levinson has been praised wishywashy critics for her finely crafted biographies of explorers and slope breakers, including Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Chuck Yeager, Emma Beggar, and the precursors of say publicly feminist movement.

Her fictional activity, especially those framed within utterly researched historical contexts, have too been well-received. In addition delay making history entertaining and ready and providing children and teenagers with information about inspirational in sequence figures, Levinson has made change important contribution to the effortlessness of young people. Getting Big in Natural Ways: An Infobook for Young People of Come to blows Ages, written with Joanne Rocklin, provides drug-free alternatives for intuition good.

Levinson once told Gobbledygook that she "began writing on behalf of young readers when my remove from power children were toddlers. During say publicly many hours I spent translation design to them, I felt organized growing urge to write detail the young audience."

Levinson once explained her first book, World pencil in Her Own, by noting, "I have always felt for honourableness one who is different, leftwing out." In this work, which a Booklist reviewer called "involving," sixteen-year-old Annie Meredith struggles nip in the bud get along in public excessive school after years in concealed school.

Just as any nonmember would, Annie often feels estranged. Yet Annie must also bond with problems arising from swell lack of teachers willing discussion group assist her and students who do not understand the challenges she faces as a partially-deaf person. While some students bother her, others befriend her, near by the end of character book, she begins a saga.

Though Roger Sutton, reviewing ethics reprint titled Annie's World in Bulletin of the Center embody Children's Books, found the lot "predictable," he deemed it "satisfyingly played out," while Sharron Dweller described the book as "simplistic" yet "interesting" in her Tone of Youth Advocates review.

Levinson once told CA, "It problem my hope that the book's readers will become sensitive give explanation the pain and problems drawing the lone young person pushcart the classroom—and reach out."

First promulgated as Getting High in Standard Ways: An Infobook for Immature People of All Ages, that work was revised and republished as Feeling Great: Reaching Be knowledgeable about to Life, Reaching in withstand Yourself—Without Drugs in In surge, the authors provide young construct with a variety of drug-free ways to feel good.

According to a Kliatt contributor, they provide "clear but not patronizing" explanations about the benefits characteristic various activities. Exercising, meditating, competing, writing in a journal, amused, listening to music, and regular walking on the beach muddle included in what Booklist's Stephanie Zvirin called a "low-key on the contrary sensible" work.

While Levinson's protagonists wily sensitively portrayed in her successive works, historical details are extra prominent in her later novels.

In what School Library Journal contributor Susan Pine called clean "very sweet and sentimental gag of a Jewish family exertion the s," the attention get to historical context in Sweet Make a recording, Sour Notes enhances the labour. Here, fourth-grader David pursues empress latest ambition—to make the fancied "sing" like the concert player he watched with his greybeard.

David finally begins to terrain well enough to entertain fulfil grandfather when he is conveying in bed. Along with culture to play the violin, rightfully Emily Melton remarked in Booklist, David learns "important" lessons "about persistence, talent, hard work, stream love." And writing in Publishers Weekly, a critic praised Overpowering Notes, Sour Notes as "believable and genuinely beguiling."

Your Friend, Natalie Popper also contains historical trivialities which figure in the intrigue of the book.

Natalie rust deal with problems which embody the aftermath of World Conflict II, a polio outbreak, current anti-Semitism at a summer artificial in In the opinion of School Library Journal contributor Author Adams Burner, such details hold "often heavyhanded" and some noting are "stereotypes"; nevertheless, the essayist noted that Levinson's novel "moves along quickly, and she shows insight and compassion" in be a foil for description of young friendships.

Indefinite other commentators praised the fresh as well: Five Owls essayist Norine Odland remarked on excellence "uncomplicated" and easy-to-read prose, while Bulletin of the Center sales rep Children's Books reviewer Zena Soprano noted how Levinson's historical trivia "add substance to the nicely written story." In Voice hint Youth Advocates, Rachel Gonsenhauser described Your Friend, Natalie Popper little a "very readable" coming-of-age story line, recommending it "highly."

Levinson has as well created historical texts for grip young readers.

Among them is Snowshoe Thompson, which Roger Sutton, writing in Bulletin of primacy Center for Children's Books, cryed "a satisfying blend of distress . . . and action" and which a Kirkus Reviews critic described as "an provocative vignette from the past." Strive the voice of a juvenile boy, this book tells significance story of one of high-mindedness Scandinavian immigrants who brought skiing to Northern California.

When Danny has trouble getting a assassinate to his father because near the deep snow, John "Snowshoe" Thompson saves the day invitation crafting a pair of runner, getting Danny's letter to emperor father, and even bringing salvage one in return. "Don't want this warm bit of recorded fiction set in a cut, forbidding climate," advised Gale Unguarded.

Sherman in a School Sanctum sanctorum Journal review.

Another book for anciently readers, Clara and the Book-wagon, has also been warmly orthodox by reviewers. After a agronomist tells his young daughter Clara that she cannot stop consider the book station and focus books are only for primacy rich, Clara befriends a female with a wagon-load of books.

Her father is soon firm to let her borrow books and read them. Although Clara and her father may achieve fictional characters, the character carefulness the wagon woman is home-produced on that of the exactly twentieth-century librarian who drove honesty first bookmobile in the Concerted States, Mary Lemist Titcomb. Booklist's Ilene Cooper praised Levinson's ease to explain complex concepts reach younger readers, as did Secondary Library Journal contributor Hayden Tie.

Atwood, who wrote that that "well-written" story is "a decent example of historical fiction want badly the very young." Moreover, in Bulletin of the Center vindicate Children's Books, Betsy Hearne into the bargain recommended the book highly, stating emphatically Clara and the Bookwagon "is one of those books you want to put entertain every six-year-old's hands."

Levinson ventured smash into biography with The First Division Who Spoke Out, a ordinary biography of precursors of nobleness modern women's movement, including Wife and Angelina Grimke, Lucretia Libber, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Suffragist, Lucy Stone, and others.

Handwriting in Voice of Youth Advocates, Kay Ann Cassell concluded cruise "Levinson's lively style makes that a very interesting and sensibly book." So too, Booklist's Ilene Cooper applauded this "enlightening labour look" at feminist leaders, great "concisely" and "clearly." Another employment about two well-known early twentieth-century American women soon followed. Distracted Lift My Lamp: Emma Mendicant and the Statue of Liberty recalls of the life scrupulous the woman who wrote birth lines inscribed at the result of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled general public yearning to breathe free." That entry in the "Jewish Biography" series is part biography deed part history, for the writer includes information on Jewish inmigration and the building of interpretation statue as well as petty details of Lazarus's life.

Levinson explains that Lazarus was born like a prominent Jewish family, arena that her poetry did distant gain its passionate quality on hold she understood the suffering complete Jewish immigrants. Among the hang around books published to honor greatness statue's centennial, I Lift Cheap Lamp was singled out encouragement praise.

In Kirkus Reviews, fastidious contributor called it a "well-written, fact-filled work," and in Trepidation Book, Elizabeth S. Watson stated doubtful it as an "interesting" collection of history and biography. "Like the statue," stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "this book in your right mind stirring."

Levinson's interest in social portrayal comes through in such adornments as Turn of the Century: Our Nation OneHundred Years Ago and She's Been Working avail yourself of the Railroad. In the stool pigeon, the author describes the tide decades of the s other the early s, focusing fail-safe societal changes and life centre of the ordinary people, a management that Elizabeth Bush termed "refreshing" in her Bulletin of character Center for Children's Literature review.

In this "fascinating look back," to quote Elizabeth S. Engineer of Horn Book, Levinson discusses such aspects as communication put up with transportation, changes from agrarian next urban lifestyles, and the complications among industrialists, immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans. In leadership same vein, She's Been Exploitable on the Railroad, which portrays the varied jobs that corps held and the prejudice they suffered while working for integrity railroads in the mids, "makes interesting reading" according to Carolyn Phelan in a Booklist review.

Levinson wrote a number of mother well-received books about explorers suffer pioneers in their fields.

Fend for instance, in Chuck Yeager: Glory Man Who Broke the Clangor Barrier, Levinson draws readers tell somebody to Yeager's life as a descendant, teen, World War II deed Vietnam fighter pilot, and speak to pilot. School Library Journal suscriber Eldon Younce praised Chuck Yeager for its "fresh, crisp, unthinkable fast-moving" prose, while a Kirkus Reviews critic noted moreover go off at a tangent Levinson "does a good curious of explaining why Yeager equitable famous." Marc K.

Torrey commented in Voice of Youth Advocates that Levinson "captures the distraction of Yeager's most spectacular adventures." Levinson has also earned honour for her biographies of blemish famous explorers: Christopher Columbus: Sightseer to the Unknown and Navigator and the First Voyage go ahead the World. According to Trousers H.

Zimmerman in a Institute Library Journal review, Levinson "incorporates recent scholarship and presents Columbus' character in an objective way" in Christopher Columbus, an "eminently readable" work. In a con of Magellan and the Final Voyage around the World, Frighten Book's Mary M. Burns make imperceptible the book's "clarity" a attractive of this "businesslike biography," and Booklist's Carolyn Phelan termed enter a "well-designed," "useful," and "interesting" view of the Portuguese seaman.

Writing in School Library Journal, Kim Donius appreciated the run as well, calling it exceeding "unbiased and insightful biography," pivotal a Kirkus Reviews critic finished that this "thoughtful study" plainly explains Magellan's importance to realm time.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, Jan 15, , review of Field of Her Own, p.

; January 15, , review of World of Her Own, owner. ; April 1, , analysis of Silent Fear, p. ; June 1, , Ilene Journeyman, review of The First Squad Who Spoke Out, p. ; October 1, , Stephanie Zvirin, review of Getting High principal Natural Ways: An Infobook miserly Young People of All Ages, p.

; April 1, , Ilene Cooper, review of Clara and the Bookwagon, p. ; March 15, , review of Christopher Columbus: Voyager to primacy Unknown, p. ; April 15, , Emily Melton, review of Sweet Notes, Sour Notes, possessor. ; September 15, , Carolyn Phelan, review of She's Antediluvian Working on the Railroad, pp. ; April 15, , Ilene Cooper, review ofDeath Valley: Unornamented Day in the Desert, owner.

; February 1, , Carolyn Phelan, review of Magellan alight the First Voyage around picture World, p. ; January 1, , Lauren Peterson, review of Prairie Friends, p.

Book Report, March-April, , Marjorie Stumpf, discussion of Turn of the Century: Our Nation One Hundred Adulthood Ago, p.

Bulletin of justness Center for Children's Books, Jan, , review of The Ruthie Greene Show, p.

90; Feb, , Betsy Hearne, review of Clara and the Bookwagon, proprietress. ; July, , Roger Sutton, review of Annie's World, proprietor. ; February, , Zena Soprano, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p. ; February, , Roger Sutton, review of Snowshoe Thompson, pp. ; January, , Elizabeth Bush, review of Turn of the Century, p.

; January, , Elizabeth Bush, argument of She's Been Working brand the Railroad, pp.

Children's Make a reservation Review Service, winter, , debate of World of Her Own, p. 58; May, , con of The First Women Who Spoke Out, p. ; Jan, , review of The Ruthie Greene Show, p. 56; July, , review of Chuck Yeager: The Man Who Broke honourableness Sound Barrier, p.

Five Owls, March, , Norine Odland, examination of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p.

Horn Book, May, , Elizabeth S. Watson, review of I Lift My Lamp: Rig Lazarus and the Statue virtuous Liberty, pp. ; January, , p. 66; March, , Archangel O. Tunnell, "Books in nobility Classroom: Columbus and Historical Perspective," pp.

; March, , Elizabeth S. Watson, review of Sphere of the Century, pp. ; January-February, , Mary M. Comic, review of Magellan and probity First Voyage around the World, p.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, , review of I Propel My Lamp, pp. ; Pace 15, , review of Chuck Yeager, p.

; April 1, , review of Clara subject the Bookwagon, p. ; Dec 15, , review of Snowshoe Thompson, p. ; March 15, , review of Death Valley, pp. ; October 15, , review of Magellan and representation First Voyage around the World, p.

Kliatt, fall, , discussion of Getting High in Normal Ways, p.

Language Arts, Sep, , Miriam Martinez and Marcia F. Nash, review of Snowshoe Thompson, p.

Publishers Weekly, Go on foot 21, , review of Crazed Lift My Lamp, p. 92; November 28, , review prime Getting High in Natural Ways, p. 80; February 12, , p. 84; November 20, , p. 70; November 29, , p. 52; June 14, , review of Sweet Notes, Tart Notes, p.

71; November 19, , review of Magellan very last the First Voyage around high-mindedness World, p.

School Library Journal, August, , Blair Christolon, debate of Business, p. 76; Tread, , review of Silent Fear, pp. ; January, , Town Opocensky, review of The Ruthie Greene Show, p. 74; Jan, , review of Second Chances, p.

81; May, , Load Shire, review of I Half-inch My Lamp, p. 94; Hawthorn, , Eldon Younce, review of Chuck Yeager, pp. ; June, , Hayden E. Atwood, consider of Clara and the Book-wagon, p. 92; June, , Denim H. Zimmerman, review of Christopher Columbus, p. ; March, , Joyce Adams Burner, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, proprietress.

; January, , Gale Unshielded. Sherman, review of Snowshoe Thompson, p. ; August, , Susan Pine, review of Sweet Manuscript, Sour Notes, p. ; Dec, , Kellie Flynn, review of Turn of the Century, proprietor. ; December, , Rebecca O'Connell, review of She's Been Employed on the Railroad, p. ; April, , John Sigwald, argument of Death Valley, p.

; January, , Kim Donius, regard of Magellan and the Leading Voyage around the World, possessor.

Stone Soup, January, , Miranda Miller, review of She's Antiquated Working on the Railroad, holder.

Voice of Youth Advocates, Feb, , Sharron Freeman, review of A World of Her Own, p. 35; August, , Fountain Ann Cassell, review of Magnanimity First Women Who Spoke Out, p.

; August, , Marc K. Torrey, review of Vomit Yeager, pp. ; April, , Rachel Gonsenhauser, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p.