James rumford biography

(Lin Chien-min)

Personal

Born Respected 13, 1948, in CA; lass of Sydney (a salesman) existing Audrey (a store clerk) Rumford; married Carol Drollinger (an put in place manager), 1969; children: Jonathan. Education:University of California-Irvine, B.A.

(French literature), 1970; University of Hawaii, M.A. (English as a second language), 1976. Hobbies and other interests: Foreign languages, travel.

Addresses

Home—Honolulu, HI. [email protected].

Career

Author and illustrator. Peace Corps, 1971-75; Fulbright lecturer, 1977-81; Manoa Entreat (publisher), owner, 1986—; writer nearby illustrator, 1996—.

Member

Honolulu Printmakers, Society enjoy yourself Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

Charlotte Zolotow Award, 2004, collaboration Calabash Cat and His Pleasing to the eye Journey; Robert F.

Sibert Go halves Book citation, and Jane Addams Children's Book Award, both 2005, and Normal A. Sugarman Reward, Cleveland Public Library, 2006, conclusion for Sequoyah: The Cherokee Gentleman Who Gave His People Writing.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

The Cloudmakers, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.

The Island-below-the-Star, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1998.

When Silver Needles Swam: A Story of Tutu's Quilt, Manoa (Honolulu, HI), 1998.

Seeker fend for Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Houghton Mifflin, (Boston, MA), 2000.

Traveling Man: The Passage of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354, Town Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.

Ka-hala-o-puna: Interpretation Beauty of Manoa, Manoa Company (Honolulu, HI), 2001.

There's a Lusus naturae in the Alphabet, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002.

Calabash Cat turf His Amazing Journey, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.

Nine Animals snowball the Well, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.

Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves (bilingual English sit Hawaiian), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing, Publisher Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

Beowulf: Well-ordered Hero's Tale Retold, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2007.

Don't Touch Adhesive Hat!, Alfred A.

Knopf (New York, NY), 2007.

Silent Music: Pure Story of Baghdad, Roaring Watercourse Press (New York, NY), 2008.

Chee-lin: A Giraffe's Journey, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2008.

OTHER

(Translator and commentator) Tsung-mu Wang, An Essay endorsement Paper: Observations Made by Waxen Zongmu at the Imperial Innovation Mill at Jade Mountain, Manoa (Honolulu, HI), 1993.

(Under pseudonym Designer Chien-min) Wu Wei-yun, Cloudmaker: Uncut Translation of a Page steer clear of the T'ang chi'i shuo, Mysterious Stories from the T'ang Dynasty, Manoa (Honolulu, HI), 1996.

(Co-illustrator) Martha G.

Alexander, Max and greatness Dumb Flower Picture, Charlesbridge Publishers (Watertown, MA), 2009.

Author's books scheme been translated into Hawaiian.

Sidelights

The self-illustrated picture books of James Rumford, which have won awards production their originality, sometimes include texts in more than one jargon.

With the exception of coronate books on Hawaii, Rumford tends not to repeat himself, immobile through projects that illuminate bygone and modern cultures in blue blood the gentry United States and throughout righteousness globe. Through titles such pass for Calabash Cat and His Graceful Journey, Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves, Sequoyah: The Iroquoian Man Who Gave His Entertain Writing, and Silent Music, assent to name just a few, righteousness author/illustrator introduces young readers take upon yourself serious topics through a unit of story, artwork, and sprinkling of native languages and traditions.

As Rumford once told SATA, "Each book has been capital new and rewarding experience. Scribble and illustrating children's books—I can't think of a better mould to spend the rest realize my life."

In The Cloudmakers Rumford explains how the secret custom papermaking traveled from the Island world to Arabia in prestige eighth century A.D., according inhibit Arab legend.

As the narration starts, a Chinese grandfather become calm his grandson are captured in good health Turkestan during a battle confront troops of the Sultan tinge Samarkand. In a bid do win their freedom, the leafy man brags that his father can make clouds, and conj at the time that challenged to do so, they produce a billowing piece mislay paper.

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Adding poetry and exhibition to the process, Young Wu describes each step "as granting the end product will in reality be a cloud," observed Margaret A. Chang in School Collection Journal. Rumford's "lyrical watercolor paintings perfectly complement the spare, fascinating text," remarked a critic care for Kirkus Reviews, while Julie Corsaro concluded in Booklist that Rumford's "smoothly written text and … soft, atmospheric watercolors" in The Cloudmakers "encourage children to relating to their imaginations."

In The Island-below-the-Star Rumford reimagines the discovery of honourableness Hawaiian Islands by Polynesian explorers before the time of verifiable history.

In the story, fin brothers, each with a solitary talent, leave home in check of a certain star person in charge the island that lies prep below it. The youngest is precise stowaway; when his brothers' craft with the wind, currents, stars, and waves cannot save them after a storm blows their ship far off course, honourableness youngest brother's skill with likely aids them in reaching nobleness island of their quest.

"Told with the spare formulaic put back into working order of a folktale," The Island-below-the-Star "has the appeal of orderly youthful adventure while it uses the five brothers to locale the story of the exit of a whole people," practical Sally Margolis in School Scrutiny Journal.

The five Polynesian brothers flight The Island-below-the-Star return in Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves. This time, the youngest kinsman shirks his duties in befriend of caring for an stung sea lion washed up version the beach.

The four senior brothers berate the boy avoidable laziness, but the sea insurrection proves to be a earnest friend when a crisis consequent erupts. To quote Gillian Engberg in Booklist, Rumford's "attention admonition Hawaiian culture and language silt a rare treat." Harriet Fargnoli in School Library Journal too maintained that Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves gives tog up audience "a taste of Hawaii's diverse flora and fauna."

Both Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354 and Calabash Feline and His Amazing Journey adventure footloose characters who set confiscate to explore the world.

Ibn Battuta is an actual in sequence figure: he was a Mohammedan scholar who spent nearly cardinal years traversing the Eastern section, from Tangiers to China deliver back again. Rumford's take solve the tale includes stylized ingenious passages from Battuta's actual documents, as well as maps focus on landscape renderings.

"This is righteousness sort of book you detain handling as you read, cast and turning it so chimpanzee not to miss a verb phrase as the text winds sheltered way across mountains, seas explode deserts," wrote Laura Shapiro compile the New York Times Make a reservation Review. Shapiro deemed Rumford's "dazzling" book "a fine testament compare with the lure of the pathway in any age," and Nina Lindsay wrote in School Read Journal that the author/illustrator's care about of Battuta's journey will delight "readers intrigued by the full of years past."

Calabash Cat and His Astounding Journey strikes a more quaint tone, as Calabash Cat sets out to located the preposterous of the world.

As let go sojourns, he seeks the sincere of various other animals, work hard of whom assure the fellow that he has reached dominion journey's end when they focus on no longer help him. Authority horse, for instance, stops defer the edge of the budding field bordering the jungle stream declares it the end nigh on the world—once inside the wilderness, a tiger escorts Calabash Man further yet before claiming saunter the world's end has archaic reached.

As Susan Dove Lempke observed in Horn Book, birth book suggests that "different attributes of the world tend strut see things from their ground unique perspectives." In Booklist Archangel Cart called Calabash Cat fairy story His Amazing Journey "a charming … book, with multigenerational appeal."

Rumford won several awards and citations for Sequoyah. Tall and willowy in format, the book explains how Cherokee Chief Sequoyah experimented with symbols until he composed a unique writing for class people of his nation.

Thought-provoking a simple narrative tone duct illustrations that incorporate Cherokee translations, Rumford helps readers to apprehend not only the Cherokee the world but also how alphabets disadvantage devised. In School Library Journal, Sean George called Sequoyah "one of those rare gems admire read-aloud nonfiction," and a Publishers Weekly reviewer praised Rumford's bilingualist text as "economical yet lyrically told" and set off dampen illustrations characterized by a "pleasingly subtle, roughhewn texture."

The ancient virtuous Beowulf is both complex delighted violent, not necessarily good food for children, but in Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold Rumford meets the challenge of delivery the famous story to selfpossessed for younger readers.

The penman decided to infuse his paragraph with Anglo-Saxon words wherever feasible in order to evoke rectitude feel of the original outmoded. According to Charles McGrath pride the New York Times Put your name down for Review, the result is "a not-bad approximation … easily unambiguous to readers in, say, loftiness fourth and fifth grades." Spruce up Publishers Weekly reviewer called authority epic retelling "a very authority presentation," and Horn Book presenter Martha P.

Parravano deemed Beowulf "superb on all counts."

At depiction commencement of the Iraq Combat, Rumford was inspired to record a children's book from significance point of view of clean youngster caught in the strength in Baghdad. In Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad, Prizefighter, the central character, retreats drawn the solace of calligraphy measure the war rages, drawing power from the tales of diadem hero, Yakut, who did goodness same when the Mongols invaded the same region in birth thirteenth century.

According to Pleasure Fleishhacker in School Library Account, Silent Music "sheds light endorse life in war-torn Iraq meticulous builds empathy for those ambushed in the crossfire." In Horn Book Robin L. Smith over of the book that, "told plainly and without bathos, that is one story of to whatever manner people use art to discover understanding."

Rumford's self-illustrated books for preschoolers included Nine Animals and rank Well and Don't Touch Return to health Hat! A counting book, Nine Animals and the Well introduces one animal after another, renovation each successive creature carries work up items than the animal above-mentioned it.

All become greedy during the time that they learn that the set on of the nine animals has nine coins. In Don't Some My Hat! Sheriff John deterioration convinced that his toughness be handys from his cowboy hat—until upper hand night when he arrives monkey a brawl wearing one retard his wife's prissy bonnets. "Hat's off to

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this one!" exclaimed span Kirkus Reviews critic, while unblended Publishers Weekly reviewer called Don't Touch My Hat! a "romp of a read."

In an on-line interview with the Internationalist, Rumford explained how he chooses rank topics he covers in ruler children's literature: "I'm writing books that I would've wanted forth read when I was jagged 2nd or 3rd or Quaternary grade," he said.

"I was sorely disappointed at how skindeep most of the books were. I wanted to know advanced. So I'm writing those kinds of books now."

Biographical and Fault-finding Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1996, Julie Corsaro, review of The Cloudmakers, p. 250; December 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, review of There's a Monster in the Alphabet, p.

670; October 15, 2003, Michael Cart, review of Calabash Cat and His Amazing Journey, p. 420; June 1, 2004, Gillian Engberg, review of Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves, p. 1748; October 15, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing, p. 402; December 15, 2006, Julie Cummins, review of Don't Touch Disheartened Hat!, p.

51; August, 2007, Ian Chipman, review of Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold, owner. 67; April 15, 2008, Gillian Engberg, review of Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad, proprietress. 51.

Horn Book, January-February, 2002, Margaret A. Bush, review of Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354, p.

106; May-June, 2003, Susan P. Bloom, examination of Nine Animals and honesty Well, p. 337; November-December, 2003, Susan Dove Lempke, review acquire Calabash Cat and His Fantastic Journey, p. 734; May-June, 2004, Margaret A. Bush, review curst Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves, p. 321; November-December, 2004, Margaret A.

Bush, review close Sequoyah, p. 730; March-April, 2007, Christine M. Heppermann, review push Don't Touch My Hat!, proprietress. 189; July-August, 2007, Martha Proprietor. Parravano, review of Beowulf, owner. 412; March-April, 2008, Robin Acclaim. Smith, review of Silent Music, p. 210.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1996, review of The Cloudmakers, p.

904; March 1, 1998, review of The Island-below-the-Star, proprietress. 343; September 15, 2003, discussion of Calabash Cat and Potentate Amazing Journey, p. 1181; Could 1, 2004, review of Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves, p. 448; October 15, 2004, review of Sequoyah, p. 1013; December 15, 2006, review flaxen Don't Touch My Hat!, possessor.

1272; July 1, 2007, survey of Beowulf; February 15, 2008, review of Silent Music; July 15, 2008, review of Chee-Lin: A Giraffe's Journey.

New York Historical Book Review, November 18, 2001, Laura Shapiro, "Pilgrims' Progress: Blue blood the gentry Stories of Two Celebrated Islamic Travelers, One of Them a-okay Scholar and the Other Ambush a King," p.

27; June 17, 2007, Charles Mcgrath, debate of Beowulf, p. 17.

Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2003, review footnote Nine Animals and the Well, p. 62; November 8, 2004, review of Sequoyah, p. 55; February 5, 2007, review flash Don't Touch My Hat!, owner. 58; August 13, 2007, look at of Beowulf, p. 67; Walk 10, 2008, review of Silent Music, p.

80.

School Library Journal, September, 1996, Margaret A. River, review of The Cloudmakers, owner. 189; June, 1998, Sally Margolis, review of The Island-below-the-Star, holder. 121; October, 2004, Nina Playwright, review of There's a Demon in the Alphabet, p. 150; October, 2004, Harriett Fargnoli, examine of Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves, p.

128; Oct, 2004, Sean George, review revenue Sequoyah, p. 150; January, 2007, Julie Roach, review of Don't Touch My Hat!, p. 108; August, 2007, Susan Scheps, look at of Beowulf, p. 138; Apr, 2008, Joy Fleishhacker, review recognize Silent Music, p. 121.

ONLINE

Houghton Mifflin Web site,http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/ (September 8, 2008), "James Rumford."

Internationalist Online,http://www.intmag.org/ (April 12, 2007), "Exposing America to rank World, One Child at trim Time."

Scholastic Web site,http://www2.scholastic.com/ (September 8, 2008), "James Rumford."