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Jean Guttery Fritz, born November 16, 1915, is an American children's author and biographer.
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Life
Jean Guttery was born to American missionaries in Hankow, China, where she lived for the next twelve years. She was an only child (a sister, Miriam, was born when Jean was 11, but unfortunately Miriam died only a week after her birth). Growing up, Jean kept a journal that she had written about her days in China with Lin Nai-Nai (her amah) and other thoughts such as how she had wanted her name to be Majorie. She moved to the United States with her parents when she was in eighth grade. She had graduated in 1937 from Wheaton College. In 1941, she married Michael Fritz. She has two children, David and Andrea, who were both named after friends she had met in Hankow. She currently lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
Works
Fritz's writing career started with the publication of several short stories in Humpty Dumpty magazine in the early 1950s. In 1954, her first book, Bunny Hopwell's First Spring was published, followed in 1955 by 121 Pudding Street, a work that is said to draw from the lives and characters of her children.[1] She often wrote Westerns or stories of old America because her father would tell her stories of American heroes as she was growing up. Her first historical novel for children is The Cabin Faced West. Eventually she published her autobiography, Homesick, My Own Story in 1982 and won the Newbery Honor citation the following year. Her hard work for children earned her the 1986 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal.[2]
List of titles
- And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?
- Around the World in a Hundred Years
- Brady
- Brendan the Navigator, the History Mystery about the Discovery of America
- Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt
- The Cabin Faced West
- Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?
- China's Long March: 6,000 Miles of Danger
- The Double Life of Pocahontas
- Early Thunder
- George Washington's Breakfast
- The Great Little Madison
- Homesick, My Own Story
- Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln
- Leonardo's Horse
- The Lost Colony of Roanoke
- Shh! We're Writing the Constitution
- Stonewall
- Surprising Myself
- Traitor: the Case of Benedict Arnold
- What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?
- Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?
- Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
- Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?
- Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?
- Why Not Lafayette?
- Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?
- You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton?
References
- ^ The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, Bernice E. Cullinan, Diane G. Person, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 0826417787
- ^ http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/wildermedal/wilderpast/wildermedalpast.cfm
External links
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