Leading Ladies

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Five Things to Know About Cynthia Rylant: 

1. Graduated from the University of Charleston and went on to pursue graduate work at Marshall University in English Literature in 1975.

2. Winner of both a Newbery Honor Award and two Caldecott Honors, Rylant is celebrated as a master of writing Children's Literature. (Newbery: Missing May and Caldecott: When I was Young in the Mountains and The Relatives Came)

3.   Before getting her start in writing children's books, she started working as a waitress and eventually became a librarian at the public library in Huntington, West Virginia.

4. In the late seventies, she started teaching English Literature part time at her alma mater, Marshall University when she wrote her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains-her very first published work won a Caldecott, pretty impressive!!)

5. Rylant has written over a hundred books during her career including picture books, poetry, fiction and nonfiction. 

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