Bausum, Ann

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Bausum, Ann

Personal

Born in Knoxville, TN; married, husband's name Dan; children: Sam, Jake. Education: Graduated from Beloit College.

Addresses

Home and office—2143 W. Collingswood Dr., Beloit, WI 53511-2313; fax: (608) 361-1553. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Author. Has also worked as a copywriter for publishing houses in New York, NY, and in public relations at Beloit College, Beloit, WI.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

Books for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, 2001, for Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews; Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People designation, National Council for the Social Studies/Children's Book Council (NCSS/CBC), 2002, for Our Country's Presidents; Anna Cross Giblin Nonfiction Research Work-in-Progress grant, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, 2003, for Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement; Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, NCSS/CBC, Best Book for Older Readers designation, Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Best Books for Young Adults designation, American Library Association, and Books for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, all 2005, all for With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote.

Writings

NONFICTION

Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2000.

Our Country's Presidents, foreword by George W. Bush, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2001, revised edition, 2005.

With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2004.

Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, forewords by John Lewis and Jim Zwerg, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2006.

Our Country's First Ladies, National Geographic (Washington, DC), 2007.

Muckrakers: How Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal, Inspire Reform, and Invent Investigative Journalism, National Geographic (Washington, DC), 2007.

Sidelights

Ann Bausum is an award-winning author of nonfiction for children and young adults. Her works, including With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Wom-

an's Right to Vote and Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, examine significant events from American history. "I love to write nonfiction because I love to do research," Bausum noted on her home page. "Once I decide to write a book, I'll spend days, months, even years learning about a topic before I write a single sentence of my own words. With nonfiction, a book is only as good as the research behind it."

In Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews Bausum profiles the intrepid paleontologist who is often referred to as the "real-life Indiana Jones." During the 1920s, Andrews led a series of expeditions into Mongolia, discovering the first dinosaur eggs as well as fossils of Protoceratops and Oviraptor. Writing in School Library Journal, John Peters called Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs "an inspiring character portrait," and another School Library Journal contributor, Patricia Manning, remarked that Bausum's "absorbing text invites readers into a world distant in both space and time."

Our Country's Presidents offers not only portraits of the men who served as leaders of the United States but also essays on the electoral college, presidential landmarks, First Ladies, the White House, and other topics. "Bausum gives a real sense of the person behind the office in every case," observed Booklist critic GraceAnne A. DeCandido, and School Library Journal reviewer Karen Sutherland praised the work's "beautiful illustrations …, current information, and user-friendly layout."

The American women's suffrage movement in the early twentieth century is the focus of With Courage and Cloth, a "lucid and nuanced study," in the words of a Kirkus Reviews critic. In particular, Bausum examines the workings of two organizations: the National American Women Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, and the National Woman's Party, headed by Alice Paul. "Bausum highlights the tension between these factions in well-documented detail and casts it against the greater picture of controversy within and surrounding the national and state governments," noted Joyce Adams Burner in School Library Journal. With Courage and Cloth received numerous honors, including the 2005 Jane Addams Children's Book Award for older readers.

Freedom Riders relates the stories of Jim Zwerg and John Lewis, two men who risked their lives to end racial segregation in the United States. Zwerg, a white college student from Wisconsin, and Lewis, a black seminarian from Alabama, participated in the Freedom Rides, joining other activists aboard segregated interstate busses traveling through the Southern states. In May of 1961, Zwerg and Lewis were viciously attacked by a mob at a bus terminal in Montgomery, Alabama. The men survived, and the violence done to them

brought national attention to the segregation issue. According to Booklist critic Jennifer Mattson, "this moving biographical diptych prompts careful thinking about race … and delivers a galvanizing call to action."

Bausum noted on her home page that she searches for new book ideas even before she finishes her current project. "I may not have written a single word yet," she acknowledged, "but my mind is brimming with ideas, images, facts, and visions for the form this new work will take. As much fun as the last phase—and the last book—have been, the unknown of what lies ahead is best of all."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2000, Randy Meyer, review of Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, p. 1371; October 15, 2004, Debbie Carton, review of With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote, p. 397; May 15, 2005, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Our Country's Presidents, p. 1654; February 1, 2006, Jennifer Mattson, review of Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, p. 60.

Horn Book, May–June, 2006, Kathleen Isaacs, review of Freedom Riders, pp. 339–340.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2004, review of With Courage and Cloth, p. 860.

School Library Journal, March, 2000, Patricia Manning, review of Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs, p. 244; May, 2003, John Peters, review of Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs, p. 101; September, 2004, Joyce Adams Burner, review of With Courage and Cloth, p. 221; April, 2005, Karen Sutherland, review of Our Country's Presidents, p. 147; March, 2006, John Peters, review of With Courage and Cloth, p. 89.