Pierce, Meredith Ann

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Meredith Ann Pierce

Personal

Born July 5, 1958, in Seattle, WA; daughter of Frank N. (a professor of advertising) and Jo Ann (an editor and professor of agriculture; maiden name, Bell) Pierce. Education: University of Florida, B.A., 1978, M.A., 1980. Hobbies and other interests: Music (composition, harp, and voice), picture book collecting, film and theater, anthropology, archaeology, languages, folklore and mythology, cats, science fiction, fantasy.

Addresses

Home—424-H Northeast Sixth St., Gainesville, FL 32601.

Career

Writer. University of Florida, instructor in creative writing, 1978-80; Bookland, Gainesville, FL, clerk, 1981; Waldenbooks, Gainesville, FL, clerk, 1981-87; Aluchua County Library District, FL, library assistant, 1987—. Treasurer, Children's Literature Association Conference, Gainesville, 1982.

Member

Phi Beta Kappa.

Awards, Honors

First prize, Scholastic/Hallmark Cards creative writing contest, 1973; Best Books for Young Adults citation and Best of the Best Books l970-82 designation, both American Library Association (ALA), New York Times Notable Children's Book designation, and Parents' Choice Award Superbook citation, all 1982, Children's Book Award, International Reading Association, 1983, California Young Reader Medal, 1986, and Booklist Best Books of the Decade (1980-89) list, all for The Darkangel; Jane Tinkham Broughton Fellow in writing for children, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1984; Best Books for Young Adults semifinalist, ALA, 1985, for A Gathering of Gargoyles; Parents' Choice Award for Literature citation, 1985, and New York Public Library Books for the Teen-Age citation, 1986, both for The Woman Who Loved Reindeer; Individual Artist Fellowship special award for children's literature, Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, 1987; Best Books for Young Adults citation, ALA, 1991, Young Adult's Choice Book, IRA, 1992, for The Pearl of the Soul of the World; Books for the Teen Age list, New York Public Library, 1993, for Dark Moon; Editor's Choice, Booklist, 2001, Best Books for Young Adults, ALA, 2002, Books for the Teen Age list, New York Public Library, 2002, Top 10 Fantasy Books for Youth, Booklist, 2002, nominated, Popular Paperbacks, YALSA, 2003, master list, Oklahoma Sequoyah Award, 2003-04, all for Treasure at the Heart of Tanglewood.

Writings

YOUNG ADULT FANTASY NOVELS

The Darkangel (first novel in "Darkangel" trilogy; also see below), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1982.

A Gathering of Gargoyles (second novel in "Darkangel" trilogy; also see below), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1984.

Birth of the Firebringer (first novel of "Firebringer" trilogy), Macmillan (New York, NY), 1985. The Woman Who Loved Reindeer, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1985.

The Pearl of the Soul of the World (third novel in "Darkangel" trilogy; also see below), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1990.

The Darkangel Trilogy (contains The Darkangel, AGathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990.

Dark Moon (second novel in "Firebringer" trilogy), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1992.

The Son of Summer Stars (third novel in "Firebringer" trilogy), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

Treasure at the Heart of Tanglewood, Viking (New York, NY), 2001.

OTHER

Where the Wild Geese Go (picture book), illustrated by Jamichael Henterly, Dutton (New York, NY), 1988.

Waters Luminous and Deep: Shorter Fictions, Viking (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor of novella "Rampion" to Four from the Witch World, edited by André Norton, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1989. Contributor to anthologies and to periodicals, including Mythlore, Horn Book, ALAN Review, Voice of Youth Advocates, and New Advocate.

Work in Progress

A four-part fantasy series for adults.

Sidelights

"To write a novel is to be in love," commented fantasy writer Meredith Ann Pierce in a Horn Book essay. "It is to wander dark forests, encountering tigers. I've been referred to as 'a writer of fantasy stories that have strong female protagonists.' Upon reflection, I suppose this is true. . . . Yet when people ask me about my heroines, where they come from, on whom they are modeled, and I respond, 'The Tyger' by William Blake, I'm looked at as though I haven't answered the question." Yet, according to Pierce, it was the "ferocity and sensuality" of that poem that captured her as a child and ultimately inspired her imagination. Pierce's novels, which include the trilogies "Darkangel" and "Firebringer," are partly inspired by Blake's images and are highlighted by their imaginative plots and settings, poetic language, and determined, independent characters. Her most noted work, the "Darkangel" fantasy trilogy, relates a young girl's struggle to free herself, her friends, and her world from an evil witch. Pierce's fiction "combines a mythic inventiveness with such elemental themes as love, conflict, and quest," explained Joan Nist in the ALAN Review. As a Publishers Weekly contributor noted, Pierce's "imagination seems boundless and she writes with such assurance that readers believe in every magic being and occurrence."

Mary Corran noted in an essay for St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers that "the small quantity of Pierce's work is high in quality. There is a magic in the weaving of her tales which is deeply absorbing. The atmospheres she creates tend to linger in the mind, and there is a directness and lack of sentimentality about her characters which engender a powerful appeal." "Like good baklava, a work of fiction should be multilayered," Pierce herself once explained. "If it doesn't have its components properly situated in correct proportion, the taste and texture will be off. Plot is like the pastry: The body and support. Theme is the nut: The kernel and the heart. Style is the savor, blending honey and spice. Nothing is more delicious either to fashion or to devour."

Several critics have noted the sophistication of Pierce's prose style, including her use of archaic language and advanced vocabulary. M. Jean Greenlaw, writing in Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers, likened Pierce's novels to elaborate tapestries and commented that "when she is at her best, the tales are rich and evocative, stirring the reader to question as well as absorb. There are times, however, that her tellings become too intricate, and the reader loses the thread of the tapestry." Pierce, however, refuses to simplify her complex language. In an interview she once defended her writing: "I can't change the way I think and I can't change my vocabulary and pretend that I don't know words that I know. . . . There are lots of word games in my stories, coined words and made up words, compound words, because I like doing that, it's very enjoyable."

Youth and Imagination

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1958, Pierce developed her considerable imagination by entertaining herself when she was a child. "I was a great collector of stuffed animals and had several entire imaginary lives," she once admitted. "I would play with anything that was available whether it was animate or not. It would always be some sort of imagined environment—it was like role-playing games [such as Dungeons and Dragons] before role-playing games were invented." Books fueled her imagination after she began reading at age three, and the library became a favorite haunt. One book that Pierce remembers fondly is Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland; "Alice in Wonderland is like my religion," she revealed. "It was introduced into my system before my immune system was complete, so it's wired into my psyche. I can't distinguish between my own mythology and early influences like Alice in Wonderland or the movie The Wizard of Oz. Some of the stuff that I saw really impressed me when I was very little and just went straight into my neurons—it's inseparable from my way of thinking."

By the time she reached junior high, Pierce was scouring the shelves in the adult section of the library. She constantly wrote down ideas and stories, but she did not realize that people could actually make a living writing novels. She once said, "My parents always treated my writing as another one of those obsessive little hobbies. . . . Since they were the authority figures I had to pretend that this wasn't the most important thing in my life and find some other career." While attending the University of Florida, she encountered teachers who encouraged her talent and enthusiasm for writing, and at age twenty-three Pierce began work on what would be her first published novel, The Darkangel.

Begins Trilogy with The Darkangel

The Darkangel is a fantasy that takes place on the moon and follows the journey of Aeriel, a servant girl who sets out to rescue her mistress from a vampire who, while evil, is strangely compelling at the same time. The basic idea for the book was inspired by a real-life case Pierce encountered while reading the autobiography of noted psychiatrist Carl Jung. One of Jung's patients told him how she had once lived on the moon, where she met a handsome vampire who took her captive. "Jung's account of his patient and her fascinating delusion served as the germinal model for Aeriel and the first two chapters of Darkangel," Pierce related in a Horn Book article. Later sections of the novel, as well as the rest of what developed as the "Darkangel" trilogy, draw from the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast," the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros, and a host of other influences. While Library Journal contributor Paula M. Strain found The Darkangel to be somewhat "derivative," other critics thought otherwise. In her New York Times Book Review critique of the second volume of the "Darkangel" trilogy, A Gathering of Gargoyles, Eleanor Cameron commented that Pierce's novels "reflect the wellspring of myth and religion that have influenced her and have taken new form in her interpretation. The well-read adolescent or adult can revel in both the story that Pierce tells and the search for connections to other stories in the body of fantasy literature."

In the "Darkangel" trilogy—which includes The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World—Aeriel continues her battle against the evil White Witch that threatens the young woman's world. The close of the first volume finds Aeriel married to the vampire Irrylath, a son of the White Witch who is now humanized after she exchanges her heart for his. In A Gathering of Gargoyles, she discovers that Irrylath is still bound to the evil White Witch and cannot love another; she is a bride in name only. To release him, she searches the moon to find their world's Ions, ancient animal guardians who will help lead the battle against the witch's forces. Writing in Book Report, Patsy Launspach praised this second installment in the "Darkangel" series as a "great adventure story."

In the last novel of the series, The Pearl of the Soul of the World, Aeriel sets out to defeat the White Witch and persuade her to renounce evil: the classic showdown between good and evil. Her efforts are thwarted when a silver pin is driven into her skull, leaving Aeriel wandering through underground caves, mute and unaware of who she is. She is eventually rescued by Ravenna, last of the ancient creators, who removes the pin and places all her knowledge and powers into the luminous pearl Aeriel wears around her neck. Thus armed, Aeriel prepares for the final confrontation with her evil nemesis. In a School Library Journal review of this concluding volume, Ruth S. Vose observed that "Pierce continues to have the power to capture the imagination of her readers. Her creativity never falters."

As Corran noted, while The Darkangel "possesses a fairy-tale—even an Arabian Nights—quality, . . . that is to underrate the extraordinarily evocative nature of the work, rich with the power of myth." A Gathering of Gargoyles contains a similar fairy-story feeling, although Corran found it "more rounded and more complex." Many critics have praised the entire trilogy for its well-developed characters, and Greenlaw also noted "the staunch love that Aeriel extends to the creatures and beings with whom she comes in contact." Signal Review contributor Elizabeth Hammill found Aeriel "a brave and resourceful heroine—fascinating because she possesses that fairy-tale compassion for apparently base creatures which enables her to recognize their true nature and, hence, to redeem them."

Aeriel's determination to stand her ground in the face of danger is a reflection of Pierce's own childhood experiences, as the author wrote in her Horn Book article. Pierce once had to cope with an alcoholic and abusive relative who one day "had made up his mind to do me violence." But the author refused to be bullied by the relative who, faced with such determination, backed off. It was "a little bit of a revelation—that a lot of human relationships are bluff, and that's an important thing to know," she concluded. Reviewing A Gathering of Gargoyles for Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Magda Gere Lewis further commented on this aspect of the trilogy: "Ariel is not the 'rescuee.' She is the rescuer. She is not the girl to be had, but the woman who will seek and have. She is smart, full of wit, capable, insightful, creative, and above all, loyal."

Several critics have commented on Pierce's use of language in the "Darkangel" books, with Cameron describing Pierce's style as "intensely visual, even poetic," and Fantasy Review critic Walter Albert pointing out that "one of her great strengths is her ability to capture the colors and textures of the physical world." Ann A. Flowers noted in a Horn Book review of The Pearl of the Soul of the World, that one of the novel's strengths was "the style, with shimmering, fragile textures and delicate, shadowy descriptions," while a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented on the "meticulous, creative use of language" in the concluding "Darkangel" novel.

The "Firebringer" Trilogy

Pierce's use of language is again praised in reviews of her "Firebringer" trilogy, which contains Birth of the Firebringer, Dark Moon, and The Son of Summer Stars. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews found the language in the opening volume "as elegant as the unicorn people it chronicles." In Birth of the Firebringer, an impulsive, outspoken young unicorn named Jan wants to prove his worth to his father, Prince of the Unicorns. He joins the unicorns' annual pilgrimage to a sacred lake, but finds himself challenged by an ancient enemy, the evil wyverns. Seeing no vision in the sacred well nearby, Jan runs away, and in his flight encounters a wyvern who tries to get him to betray his people. When Jan kills the wyvern, his noble deed results in his being able to see visions concerning his destiny as firebringer of the unicorns. Praising the novel for its "satisfying plot," School Library Journal contributor Holly Sanhuber noted that Pierce's talent for making her unicorn world believable is "enhanced by her stately use of language and the sense of [unicorn] history and culture which she creates and sustains."

The "Firebringer" trilogy continues with 1992's Dark Moon, which finds Jan falling in love with the unicorn Tek, whom he takes as his mate. However, Jan's happiness is cut short by an attack from harpies, and Jan is lost at sea and believed dead. Crazed by grief, the unicorn prince—Jan's father—becomes ruthless in his dictatorship of the herd. Escaping the fury of Jan's father, Tek escapes to the home of her mother—a healer—in time to give birth to two foals. Meanwhile, Jan is still alive and in the care of humans who have taken him to their city and penned him up with a group of mares. One of the mares, Ryhenna, aids Jan in his escape and joins him in returning to his own land and attempts to make peace with the wyverns, harpies, and other creatures that besiege his land. School Library Journal critic JoAnn Rees noted that the novel would be must-reading for followers of the trilogy, and Sylvia Feicht commented in Book Report that this second installment in the series was an "exciting, well-paced adventure."

The Son of Summer Stars provides what School Library Journal reviewer Mary Jo Drungil called a "thrilling" and "deeply satisfying" conclusion to Pierce's second trilogy by answering some of the questions left unanswered by the earlier books. In the novel, Jan leads his herd to its ancient homeland, finding a way to thwart the efforts of the wormlike wyverns and other creatures to do them harm. Jan's father, now living as a renegade, reveals that the rightful leader of the unicorns is Jan's mate, Tek, who is now a warrior, and this prophecy is proven true at a final showdown that takes place at the Hallow Hills. Although The Son of Summer Stars brings to an end much of the tension built during the previous novels, as Booklist contributor Chris Sherman noted, Pierce also includes "the encounters with exotic creatures and the adventures" that captured readers' attention in the first two "Firebringer" novels. Drungil concluded, "Readers of the earlier novels and fantasy addicts will be delighted with this compelling tale."

Inventing a new society like that of the unicorns is an aspect of fantasy-writing that Pierce particularly enjoys: "I'm very interested in environments, in worlds, civilizations, belief systems, societies, rules of society or religions. Both fantasy and science fiction tend to do a whole lot of world-building because they will build the environment, they will build the world, they'll get it all set up and then they'll say, 'What if?'" To develop all the details of a new world, Pierce draws on her wider reading experience: "Lots of anthropology and mythology, religion and alternate cultures and books about animal behavior. All of that I read for pleasure, but it's also my research because it comes back in my stories, in shadows and echoes, distortions and amalgams. It refigures itself into a fantasy."

Stand-Alone Fantasies

As with Darkangel, Pierce's The Woman Who Loved Reindeer resulted from an idea the author had during her high school years. As the author recalled in Horn Book: "As I stood looking out over the flat, barren, empty playing field, a vivid image came to mind of a woman dressed in doeskin standing stock still, her mouth open, her hands reaching out after a great stag that is carrying away her child. . . . The woman is speechless, but the child is screaming . . . with delight." Pierce developed her vision into a story by building on the Native American husk-myth in which an animal can cast off its skin to take human form, setting this story in an imagined world. In her novel, young Caribou, who lives alone after her father's death, is given her sister-in-law's baby, called Reindeer. Caribou takes herbs to cause her milk to flow, and nurtures the newborn despite qualms that the infant is not quite human. She eventually discovers that Reindeer is a "trangl"—a demon who can take human or reindeer form. Through her love and determination, Caribou earns the trust of the changeling and when he grows old enough to join his people, the other reindeer, he returns as a golden-eyed young man and becomes Caribou's lover. Discovering herself pregnant with Reindeer's child and finding her village threatened, Caribou eventually is forced to decide whether or not to follow Reindeer by becoming a trangl herself. The Woman Who Loved Reindeer is "a haunting story of great beauty," noted Patty Campbell in Wilson Library Bulletin, intensified by "a style both simple and poetic." "The author's imaginary world is an intriguing combination of realistic, folkloric, and fantastic elements," wrote Ann F. Flowers in Horn Book, adding that Pierce's style is "smooth, clear and elegant, with never a word in the wrong place." A reviewer in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books found the love story "convincing, the dangers . . . suspenseful." And writing in School Library Journal, Ruth M. McConnell concluded that the novel presented a "promising new world for fantasy buffs."

Another self-contained novel, Treasure at the Heart of Tanglewood, finds Hannah living alone in a forest known as Tanglewood, clad in brown leaves and surrounded by animals who serve as her sole companions. She has no recollection of how she came to this state, and is isolated, both feared and revered by nearby villagers for her powers as a healer. And Hannah does have a secret: she empowers a powerful but evil wizard who requires a drink made from flowers that blossom from Hannah's hair in order to perform his task as guard of a sacred treasure. Falling in love with a handsome knight, Hannah breaks the wizard's hold over her and goes on a journey to seek her ultimate purpose in life. Calling the book a "complex story with a strong mythical theme," Bruce Anne Shook noted in her School Library Journal review that the author successfully depicts "an ancient earth mother who is both life giver and sustainer." Commenting on the parallel to the myth of Demeter and Persephone, a Horn Book contributor found Treasure at the Heart of Tanglewood to be "romantic fantasy at its most lush and most rewarding," while in Booklist, Sally Estes hailed the volume as "lyrical and magical, elegant in imagery, and memorable in characterization." A critic for Publishers Weekly further praised the novel for its "heady" prose, "textured" setting, and a "premise certain to captivate fans of the genre." And Kathryn A. Childs, reviewing the same title in Book Report, highly recommended Pierce's work: "For those who haven't yet experienced the pleasure, Pierce writes with an imagination that takes readers on magical journeys through mystical places that are fantastically believable!"

Pierce's picture book Where the Wild Geese Go found its source in a group of illustrations by artist Jamichael Henterly that the author was sent by an editor at Dutton. The illustrations featured a little girl with several animals, most in snowy settings. "I took about three seconds worth of a look at the pictures and said, 'Yes, there is a story,'" Pierce related. Where the Wild Geese Go tells of Truzjka, a young girl who sets out to save her ailing grandmother by searching for the home of the wild geese. A careless girl by nature, Truzjka is forced to overcome her thoughtless ways during her quest in a book that a Publishers Weekly contributor praised as weaving "an enchanting aura, full of descriptive imagery and mysterious allusions, all of which fit together into a cohesive whole." Noting that the story "combines elements of mystical fantasy and moral tale," School Library Journal contributor Eleanor K. MacDonald added that Where the Wild Geese Go "will appeal to . . . younger readers of fantasy."

Another indication of Pierce's versatility is her 2004 collection, Waters Luminous and Deep: Shorter Fictions, a title as "descriptive as it is evocative," observed Booklist's Jennifer Mattson. Water proves to be a basic element in these seven tales, one of which is a re-working of her picture book, Where the Wild Geese Go, into a short story of the same title. The "triumph of good over evil" is also a common theme in these tales, according to Renee Steinberg, writing in School Library Journal, as is the "quest for independence and the strength and cleverness of women." Pierce turns an old Celtic tale on its head in "The Fall of Ys," reworks a story she wrote when only fourteen, "Rafiddilee," to tell the story of a love-struck dwarf who is sold into slavery, and deals in humor with "The Sea Hag," and magical acts in "The Frogskin Slippers." The concluding tale, "Rampion," blends references to both Rapunzel and Selkie. Steinberg felt that a "true storyteller's voice resounds throughout all these tales," while a critic for Kirkus Reviews praised the manner in which Pierce "finely" reworks and combines pieces from different traditional tales into new creations in her short stories. Mattson also commended the collection, concluding that Waters Luminous and Deep "is a shimmering, stirring archipelago of tales."

If you enjoy the works of Meredith Ann Pierce

If you enjoy the works of Meredith Ann Pierce, you may also want to check out the following books:

Marion Zimmer Bradley, The ForbiddenTower, 1977.

Mercedes Lackey, Arrows of the Queen, 1987.

Anne McCaffrey, The Rowan, 1990.

In addition to her writing, Pierce works full-time at her local county library. As she once explained, she has "a reasonably good time telling little children to quit running on the stairs and helping them look for the shark books." But although she enjoys working in the library, she prefers writing, comparing it to "going to sleep and dreaming a wonderful dream."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, Volume 5, Beacham Publishing (Osprey, FL), 1991.

Chambers, Nancy, editor, The Signal Review: A Selective Guide to Children's Books, Thimble Press (South Woodchester, England), 1984.

Children's Literature Review, Volume 20, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1990.

St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, 2nd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Silvey, Anita, Children's Books and Their Creators, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1995.

Sixth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators, H. W. Wilson (New York, NY), 1989.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1996, Chris Sherman, review of The Son of Summer Stars, p. 1434; April 15, 2001, Sally Estes, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 1557; April 15, 2002, Sally Estes, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 1417; April 15, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of Waters Luminous and Deep, p. 1450.

Book Report, November-December, 1992, Sylvia Feicht, review of Dark Moon, p. p. 44; March-April, 1999, Patsy Launspach, review of A Gathering of Gargoyles, p. 63; November-December, 2001, Kathryn A. Childs, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 65.

English Journal, April, 1985, Beth Nelms, review of AGathering of Gargoyles, p. 84.

Horn Book, November-December, 1984, Ann A. Flowers, review of A Gathering of Gargoyles, p. 765; January-February, 1988, Meredith Ann Price, "A Lion in the Room," pp. 35-41; May-June, 1988, Ann A. Flowers, review of Where the Wild Geese Go, p. 349; July, 2001, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 460.

Horn Book Guide, fall, 1996, Anne Deifendeifer, review of The Son of Summer Stars, p. 304.

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, November, 1999, Magda Gere Lewis, review of A Gathering of Gargoyles, pp. 300-301.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1992, review of Dark Moon, p. 674; March 15, 2004, review of Waters Luminous and Deep, p. 275.

Library Journal, May 15, 1982, Paula M. Strain, review of The Darkangel, p. 1012; June, 2001, Bruce Anne Shook, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 153.

New York Times Book Review, December 5, 1982, review of The Darkangel, p. 16; December 30, 1984, p. 19; February 16, 1986, review of Birth of the Firebringer, p. 22.

Publishers Weekly, April 2, 1982, review of The Darkangel, p. 71; February 12, 1988, review of Where the Wild Geese Go, p. 82; February 9, 1990, review of The Pearl at the Soul of the World, p. 63; May 29, 2000, review of The Woman Who Loved Reindeer, p. 84; May 7, 2001, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 248.

School Library Journal, March, 1982, Ruth M. McConnell, review of The Darkangel, p. 160; December, 1984, review of A Gathering of Gargoyles, p. 94; December, 1985, Ruth M. McConnell, review of The Woman Who Loved Reindeer, pp. 104-105; January, 1986, Holly Sanhuber, review of Birth of the Firebringer, p. 70; June-July, 1988, Eleanor K. MacDonald, review of Where the Wild Geese Go, p. 94; April, 1990, Ruth S. Vose, review of The Pearl of the Soul of the World, p. 145; July, 1990, Pam Spencer, "Winners in Their Own Right," pp. 23-27; June, 1992, JoAnn Rees, review of Dark Moon, pp. 139-140; April, 1996, Mary Jo Drungil, review of The Son of Summer Stars, p. 157; June, 2001, Bruce Anne Shook, review of Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, p. 153; April, 2004, Renee Steinberg, review of Waters Luminous and Deep, p. 160.

Wilson Library Bulletin, March, 1986, review of TheWoman Who Loved Reindeer, pp. 50-51.