Abercrombie, Barbara (Mattes) 1939-

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* Indicates that a listing has been compiled from secondary sources believed to be reliable, but has not been personally verified for this edition by the author sketched.

ABERCROMBIE, Barbara (Mattes) 1939-

PERSONAL: Born April 6, 1939, in Evanston, IL; daughter of William F. (a businessman and writer) and Grace (a pianist; maiden name, Mann) Mattes; married Gordon E. Abercrombie (a stockbroker), March 8, 1964; children: Brooke Louise, Gillan Grace. Education: Attended Briarcliff College and Los Angeles Harbor College.

ADDRESSES: Home—Santa Monica, CA. Agent—Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, 150 East 35th St., New York, NY 10016. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Actress, educator, and author. Actress in stage and television productions, including appearances on television series Ironside and Route 66; freelance writer. University of California, Los Angeles, teacher in extension writer's program; teacher of creative writing to children. Conductor of workshops for Wellness Community.

WRITINGS:

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

(Editor) The Other Side of a Poem, Harper (New York, NY), 1977.

Amanda and Heather, and Company, illustrated by Mimi St. John, Dandelion (New York, NY), 1979.

Cat-Man's Daughter, Harper (New York, NY), 1981.

Charlie Anderson, illustrated by Mark Graham, McElderry (New York, NY), 1990.

Michael and the Cats, illustrated by Mark Graham, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1993.

Bad Dog, Dodger!, illustrated by Adam Gustavson, McElderry (New York, NY), 2002.

OTHER

(With Norma Almquist and Jeanne Nichols) Traveling without a Camera (poems), Peck Street Press, 1978.

Connections (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1979.

Good Riddance (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1979.

Run for Your Life (novel), Morrow (New York, NY), 1984.

Writing out the Storm: Reading and Writing Your Way through Serious Illness or Injury, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor of articles, essays, and poems to newspapers and magazines, including Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and United Airlines Hemisphere Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: Barbara Abercrombie is the author of several books for children, as well as of Writing out the Storm: Reading and Writing Your Way through Serious Illness or Injury, which is based on her own struggle with breast cancer.

In Michael and the Cats, a young boy visiting his aunt tries to befriend her two cats. "He tries things that would make him happy if he were a cat," as Ellen Fader explained in Horn Book. But nothing he tries seems to work, until he decides to learn what it is that cats actually like. Emily Melton in Booklist noted that, thanks to Abercrombie's story, "children will learn, just as Michael does, that imposing their own ideas of friendship may not work, but putting themselves in another's place usually produces the desired response." Fader concluded: "Abercrombie perfectly captures the tenuous nature of friendship between pets and small children; she never preaches, yet manages to convey the necessity of accepting animals on their own terms."

Another boy befriends an animal in Abercrombie's Bad Dog, Dodger! In this story, Sam wants to have a dog but his parents insist he must prove to them that he is responsible enough. When he shows them that he is responsible, a new problem begins. The rambunctious Dodger is full of energy and needs to be trained. He knocks over the garbage, chews things, and even follows Sam to school. Sam must get up early each morning and put Dodger through a training program. A critic for Kirkus Reviews called Bad Dog, Dodger! "a perfect cautionary tale for a youngster about to get a first dog." According to Dorian Chong, writing in School Library Journal, the book is "a well-written, charmingly illustrated story with a satisfying, happy ending."

Speaking of her books for children, Abercrombie once told CA: "I write to make things clear to myself. This is especially true of the stories I write for children. I write about the things that happen in my own family from my own viewpoint, which, at age thirty-eight, I find not very different from the way I was in terms of thoughts and feelings at age ten."

In Writing out the Storm Abercrombie draws on her own experience of having breast cancer to show others how writing can be a faith-building activity for those going through a serious illness. A critic for Publishers Weekly called Writing out the Storm "a moving, unsentimental portrait of the author with breast cancer." In an article for the Baltimore Sun, Abercrombie spoke of her bout with cancer. She does not call herself a "survivor," noting that for her, the word is "overly dramatic, implying courage that hadn't been earned." She explained: "The majority of women I know who are diagnosed with breast cancer get treatment and go on with their lives, and many of these women don't want to be identified for all time as a breast cancer survivor."