LEVINSON, Nancy Smiler 1938-

PERSONAL: Born November 5, 1938, in Minneapolis, MN; daughter of Paul (an attorney) and Minnie (Meleck) Smiler; married Irwin Levinson (a cardiologist), June 1, 1966; children: Matthew, Danny. Education: University of Minnesota, B.A., 1960. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, attending theater and symphonies.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—1139 Coldwater Canyon Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

CAREER: Port Chester Daily Item, Westchester, NY, reporter, 1960-61; Columbia University, Language Laboratory, New York, NY, office worker, 1961-62; Time magazine, New York, NY, researcher, 1962-63; Bantam Books, Inc., New York, NY, associate editor, 1963-66; Head Start Program, Los Angeles, CA, teacher, 1967-68; freelance writer and editor, 1974—. Tutor of disabled children.

MEMBER: Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People, Friends of Children and Literature.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Books for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, 1987, for Getting High in Natural Ways: An Infobook for Young People of All Ages, and 2001, for Magellan and the First Voyage around the World; Susan B. Anthony Community Award for Cultural Achievement, 1987; Distinguished Work of Nonfiction citations, Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People, 1987, for I Lift My Lamp—Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty, 1991, for Christopher Columbus: Voyager to the Unknown, and 1993, for Snowshoe Thompson.

WRITINGS:

JUVENILE FICTION

World of Her Own, illustrated by Gene Feller, Harvey House (New York, NY), 1981, published as Annie's World, Gallaudet University Press (Washington, DC), 1990.

Silent Fear, illustrated by Paul Furan, Crestwood (Mankato, MN), 1981.

Make a Wish, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1983.

The Ruthie Greene Show, Lodestar Books (New York, NY), 1985.

Second Chances (part of the "Sweet Dreams" series), Bantam (New York, NY), 1985.

Clara and the Bookwagon, illustrations by Carolyn Croll, Harper (New York, NY), 1988.

Your Friend, Natalie Popper, Lodestar (New York, NY), 1991.

Snowshoe Thompson, illustrated by Joan Sandin, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.

Sweet Notes, Sour Notes, illustrated by Beth Peck, Lodestar Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Say Cheese!, illustrated by Valeria Petrone, Golden Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Prairie Friends, illustrated by Stacey Schuett, Harper-Collins (New York, NY), 2003.

JUVENILE NONFICTION

Contributions of Women: Business (biography), Dillon (New York, NY), 1981.

The First Women Who Spoke Out (biography), Dillon (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Joanne Rocklin) Getting High in Natural Ways: An Infobook for Young People of All Ages, Hunter House (Claremont, CA), 1986, revised edition published as Feeling Great: Reaching Out to Life, Reaching In to Yourself—Without Drugs, 1992.

I Lift My Lamp: Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty, Lodestar Books (New York, NY), 1986.

Chuck Yeager: The Man Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Walker (New York, NY), 1988.

Christopher Columbus: Voyager to the Unknown, Lodestar Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Turn of the Century: Our Nation One Hundred Years Ago, Lodestar Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Thomas Alva Edison, Great Inventor, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

She's Been Working on the Railroad, Lodestar Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Death Valley: A Day in the Desert, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2001.

Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2001.

North Pole, South Pole, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2002.

OTHER

Contributor of articles and stories to adult and children's magazines and newspapers, including Seventeen, American Girl, Highlights for Children, Writer's Digest, Confrontation, Teen, Newsday, Library Journal, Los Angeles Times "Reading Room" page, and Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Nonfiction science titles for primary-grade readers.

SIDELIGHTS: Nancy Smiler Levinson has been praised by critics for her finely crafted biographies of explorers and record breakers, including Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Chuck Yeager, Emma Lazarus, and the precursors of the feminist movement. Her fictional works, especially those framed within thoroughly researched historical contexts, have also been well-received. In addition to making history entertaining and accessible and providing children and teenagers with information about inspirational historical figures, Levinson has made an important contribution to the well-being of young people. Getting High in Natural Ways: An Infobook for Young People of All Ages, written with Joanne Rocklin, provides drug-free alternatives for feeling good. Levinson once told CA that she "began writing for young readers when my own children were toddlers. During the many hours I spent reading to them, I felt a growing urge to write for the young audience."

Levinson once explained her first book, World of Her Own, by noting, "I have always felt for the one who is different, left out." In this work, which a Booklist reviewer called "involving," sixteen-year-old Annie Meredith struggles to get along in public high school after years in private school. Just as any newcomer would, Annie often feels alienated. Yet Annie must also deal with problems arising from a lack of teachers willing to assist her and students who do not understand the challenges she faces as a partially-deaf person. While some students tease her, others befriend her, and by the end of the book, she begins a romance. Though Roger Sutton, reviewing the 1991 reprint titled Annie's World in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, found the plot "predictable," he deemed it "satisfyingly played out," while Sharron Freeman described the book as "simplistic" yet "interesting" in her Voice of Youth Advocates review. Levinson once told CA, "It is my hope that the book's readers will become sensitive to the pain and problems of the lone young person across the classroom—and reach out."

First published as Getting High in Natural Ways: An Infobook for Young People of All Ages, this work was revised and republished as Feeling Great: Reaching Out to Life, Reaching in to Yourself—Without Drugs in 1992. In it, the authors provide young people with a variety of drug-free ways to feel good. According to a Kliatt contributor, they provide "clear but not patronizing" explanations about the benefits of various activities. Exercising, meditating, competing, writing in a journal, laughing, listening to music, and even walking on the beach are included in what Booklist's Stephanie Zvirin called a "low-key but sensible" work.

While Levinson's protagonists are sensitively portrayed in her subsequent works, historical details are more prominent in her later novels. In what School Library Journal contributor Susan Pine called a "very sweet and sentimental story of a Jewish family in the 1920s," the attention to historical context in Sweet Notes, Sour Notes enhances the work. Here, fourth-grader David pursues his latest ambition—to make the violin "sing" like the concert violinist he watched with his grandfather. David finally begins to play well enough to entertain his grandfather when he is ill in bed. Along with learning to play the violin, as Emily Melton remarked in Booklist, David learns "important" lessons "about persistence, talent, hard work, and love." And writing in Publishers Weekly, a critic praised Sweet Notes, Sour Notes as "believable and genuinely beguiling."

Your Friend, Natalie Popper also contains historical details which figure in the plot of the book. Natalie must deal with problems which include the aftermath of World War II, a polio outbreak, and anti-Semitism at a summer camp in 1946. In the opinion of School Library Journal contributor Joyce Adams Burner, such details are "often heavyhanded" and some characters are "stereotypes"; nevertheless, the critic noted that Levinson's novel "moves along quickly, and she shows insight and compassion" in her description of young friendships. Several other commentators praised the novel as well: Five Owls critic Norine Odland remarked on the "uncomplicated" and easy-to-read prose, while Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books reviewer Zena Sutherland noted how Levinson's historical details "add substance to the smoothly written story." In Voice of Youth Advocates, Rachel Gonsenhauser described Your Friend, Natalie Popper as a "very readable" coming-of-age story, recommending it "highly."

Levinson has also created historical texts for very young readers. Among them is Snowshoe Thompson, which Roger Sutton, writing in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, called "a satisfying blend of heartache . . . and action" and which a Kirkus Reviews critic described as "an interesting vignette from the past." Through the voice of a young boy, this book tells the story of one of the Scandinavian immigrants who brought skiing to Northern California. When Danny has trouble getting a letter to his father because of the deep snow, John "Snowshoe" Thompson saves the day by crafting a pair of skis, getting Danny's letter to his father, and even bringing back one in return. "Don't miss this warm bit of historical fiction set in a cold, forbidding climate," advised Gale W. Sherman in a School Library Journal review.

Another book for early readers, Clara and the Book-wagon, has also been warmly received by reviewers. After a farmer tells his young daughter Clara that she cannot stop at the book station and that books are only for the rich, Clara befriends a woman with a wagon-load of books. Her father is soon persuaded to let her borrow books and read them. Although Clara and her father may be fictional characters, the character of the wagon woman is based on that of the early twentieth-century librarian who drove the first bookmobile in the United States, Mary Lemist Titcomb. Booklist's Ilene Cooper praised Levinson's ability to explain complex concepts to younger readers, as did School Library Journal contributor Hayden E. Atwood, who wrote that this "well-written" story is "a good example of historical fiction for the very young." Moreover, in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Betsy Hearne likewise recommended the book highly, stating emphatically Clara and the Bookwagon "is one of those books you want to put in every six-year-old's hands."

Levinson ventured into biography with The First Women Who Spoke Out, a collective biography of precursors of the modern women's movement, including Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and others. Writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, Kay Ann Cassell concluded that "Levinson's lively style makes this a very interesting and appealing book." So too, Booklist's Ilene Cooper applauded this "enlightening first look" at feminist leaders, told "concisely" and "clearly." Another work about two well-known early twentieth-century American women soon followed. I Lift My Lamp: Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty recalls of the life of the woman who wrote the lines inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." This entry in the "Jewish Biography" series is part biography and part history, for the author includes information on Jewish immigration and the building of the statue as well as details of Lazarus's life. Levinson explains that Lazarus was born to a prominent Jewish family, and that her poetry did not gain its passionate quality until she understood the suffering of Jewish immigrants. Among the many books published to honor the statue's centennial, I Lift My Lamp was singled out for praise. In Kirkus Reviews, a contributor called it a "well-written, fact-filled work," and in Horn Book, Elizabeth S. Watson described it as an "interesting" combination of history and biography. "Like the statue," stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "this book is stirring."

Levinson's interest in social history comes through in such titles as Turn of the Century: Our Nation OneHundred Years Ago and She's Been Working on the Railroad. In the former, the author describes the latter decades of the 1800s and the early 1900s, focusing on societal changes and life among the ordinary people, a treatment that Elizabeth Bush termed "refreshing" in her Bulletin of the Center for Children's Literature review. In this "fascinating look back," to quote Elizabeth S. Watson of Horn Book, Levinson discusses such aspects as communication and transportation, changes from agrarian to urban lifestyles, and the conditions among industrialists, immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans. In the same vein, She's Been Working on the Railroad, which portrays the varied jobs that women held and the prejudice they suffered while working for the railroads in the mid-1800s, "makes interesting reading" according to Carolyn Phelan in a Booklist review.

Levinson wrote a number of other well-received books about explorers and pioneers in their fields. For instance, in Chuck Yeager: The Man Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Levinson draws readers into Yeager's life as a child, teen, World War II and Vietnam fighter pilot, and test pilot. School Library Journal contributor Eldon Younce praised Chuck Yeager for its "fresh, crisp, and fast-moving" prose, while a Kirkus Reviews critic noted moreover that Levinson "does a good job of explaining why Yeager is famous." Marc K. Torrey commented in Voice of Youth Advocates that Levinson "captures the excitement of Yeager's most spectacular adventures." Levinson has also earned kudos for her biographies of other famous explorers: Christopher Columbus: Voyager to the Unknown and Magellan and the First Voyage around the World. According to Jean H. Zimmerman in a School Library Journal review, Levinson "incorporates recent scholarship and presents Columbus' character in an objective way" in Christopher Columbus, an "eminently readable" work. In a review of Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, Horn Book's Mary M. Burns found the book's "clarity" a strength of this "businesslike biography," and Booklist's Carolyn Phelan termed it a "well-designed," "useful," and "interesting" view of the Portuguese navigator. Writing in School Library Journal, Kim Donius appreciated the work as well, calling it an "unbiased and insightful biography," and a Kirkus Reviews critic concluded that this "thoughtful study" clearly explains Magellan's importance to his time.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 15, 1982, review of World of Her Own, p. 644; January 15, 1982, review of World of Her Own, p. 644; April 1, 1983, review of Silent Fear, p. 1022; June 1, 1983, Ilene Cooper, review of The First Women Who Spoke Out, p. 1277; October 1, 1986, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Getting High in Natural Ways: An Infobook for Young People of All Ages, p. 214; April 1, 1988, Ilene Cooper, review of Clara and the Bookwagon, p. 1355; March 15, 1991, review of Christopher Columbus: Voyager to the Unknown, p. 1488; April 15, 1993, Emily Melton, review of Sweet Notes, Sour Notes, p. 1515; September 15, 1997, Carolyn Phelan, review of She's Been Working on the Railroad, pp. 228-229; April 15, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of Death Valley: A Day in the Desert, p. 1568; February 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, review of Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, p. 935; January 1, 2003, Lauren Peterson, review of Prairie Friends, p. 891.

Book Report, March-April, 1995, Marjorie Stumpf, review of Turn of the Century: Our Nation One Hundred Years Ago, p. 50.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January, 1986, review of The Ruthie Greene Show, p. 90; February, 1988, Betsy Hearne, review of Clara and the Bookwagon, p. 120; July, 1990, Roger Sutton, review of Annie's World, p. 271; February, 1991, Zena Sutherland, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p. 146; February, 1992, Roger Sutton, review of Snowshoe Thompson, pp. 160-161; January, 1995, Elizabeth Bush, review of Turn of the Century, p. 171; January, 1998, Elizabeth Bush, review of She's Been Working on the Railroad, pp. 163-164.

Children's Book Review Service, winter, 1982, review of World of Her Own, p. 58; May, 1983, review of The First Women Who Spoke Out, p. 103; January, 1986, review of The Ruthie Greene Show, p. 56; July, 1988, review of Chuck Yeager: The Man Who Broke the Sound Barrier, p. 147.

Five Owls, March, 1991, Norine Odland, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p. 77.

Horn Book, May, 1986, Elizabeth S. Watson, review of I Lift My Lamp: Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty, pp. 339-340; January, 1992, p. 66; March, 1992, Michael O. Tunnell, "Books in the Classroom: Columbus and Historical Perspective," pp. 244-247; March, 1995, Elizabeth S. Watson, review of Turn of the Century, pp. 215-216; January-February, 2002, Mary M. Burns, review of Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, p. 102.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 1986, review of I Lift My Lamp, pp. 873-874; March 15, 1988, review of Chuck Yeager, p. 457; April 1, 1988, review of Clara and the Bookwagon, p. 541; December 15, 1991, review of Snowshoe Thompson, p. 1594; March 15, 2001, review of Death Valley, pp. 413-414; October 15, 2001, review of Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, p. 1487.

Kliatt, fall, 1986, review of Getting High in Natural Ways, p. 47.

Language Arts, September, 1993, Miriam Martinez and Marcia F. Nash, review of Snowshoe Thompson, p. 420.

Publishers Weekly, March 21, 1986, review of I Lift My Lamp, p. 92; November 28, 1986, review of Getting High in Natural Ways, p. 80; February 12, 1988, p. 84; November 20, 1990, p. 70; November 29, 1991, p. 52; June 14, 1993, review of Sweet Notes, Sour Notes, p. 71; November 19, 2001, review of Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, p. 69.

School Library Journal, August, 1981, Blair Christolon, review of Business, p. 76; March, 1982, review of Silent Fear, pp. 158-159; January, 1986, Virginia Opocensky, review of The Ruthie Greene Show, p. 74; January, 1986, review of Second Chances, p. 81; May, 1986, Ruth Shire, review of I Lift My Lamp, p. 94; May, 1988, Eldon Younce, review of Chuck Yeager, pp. 102-103; June, 1988, Hayden E. Atwood, review of Clara and the Book-wagon, p. 92; June, 1990, Jean H. Zimmerman, review of Christopher Columbus, p. 132; March, 1991, Joyce Adams Burner, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p. 193; January, 1992, Gale W. Sherman, review of Snowshoe Thompson, p. 104; August, 1993, Susan Pine, review of Sweet Notes, Sour Notes, p. 164; December, 1994, Kellie Flynn, review of Turn of the Century, p. 136; December, 1997, Rebecca O'Connell, review of She's Been Working on the Railroad, p. 140; April, 2001, John Sigwald, review of Death Valley, p. 132; January, 2002, Kim Donius, review of Magellan and the First Voyage around the World, p. 161.

Stone Soup, January, 1999, Miranda Miller, review of She's Been Working on the Railroad, p. 14.

Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 1982, Sharron Freeman, review of A World of Her Own, p. 35; August, 1983, Kay Ann Cassell, review of The First Women Who Spoke Out, p. 154; August, 1988, Marc K. Torrey, review of Chuck Yeager, pp. 147-148; April, 1991, Rachel Gonsenhauser, review of Your Friend, Natalie Popper, p. 32.