Arrington, Aileen

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Arrington, Aileen

Personal

Female. Education: Attended college.

Addresses

Home—Folly Beach, SC.

Career

Educator, author, and illustrator. Former elementary-grade and remedial reading teacher.

Awards, Honors

Children's Book Council Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young Readers, 2004, for Camp of the Angel.

Writings

CHILDREN'S FICTION

Camp of the Angel, Philomel (New York, NY), 2003.

Paper Heart, Front Street Books (Asheville, NC), 2006.

ILLUSTRATOR

Lydia Weaver, Close to Home: A Story of the Polio Epidemic, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Frances Arrington, Stella's Bull, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1994.

Sidelights

Long before she became a published author, Aileen Arrington illustrated several books for children. Working as an elementary-school teacher in the early 1990s, she collaborated with her twin sister, Frances Arrington, to create the illustrations for Frances's nostalgic picture book Stella's Bull. In this Depression-era tale about a young child's fears of a neighbor's bull, Frances's "simple" story is given "quiet emotional appeal" in Aileen Arrington's "soft-focus" colored pencil drawings, according to Horn Book contributor Nancy Vasilakis. Hazel Rochman noted in Booklist that the illustrations in Stella's Bull "create a quiet, solid sense" of the book's rural Southern setting.

Almost a decade later, in 2003, Arrington's debut chapter book, Camp of the Angel was released, followed by the middle-grade novel Paper Heart. Child abuse is the focus of Camp of the Angel, as eleven-year-old Jordan and her brother attempt to cope with their abusive alcoholic father. Although at first Jordan tries to hide the bruises from teachers and other adults, when the girl begins to care for a timid, straggly stray and ultimately wins the cat's trust, she gains the confidence to confront her situation and seek the help she and her brother need. Praising the coming-of-age theme in Camp of the Angel, Booklist contributor Shelle Rosenfeld wrote that "Arrington's descriptive prose intimately details Jor- dan's thoughts" as she learns to assert herself. Calling the novel "memorable and touching," Lee Bock added in School Library Journal that the author's "believable dialogue, and elegantly simple prose combine with superb character" in this well-plotted story.

Set in the same area of South Carolina where Arrington grew up, Paper Heart draws readers into the sheltered world of a sixth grader who is kept from participating fully in life because of her mother's concern for her health. Nadia's father died due to a weak heart, and now her mother prevents her from engaging in activities that might trigger the same condition in her. Although the preteen understands her mother's concerns, she is frustrated by rules she feels are overprotective because they have made her an outsider among her schoolmates. When the opportunity comes to participate in a school play, Nadia is excited because acting will allow her a chance to establish more normal childhood relationships and make new friends. Her mother predictably intercedes, however, and prevents Nadia's participation, prompting the sixth grader to recognize that the problem may be more with her parent's unfounded fears than her own medical problem. Noting the book's

unusual subject matter, a Kirkus Reviews writer commented that in Paper Heart Arrington "puts a relatively positive spin on a disturbing subject: … parental mental illness." In Horn Book, Roger Sutton called Paper Heart a "short, plainly written, but intense novel" that realistically brings to life a complex parent-child relationship.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 1992, Hazel Rochman, review of Close to Home: A Story of the Polio Epidemic, p. 739; September 15, 1994, Hazel Rochman, review of Stella's Bull, p. 141; March 1, 2003, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Camp of the Angel, p. 1197.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April, 1993, review of Close to Home, p. 266; July, 1994, review of Stella's Bull, p. 347; June, 2003, review of Camp of the Angel, p. 390; December, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of Paper Heart, p. 163.

Horn Book, November-December, 1994, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Stella's Bull, p. 715; January-February, 2007, Roger Sutton, review of Paper Heart, p. 61.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2003, review of Camp of the Angel, p. 379; October 1, 2006, review of Paper Heart, p. 1009.

Publishers Weekly, June 27, 1994, review of Stella's Bull, p. 77.

School Library Journal, April, 1993, Carolyn Noah, review of Close to Home, p. 125; September, 1994, Ann Welton, review of Stella's Bull, p. 180; March, 2003, Lee Bock, review of Camp of the Angel, p. 228; December, 2006, Wendy Smith-D' Arezzo, review of Paper Heart, p. 133.

Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 2007, Mary Ann Harlan, review of Paper Heart, p. 518.