Yorinks, Adrienne 1956–

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Yorinks, Adrienne 1956–

Personal

Born 1956, in Staten Island, NY; married; husband's name Douglas; children: Ben, Sophie. Education: University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.S. (animal behavior); New York University, M.A. (dance therapy and choreography). Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, cross country skiing, SCUBA diving.

Addresses

Home—NJ. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Joanna Cotler Books, HarperCollins, 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10012. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer, illustrator, and textile designer. Worked as a dog groomer for fifteen years; Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ, instructor in psychodrama and creative-arts therapy. Designer of fabrics for Timeless Treasures and Lyndhurst Studios. Dog breeder; has raised border collies and poodles. Exhibitions: Commemorative quilts exhibited at New England Quilt Museum; in Yokohama, Japan; Roberson Museum, Binghamton, NY; Museum of the American Quilters' Society, Paducah, KY; Northern Arizona University Art Museum; Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA; Cambridge, MA, Artist's Cooperative Gallery; Exhibition Gallery, Washington, DC; Alex Haley Farm, Clinton, TN; and Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago, IL. Art. included in permanent collections at Baruch College, Sony Metreon, San Francisco, CA, and AFL-CIO, Washington, DC.

Awards, Honors

Georgia Council on the Arts Merit Award, 1995; Best Statement Quilt of the Century finalist, International Quilt Festival, 1999, for quilt "Resistance to Tyranny Is Obedience to God"; Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, National Council for the Social Studies/Children's Book Council, 2000, for The Alphabet Atlas; Parents' Choice Award, and National Parenting Publications Award, both 2003, both for Quack!

Writings

The Home Grooming Guide for Dogs, Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 1988.

(And compiler and illustrator) Quilt of States: Piecing Together America, National Geographic (Washington, DC), 2005.

ILLUSTRATOR

Marian Wright Edelman, Stand for Children, Hyperion Books for Children (New York, NY), 1998.

Eugune O'Neill, The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1999.

Arthur Yorinks, The Alphabet Atlas, Winslow Press (Del-ray Beach, FL), 1999.

Arthur Yorinks, Quack!: (There's a Duck on the Moon), Winslow Press (Delray Beach, FL), 2002.

Kate McMullan, My Travels with Capts. Lewis and Clark by George Shannon, Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Sidelights

A woman of varied interests, Adrienne Yorinks has been a dog groomer and breeder as well as a writer, illustrator, quilt artist, and fabric designer. With Quilt of States: Piecing Together America she combines her non-canine-related interests to produce a hand-stitched history of the fifty United States. To create the book, Yorinks enlisted librarians or local historians from every state in the union to produce short narrative histories of each of the fifty states. Each essay is paired with a detailed quilt map of the state that includes the appropriate seal and flower, as well as quilted vignettes that reflect notable moments in that state's history. Together with the fifty quilts, arranged chronologically by the states they represent, Yorinks also includes an informative appendix that charts additional facts, such as the date each state entered the union. Praising Yorinks's textile artwork as "not only artistically intricate and beautiful, but also informative," Lee Bock dubbed Quilt of States "a handsome book to linger over and learn from" in his review for School Library Journal. GraceAnne A. DeCandido, writing in Booklist, deemed the work "charming" and "a cheery look at the formation" of the United States. In an interview for Embracing the Child online, Yorinks explained her purpose in seeking out writers from all fifty states: "There is incredible diversity in this country and I wanted the book to reflect that diversity. History also reflects the person telling the story, and I thought it would make a much more interesting book if every state had their personal advocate telling their unique story."

Yorinks has used fabric in creating illustrations for several other children's books, including the picture book Quack!: (There's a Duck on the Moon) by Arthur Yorinks, in which her textile collage art was praised by a Publishers Weekly contributor for its "sophisticated shading" and "childlike charm." On her home page, Yorinks discussed her passion for fabrics of all kinds: "I have always loved the texture, colors and feelings of pieces of cloth. I have thousands of pieces of fabric in my collection encompassing every color of the rainbow…. I get to work with thousands of pieces of fabric from all different countries and all different time periods (when I can find them) and as painters use paint, fabric is my palette and it is the most diverse palette I have ever found. Since fabrics are created by all kinds of people, I get to use all of these artists in my work and when I see fabrics I have designed used in textile artists' work, it is thrilling."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Bark, fall, 1999.

Booklist, July, 1998, Helen Rosenberg, review of Stand for Children, p. 1874; April 1, 2003, Julie Cummins, review of Quack!: (There's a Duck on the Moon), p. 1404; October 1, 2005, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Quilt of States: Piecing Together America, p. 56.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2003, review of Quack!, p. 68.

Publishers Weekly, March 16, 1998, review of Stand for Children, p. 62; January 6, 2003, review of Quack!, p. 57.

School Library Journal, August, 1998, Jody McCoy, review of Stand for Children, p. 150; July, 1999, Linda Greengrass, review of The Alphabet Atlas, p. 91; April, 2003, Kristin de Lacoste, review of Quack!, p. 144; December, 2005, Lee Bock, review of Quilt of States, p. 176.