August 2018 Notable Maryland Author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“It was wonderful to snuggle up against Mom on the sofa, or sprawl out on the rug listening to Dad read Mark Twain’s books, my favorite, aloud.” 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor writes for all ages, but is best known for her Young Adult books, Shiloh, which won the Newbery Medal in 1992, and the Alice series. She was born in a tiny house in Indiana that her dad and grandfather helped build. She started writing when a kindergarten teacher invited students to make up a story while the teacher wrote it down. Phyllis’ mother still has her first story. In writing about young adults, Phyllis has been able to create believable, appealing characters and to write from a young person's point of view. Naylor has published 145 published books; a dozen picture books, a half dozen for adults, and the rest evenly divided between middle grade and YA. Naylor's writings show great diversity, ranging from books about her own life, to fiction exploring contemporary problems facing young people. She works very hard to make sure the characters in her novels are about the same age as the imagined reader, have the same problems, etc. She lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Genre: Young Adult

Fiction written for young readers (ages 12–18). The vast majority of YA stories portray an adolescent as the protagonist who usually is the same age and has the same problems and experiences as the intended reader. Themes in YA stories often focus on the challenges of youth, so much so that the entire age category is sometimes referred to as problem novels or coming of age novel. A partial reading list includes: Shiloh Series; Alice Series, Roxie and the Hooligans