Reeve Lindbergh (1945-) Biography

(Reeve Lindbergh Brown)

Personal

Born 1945; divorced); (second marriage) Benjamin. Education: Attended Radcliff College.

Addresses

Agent—c/o Simon and Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

Career

Writer; formerly an educator in Vermont. Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, member of board, 1977—, vice president, 1986-95, president, 1995-2004, honorary chairman, 2004—.

Honors Awards

Redbook magazine award, 1987, for The Midnight Farm, and 1990, for Benjamin's Barn.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

The Midnight Farm, illustrated by Susan Jeffers, Dial (New York, NY), 1987.

Benjamin's Barn, illustrated by Susan Jeffers, Dial (New York, NY), 1990.

The Day the Goose Got Loose, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, Dial (New York, NY), 1990.

Johnny Appleseed: A Poem, illustrated by Kathy Jakobsen, Joy Street (Boston, MA), 1990.

A View from the Air: Charles Lindbergh's Earth and Sky, photographs by Richard Brown, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.

Grandfather's Lovesong, illustrated by Rachel Isadora, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

There's a Cow in the Road!, illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson, Dial (New York, NY), 1993.

If I'd Known Then What I Know Now, illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root, Viking (New York, NY), 1994.

What Is the Sun?, illustrated by Stephen Lambert, Candlewick (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Nobody Owns the Sky: The Story of "Brave Bessie" Coleman, illustrated by Pamela Paparone, Candlewick (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

The Awful Aardvarks Go to School, illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson, Viking (New York, NY), 1997.

The Circle of Days, illustrated by Cathie Felstead, Candlewick (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

North Country Spring, illustrated by Liz Sivertson, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

(Compiler) In Every Tiny Grain of Sand: A Child's Book of Prayers and Praise, illustrated by Christine Davenier, Candlewick (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

The Awful Aardvarks Shop for School, illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson, Viking (New York, NY), 2000.

(Adapter) On Morning Wings (adapted from Psalm 139), illustrated by Holly Meade, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

My Hippie Grandmother, illustrated by Abby Carter, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Our Nest, illustrated by Jill McElmurry, Candlewick (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

The Visit, illustrated by Wendy Halperin, Dial (New York, NY), 2004.

OTHER

(Under name Reeve Lindbergh Brown) Moving to the Country (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

The View from the Kingdom: A New England Album (essays), photographs by Richard Brown, introduction by Noel Perrin, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego, CA), 1987.

The Names of the Mountains (novel), Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

John's Apples (poems), illustrated by John Wilde, Perishable Press (Mt. Horeb, WI), 1995.

Under a Wing (memoir), Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Some of Lindbergh's works have been translated into Spanish.

Adaptations

Johnny Appleseed was adapted as a videotape, Weston Woods/Scholastic, 2000.

Sidelights

Children's author, novelist, and poet Reeve Lindbergh is the daughter of world-renowned aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, the talented writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew the first solo transatlantic flight, traveling from New York City to Paris, France. Growing up in a home with famous parents subjected the Lindbergh children to much media attention, though the elder Lindberghs shielded the family from public scrutiny as best they could.

Despite the fame accorded the family, both through the accomplishments of her parents and the notoriety surrounding the kidnapping of one of her siblings as an infant, Reeve Lindbergh and her siblings grew up to lead private lives. Lindbergh and her first husband, Richard Brown, moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Vermont, where they both taught school and had three children. In 1983 she published her autobiographical novel Moving to the Country, which follows a couple who move with their two daughters from a Massachusetts suburb to rural Vermont. The couple's marriage is strained as they adapt to a much different life in the country and seemingly indifferent neighbors. While Nancy loses a baby, Tom worries about the security of his job, but the pair eventually overcome these internal and external obstacles and gain the favor of the towns-people as well. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Moving to the Country "comforting, hopeful, sensitively written, an honest and believable portrayal of marriage, change, and putting down roots."

In The Names of the Mountains Lindbergh reveals what life as a Lindbergh was like after the death of her father through her fictional family headed by aviator Cal Linley and his wife Alicia. Paula Chin wrote in People that Lindbergh hoped the book would "dispel previous notions about their family and the tragedies that have beset it." The story is told through the eyes of Cress Linley, youngest daughter of the couple, who spends a weekend with her siblings and their elderly mother Alicia, now suffering from memory loss. In real life, the Lindbergh children were caring for their own mother, age eighty-six at the time of the book's publication, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was suffering from similar memory lapses and strokes. Library Journal reviewer Jan Blodgett wrote that Lindbergh "gently and perceptively unfolds this complex family history."

Under a Wing: A Memoir recounts Lindbergh's life as a child growing up in Darien, Connecticut. "This gentle memoir shows a unique and uniquely poignant family life," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Charles was a loving but stern father who would not allow his children to drink soda or eat candy, marshmallow fluff, or grape jelly. He favored discussion over television and protected his family with a set of hard-and-fast rules. "There were only two ways of doing things—Father's way and the wrong way," Lindbergh notes in her book. Geoffrey C. Ward wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Under a Wing "beautifully recaptures the determinedly ordered life her father insisted his family lead in their Connecticut home after the war."

When her son John died of encephalitis in 1985, at the young age of twenty months, Lindbergh began writing children's books. "I wrote my first children's book the day my son died," she told Philadelphia CityPaper.net interviewer Neil Gladstone. "I was waiting for my family to come and meet me and I just sat there and started to write this little lullaby for Johnny."

Her first published book for children, The Midnight Farm, is a counting book. Unable to sleep, a young child is led by his mother on a walk around their farm where they observe the activities of the animals as night descends. Eventually the child grows tired and peacefully slips into slumber. Times Literary Supplement reviewer Jane Doonan called The Midnight Farm "a gentle progression from disturbed waking to sleeping worlds." "This warm, loving story will comfort any child afraid of the dark," wrote noted children's author Eve Bunting in the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Lindbergh continues her animal theme in Benjamin's Barn. A young boy carries his teddy bear into a big, red barn, to find not only the usual farm animals, but also jungle and prehistoric creatures, pirate ships, a princess, and even a brass band. "The rhyming text has a comforting circular flow, well-suited to Benjamin's flight of fancy and … return to reality," wrote Anna DeWind in School Library Journal.

Lindbergh turns to American folk hero John Chapman in Johnny Appleseed: A Poem, and retells how Chapman traveled from the East Coast to the Midwest, planting apple seeds for future generations to enjoy. "This work shows him as a gentle, religious man on a mission, a lover of the land," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Horn Book reviewer Mary M. Burns called Johnny Appleseed "a splendid production." The book also features a map tracing Chapman's journey from Massachusetts to Indiana.

Lindbergh expresses her father's love of the natural world in A View from the Air: Charles Lindbergh's Earth and Sky. A long poem, her text is accompanied by photographs taken by Richard Brown, who flew with Charles Lindbergh over northern New England during the early 1970s. Booklist reviewer Deborah Abbott wrote that the verses "capture the pilot's awe and respect for the natural beauty of our land."

Lindbergh views the grandparent-grandchild relationship in a different way in My Hippie Grandmother. The book's narrator is a little girl who deeply loves her unconventional, flower-child grandmother, just as the grandmother loves her. Odes to her grandma are written in "bouncy and exuberant rhyme," noted a Kirkus Reviews critic who declared the book "a sheer delight." "Totally groovy—and in its own impish way, an eloquent rejoinder to these more buttoned-down times," concluded a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

In There's a Cow in the Road! a little girl rushes to get ready for school. Looking through her Vermont farmhouse window, she spots a cow that is soon joined by other barnyard animals until a crowd of creatures assembles. By the time the girl and the other children board the school bus, a goat, sheep, horse, pig, and goose have gathered to see them off. "The story has warmth and vitality and a sense of community," wrote Hazel Rochman in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noticed that the details and action in the book's illustrations are not always described in the text, resulting in "a great deal of kid-pleasing, between-the-lines action." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called There's a Cow in the Road! "a joyous, comical pacesetter for a busy morning."

A man's inept do-it-yourself projects in building and maintaining a farm are the focus of If I'd Known Then What I Know Now. Sally R. Dow wrote in School Library Journal that the book's "tall-tale humor … will appeal to all those 'just learning how.'" In What Is the Sun? a young boy questions his grandmother, and each answer leads to another question. Patricia Crawford noted in Language Arts that the text demonstrates the "comfort" provided to young children "through their interactions with a caring, older adult."

Nobody Owns the Sky: The Story of "Brave Bessie" Coleman is an account of how Bessie Coleman became the first African-American aviator in the world. Coleman was denied entrance to flying schools in the United States and instead obtained her pilot's license in France. She worked as a stunt pilot in the United States and Europe during the 1920s before dying in a plane accident in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1926. A critic for Kirkus Reviews called the work a "homage to a brave and dedicated aviation pioneer," while a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that Lindbergh "chooses the elements likeliest to inspire a young audience." Washington Post Book World reviewer John Cech called Nobody Owns the Sky "an important book for the little ones who might think they can't and for those who are learning that they can."

A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Lindbergh's The Awful Aardvarks Go to School a "witty, giddy alphabet book." The aardvarks terrorize the animals that attend the school, angering anteaters, eating ants, bullying a bunny, and tossing turtles. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews noted that the aardvarks "are more gleeful than rude," while in School Library Journal a critic called The Awful Aardvarks Go to School "a flying success."

In The Circle of Days Lindbergh adapts Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun, written in 1225. School Library Journal reviewer Patricia Lothrop-Green called it a book "for the eye, if not the ear." "The gentle, rhyming text follows the form of a prayer in praise of brother sun, sister moon, and mother earth and in gratitude to the Lord for providing such wondrous gifts," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Janice M. Del Negro wrote in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books that in The Circle of Days, the historic text "is granted glowing life." On Morning Wings, another inspirational title, presents Lindbergh's adaptation of Psalm 139. The book is "rhythmic, rhyming, and above all reassuring," Carolyn Phelan wrote in Booklist, the critic adding that "Lindbergh writes convincingly from the child's point of view."

Lindbergh uses rhyming couplets in describing how spring unfolds in New England in North Country Spring. The book features a glossary of the fourteen animals included in the text. Kay Weisman wrote in Booklist that junior high students will find the book to be "a springboard for writing seasonal poetry." "Lindbergh's ebullient verse is a triumph song of spring's melting, sensory flush," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Our Nest also takes a grateful look at nature, as Lindbergh describes a variety of animals who snuggle securely into the nests the world provides them. Some of the nests are man-made, including the bed a child snuggles in and the laundry basket that holds a cat and her kittens, and some are metaphorical: the ocean secure in the planet's hollows, and Earth itself nested in space. School Library Journal reviewer Roxanne Burg noted the book's dual message: "on one level, the book describes how all things in nature are interconnected …; on another, it celebrates a mother's love for her child." "Bedtime reads lie thick upon the ground," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor, but Our Nest's "comforting message, flowing text, warm sentiment, and jewel-like art" make the book stand out from the crowd. Booklist contributor Jennifer Mattson also recommended Our Nest, writing that "a honey of a poem … and a sweetly optimistic message distinguish this soothing bedtime book."

In The Visit sisters Beth and Jill visit their aunt and uncle's farm, and revel in exploring the barns and surrounding fields and meadows, as well as eating Aunt Laura's home cooking. Although nightfall finds the girls somewhat homesick, by relying on each other they soon feel better. "The obvious affection the relatives feel for one another will warm the audience," Ilene Cooper noted in Booklist. "These cheerful girl adventures—and the delightful territory they cover—may well have readers longing for a similar, simple getaway," maintained a Publishers Weekly contributor, while School Library Journal reviewer Angela J. Reynolds also found an educational aspect to the tale. "This idyllic country vacation is great for extending the vocabulary of young listeners," she concluded, predicting that readers "will pore over the drawings."