Barbara Ann Porte (1943-) Biography

Born 1943, in New York, NY; Education: Attended Iowa State University; Michigan State University, B.S., 1965; Palmer Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University, M.S., 1969.

Career

Writer. Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY, chief of children's services division, 1974-86.

Member

National Women's Book Association, Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC.

Honors Awards

Notable Book designation, American Library Association (ALA), for Harry's Visit, Harry's Dog, and Harry in Trouble; Pick of the List designation, American Booksellers Association, 1985, for The Kidnapping of Aunt Elizabeth, 1995, for Chickens! Chickens!, and 1997, for Tale of a Tadpole and Harry's Pony; Children's Books of the Year designation, Child Study Association of America, 1986, for Harry's Mom, and 1992, for Harry Gets an Uncle; Best Books designation, Parents' and Learning magazines, both for Ruthann and Her Pig; ALA Best Books for Young Adults designation, for Something Terrible Happened; Parents' Choice Foundation Picture-Book Honor, 1995, for Chickens! Chickens!; Best Science Books for Children citation, Scientific American, 1997, and NTSA Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children designation, 1998, both for Tale of a Tadpole; Anne Izard Storyteller's Choice award, 2000, for Hearsay: Strange Tales from the Middle Kingdom; NEST literary classic selection, for Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants; Parents Guide to Children's Media award, and Capitol Choices selection,

Barbara Ann Porte

both 2000, both for If You Ever Get Lost: The Adventures of Julia and Evan; Books for the Teen Age designation, New York Public Library, 2003, for Beauty and the Serpent: Thirteen Tales of Unnatural Animals.

Writings

Harry's Visit, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1983.

Jesse's Ghost and Other Stories, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1983.

Harry's Dog, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1984.

Harry's Mom, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1985.

The Kidnapping of Aunt Elizabeth, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1985.

I Only Made up the Roses, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1987.

Harry in Trouble, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1989.

The Take-along Dog, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1989.

Ruthann and Her Pig, illustrated by Sucie Stevenson, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1989.

Fat Fanny, Beanpole Bertha, and the Boys, illustrated by Maxie Chambliss, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1991.

Harry Gets an Uncle, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1991.

Taxicab Tales, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1992.

A Turkey Drive and Other Tales, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1993.

Leave That Cricket Be, Alan Lee, illustrated by Donna Ruff, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1993.

When Grandma Almost Fell off the Mountain and Other Stories, illustrated by Maxie Chambliss, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Something Terrible Happened (for young adults), Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1994.

When Aunt Lucy Rode a Mule and Other Stories, illustrated by Maxie Chambliss, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Harry's Birthday, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1994.

Chickens! Chickens!, illustrated by Greg Henry, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Black Elephant with a Brown Ear (in Alabama), illustrated by Bill Traylor, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1996.

Surprise! Surprise! It's Grandfather's Birthday (picture book), illustrated by Bo Jia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1997.

Harry's Pony, illustrated by Yossi Abolafia, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1997.

Tale of a Tadpole (picture book), illustrated by Annie Cannon, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Hearsay: Strange Tales from the Middle Kingdom, illustrated by Rosemary Feit Covey, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1998.

He's Sorry, She's Sorry, They're Sorry Too: Stories (for adults), Hanging Loose Press (Brooklyn, NY), 1998.

If You Ever Get Lost: The Adventures of Julia and Evan, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 2000.

Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants, illustrated by Annie Cannon, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Beauty and the Serpent: Thirteen Tales of Unnatural Animals, illustrated by Rosemary Feit Covey, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to anthologies, including Funny You Should Ask, edited by David Gale, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1992; Don't Give up the Ghost, edited by David Gale, Delacorte, 1993; Birthday Surprises, edited by Johanna Hurwitz, Morrow Junior Books (New York, NY), 1995; and New Handbook for Storytellers, edited by Caroline Feller Bauer, ALA, 1993. Contributor to periodicals, including Advocate, Book Links, Confrontation, Earth's Daughters, Green's, Hanging Loose, Karamu, Newsday, New York Times, Phoebe, 13th Moon, San Jose Studies, School Library Journal, and Washington Post Book World.

Adaptations

Jesse's Ghost and Other Stories was adapted as a talking book by the Library of Congress. Harry's Dog was adapted for cassette by Random House Audio. Harry's Pony was adapted as a play by Metropolitan Teaching and Learning. Porte's short story "Seduction" was adapted for film.

Work in Progress

A young-adult novel titled Roxana.

Sidelights

Best known for her popular "Harry" books for beginning readers, award-winning children's author Barbara Ann Porte has also written a wide variety of books for middle graders, including a collection of macabre stories and several funny family tales, as well as problem novels for young adults that focus on subjects from biracial families and divorce to AIDS and death. Critics have praised Porte's works for their plots, lively dialogue, convincing characters, and humor.

Born in New York City to a lawyer mother and a storytelling pharmacist father, Porte and her two sisters grew up telling stories to one another. In addition, every night their mother read aloud to them, even after they were able to read on their own, and their father told them: "Read something every day and write something every day, no matter what else you do with your lives."

In college Porte majored in agriculture, but after marrying and raising her family she returned to school to become a librarian. She began her writing career with three stories for the "Read-alone Books" series about a boy named Harry, who lives with his single-parent dentist dad. Harry's Visit describes the boy's reluctance when invited to spend a day with old friends of his father and their children. That is, until one of the children invites him to shoot a few baskets. As Zena Sutherland, writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, observed of the "Harry" books, Porte's "treatment is light but the emotions are deep and universal." Other titles in the series include Harry's Mom, Harry's Dog, Harry in Trouble, Harry Gets an Uncle, Harry's Birthday, and Harry's Pony.

In Harry's Dog Harry makes up some wild tales when his allergic father discovers a dog in the house, and steps must be taken to find a more suitable family pet. "As logical and winsome as ever," commented Karen Jameyson of Harry's Dog in a review for Horn Book. Although the theme of Harry's Mom is serious, beginning with the opening "I, Harry, am an orphan," Sutherland maintained in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books that Porte "has proved herself adept at investing simply presented situations with emotional substance—here, both humor and sadness" as Harry's father helps the boy see all the loving people in his life. Denise M. Wilms also praised Harry's Mom in Booklist, calling the tale "quietly satisfying."

Another series by Porte that is geared for preschoolers as well as beginning independent readers, is the The Take-along Dog, which introduces Sam Rabinowitz and his family. Because of their mother's fear of dogs, the Rabinowitz children must take their little dog, Benton, with them wherever they go, even to places where dogs are not permitted, until the day Benton protects Mother from a larger dog and wins her appreciation and friendship. In the second book in the series, Taxicab Tales, Mr. Rabinowitz entertains his family with tales of his day as a cab driver by describing his unusual passengers. A Turkey Drive and Other Tales is narrated by Sam's sister, Abigail, and focuses on Mrs. Rabinowitz's artwork. A Kirkus Reviews commentator noted of A Turkey Drive and Other Tales that Porte "keeps the book moving with unexpected plot-twists, comical detail, impeccable timing, and a rare ear for natural, funny dialogue." Quraysh Ali, writing in Booklist, found that in A Turkey Drive Porte "ties together little pieces of sense, nonsense, and stream-ofconsciousness to arrive at the wittiest conclusions," while a Publishers Weekly added that the author's "energetic imagery and plotting keep the pages turning."

Middle-grade readers are the intended audience of Porte's Jesse's Ghost and Other Stories, a collection of a dozen tales that Booklist reviewer Denise M. Wilms described as possessing "a haunting quality." In addition, Zena Sutherland noted in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books that the writing style "often [captures] the cadence of the oral tradition." This same oral storytelling tradition is evident in When Grandma Almost Fell off the Mountain and Other Stories. In stories featuring sisters Stella and Zelda, the book recounts the memories of the girls' grandmother, memories of traveling to Florida by car with Stella and Zelda's parents back in the 1930s. The sisters' grandmother's "colorful words, brisk descriptions, and unerring choice of subjects" will entertain readers, according to a Kirkus Reviews commentator. The companion book, When Aunt Lucy Rode a Mule and Other Stories, finds Stella and Zelda prodding their aunt to recount her childhood memories, which include visiting her own grandmother in the mountains and getting stung by bees. A Publishers Weekly reviewer stated that Porte "liberally sprinkles the text with the kind of rich natural phrasing associated with oral storytelling," while School Library Journal contributor Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan pointed out that Porte offers "a sense of old-fashioned good times and down-home humor."

Porte's Hearsay: Strange Tales from the Middle Kingdom is a compendium of original stories and folktales from China. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found that while the retellings are not "culturally authentic," the author makes up for this drawback with her "contagious passion for the exotic." Nancy Vasilakis, reviewing Hearsay for Horn Book, greeted the work warmly as a "surprisingly intimate picture of Chinese life over countless generations." A single Chinese tale is the basis for Porte's 2000 book, Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants. Set in the past, the story tells of how young heroine Ma Jiang copes when her father goes off to war and leaves in his daughter's hands the family business: raising and selling "orange ants" whose hunting skills provide pest control in gardens. Porte adds a note at the end of the story detailing the use of ants in agriculture; Linda Ludke of School Library Journal deemed Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants "a captivating tale with a charming heroine who will speak to today's children."

If You Ever Get Lost: The Adventures of Julia and Evan is a collection of "nine sweet stories," as Linda Plevak put it in School Library Journal, that center on two young siblings whose curious personalities carry them all over town. Less sweet is Porte's 2001 release, Beauty and the Serpent: Thirteen Tales of Unnatural Animals. The characters in this volume for older readers include, as Starr LaTronica explained in a School Library Journal review, "puppies from hell, escalator-dwelling cats, murderous crows, and a coma-inducing snake tattoo with a life of its own." A Kirkus Reviews contributor found that with Beauty and the Serpent Porte "is in top form."

Also for older readers, The Kidnapping of Aunt Elizabeth features fifteen-year-old Ashley Rush who, for a school project on family history, collects family stories from her assorted relatives. School Library Journal contributor Heide Piehler noted that in this book "Porte establishes herself as a masterful storyteller" able to create "memorable characters and a seemingly endless supply of engaging tales." Another book for older readers, I Only Made up the Roses focuses on seventeen-year-old Cydra, who lives with her white mother, black stepfather, and younger half-brother Perley. Describing the novel as "a wonderful, intelligent book," Myrna Feldman added in the Voice of Youth Advocates that Porte successfully presents the feelings and experiences of a biracial family via her "educated, liberal" viewpoint.

A departure from Porte's usual light-hearted fare, Something Terrible Happened tells the story of Gillian, whose father died of addictions he developed while a soldier in Vietnam, and whose mother has contracted the AIDS virus. Although raised in New York, Gillian identifies with her mother and grandmother, both women of Caribbean heritage. As her mother's condition worsens, Gillian is sent to Tennessee to stay with her white uncle and his family. Her mother's death forces Gillian to grow up, gaining strength from the wealth of folk tales she learned as a child and developing compassion and self-reliance. Horn Book reviewer Ellen Fader praised Something Terrible Happened as a "gritty, engaging, fast-moving tale of one young girl's fight for emotional survival." A Kirkus Reviews critic commented that Porte "enlivens a refreshingly cliche-free narrative with … folktales," while Deborah Stevenson concluded in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books that "The final effect is dreamy and somewhat adult, but there's a verisimilitude in the wandering and an intimacy in the portrayals that keep the book an absorbing read." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly added that, "Once in concert with its unique rhythm, the reader will burrow into this story and relish its nuggets of insight."

"What seems of most interest to people these days is that I continue to write with pencil on paper, and to finish up on a manual typewriter," Porte once noted of her writing career. "The artist Constantin Brancusi put it so well when he said, 'It is not making things that is difficult, but putting ourselves in the condition to make them.' I keep on trying. I read, I walk, I spend more and more time studying the visual arts."