Susan Richards (Susan Shreve) Shreve (1939-) Biography

Born 1939, in Toledo, OH; Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1961; University of Virginia, M.A., 1969.

Addresses

Office—Department of English, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030. Agent—Timothy Seldes, Russell & Volkening, Inc., 50 West 29th St., New York, NY 10001.

Career

Teacher of English in private schools in Cheshire, England, 1962-63, Rosemont, PA, 1963-66, Washington, DC, 1967-68, and Philadelphia, PA, 1970-72; Community Learning Center (alternative school), Philadelphia, co-founder, 1972-75; George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, associate professor, 1976-80, professor of English Literature, 1980—; George Washington University, Washington, DC, Jenny McKean Moore Chair in Creative Writing, 1977-78. Columbia University, visiting professor, 1983-87; Princeton University, visiting professor, 1991-94; Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, West Virginia Wesleyan, 1994, and Bates College, 1997. Also conducted summer writing workshops at Bennington College in Vermont, 1980-87; has served on several literature panels, National Endowment for the Arts.

Member

PEN/Faulkner Foundation (president, 1985-90), Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Washington Independent Writers (member of advisory board), Children's Book Guild, Phi Beta Kappa.

Honors Awards

Jenny Moore Award, George Washington University, 1978; Notable Book citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1979, for Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories; Best Book for Young Adults citation, ALA, 1980, for The Masquerade; Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, National Council for Social Studies and the Children's Book Council joint committee, 1980, for Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories; Guggenheim award in fiction, 1980; National Endowment for the Arts fiction award, 1982; Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers of America, 1988, for Lucy Forever and Miss Rosetree, Shrinks.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN; AS SUSAN SHREVE

Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories, illustrated by Richard Cuffari, Knopf (New York, NY), 1979.

The Bad Dreams of a Good Girl, illustrated by Diane de Groat, Knopf (New York, NY), 1982.

How I Saved the World on Purpose, illustrated by Suzanne Richardson, Holt (New York, NY), 1985.

Lucy Forever and Miss Rosetree, Shrinks, Holt (New York, NY), 1986.

Lily and the Runaway Baby, illustrated by Sue Truesdell, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Wait for Me, illustrated by Diane de Groat, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Amy Dunn Quits School, illustrated by Diane de Groat, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Lucy Forever, Miss Rosetree, and the Stolen Baby, illustrated by Eric Jon Nones, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1994.

The Formerly Great Alexander Family, illustrated by Chris Cart, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Zoe and Columbo, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Warts, illustrated by Gregg Thorkelson, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Jonah, the Whale, Arthur A. Levine (New York, NY), 1998.

Ghost Cats, Arthur A. Levine (New York, NY), 1999.

Blister (companion novel to Jonah, the Whale), Arthur A. Levine (New York, NY), 2001.

Trout and Me, Knopf (New York, NY), 2002.

Under the Watson's Porch, Knopf (New York, NY), 2004.

FOR CHILDREN; "JOSHUA T. BATES" SERIES; AS SUSAN SHREVE

The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates, illustrated by Diane de Groat, Knopf (New York, NY), 1984.

Joshua T. Bates Takes Charge, illustrated by Dan Andreasen, Knopf (New York, NY), 1992.

Joshua T. Bates in Trouble Again, illustrated by Roberta Smith, Knopf (New York, NY), 1997.

Goodbye, Amanda the Good, Knopf (New York, NY), 2000.

FOR YOUNG ADULTS

The Nightmares of Geranium Street, Knopf (New York, NY), 1977.

Loveletters, Knopf (New York, NY), 1978.

The Masquerade, Knopf (New York, NY), 1980.

The Revolution of Mary Leary, Knopf (New York, NY), 1982.

The Gift of the Girl Who Couldn't Hear, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

The Goalie, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1996.

ADULT NOVELS

A Fortunate Madness, Houghton (New York, NY), 1974.

A Woman Like That, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1977.

Children of Power, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1979.

Miracle Play, Morrow (New York, NY), 1981.

Dreaming of Heroes, Morrow (New York, NY), 1984.

Queen of Hearts, Linden Press (New York, NY), 1986.

A Country of Strangers, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.

Daughters of the New World, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (New York, NY), 1992.

The Train Home, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (New York, NY), 1993.

The Visiting Physician, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (New York, NY), 1996.

Plum and Jaggers, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY), 2000.

EDITOR

(With Marita Golden) Skin Deep: Black Women and White Women Write About Race, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (New York, NY), 1995.

(With son Porter Shreve) Outside the Law: Narratives on Justice, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1997.

(With Porter Shreve) How We Want to Live: Narratives on Progress, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1998.

(With Porter Shreve) Tales out of School: Contemporary Writers on Their Student Years, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 2000.

Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing up in America, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.

Contributor of short stories and essays to periodicals; contributor of documentary essays for MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Adaptations

A Country of Strangers has been optioned for film; The Visiting Physician is in development as a new series for NBC television.

Sidelights

American novelist and children's author Susan Richards Shreve, who publishes her books for children under the name Susan Shreve, once said that she writes "stories of magical realism." Shreve grew up in a family fond of storytelling; "There has not been a moment in my life when there was not a drama going on in my mind," she recalled to Megan Rosenfeld of the Washington Post. Suffering from polio and two other major illnesses before attending kindergarten, Shreve entertained herself while bedridden by imagining dramatic stories involving her dolls. As she grew up, Shreve often found herself the center of dramatic situations while trying to lead a life of achievement despite her illnesses and subsequent frailty. For example, she surprised many people when she tried out for her high school cheerleading squad. Shreve lets polio survivor Natty Taylor, a character in the novel Children of Power, explain that when a child's health suffers early in life, others feel that "anything she does is astonishing." Natty resists being defined by her limitations in a campaign not unlike Shreve's own childhood ambition to lead a life without restrictions.

Shreve moved with her family from Toledo, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., at the age of three. Living in Washington, where her father, a crime reporter, headed the wartime radio censorship office, made Shreve's early life interesting. "The house was always full of soldiers," she told Publishers Weekly interviewer Elizabeth Gleick, "especially war correspondents, who had wonderful stories to tell." Deeply impressed by the excitement of these experiences, Shreve maintained an active fantasy life in her imagination.

After World War II Shreve's parents bought a farm in Vienna, Virginia. Along with the farm the family inherited "three tenant farmers with piles of children, crops, and animals tended by the black families who had lived there for generations, under owner protection, barely paid—a not uncommon post-slavery arrangement," Shreve wrote in an essay for Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series. "My father set about treating those tenant farmers decently, to show the other white Southerners in nearby farms what democracy was all about," Shreve said. Nevertheless, after a Fourth of July dinner one year, Shreve and her family heard gunfire. "Shortly afterwards, the women and children from the houses on the farm streamed into our kitchen, full of bruises, spilling blood on the floor," Shreve said. They told the family that the men were drunk and had beaten them and that they feared for their lives. At first, Shreve's father tried to protect them, holding the men at bay with an unloaded rifle. He realized his attempt to help would be futile when the police refused to intervene and told him to release the women and children. "They won't be killed," one officer said, "but you ought to know it's not your business anyway." The incident became the basis for A Country of Strangers.

Shreve's mother told her that her father "was a fine nonfiction writer, but not much good at fiction." While he had always wanted to write fiction, he never had the opportunity. Having grown up during the Great Depression of the 1930s he was unable to choose a career that was not sure to provide a steady income. "It was possible for me to be a fiction writer in a way that was not possible for my father in 1931," Shreve said. She related how her fiction writing began: "I didn't write fiction while my father was alive. Perhaps it is true that I was only free to write after he died. It is also true that in the manner of families, my parents set me up in this business: I have inherited my father's shop, passed from father to child, with the responsibility for maintaining its essential character in changing times."

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Shreve married her high school sweetheart and started her dual careers as mother and writer. While raising four children and working as a schoolteacher, she awoke before dawn to write at the dining room table. Shreve believes that having children nearby is good for a writer, because they keep the author in touch with the real world. Shreve told Gleick, "The world of complications hasn't reached children yet; they see things in a way adults can't. They have an eye on the world that is infinitely less damaged than mine, and they're more truthful. So I think I used them for that kind of truth and for humor."

Children and young adults play significant roles in all of Shreve's fiction. Her books for young people are prized for their memorable characters who achieve understanding against the backdrop of a changing society. Like the author, the protagonists in Shreve's books manage not only to survive against the odds—sometimes after making trouble for themselves—but also discover their capacity to affect the lives of people around them and the importance of learning to handle that power responsibly. In Children of Power, a group of Washington, D.C., teens bands together against a man who has compassionately befriended the deposed senator Joseph McCarthy. Natty, Shreve's teen protagonist, learns about abuses of power while watching her friends commit the same sins against McCarthy that they have judged in him as terribly wrong. Their arrogant belief that they are doing something good for their country keeps them from seeing their own errors.

Shreve's Lucy Forever and Miss Rosetree, Shrinks features two sixth-graders who set up their own psychiatric "practice" patterned on that of Lucy's child-psychiatrist father. Intrigued by one of their father's patients, a mute five-year-old named Cinder, the girls begin meddling in what soon develops into a suspenseful mystery. "It soon becomes clear that Lucy's well-meant efforts are endangering her as well as Cinder, and there is a denoument, both dramatic and logical, that ends the novel with fine flair," noted Zena Sutherland of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. A Publishers Weekly reviewer enthused: "With a wonderful ear for the dialogue of children and the patterns of their most serious play, Shreve creates realistic, memorable characters."

Many of Shreve's stories focus on parent-child relationships. The Bad Dreams of a Good Girl presents nine-year-old Lotty, youngest sibling of three illbehaved brothers, who feels that her parents expect her "to be a paragon of virtue," as Merri Rosenberg noted in the New York Times Book Review. Lotty's mostly virtuous responses to her antagonists provide the framework for lengthy descriptions of her dreams, in which she pays them back without inhibition or remorse. "Shreve sensitively explores Lotty's emotional conflict that results from trying to live up to her parents' expectations, even as her 'bad' feelings surface in her dreams," Rosenberg maintained.

Shreve's award-winning Family Secrets offers five first-person accounts of such problems as suicide, old age, and divorce, all related by young middle-grader Sammy, who proves to be "ingenuous, candid, believable, and at times even funny" in the estimation of Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books reviewer Zena Sutherland. Amy Dunn Quits School finds its young heroine rebelling against an overly-eager single "supermom," while The Masquerade offers a compassionate presentation of a family coping with the disgrace of their father's imprisonment for embezzling funds. "In a serious and touching novel about a family's response to social tragedy," noted Sutherland of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, "Shreve examines the masks, the facades we all wear to protect ourselves from others, to lull ourselves into security." Other critics commented favorably on the strength of Shreve's characterizations in this novel. School Library Journal contributor Marjorie Lewis observed: "The author has a fine ear for the way kids talk and her sharp observation of family relationships is extremely affecting and effective." Paul Heins of Horn Book asserted that Shreve "shows her greatest skill in dramatizing the interrelationships among the acutely limned members of the family."

A more common yet equally disquieting form of family crisis—divorce—confronts fourth-grader Liam in The Formerly Great Alexander Family. Calling Shreve's middle-grade novel "understated, poignant, but appealingly matter-of-fact," Martha V. Parravano of Horn Book praised the author's characterization of Liam, noting that, although Shreve takes him "through some universal reactions to divorce: helplessness and guilt; denial; fear of losing a parent's affection," he remains "not a statistic but an individual." Ghost Cats centers on the dynamics of the Hall family, who have traveled the world until the oldest child, Peter, is eleven. When they settle in Boston, Peter's role in the family changes entirely, and he longs for the road when he carried a more important spot in the family responsibilities. As Peter begins to adjust to his new life at school, however, the family cats either die or disappear, and he begins seeing their ghosts. Ilene Cooper commented in Booklist that though the supernatural element seemed somewhat forced, "There is some excellent writing here." A critic in Publishers Weekly noted that "Peter narrates, in a voice that is distinct and credible."

Sibling rivalry and concerns over identity are explored in Shreve's Lily and the Runaway Baby, Wait for Me, and Zoe and Columbo. Directed to primary graders, Lily and the Runaway Baby is a fast-moving adventure in which the title protagonist, eight-year-old Lily, runs away from home after feeling neglected following the birth of her new baby sister Muffin. Lily takes Muffin along on her train ride out of town, and the story's element of suspense is heightened dramatically when the infant is abducted. "As an easy-to-read adventure, this is smoothly scary-and-reassuring at the same time," noted Betsy Hearne of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. A Kirkus Reviews critic noted that Lily and the Runaway Baby features "funny, sharply observed dialogue, and a firm grasp of the effects of sibling rivalry."

Wait for Me is the sensitive portrait of fifth-grader Molly Lottmann, the youngest of a family of four children whose siblings are entering their teen years and no longer seem to have time for her. To make matters worse for the child used to being the center of attention, Molly's two best friends are now in different classes, and have seemingly formed a new trio with another girl. "Shreve shows real insight into the traumas of approaching adolescence," maintained Joyce Adams Burner in School Library Journal. "She is sympathetic yet honest in her portrayal of Molly, showing her strengths and her shortcomings." Deborah Stevenson of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books concluded Wait for Me is "a thoughtful and reassuring treatment of the kind of childhood social dynamics that many adults dismiss and all kids experience."

Zoe and Columbo examines sibling rivalry and identity from the perspective of an adopted child. Zoe and Columbo are nine-year-old siblings who together must make an adjustment to a new home, a new school, and new friends. Things seem to go a little smoother for Zoe, while Columbo is forced to confront some of the insecurities commonly experienced by adopted children in unsettling situations. "Shreve explores the ways in which a family deals with the facts of adoption while maintaining the charm of her young characters," noted School Library Journal contributor Susan Oliver. Citing the strong characterization in the story, Deborah Stevenson of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books asserted: "As ever, Shreve investigates middle-grades angst subtly and respectfully."

Shreve further explores childhood growing pains in a number of well-received books centering on school activities. The Gift of the Girl Who Couldn't Hear offers "a compact, tender look at the awkwardness of adolescence," according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. In the story, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth decides to abandon her longtime dream of performing in the seventh grade musical because she has gained weight and has skin trouble, while her deaf friend Lucy determines to audition despite her handicap and the sarcasm of classmates. Calling the work "a lively and intelligent story," a Publishers Weekly commentator asserted that "the girls' characters are skillfully contrasted, and their tale is chronicled with a fresh, exuberant and upbeat style."

Warts offers a similarly thoughtful depiction of young Jilsy's mortification over the unsightly lesions covering her hands. "The story is strong, the characters are sympathetic, and the warts are just gross enough to appeal to every third grader," maintained Maeve Visser Knoth of Horn Book. Trout and Me is the story of Ben, who in first grade was diagnosed as ADD and dyslexic, and has been expected to be a trouble maker ever since. Though he's a nice kid, he strives to live up to those expectations. When a new kid, Trout, starts school, Ben finds both an ally and an accomplice, and the two become fast friends. When the two pull a large prank, however, parents begin to say that Trout is the real troublemaker, and he should have to leave the school. Ben has to decide how to best help his friend. "Fusing humor and pathos, Shreve introduces characters of uncommon dimension and complexity," wrote a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews claimed "The interaction between Trout and Ben is boyishly authentic," and Maria B. Salvadore, writing for School Library Journal, called Trout and Me "A fast-paced, touching story told in the convincing and perceptive voice of the young protagonist."

Shreve's novels about growing up have followed a single character through several books, or have featured recurring characters in a single setting. The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates is the first book about Joshua, who suffers the embarrassment of having to repeat the third grade. In Joshua T. Bates Takes Charge, fifth-grader Joshua must overcome a new problem: he has been the target of bully Tommy Wilhelm and his gang of NOs (Nerds Out) since he flunked the third grade, and now Tommy and his gang are picking on a new kid. Should Joshua step up and defend him? Praising the "well-drawn school backdrop" and "believable main character," Stephanie Zvirin of Booklist called Joshua T. Bates Takes Charge "a perceptive story that makes it plain what it's like to be an outcast and also what it takes to be a hero." Joshua T. Bates in Trouble Again retraces Joshua's rejoining of the fourth grade, telling a story about the first time Joshua faces off against Tommy and the bullies, before the events of Joshua T. Bates Takes Charge. According to Carolyn Phelan in Booklist, "Shreve has perceptively re-created the concerns and culture of elementary-school kids." Lisa Smith, in School Library Journal, commented, "The boy's insecurities are well drawn and right on target for the intended audience."

Goodbye, Amanda the Good, the fourth book featuring Joshua, actually centers on his older sister, Amanda, who is struggling to figure out her identity once she reaches middle school. She is attracted to a group of girls who call themselves "The Club," simply because they represent everything that she is not: they skip classes, shop lift, smoke, and make trouble. Amanda also finds herself becoming attracted to Slade, a ninth-grade bad boy. Amanda can't talk to her parents, but she finds that she can talk to Joshua about what she's going through, and discovers that Slade isn't the bad boy he's made out to be—he actually becomes a truer friend than the girls in "The Club" where Amanda had wanted so desperately to belong. Terrie Dorio of School Library Journal commented, "Shreve captures her protagonist's utter bewilderment and anxiety in this appealing novel." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised the work, noting that Shreve's "dialogue … is pitch-perfect—readers will recognize their feelings and problems on every page." Paula Rohrlick of Kliatt wrote that "middle school and junior high girls will be enthralled by Amanda's walk on the wild side."

Other books by Shreve that feature recurring characters include Jonah the Whale and Blister. Jonah in Jonah the Whale has an overactive imagination. When he moves to a new school and finds himself dubbed "Jonah the Whale" by his peers, because he is overweight, his way to counter their taunting is to make up a huge lie: he tells them he is the host of a television show where he interviews people who came from daunting backgrounds and succeeded. When his classmates doubt him, he, with the help of his new friend Blister, manage to pull an interview out of Michael Jordan and pitch the show to a local cable station—turning Jonah's lie into a reality. "Jonah is an appealing hero with believable motivations," assured Michael Cart in Booklist. Though the solution to Jonah's dilemma seemed far-fetched to some reviewers, a Publishers Weekly critic noted, "the story is best enjoyed not as a look at real life but as a true fish story."

The title character in the novel Blister doesn't go by her real name; before her parents split up, she was known as Alyssa Reed. When her father abandons her and her mother after her mother loses a baby, Blister's mother sinks into a deep depression, and Blister finds she must fend for herself, acting "elastic" as her grandmother advised her. "Shreve pulls no punches in this all-too-believable story," wrote Ashley Larsen in her review for School Library Journal. Blister adapts to situations as they come, daydreaming about how to solve all the problems, then adjusting as reality sets in and she realizes that her dreams won't come true the way she wants. A critic for Kirkus Reviews commented, "Spunky and resolute, Blister is a character many readers will understand intimately." Ilene Cooper of Booklist wrote, "this perceptively written novel … gets right to the bone." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised, "Shreve again proves herself an inspired and inspiring storyteller."

In Shreve's novels for adults, teenagers often play a significant role. Plum and Jaggers finds four children, after losing their parents in a terrorist bombing in Italy, navigating the tragic aftermath and learning to shed the past in order to live independent lives. In A Country of Strangers, for instance, a young woman teaches adults an important lesson. After the white owner of Elm Grove, a former plantation near Washington, D.C., suddenly disappears, Moses Bellows, a descendant of slaves, moves in. Moses develops a violent jealousy, thinking that his wife and the farm's former owner were lovers; Charley, a white journalist who buys the estate and tries to befriend Moses, is also taken by jealous rage when his Danish movie star wife flirts with his new friend. He is thus unable to erase the past which haunts Moses, despite his efforts to combat the racism that surrounds them all. Though Prudential, named after the insurance company and pregnant at thirteen, was sent to the farm to be 'tamed' by her aunt Miracle and uncle Moses, "it is Prudential who tames everyone else," Jay Parini wrote in the Times Literary Supplement. In light of the birth of her son, conflicts subside and a dream of brotherhood is recalled. Citing Shreve's description of the national longing for brotherhood, Michael Malone commented in Washington Post Book World, "Our unending wish to recreate the warm, kind, communal refuge of the first dream of America comes out of our 'inevitable birthright in a country of strangers, of loneliness and isolation and a longing to walk in the company of friends.'"

Shreve edited Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing up in America. The collection features thirty-four essays by such well known authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, and Chang-rae Lee, telling the stories of their childhoods. Many are told in first person, and the experiences range from very functional families to children living with parents who are less than ideal, covering such themes as racial definition, family duties, faith, and finding strength from love. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the collection a "beautiful compilation," and Deborah Donovan in Booklist considered it "a memorable portrait of coming-of-age in America."

Shreve is also the editor of several titles, with her son, who is also an author. Shreve told WAG online about working with her son. "He turns out to be the tougher editor," she explained, "and he's very good at this… It's been very fun to do." Commenting on what it's like to have a son who is also a writer, Shreve told WAG, "I think it is really wonderful to have a child of mine be in the same field, including teaching." When asked why she writes, Shreve answered, "I suppose I write because I love it. I think you write to make a connection. I think that is why you read, too, is to connect… When a book is out there, it gives me such enormous pleasure to feel that someone has not so much liked it, but gotten it. We all go through life feeling that nobody gets us; that teenage feeling that nobody understands you does continue. The sense of being understood and having an opportunity and creating a world that might be better understood is terrifically satisfying."

Merri Rosenberg and other reviewers have occasionally criticized Shreve for wrapping up her novels with happy endings. The author's aversion to tragedy has been with her since childhood, when she replaced tragic endings in an opera book with the words "AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER." Shreve once told SATA: "I do not believe in false promises but I do believe that in life as well as in books, we owe our children as well as ourselves the promise of a future." As a versatile and insightful novelist who has accomplished far more than her childhood ambition to be "normal," Shreve was recognized by Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post Book World and other critics as an "exceptionally gifted writer."