Connie Porter facts for kids

Connie Rose Porter was born on July 29, 1959. She is an African-American writer who creates books for young adults. She also teaches creative writing.

Connie Porter is most famous for her work on the American Girl Collection Series. She wrote the Addy books, and six of them have sold over 3 million copies! She also published two other novels, All-Bright Court (1991) and Imani All Mine (1999).

Early Life and Becoming a Writer

Connie Porter grew up in Lackawanna, New York. This was a small city near Buffalo. Her family lived in the Baker Housing project. Her parents had ten children and faced tough times.

As a child, Porter was quiet and loved to read. She enjoyed books by authors like Lois Lenski. When she became a teenager, she started reading books by black writers and about black characters.

At age 14, Connie Porter began writing. When she was in 10th grade, her parents gave her a typewriter for Christmas. She started writing poetry. She was inspired by the poet Nikki Giovanni.

Porter went to high school at Buffalo City Honors School. She then earned her bachelor's degree from State University of New York at Albany in 1981. Later, she got her Masters of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1987. She has also taught creative writing at several colleges.

Connie Porter's Books

All-Bright Court

Connie Porter's first novel was All-Bright Court. She started writing it as a short story assignment at LSU. The book is about Southern Black families who move to a Northern town. They hope to find better jobs and a new life.

The story focuses on the Taylor family and their neighbors. They live in a low-income apartment complex. They discover that their new life has challenges. These include frequent layoffs and dangerous working conditions. Even with these difficulties, the neighbors build a strong community.

A reviewer from The New York Times said that Porter shows the real lives of her characters. The reviewer also said that the characters feel very real to the reader.

The Addy Series

The Addy Series is based on the American Girl doll named Addy. American Girl asked Connie Porter to write these books. The stories follow Addy Walker, a young girl who escapes slavery with her mother. They find freedom in Philadelphia during the American Civil War.

In Philadelphia, Addy grows up and faces new challenges. She learns to read and deals with discrimination. To write the books, Ms. Porter did a lot of research about the year 1864. She wanted to show the time period accurately.

Porter also wanted to show the hardships of slavery in a way that would connect with young readers. She said that slavery was a very difficult time. But she also wanted to show that people had loving families.

When Addy was first introduced in 1993, over 1 million books were sold. Connie Porter became very popular. More than 15,000 people came to meet her. The Addy novels have now sold over 3 million copies!

Imani All Mine

Imani All Mine is Connie Porter's second novel for adults. It was released in 1998. This book tells the coming-of-age story of Tasha. Tasha is a 15-year-old black girl growing up in Buffalo, New York. She is an honors student and dreams of going to college to escape her inner-city life.

Awards and Honors

Connie Porter has received many awards for her writing. She was named a fellow to the Bread Load Writers' Conference. She also won a regional award in the Grants Best Young American Novelist Competition.

Her book All-Bright Court was named an American Library Association Best Book of 1991. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. The Addy Series was voted Best Children's Series of 1993. This was part of the Publishers Weekly Cuffie Awards.

Her books have won the 1994 International Reading Association Children's Choice Award. They also won the 1994 Children's Book Council Children's Choice Award. Connie Porter has sold over 4.5 million books in total. She also received the Uncrowned Queens Culture Keeper Award.

Personal Life

Connie Porter sees herself as a black female writer. She includes her experiences as both black and female in her work. She believes that these parts of her identity are important to her writing.

At one point, Porter lived in Pittsburgh with her mother and young daughter. She has also taught 9th grade. She is very interested in science. She once wanted to be a physicist or a marine biologist. She still reads science books to relax. She also enjoys listening and singing along to Broadway show tunes.

Because she writes the Addy series, American Girl gave her the whole Addy doll collection!

Connie Porter admires many other authors. Some of them include Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker.

List of Published Books

• All-Bright Court (1991)
• Meet Addy: An American Girl (1993)
• Addy Learns a Lesson: A school story (1993)
• Addy's Surprise: A Christmas story (1993)
• Happy Birthday, Addy!: A springtime story (1994)
• Addy Saves the Day: A summer story (1994)
• Changes for Addy: A winter story (1994)
• Imani All Mine (1999)
• High Hopes for Addy (1999)
• Addy's Little Brother (2000)
• Addy's Wedding Quilt (2001)
• Addy Studies Freedom (2002)
• Addy's Summer Place (2003)