Paul Fleischman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Paul Fleischman
Fleischman in 2022
Born	1952 (age 72–73) Monterey, California, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, playwright
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley University of New Mexico
Period	1979–present
Genre	Children's literature
Parents	Sid Fleischman (father)

Paul Fleischman (born in 1952) is an American author who writes books for children. He and his father, Sid Fleischman, both won the famous Newbery Medal. This award is given by the American Library Association for the best children's book of the year. In 2012, Paul Fleischman was chosen as the United States' nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award. This award honors a writer's entire body of work for children.

Paul Fleischman's Life and Books

Paul Fleischman is a well-known writer for young readers. He is famous for his unique storytelling style. He often uses many different viewpoints in his books. This means you get to see the story through the eyes of many characters.

Paul's Early Life and Adventures

Paul Fleischman was born in Monterey, California. He grew up in Santa Monica, California. His father, Sid Fleischman, was also a children's book author.

When Paul was 19, he went on a big adventure. He traveled across the country by bicycle and train. This trip ended with him living in an old 200-year-old house in New Hampshire. This experience really inspired him. It led him to write many historical fiction stories. These stories are about important times in American history. They include tales about the Puritans' Indian wars, old-time peddlers, and the American Civil War.

Paul went to college at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of New Mexico. Before he became a full-time writer, he had many different jobs. He worked as a bagel baker, a library shelver, and a bookstore clerk. He also worked as a proofreader, checking texts for mistakes. This last job even led him to start groups that cared about correct grammar!

How Paul Writes His Books

Paul Fleischman started writing his first books while he was still in college. He got ideas from reading old folk tales. He also loves music, and this shows in his poetry. He has written collections of poems for two or four people to read aloud. These are sometimes called "chamber music" for voices.

A special thing about Paul's stories is that they often show many different points of view. This means you hear the story from several characters. His book Bull Run (1993) was one of the first children's novels to do this. He used this style again in Seedfolks. He also used it in Seek, which has 50 different voices. His play Zap has seven plays in one! And Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal tells the Cinderella story from many cultures.

Paul's books often explore important ideas. These include the importance of history, being part of a community, art, and using your imagination.

Awards and Recognitions

Paul Fleischman has won many important awards for his books.

• He won the 1989 Newbery Medal for his book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. This was special because his father had won the same award just two years before!
• His book Graven Images also received a Newbery Honor award in 1983.
• He was nominated for a National Book Award in 2003 for Breakout.
• He won the 1994 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Bull Run.
• In 2002, he received the California Young Reader Medal for Weslandia.
• His books Joyful Noise and Saturnalia received Boston Globe–Horn Book Award honors.
• He won the PEN Center USA Literary Award for The Dunderheads (2010).
• The Matchbox Diary (2013) won the Christopher Medal.
• His nonfiction book, Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (2014), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It also won the Green Earth Book Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.

In 2012, Paul Fleischman was chosen as the United States' nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award. This award recognizes a writer's entire collection of work for children. He also received the Leo Politi Golden Author Award in 2005. In 2014, he got the Horace Mann Upstanders Lifetime Achievement Award.

Paul Fleischman's Books for Children

Paul Fleischman has written many different kinds of books for young readers.

Picture Books

• The Birthday Tree (1979, 2008)
• The Animal Hedge (1983, 2003)
• Rondo in C (1988)
• Shadow Play (1990)
• Time Train (1991)
• Weslandia (1999)
• Lost: A Story in String (2000)
• Sidewalk Circus (2004)
• Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella (2007)
• The Dunderheads (2009)
• The Dunderheads Behind Bars (2012)
• The Matchbox Diary (2013)
• First Light, First Life: A Worldwide Creation Story (2016)
• Fearsome Giant, Fearless Child: A Worldwide Jack and the Beanstalk Story (2019)
• The Class With Wings (2024)

Younger Fiction

• Half-A-Moon Inn (1980)
• Finzel The Farsighted (1983)
• Phoebe Danger, Detective (1983)

Short Stories

• Graven Images (1982, 2006), a collection of stories.
• Coming-and-Going Men (1985), another collection.

Plays

• Mind's Eye (1999)
• Zap (2005)

Poetry

• I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices (1985)
• Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1988)
• Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices (2000)

Novels

• Path of the Pale Horse (1983)
• Rear-View Mirrors (1986)
• Saturnalia (1990)
• The Borning Room (1991)
• Bull Run (1993)
• A Fate Totally Worse than Death (1995)
• Seedfolks (1997)
• Whirligig (1998)
• Seek (2001)
• Breakout (2003)

Nonfiction Books

• Townsend's Warbler (1992)
• Copier Creations (1993)
• Dateline: Troy (1996, 2006)
• Cannibal in the Mirror (2000)
• Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (2014)
• No Map, Great Trip: A Young Writer's Road to Page One (2019)
• Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word (2020)