Joyce Hansen | |
---|---|
Born | The Bronx, New York City, U.S. | October 18, 1942
Occupation | Writer, the schoolteacher |
Citizenship | United States |
Notable awards | Coretta Scott King Award honors (x4) |
Joyce Viola Hansen (born October 18, 1942) is an American writer and retired schoolteacher. She has earned recognition for her books for children and youth, particularly her historical fiction and non-fiction works about African-American history.
Hansen was born in the Bronx, New York City on October 18, 1942. [1] [2] Her parents were Austin Victor, a photographer, and Lilian Dancy Hansen. [3] She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Pace University (1972) and a master's degree in English from New York University (1978). [1] [3] For 22 years, she worked as a teacher in New York City public schools, before retiring in 1995. [1] [3] After retirement she lived with her husband in South Carolina and wrote. [4]
Hansen has said that her writing is motivated by a drive to increase interest in reading among her students and others who are underrepresented in children's literature. [3] [5] [6] Her first novel was The Gift-Giver (1980), about a group of friends living in the Bronx. [1] [6] She wrote two sequels to the book, Yellow Bird and Me (1986) and One True Friend (2001). [7]
In addition to novels set in contemporary urban settings, Hansen has written several works of historical fiction about African-American history, including books about slavery and the Civil War. [5] [8] Which Way Freedom? (1986), her first work of historical fiction, was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. [1] [9] The book, about a Black teenager serving with the Union Army in the Civil War, [9] was the first of a trilogy of books that included Out From This Place (1998) and The Heart Calls Home (1999). [10]
Her novels The Captive (1994) and I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl (part of the Dear America series of books) were also named Coretta Scott King Honor Books. [1]
Hansen has also written several non-fiction books for youth about African-American and African history. Women of Hope: African Americans Who Made A Difference (1998) features short biographies of thirteen influential Black women, including neurosurgeon Alexa Canady, astronaut Mae Jemison, and activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Kirkus Reviews called the book "inspirational" and "effective as art and as history". [11]
With Gary McGowan, Hansen wrote Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York's African Burial Ground (1998). The book, which was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, detailed the 1991 discovery and excavation of a burial ground for slaves and free blacks in New York City. [12] [13] Also with McGowan, Hansen wrote Freedom Roads (2003), a non-fiction account of the Underground Railroad, which Kirkus called "well-written, well-documented, imaginatively arranged". [14]
Hansen's 2004 book, African Princess: The Amazing Lives of Africa's Royal Women, profiles six prominent women, including Hatshepsut, Amina, and Elizabeth of Toro. [15] A New York Times review called the book "[m]eticulously researched" and "rich with detail, drama and intrigue". [15]
Jewell Parker Rhodes is an American bestselling novelist and educator.
Dear America is a series of historical fiction novels for children published by Scholastic starting in 1996. By 1998, the series had 12 titles with 3.5 million copies in print. The series was canceled in 2004 with its final release, Hear My Sorrow. However, it was relaunched in the fall of 2010. Each book is written in the form of a diary of a young woman's life during important events or time periods in American history. The Dear America series covers a wide range of topics, including: the Pilgrims' journey to the New World, the Salem Witch Trials, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, western expansion, slavery, immigration, nineteenth-century prairie life, the California Gold Rush of 1849, the Great Depression, Native Americans' experiences, racism, coal mining, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the fight for women's suffrage, the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Battle of the Alamo, the Vietnam War, and more. The breadth of historical topics covered in these books through fiction makes the Dear America series a favorite teaching device of history schoolteachers around the country. The re-launch series and releases contain a new cover style and different pictures of the main characters than those of the original releases. Originally all the books had a ribbon inserted as a bookmark for the books but were removed in the later releases. Several of the stories were filmed and released on videotape.
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Women of Hope: African Americans Who Made A Difference is a 1998 non-fiction children's book by American author Joyce Hansen, published by Scholastic.
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl is a 1997 historical fiction children's book by American author Joyce Hansen, published by Scholastic. The book is part of the Dear America series for young readers. It was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book in 1998.
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