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about the author

At a very early age, Cynthia Furlong Reynolds discovered that her calling was to help people tell their stories; she later told about that experience in her children's book Grammie's Secret Cupboard.Her career began as a journalist and a news liaison, working on the staffs of the Portland Times, St. Petersburg Times, Omaha World-Herald,Princeton University(Associate Director, Office of Communications/Publications),and the University of Tampa (Director, Communication/Publications). As a freelance writer juggling writing time with motherhood, her byline has appeared in dozens of magazines, journals, and newspapers around the country. She has also written a number of oral histories, for individuals, towns, non-profit organizations, and corporations.

Reynolds is the author of a series of adult histories, as well as a dozen picture books. Her first Young Adult novel, the semi-autobiographical Across The Reach, will appear in the spring of 2007, after which she plans a tour of the Midwest in the guise of adventurous mouse, as part of a Mitten Press series of state-based chapter books for young readers.

A graduate of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Reynolds has received awards from the Michigan Librarians' Association, the Indiana Network Publishing, CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education), and the Tampa Advertising Club (two Addy Adwards for University of Tampa projects).

She is the member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, Association of Personal Historians,Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and several historical societies.

A frequent public speaker, Reynolds loves to visit schools to meet some of the readers for whom she writes---she spends nearly one-third of the school year in classrooms. She has designed visiting author programs for students in school districts across the nation. Following the publication of a study revealing that 94 percent of America's teachers reported that writing was their toughest subject to teach, she launched her Teachers As Writers workshops---and schools in Indiana have reported that by following her writing format, students have increased their scores on state-adminstered standardized tests of writing.

Among her long list of New Year's 2007 resolutions is the completion of her book on writing with children, tentatively entitled Writing S' mores, which is based upon her work in classrooms and with teachers across the country.

An eleventh-generation Maine native, Reynolds has moved 27 times in her life, but seems to have put down roots in the country outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lives with her husband, three children, and two dogs.

 

books written by cynthia furlong reynolds