Janet Taylor Lisle
Janet Taylor Lisle (born 1947) is an American author of children's books and young adult novels that range between fantasy and reality.
Early years
Lisle was born in Englewood, New Jersey. She grew up in rural Farmington, Connecticut, and spent her summers in Rhode Island. Growing up with four younger brothers, Lisle and the rest of her siblings were all passionate readers. She was educated at local schools until age fifteen when she entered the Ethel Walker School, a girl's boarding school in Simsbury, Connecticut.
Higher education, career, and life
Lisle attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and graduated in 1969 with a degree in English. Following graduation, she married and joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1971, she returned to college at Georgia State University to take journalism classes. After an internship at the Atlanta Journal/Constitution, she worked as a reporter for local newspapers in the Atlanta area and later in Westchester County, New York. With a new marriage and the birth of her daughter in 1977, Lisle changed her career path and began to write children's books at home. Her first book, The Dancing Cats of Appelsap, was inspired by her own childhood memories. Following this book, she has continued to write for a diverse audience and produced over sixteen novels as well as several works of history for adults.
Lisle lives on the Rhode Island coast with her husband, Richard Lisle. Her daughter Elizabeth and two grandchildren live in Berkeley, CA.
Writing style
"Lisle continues to write books with widely diverse topics; if she has a trademark, it is her versatility," Anita Silvey wrote about her style in Children's Books and Their Creators. Over her thirty year career, she has written both realistic novels and a form of borderline fantasy that blurs the line between reality and imagination. She often draws on her home state of Rhode Island for historical footing. Black Duck, a Prohibition era story set on the Rhode Island coast uses smuggling events that transpired in her hometown. In The Crying Rocks, she delves into tragic events in Native American history that took place in southern New England during the 1600s. Her novel The Art of Keeping Cool, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, is based on events that occurred in her hometown during World War II. A common theme explored in her writing is imagination, frequently via lonely or wounded children adapting through their creativity to communicate and find comfort. She frequently utilized unresolved endings, for example in her Newbery Honor novel Afternoon of Elves, where it is left to the reader to decide whether the elves are real or inventions of the abandoned child's imagination.
Book list
- The Dancing Cats of Appelsap, illustrated by Joelle Shefts, Bradbury Press (Scarsdale, NY), 1984.
- Sirens and Spies, Bradbury Press (Scarsdale, NY), 1985.
- The Great Dimpole Oak, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1987.
- Afternoon of the Elves, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1989.
- The Lampfish of Twill, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1991.
- Forest, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1993.
- The Gold Dust Letters, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1994.
- Looking for Juliette, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1994.
- A Message from the Match Girl, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1995.
- Angela's Aliens, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1996.
- The Lost Flower Children, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1999.
- The Art of Keeping Cool, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2000.
- How I Became a Writer and Oggie Learned to Drive, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2002.
- The Crying Rocks, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2003
- Black Duck, Penguin Group (New York, NY), 2007
- Highway Cats, Penguin Group (New York, NY), 2008
- Quicksand Pond, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (May 16, 2017)