Fleischman, Paul (1952-…), is a versatile American author of children’s books. Fleischman writes in many forms, including poetry, picture books, short stories, historical fiction, and realistic novels for young adults. Critics have praised his style for its inventive, musical use of language.
Fleischman won the 1989 Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1988). The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the author of the best children’s book by an American. The author wrote the poetry collection to be read aloud by two people alternately. The collection tells about the insect world, exploring each insect’s habits and life cycle. The poems are written from the insects’ point of view. Fleischman had previously written I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices (1985), about birds. He also wrote Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices (2000), which consists of three poems based on colors and designed for four speakers.
Fleischman wrote two collections of short stories, Graven Images: Three Stories (1982) and Coming-and-Going Men: Four Tales (1985). His novel The Borning Room (1991) is a family chronicle set during the American Civil War (1861-1865). The novel Bull Run (1993) tells the story of a famous Civil War battle from 16 points of view by characters who are participating in the battle. Dateline: Troy (1996) recounts the story of the ancient Trojan War as though it were being reported in a modern newspaper. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal (2007) is a retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. The Dunderheads (2009) is a novel for young readers about a group of students who take revenge on a mean teacher.
Fleischman has written several serious novels with realistic modern settings. Whirligig (1998) deals with a teenager named Brent who accidentally kills a high-school girl while driving drunk. Seek (2001) is a teenager’s autobiography written as a radio play for a class assignment. In Breakout (2003), a 17-year-old girl named Del runs away from her foster home and finds herself trapped in a traffic jam on a Los Angeles freeway.
Fleischman satirized teenage horror novels in A Fate Totally Worse Than Death (1995). His picture books include The Animal Hedge (1983), Shadow Play (1990), Weslandia (1999), and Sidewalk Circus (2004).
Fleischman provides a guide for young people on how they can evaluate environmental issues in Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (2014). Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word (2020) contains biographies of people who wrote in unusual ways, such as stringing together pictures of license plates or writing a novel without the vowel “e.”
Fleischman was born on Sept. 5, 1952, in Monterey, California. Sid Fleischman, his father, was a children’s author who won a Newbery Medal in 1987 for The Whipping Boy (1986). Paul received a B.A. degree from the University of New Mexico in 1977. His first children’s book was The Birthday Tree (1979, reissued in 2008), a picture book.
