McKinley, Robin (1952-…), is an American author of fantasy fiction for children and young adults. She has won acclaim for her books about strong and independent girls and young women. McKinley received the 1985 Newbery Medal for her fantasy novel The Hero and the Crown (1984). The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the best children’s book written by an American.
McKinley set The Hero and the Crown in an imaginary world called Damar. The story deals with a great woman warrior named Aerin. McKinley had written about Damar in a previous novel, The Blue Sword (1982). This novel tells about a young heroine named Harry Crewe. Damar is also the setting for short stories collected in The Door in the Hedge (1981), for some of the stories in A Knot in the Grain (1994), and for a supernatural romance called The Stone Fey (1998), about a shepherdess who falls in love with a fairy with skin the color of stone. A fantasy novel called Chalice (2008) is set in a magical province called Willowlands. Shadows (2013) is set in the neighboring magical civilizations of Oldworld and Newworld.
Critics have praised McKinley’s adaptations of fairy tales and folk tales, which she has given a modern feminist point of view. Her first book was Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978). She wrote The Outlaws of Sherwood (1988) as a retelling of the Robin Hood stories, but giving the female characters, especially Maid Marian, a more prominent role. Deerskin (1993) is an adult fantasy based on a fairy tale by the French author Charles Perrault about a princess who is raped by her father after her mother dies. Rose Daughter (1997), a young adult novel, is based on the same characters who appeared in Beauty. Spindle’s End (2000) is an adaptation of the “Sleeping Beauty” fairy tale for young adults. McKinley wrote another fantasy for young adults, Pegasus (2010), about the friendship between a young princess and a winged horse called a pegasus.
McKinley adapted three children’s classics by English writers, Tales from the Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling in 1985, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell in 1986, and The Light Princess by George MacDonald in 1988. Sunshine (2003) is an adult novel set in the world of vampires.
Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley was born on Nov. 16, 1952, in Warren, Ohio. In 1992, she married the British author Peter Dickinson. They collaborated on a book of six fantasy tales with an aquatic theme, Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits (2002).
