R is for Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant – Where She Fits In History

Cynthia Rylant was born in 1954 and is a children’s author and a librarian! She was born the year of desegregation and the year Joe McCarthy was censured by the senate. It was the year that the first Indo-China war ended in Vietnam and the year that Ellis Island was closed as a port of immigration to the U.S.

Cynthia Rylant was a family favorite when my kids were little.

My son read the Henry and Mudge books over and over, and over again! He identified with Henry so strongly and our black standard poodle became his own personal Mudge. The two were just as inseparable.

Cynthia Rylant’s gentle nature that permeates ever book she writes.

The best read-aloud of her books for the young ones was the Lighthouse adventures series. My children would just sit together, clad in jammas, ready for the evening story, in rapt attention. They would stare off into the room, seeing the adventures unfold in their imaginations. Other books would require puzzles, or drawing pads and crayons while they listened. But when I read the Lighthouse adventures or Gooseberry Park (my personal favorite), my kids dropped everything they were doing to listen. That is the best endorsement any author can get.

It really doesn’t matter which of Cynthia Rylant’s books you pick up for your children. I am certain that you will all love whatever she writes. She is that good.

Selected Books (she has written hundreds!)