Mary Stolz (1920–2006)
Author of Storm in the Night
About the Author
Mary Stolz was born on March 24, 1920 in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied at the Teachers College of Columbia University and the Katharine Gibbs School before going to work at Columbia as a secretary. She suffered from debilitating arthritis and wrote her first book during a long convalescence. show more To Tell Your Love was published in 1950. She wrote more than 60 children and young adult books during her lifetime including Ready or Not, Some Merry-Go-Round Music, Leap Before You Look, The Leftover Elf, Emmett's Pig, A Dog on Barkham Street, Cider Days, Ivy Larkin, and The Edge of Next Year. In a Mirror won a Child Study Children's Book Award and The Bully of Barkham Street won a Boys' Club Junior Book Award. Belling the Tiger and The Noonday Friends were named Newbery Honor books. In 1982, she received a George G. Stone Recognition of Merit Award for her entire body of work. She also wrote one adult novel entitled Truth and Consequence. She died of natural causes on December 15, 2006 at the age of 86. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: photo credit: Thomas C. Jaleski, M.D.
Series
Works by Mary Stolz
The Barkham Street Books: A Dog on Barkham Street, The Bully of Barkham Street, The Explorer of Barkham Street (1989) 3 copies
Truth and consequence 1 copy
Paikka elämässä : Romaani 1 copy
the bully of markham street 1 copy
Madeline 1 copy
Kom ut ur din dröm 1 copy
Som i en spegel 1 copy
Paikka elämässä : Romaani 1 copy
Qualcuno al cancello 1 copy
Mges the Great Leader 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Slattery, Mary (birth)
- Other names
- Slattery, Molly
- Birthdate
- 1920-03-07
- Date of death
- 2006-12-15
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Columbia University
Katherine Gibbs School - Occupations
- children's book author
young adult writer - Organizations
- Harper & Brothers
Harper & Row
Harper Collins - Awards and honors
- George G. Stone Center Recognition Of Merit (entire body of work ∙ 1982)
Kerlan Award (1983) - Short biography
- Mary Stolz, née Slattery, was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in New York City. She studied at Teachers College of Columbia University and the Katharine Gibbs school before going to work as a secretary. Her debut book, To Tell Your Love, written in pencil on yellow legal pads, was published in 1950. She produced acclaimed fiction for children and young adults, ranging from picture books to novels. She also wrote one book for adults, Truth and Consequence (1953). Ms. Stolz also contributed to magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal, and Seventeen. She received the Child Study Association of America's Children's Book Award for her 1953 book In a Mirror; and Newbery Honors in 1962 for Belling the Tiger and in 1966 for The Noonday Friends. Her entire body of work was awarded the George G. Stone Center for Children's Books Recognition of Merit Award in 1982.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Manhattan, New York, New York, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Longboat Key, Florida, USA - Place of death
- Longboat Key, Florida, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Discussions
Juvenile book I read in the seventies dealing with social issues of the time in Name that Book (April 2013)
Reviews
Oh do read this - either as a short chapter book with the lovely line drawings by Montresor, or as the newer picture-book. Stolz took the fable of Belling the Cat to the logical next step with audacious characters, an exciting adventure, and language so effortlessly graceful and witty I wonder why there's not a whole series of adventures featuring Rambo and Asa.
I'm all but speechless. This is such a beautiful story, both in art and in text. Most of the story is told through dialogue, in such a way that the reader is participating fully in understanding these people and their ideas, and then the themes. The description almost does it justice, with the quote from the beginning, and the words Discoveries, and Lyrical....
Bonus: the grandfather and young boy are apparently all the family each has, and they happen to be Black, so this gets 'diversity' show more credit for educators in the US.
Recommended especially for families, especially in anticipation of thunderstorm season. show less
Bonus: the grandfather and young boy are apparently all the family each has, and they happen to be Black, so this gets 'diversity' show more credit for educators in the US.
Recommended especially for families, especially in anticipation of thunderstorm season. show less
"On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, it began to rain. Barbara Perry, who took everything personally, stood at the dining-room window, filled with reproach, and looked at the dripping garden. It looked so shining, so gray and unspeakably wet."
I picked up this teen novel from 1957 at the Friends of the Library bookstore, because for some reason these teen books in the old buckram covers always turn out to be strangely great.
This one was actually even better than usual. It's a small story, show more where not a lot happens--'a girl named Barbara goes Christmas caroling, and then to a party' is a fairly accurate description of the action.
But the main action is internal; Barbara is a typically disaffected and self-absorbed teen who happened to grow up in a family that she can't even resent (except for maybe being too happy) and she is constantly daydreaming, spending so much time imagining what people are thinking of her that she never actually engages with them.
It's hard to describe exactly why I loved this book so much, except that the characters are just so well drawn, and the writing is completely charming. I love how she describes the living room as having a "powerful old sofa that even the dog couldn't wreck".
I love her parents, who have mostly figured out how to be happy in themselves but wonder if they've failed Barbara somehow, and I especially like her brothers, who are entirely strange but have a self-contained and beautiful world and everyone loves them and wonders how they got that way. show less
This one hit close to home.
This would have been my life if I had been a reader growing up.
Reading/books was not encouraged at all in my home growing up. These books I'm currently reading were collected with this weird idea by my parents that if we had books in the house, period, my brother and I would somehow read them ... even though it was never encouraged.
Like this book, staying out of your parents' hair/way was more encouraged than anything. The boy in this story only learns about the show more joys of reading because he had an awesome teacher that encouraged it and he found a subject matter that truly interested and engaged him. (I eventually found that myself in the Babysitter Club books around 5th grade).
If I had known about this book while growing up, I would have been blown away to know that there were, or might very well be, other families just like mine -- where you were just an annoyance under foot, or at least treated that way much of the time.
Fascinating read!
Adrianne show less
This would have been my life if I had been a reader growing up.
Reading/books was not encouraged at all in my home growing up. These books I'm currently reading were collected with this weird idea by my parents that if we had books in the house, period, my brother and I would somehow read them ... even though it was never encouraged.
Like this book, staying out of your parents' hair/way was more encouraged than anything. The boy in this story only learns about the show more joys of reading because he had an awesome teacher that encouraged it and he found a subject matter that truly interested and engaged him. (I eventually found that myself in the Babysitter Club books around 5th grade).
If I had known about this book while growing up, I would have been blown away to know that there were, or might very well be, other families just like mine -- where you were just an annoyance under foot, or at least treated that way much of the time.
Fascinating read!
Adrianne show less
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