Pat McKissack (1944–2017)
Author of A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859
About the Author
Patricia C. McKissack was born in Smyrna, Tennessee on August 9, 1944. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Tennessee State University in 1964 and a master's degree in early childhood literature and media programming from Webster University in 1975. After college, she worked as a junior show more high school English teacher and a children's book editor at Concordia Publishing. Since the 1980's, she and her husband Frederick L. McKissack have written over 100 books together. Most of their titles are biographies with a strong focus on African-American themes for young readers. Their early 1990s biography series, Great African Americans included volumes on Frederick Douglass, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson. Their other works included Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers and Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States. Over their 30 years of writing together, the couple won many awards including the C.S. Lewis Silver Medal, a Newbery Honor, nine Coretta Scott King Author and Honor awards, the Jane Addams Peace Award, and the NAACP Image Award for Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?. In 1998, they received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. She also writes fiction on her own. Her book included Flossie and the Fox, Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt, A Friendship for Today, and Let's Clap, Jump, Sing and Shout; Dance, Spin and Turn It Out! She won the Newberry Honor Book Award and the King Author Award for The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural in 1993 and the Caldecott Medal for Mirandy and Brother Wind. She dead of cardio-respiratory arrest on April 7, 2017 at the age of 72. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Random House
Series
Works by Pat McKissack
A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859 (1997) 1,859 copies
Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, the Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919 (2000) 1,037 copies
Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl, New York Colony, 1763 (2004) 334 copies
Let's Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn It Out!: Games, Songs, and Stories from an African American… (2017) 66 copies
Give It With Love, Christopher: Christopher Learns About Gifts and Giving (Christopher Books) (1988) 24 copies
Speak Up, Christopher: Christopher Learns the Difference Between Right and Wrong (Christopher Books) (1988) 14 copies
Scraps of Time 1960 1 copy
Associated Works
The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury: Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud (1998) — Author — 1,582 copies
We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust (1995) — Foreword — 694 copies
One More Valley, One More Hill: The Story of Aunt Clara Brown (Landmark Books) (2002) — Introduction — 53 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- McKissack, Patricia C.
Carwell, L'Ann
Carwell, Patricia L'Ann (birth name)
Carwell, Patricia Leanna
McKissack, Patricia L'Ann Carwell - Birthdate
- 1944-08-09
- Date of death
- 2017-04-07
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Smyrna, Tennessee, USA
- Place of death
- Bridgeton, Missouri, USA
- Cause of death
- cardiorespiratory arrest
- Places of residence
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Chesterfield, Missouri, USA - Education
- Tennessee State University (BA ∙ English ∙ 1964)
Webster University (MA ∙ Early Childhood Literature ∙ 1975) - Occupations
- teacher
children's book editor
author - Relationships
- McKissack, Fredrick (spouse | 1964-12-12)
McKissack Jr., Fredrick L. (son)
McKissack, Lisa Beringer (daughter-in-law)
McKissack, John (son)
McKissack, Robert (son) - Awards and honors
- Coretta Scott King Awards ( [1995])
Coretta Scott King Awards ( [1993])
Coretta Scott King Awards ( [1990])
Regina Medal (1998)
Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award (2014)
Members
Reviews
Dear America: A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of… by Patricia C. McKissack
In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether to escape to freedom.
**Found in the 20th Century Children's Book Treasury**
I cannot believe I had never read this story before. I love it! It made me smile so big the entire time I was reading...more or less.
I cannot believe I had never read this story before. I love it! It made me smile so big the entire time I was reading...more or less.
This is a book of poems all connected to a larger narrative. Focuses on a father’s lament of his boy being taken by the slave trade. Very emotionally mature themes with folklore woven throughout. I would use as a read aloud with 5th graders as a preface to reading a chapter book that talks directly about the slave trade. Requires teacher guidance.
Lists
Awards
Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers (Honor Book – Secondary Level – 2000)
Red-Tail Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II (Outstanding Merit – Secondary Level – 1996)
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 140
- Also by
- 14
- Members
- 21,762
- Popularity
- #987
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 474
- ISBNs
- 631
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 2