Presenting Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

In her thirty-five-year career as a writer, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has produced no fewer than seventy-eight books, encompassing not only novels for young adults but also picture books for children, collections of short stories, autobiographical works, mysteries, nonfiction, and works of humor. Yet it is her young adult fiction, exploring the loneliness and moral conflicts of youth with keen sensitivity and remarkable compassion, for which Naylor is best known and most admired. In Presenting Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Lois Thomas Stover - who has been reading Naylor's works since her own young adulthood - provides the first biocritical study of the writer. In a succinct biographical chapter, readers learn about the people and life events sharping Naylor's career - her stint as her fifth-grade class's writer-in-residence, for instance, or her struggles with her husband's mental illness during her first marriage, recounted in her autobiographical book Crazy Love (1977) and drawn on in her young adult novel The Keeper (1986). Succeeding chapters summarize and analyze Naylor's works, addressing plot, theme, and characters and treating not only the young adult fiction but also Naylor's writing in other genres. Of special interest are chapters examining the Alice series of books (whose protagonist has developed from child to teen over the years), the controversy and censorship surrounding Naylor's early works published with religious presses, and her continuing exploration of themes pertaining to organized religion, faith, and morality. Written with warmth and appreciation throughout, Presenting Phyllis Reynolds Naylor will be welcomed by librarians, teachers, college and graduate students ofadolescent literature, and teen readers themselves.