BIOGRAPHICAL
INFORMATION
Is writing easy? Not for Caroline
Cooney when she started. She wrote eight books of juvenile mystery and historical
fiction. They were all turned down. She started writing when she was at home
taking care of her young children. In 1979 she wrote her first published book,
Safe as the Group, a juvenile mystery about a young girl who encounters
a family secret. She also wrote Face on the Milk Carton and Flash
Fire and many others.
Caroline Cooney was born on May 10,
1947. She loves to read and write new books. She likes to sing and play the
organ, (she is a conductor of a choir). Cooney also does voluntary work for
the poor and the ill.
Who are important people in Cooney's
life? First there are her parents: Dexter Michel and Martha Willerler and her
three magnificent children: Louisa, Sayre, and Harold.
Was Cooney always a writer? In 1966-67
Cooney was in Nursing school. In 1968 she was a musician in a choir and the
organist. From 1979-on Cooney was an author for young people.
In Face on the Milk Carton
a high school girl sees herself on a milk carton when she was having lunch,
she wants the truth. Safe as the Group is about a young girl that encounters
a secret in the family cemetery. Driver's Ed is about a Morgan Campbell
with a new driver's license. He takes a girl out, paying more attention to the
girl than the road.
What success has Cooney had? Cooney
has received many awards for juvenile mystery and teen writing. Her book: Face
on the Milk Carton was made into a television movie. Cooney still continues
to write and play the organ.
CRITICAL
COMMENTS ON HER BOOKS
Have you every been in a school course
that is a wild adventure of life and death? Remy Mariland is a sixteen year
old that loves to drive, but she doesn't have her license. Morgan Campbell is
the big guy (coolest) in school that loves girls, but he forgets about driving
when he takes a girl out with his own license. Morgan pays more attention to
the girl than the road, then the accident. I liked this book because it made
feel like I was behind the wheel too. In a way Morgan and I share some of the
same interests such as driving. I would recommend it to any one.
It is so hot..........FIRE!! In Los
Angeles on a hot summer day, Danna Press is watching the out of control fire
on TV. Her brother is in the pool keeping cool. Beau and Elizabeth Severyn are
keeping the house wet when it bursts into flames. They all flee but Danna has
a broken leg. Beau is in his jeep picking up people to bring them to safety.
The only way to survive is to stay together in Pinch Canyon. Is it to late for
all the people? It is pretty scary to see fires like the one in the book, and
the damage it does to lives and houses on TV.
In this section I will give examples
of conventions that Cooney uses in her books. They are grace of language,
and realism.
Grace of language is realistic
settings that employ description and metaphor. In Driver's Ed it was
the car and the actions of it. For example,
The grace of language in Flash
Fire was the description of Pinch Canyon. For example,
Realism is an inclination
toward objective truth and pragmatism, and it is also social conditions as they
actually are. In Driver's Ed the realism is examined as careless driving,
ultimately causing accidents. (Cooney, Driver's Ed. whole book.)
Realism is also in Flash Fire.
In the book the realism is Los Angeles fires that get out of control, where
people have to fight to stay alive in the dreadful power of fire. (Cooney, Flash
Fire. whole book.)
The importance of Cooney is that
she is a woman that does voluntary work and writes to give literature to the
young teens in the world. She has stuck with writing even when she was rejected
eight times.
Cooney,
Caroline B. Driver's Ed. New York: Delacorte Press, 1994.
Cooney, Caroline B. Flash Fire.
New York: Scholastic, 1995.
Hile, Kevin S., ed. Authors and
Artists for Young Adults. Vol 5. New York: Gale Research, 1990.
Junior Discovering Authors.
CD-ROM. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1994.
Lesnaik, James G., ed. Contemporary
Authors. Vol 37. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1992.
AUTHOR'S
STYLE AND CONVENTIONS "The two backseat drivers,
sweaty and panic, would be sticking their fingers down the filthy seat cracks,
trying to buckle their seat belts prior to collision. Once they realized Mr.
Fielding was not going to get involved, they would scream hints of their own."
(Cooney, Driver's Ed. pg. 6 ,P 3.)
"Pinch Canyon, well named,
was a slot in the mountains, as thin and vertical as a toaster waiting for bread.
Twisted oaks and shrubs dusty with heat and lack of rain filled the narrow box
bottom on both sides on Pinch Canyon Road. The south rockface flared almost
straight up. It was the kind of rock that peeled itself off in layers after
storms. Dangerous, impossible-to-climb rock, scarred by the years of erosion."
(Cooney, Flash Fire. 5)
CONCLUSIONWORKS
CITED
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Created March 31, 1997 and is continuously revised.