I’ve been writing a teaching unit for children based on the book When I Was Young in the Mountains, by Cynthia Rylant. It is very short, but it has motivated me to explore more of Cynthia Rylant’s writing for children, since she includes so much of her own experiences in West Virginia. A lot of educators have already written materials for this book, so it will be my challenge to do something better.
If you read that particular book, you’ll think it’s about an earlier time period. It was the artist who made it appear that way. In actuality, the text is about Cynthia Rylant’s life, and she was born in 1954, which makes her younger than I am. When she lived with her grandparents in Cool Ridge, Raleigh County, as a child, there was no running water or indoor toilet — far more primitive than my experience of West Virginia, though I did have a few relatives who lived like that.
This post is mainly meant to introduce ANOTHER book, so see below.
READ THIS: APPALACHIA: THE VOICES OF SLEEPING BIRDS!
Here is a book I do think you’ll enjoy, and I hope you’ll read it and then share your reaction below or on the Facebook page. It is called Appalachia: the Voices of Sleeping Birds. Even though it is written for children, I find the content to be much more profound than in When I Was Young in the Mountains.
If you follow this link, you will find more books by Cynthia Rylant, but I do not yet know how many are about West Virginia. I am still exploring them myself.
WHO IS CYNTHIA RYLANT?
There are quite a few good sources for information about Cynthia Rylant. Her body of work has gained her numerous awards, and her roots in West Virginia have played an important role in the stories she has published.
Wikipedia has an article about her, which includes titles of most, if not all, of her published works. Numerous sources are given for the article, so the reader will have no problem finding additional information.
Ms. Rylant has had several biographies written about her, and these are geared to children. Meet Cynthia Rylant, by Frances Ruffin, is appropriate for upper elementary students. It was published in 2006 and has 24 pages. It can be read for free on the Internet Archive.
Alice Cary wrote a book simply called Cynthia Rylant, published in 2005, with 20 pages. It would be appropriate for students in the middle elementary grades. The description provided by the Internet Archive is incorrect; it gives the wrong author.
Alice McGinty has a book also entitled Cynthia Rylant, published in 2004, but this book has 112 pages and is appropriate for upper elementary grades and even older students or adults. It includes many more details than books previously mentioned, as well as an interview, a timeline of her life, reviews of some of her books, a list of selected works, a list of selected awards, a glossary, source notes, and an index. Both of these books can be read for free at the Internet Archive.
Jill Wheeler has also written a biography called Cynthia Rylant, which is freely available at the Internet Archive. Wheeler’s book was published in 2009 and has 24 pages. Despite the fact that there are only 24 pages, the book includes information not found elsewhere and is appropriate for upper elementary grades. There is a glossary and an index.
Cynthia Rylant wrote her own short autobiography, called Best Wishes, which includes details and photos of her family and her personal life. This book, like all the others mentioned so far, is available to read for free at the Internet Archive. The book was published in 1992 and has 32 pages. It is appropriate for middle elementary students.
Cynthia Rylant, Author, is a Houghton-Mifflin book designed to teach the concepts of character, chapters, problem, and solution. The book only has 12 pages and could be used with primary grade students.
A great many of Rylant’s books are freely available at the Internet Archive. Just enter her name as the search term and the books will turn up.
In regard to the book When I Was Young in the Mountains, there are several books with teaching suggestions also in the Internet Archive. They are Teaching Story Elements with Favorite Books; Developing Young Authors: Using Favorite Literature to Model Good Writing; and A Treasury of Whole Language Literature Ideas.
Aside from the Internet Archive, there is an NPR author interview with Cynthia Rylant, done in 2013. It is called “How Cynthia Rylant Discovered the Poetry of Storytelling” and can be found online at https://www.npr.org/2013/11/10/243546854/how-cynthia-rylant-discovered-the-poetry-of-storytelling.
WV Public Broadcasting also did a more recent (2021) piece on Cynthia Rylant called “How Children’s Book Writer Cynthia Rylant Found Her Calling in Southern West Virginia.” At the time of this writing, the link is https://wvpublic.org/how-childrens-book-writer-cynthia-rylant-found-her-calling-in-southern-west-virginia/.
Numerous other resources are available online, including on YouTube.
By now (2024), Cynthia Rylant is over 70, which is hard to believe since so many published works about her show her as a young woman. She has certainly revealed herself as a prolific writer over many years and is to be admired for sharing so many of her own personal experiences with her readers.
Here is another autobiography she wrote. Rather racy, I might add. https://archive.org/details/butillbebackagai00ryla/mode/2up