Florence Crannell Means
Quick Facts
Biography
Florence Crannell Means (May 15, 1891 Baldwinsville, New York - November 19, 1980 Boulder, Colorado) was an American writer for children and young adults.
Her novel about Japanese internment, The Moved-Outers, won a Newbery Medal honor award in 1946.
She married Carl Bell Means; they are buried at Crown Hill Cemetery, Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
In The Horn Book Magazine, Jan/Feb 1945, Howard Pease, in his essay "Without Evasion", says: "Only at infrequent intervals do you find a story intimately related to this modern world, a story that takes up a modern problem and thinks it through without evasion. Of our thousands of books, I can find scarcely half a dozen that merit places on this almost vacant shelf in our libraries; and of our hundreds of authors, I can name only three who are doing anything to fill this void in children's reading. These three authors – may someone present each of them with a laurel wreath – are Doris Gates, John R. Tunis, and Florence Crannell Means." Many of Means's books dealt with the experiences of minorities in America, such as Japanese Americans in The Moved-Outers and African Americans in Shuttered Windows.
Works
- Rafael and Consuelo with Harriet Louise Fullen, Friendship Press, 1929
- A Candle in the Mist: A Story for Girls, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931
- Penny for Luck: A Story of the Rockies, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1935
- Shuttered Windows, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938
- The Moved-Outers, Houghton Mifflin, 1945; reprint Walker, 1993, ISBN 978-0-8027-7386-9
- Great Day in the Morning, Houghton Mifflin, 1946
- The Silver Fleece: A Story of the Spanish in New Mexico, Winston, 1950
- Hetty of the Grande Deluxe, Houghton Mifflin, 1951
- The Rains Will Come, illustrator Fred Kabotie, Houghton Mifflin, 1954
- Knock at the Door, Emmy, Houghton Mifflin, 1956
- Reach for a Star, Houghton Mifflin, 1957
- Emmy and the Blue Door, Houghton Mifflin, 1959
- Sunlight on the Hopi Mesas: The Story of Abigail E. Johnson, Judson Press, 1960
- Tolliver, Houghton Mifflin, 1963
- Carvers' George: A Biography of George Washington Carver, illustrator Harve Stein, E.M. Hale, 1963
- It Takes All Kinds, Houghton Mifflin, 1964
- Sagebrush Surgeon, Friendship Press, NY, 1955