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Plourde, Lynn (1955 - )

Genre: Children's Literature, Non-Fiction - Scholarly

Plourde, a native of Dexter and now a Winthrop resident, has always lived in Maine. She earned a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Maine. A school speech therapist for twenty years, her first publishing efforts included educational texts and a series of program and activity books written for the classroom teacher.

Plourde has said that she was first aware of picture books when she became the stepmother of three-year-old and four-year-old boys. Thoroughly taken with the joys of good picture books, she began writing her own stories. She persevered through thirteen years of rejection slips before her first picture book, Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud (1997), was accepted and published.

Plourde, one of the Maine Arts Commission's visiting artists, has received enthusiastic responses to her program presented in Maine schools and libraries.

Maine writer Jack Barnes included Plourde's books in his 1998 annual review of the best in that year's Maine children's books. The positive response to her books, however, extends far beyond the state of Maine. Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud is found on a number of national and regional Best Books lists such as the Chicago Public Library's "1997 Best of the Best;" and a Garrison, New York school/library bibliography. Wild Child was a 1999 American Booksellers Association's "Children's Pick of the List."

In addition to writing picture books, Plourde, with her husband, Paul Knowles, wrote A Celebration of Maine's Children's Books (1998). It focuses on what they consider the best 185 Maine children's books in print and contains plot summaries, biographical information, and learning activities for each title.