Phillip Hoose


Phillip M. Hoose is an American writer of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles. His first published works were written for adults but he turned his attention to children and young adults, in part to keep up with his daughters. His work has been well received and honored more than once by the children's literature community. He won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Nonfiction, for The Race to Save the Lord God Bird and the National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for Claudette Colvin.

Life

Hoose was born in South Bend, Indiana, grew up in the Indiana towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, and attended Indiana University. A graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Hoose was for 37 years a staff member of The Nature Conservancy, dedicated to preserving the plants, animals and natural communities of the Earth. Hoose has two children, Hannah and Ruby, who are grown. He lives in Portland, Maine with his wife, the artist Sandbi Ste. George.
A songwriter and performing musician, Phillip Hoose is a founding member of the and a member of the band .

Writer

, inspired by his daughter Ruby and co-authored by his daughter Hannah, received a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award.
won a Christopher Award for "artistic excellence in books affirming the highest values of the human spirit."
was a finalist for the National Book Award. In addition, it was dubbed a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and an International Reading Association Teacher's Choice.
, received the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and was named a Top Ten American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults among many additional honors.
is a nonfiction account for young adults. It features Claudette Colvin as a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement, resisting segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. It won the annual National Book Award for Young People's Literature and was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal, among other honors.
is a nonfiction account of a shorebird, a red knot, banded B95, that has flown more than the distance to the moon over his lifetime. It was a finalist in the Young Adult Library Services Association Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.
opens at the outset of World War II as Denmark chooses not to resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation’s leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, infuriating the Germans, who eventually had the boys tracked down and arrested. But their efforts were not in vain: the boys’ exploits and eventual imprisonment helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance. Interweaving his own narrative with the recollections of Knud himself, Phillip Hoose weaves an inspiring non-fiction story of young war heroes.

Awards

Hoose reaped many honors for several of his books.
;Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice
;The Race to Save the Lord God Bird
;We Were There Too!: Young People in U.S. History
;Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95
;The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and The Churchill Club