Bloss, Joan
Dec. 9, 1928 –
Place of Birth: New York, NY
Place of Principle Residence: Ann Arbor, MI
Biography:
Joan Blos, a New York City native, was born on December 9, 1928 to Max (a psychiatrist) and Charlotte (teacher) Winsor, both of whom influenced her professional pursuits. Joan’s love for libraries was inherited from her parents, who took her on frequent trips to it and read out loud to her. Joan attended Vassar College during 1946 – 1949 and got her B.A. in physiology, a decision she contributed to her father. After graduation she worked as a college classroom assistant in a special nursery for disturbed by very young children. It was there she discovered her love for teaching children. Blos went for a year to New York City College to get a master’s degree in psychology, but did not complete the program. Instead she became a doctoral candidate at Yale and also worked as a research assistant in Yale’s Child Study Center where she was employed in the pediatric play program where she interacted with child patients. Blos later attributed this experience to sparking an interest in children’s literature. At Yale she also met her husband, Peter Blos. Three years later she decided academic psychology wasn’t a good fit and moved back to New York City with her husband. Blos reregistered for an M.A. at the City College of New York City and also worked part-time at the Bank Street College of Education, an organization focused on a progressive view of education, in the Publications division. Here she began writing, reviewing, and teaching. In 1970 Blos left New York City for Michigan. She published her first book, “It’s Spring,” She Said and has since released a plethora of other books as well as a stage play.
Selected Works:
- In the City (1964)
- Just Think (1971)
- A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830 – 1838 (1979)
- Martin’s Hats (1984)
- The Grandpa Days (1989)
- On Very Best Valentine’s Day (1989)
- Brooklyn Doesn’t Rhyme (1994)
- Hungry Little Boy (1995)
- Hello Shoes! (1999)
Awards:
- 1980 Newbery Medal for A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
- American Book Award (Children’s Fiction) for A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
- 1987 Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Old Henry
- Booklist Editor’s choice for Old Henry
- Honorary Doctorate from Bank Street College of Education in NYC
Critical Reception:
Blos’ novel A Gather of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-32 received rave reviews. Kirkus Reviews wrote the book was “carefully researched and convincingly delivered.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch commented that the “careful tuning of psychological nuances to historical elements…gives the story its powerful immediacy. A Gathering of Days not only gives the reader a close look at the early 1800s, it offers… a deeply moving human experience.” The Toronto Globe and Mail described Blos’ book Brothers of the Heart: A Story of the Old Northwest, 1837 – 1838 as “more powerful and more stirring than its award-winning predecessor.” St. James Guide to Children’s Writers wrote Blos’ “language, with its rhythms and lilt of earlier times, is remarkably spare, not replete with full-blown descriptions, yet giving the reader a strong sense of place and characterization. Blos has accomplished the fine feat of balancing history with universal human experience, uniting the book’s past with the reader’s present. Brothers of the Heart was rewritten as a stage play in 1999.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Living in Ann Arbor has allowed Blos to do local research for her books, most particularly Brothers of the Heart, where she drew inspiration for her setting, as well as spending time in the Ypsilanti Historical Society and the Bentley Library. She is actively involved in the community publishing plays for theatrical companies such as Wild Swan Theater. Today plenty of her time is reading in the Library of the University of Michigan and writing books.