Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant (born 6 June 1954 in Hopewell, West Virginia) is an American children's author and librarian, winner of the 1993 Newbery Medal for Missing May and creator of the Henry and Mudge early-reader series.

Raised largely by her grandparents in Cool Ridge, West Virginia, Rylant studied at Morris Harvey College, Marshall University and Kent State University, where she trained as a librarian. Her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982), drew on that Appalachian childhood. Illustrated by Diane Goode, it won an American Book Award and was a 1983 Caldecott Honor book. The Relatives Came, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, earned a second Caldecott Honor in 1986, and the novel A Fine White Dust received a Newbery Honor in 1987. Missing May was published by Orchard Books in 1992 and took the Newbery Medal the following year.

Henry and Mudge began in 1987 with Henry and Mudge: The First Book. Illustrated by Suçie Stevenson and published by Simon & Schuster, the series about a boy and his huge English Mastiff runs to 28 books. Rylant also wrote the Mr. Putter and Tabby series, starting with Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea (1994), and the Poppleton books, which began in 1997.

For collectors

The award books are the main targets: first printings of When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982) and The Relatives Came, both Caldecott Honor books, and the 1992 Orchard Books first of Missing May. Among the series books, the 1987 first title, Henry and Mudge: The First Book, is the starting point.