The Journal of Finn Reardon by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

In No Man’s Land, we see evidence of careful research into the living conditions experienced by the Union and Rebel soldiers. Bartoletti reworked the short story first published in Highlights into a full length book featuring the young recruits from both sides in the Civil War, who come together to play a makeshift baseball game. Dancing with Dziasziu, and the succeeding Christmas Promise, Nobody’s Nosier than a Dog and Nobody’s Diggier than a Dog secured her career as a bona fide author and, as is often the wish of all serious writers, allowed her to “quit her day job” teaching eighth grade English to pursue her doctorate in English from SUNY Binghamton and earn a living as a writer. The success of Coal Country fueled Bartoletti’s passion for connecting with young readers and she turned her talents back to picture books, this time telling the tale of a Polish immigrant and her young granddaughter. Accompanied by photographs by Lewis Hine, who was hired by the National Child Labor Committee to capture real life examples of child labor in early twentieth century America, the book provides an intimate look at what working and living in coal camps and company towns were like for children and adults. The book won a Golden Kite Award for non-Ffction and found a readership in both young and more mature readers. Although the book was not a critical success, much of the background research on the miners’ lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania led to her first full-length non-fiction work for older readers called Growing Up in Coal Country. Encouraged by her success, Bartoletti chose the picture book genre as her first full length work, telling the tale of immigrant coal miners, based on the story of her grandfather-in-law’s life.

Her first foray in writing was submitting short stories to the popular Highlights for Children, where her story “No Man’s Land” won a fiction contest in the magazine. A former junior high English teacher in the North Pocono School District, Susan tackles sensitive historical subjects in her non-fiction, writing about such controversial topics as children working in coal mines, the Irish potato famine, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Hitler Youth Movement. degree in English from the University in 1982 and served as an adjunct professor in that department, teaching children’s literature for several semesters. Davis, S.J., Distinguished Author Award was given on September 7, 2013, to University of Scranton alumna Susan Campbell Bartoletti, award-winning writer for young readers.

National Recognition & Successful OutcomesĢ013 Distinguished Author Award Given to Susan Campbell Bartoletti The Royden B.

The Journal of Finn Reardon by Susan Campbell Bartoletti