Jeanne Birdsall

Jeanne Birdsall (born 1951) is an American photographer and writer of children's books. She is best known for her five-volume series about the Penderwick family. The Penderwicks, the first book in the series, won the 2005 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Life
Birdsall was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in the suburbs. Birdsall has one sibling, a sister who is four years older than her. She decided to become a writer at the age of ten, but she didn't start until she was forty-one. She worked first on other jobs, most notably as a photographer, and some of her work has been displayed in galleries around the world.

Writer
Birdsall's first book was published when she was 54. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy introduced the Penderwick sisters and won the 2005 National Book Award. Her second book was a sequel, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (2008). Her third book was The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (2011), followed by The Penderwicks in Spring (2015). The fifth and final book in the series, The Penderwicks at Last, was published on May 15, 2018.

Birdsall's first picture book, Flora's Very Windy Day, was illustrated by Matt Phelan and published under the Clarion Books imprint in August 2010, and followed by Lucky and Squash in 2012.

Works

 * The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) —winner of the National Book Award
 * The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (Knopf, 2008)
 * Flora's Very Windy Day (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin, 2010), children's picture book illustrated by Matt Phelan
 * The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (Knopf, 2011)
 * Lucky and Squash (Harper/HarperCollins, 2012), picture book illus. Jane Dyer
 * The Penderwicks in Spring (Knopf, 2015)
 * My Favorite Pets: by Gus W. for Ms. Smolinski's Class (Knopf, 2016), picture book illus. Harry Bliss
 * The Penderwicks At Last (Knopf, 2018)

Collections

 * Philadelphia Museum of Art
 * Smithsonian American Art Museum