Cynthia Rylant is an award-winning author of picture books, short stories, fiction, and poetry for children and young adults. Her style is clear, straightforward, and lyrical. Rylant's protagonists tend to be mis-fits — characters who are unusual due to their circumstances and, as a result, receive negative attention from others and are unappreciated. Rylant portrays these characters as unique, wonderful, valuable human beings. She focuses on interpersonal relationships between generations and on the hardships and joys of family life. Although Rylant writes about serious subjects, such as aging and death, and her characters lead challenging lives, she is able to interject humor, which lightens the tone and conveys hope and understanding to her readers. Rylant's childhood experiences, as well as the environment of rural West Virginia, influence her writing.
Rylant was born on June 6, 1954, in Hopewell, Virginia, to John Tune, an Army sergeant, and Leatrel Rylant Smith. Her parents, who had an unhappy marriage, divorced when she was four years old. Her mother took Rylant to live with her grandparents in Cool Ridge, West Virginia, while her mother attended nursing school. Rylant's grandparents' four-room house, which was on a dirt road away from the main highway, had no running water or electricity. The house was often shared with cousins, aunts, and uncles. Rylant's grandparents grew and hunted most of the food they ate. Because the family had no car, Rylant never traveled very far from home.
Rylant's father wrote letters to her occasionally when she first went to live with her grandparents, but after a while the letters stopped. Because none of her family members ever spoke about her father, Rylant did not have the courage to ask them about him. After several years, Rylant's father contacted her again. She looked forward to a reunion with her father, but before that could happen, he died. Rylant was 13 years old. The loss of her father, and not having had the opportunity to know him, affected Rylant deeply.
