author
Florence Crannell Means
1891–1980
Known for bringing social issues into books for young readers, this American writer told stories that invited empathy across cultural lines. Her best-known work, The Moved-Outers, earned a Newbery Honor for its portrayal of Japanese American incarceration during World War II.
1 Audiobook
Across the Fruited Plain
by Florence Crannell Means
About the author
Born in Baldwinsville, New York, in 1891, Florence Crannell Means grew up in a minister's family and later became a prolific writer for children and young adults. She wrote dozens of books, and her work often centered on communities that were rarely given much space in juvenile fiction of her time.
Means became especially noted for stories about minority experiences in the United States. Rather than treating those subjects as distant lessons, she built them into lively fiction for younger readers. Her 1945 novel The Moved-Outers, about a Japanese American family uprooted during World War II, received a Newbery Honor and helped secure her place in children's literature.
She spent much of her life in Colorado and died in Boulder in 1980. Today she is remembered as an early writer who tried to broaden young readers' understanding of American life by writing with curiosity, sympathy, and a strong sense of story.