Paul Fleischman's Official Website

I grew up in a house built of voices.    --from SEEK

I grew up in Santa Monica, California, hearing my father, Sid Fleischman, read his books aloud chapter by chapter, as they were written. We've both won the Newbery Medal, he for THE WHIPPING BOY in 1987, I for JOYFUL NOISE: POEMS FOR TWO VOICES in 1989.

This is my only request. That you make four whirligigs, of a girl who looks like Lea. Put her name on them. Then set them up in Washington, California, Florida, and Maine—the corners of the United States.     --from WHIRLIGIG

When I was 19, after two years of college in Berkeley, I took a cross-country bicycle and train trip, ending up living in a 200-year-old house in New Hampshire. The years there, leading a modified 18th century lifestyle--wood heating, no electricity or phone--kindled an interest in the past and led to the historical fiction I'd later write, much of it set in New England.

She's a word person, a glasses-wearing former editor, copyeditor, and proofreader, who dumped her last suitor for giving her a Valentine candy that read "Your mine." Y-O-U-R. No apostrophe, no "e."    --from BREAKOUT

Words have always been my world. I grew up setting type for our hand printing press. After graduating from the University of New Mexico, I worked as a bookstore clerk, library shelver, and proofreader, eventually founding the grammar watchdog groups ColonWatch and The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English.

The Trojan War is still being fought. Simply open a newspaper....
    --from DATELINE: TROY

I thought about teaching history as a career, but decided to bring it into my books instead. Over the years, I've dealt with the Puritans' Indian wars, Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic, the Civil War, and the naturalists Townsend and Nuttall. For years, I combed newspapers in search of clippings that parallel the Trojan War story.

Beethoven's Rondo in C--lovely piece / Strange how it brings to mind south-flying geese.   --from RONDO IN C

Music has been a constant inspiration for my books, from the duets in JOYFUL NOISE to the symphonic, 50-voice SEEK. I played piano as a child, joined recorder consorts in college, and later played in string quartets. Lately, I've been drawn to America's most-loathed trio of instruments--the accordion, banjo, and bagpipes.

Baedeker's Italy. But you won't simply read it. No indeed. Let me explain.
    --from MIND'S EYE

Many of my books can be performed as well as read silently. BULL RUN and SEEDFOLKS are collections of monologues suitable for classes. MIND'S EYE and SEEK can be performed by high school or adult reader's theater groups. ZAP, my first play, has just been published.

I have my grandchildren--five in the house, and four more coming by train tomorrow. To touch their smooth skin is to know the future.
    --from THE BORNING ROOM

I have two grown sons, Seth and Dana. After sojourns in Vermont, Nebraska, New Mexico, France, and North Carolina, I'm back in California, living in the village of Aromas with my wife, Patty.