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Priscilla Cummings Please visit Priscilla at her new web site: www.priscillacummings.com 3026 Aberdeen Road, Annapolis, MD 21403
Photo by Kevin Gilbert As a young girl, I had other passions; I loved to read and I loved to write my own stories. Usually, those stories were about animals on the farm. Often, I illustrated the tales and made them into little books. Sometimes I wrote at my father's big mahogany desk. And sometimes, I took thick pads of paper out to the hayloft where I scribbled away, surrounded by my cats and their kittens. I kept a diary, too, wrote to my grandmothers and in third grade joined a pen pal club through the Archie comic books. At one time, I had more than twenty pen pals all over the world. In high school I tried my hand at reporting for the school newspaper.
Over the years, I wrote many picture books about animals in the Chesapeake Bay. In 1997, my first novel for older children, AUTUMN JOURNEY, was published. Since then, four other novels have been published: A FACE FIRST, SAVING GRACE, RED KAYAK and my newest, WHAT MR. MATTERO DID. Today, I live in Annapolis, Maryland with my family. We have two cats named Sammy and Shoogie, and a frisky chocolate Labrador named Sophie Waffles. But no cows or horses. And no crabs! When I'm not writing or visiting schools or busy being a Mom, I enjoy reading, playing the piano and taking long walks by the creek near our house, or through town. I think a lot on my walks and, often, I daydream about my days growing up on the farm. My Books
Three seventh grade girls accuse their music teacher of touching them inappropriately and sexually. The story is told from two perspectives in alternating chapters: from Jenna, one of the accusers, and from Melody, an eighth grader in the same school who is also the daughter of Mr. Mattero, the music teacher.
“Riveting and timely, this shocking slice-of-life drama is sure to keep pages turning.”
First hailed as a hero for his dramatic water rescue, thirteen-year-old Brady Parks, son of a Chesapeake Bay waterman, soon makes a startling discovery that puts him at the heart of an enormous tragedy. Alone with his dark secret, Brady is ultimately forced to choose between loyalty to his lifelong friends and doing what he knows in his heart is right.
"When Grace's family is evicted from their Washington D.C. apartment just before Christmas 1932, Grace, 11, and her two younger brothers are temporarily placed in a mission. Grace tries to understand: Mama's new baby is due any day, and Grace's beloved older brother is terribly sick. Her stay at the mission is cut short when she is invited to spend the holidays with the Hammonds, who treat her like a daughter. What will happen when it's time for Grace to go home? Are family bonds more important than the security the Hammonds offer her? Inspired by a true story."
"Cummings does an excellent job of showing how easy it is to do wrong when the normal world operates so inequitably. The choices Grace must make are not clear-cut."
"Unable to remember the horrific automobile accident and resulting explosion that melted her earrings as well as much of her skin, 12-year-old Kelley finds her world of horses, ballet lessons and environmental projects reduced to a vise of pain in a Baltimore hospital's burn unit... Being forced into pressure bandages and difficult physical therapy are bad enough, but when the staff straps a clear plastic mask on her ruined face, Kelley resists in the only way left to her. She quits all human communication...Cummings understands appearance-concious adolescents, and leads readers to pull with Kelley in working through the layers of her inner being to reach beyond the mask.
"A beautifully told, uplifting story about the power and strength of family.
The prose shows the ease and confidence of an old pro and gives off the power
of someone who understands well the human heart."
Chadwick the Crab*
Chadwick and the Garplegrungen*
Chadwick's Wedding*
Chadwick Forever*
The Chadwick Coloring Book*
Oswald and the Timberdoodles*
Sid and Sal's Famous Channel Marker Diner*
Toulouse, The Story of a Canada Goose*
Meet Chadwick and his Chesapeake Friends*
*All of these books above were illustrated by A.R. Cohen
Chesapeake ABC's
CHESAPEAKE 1,2,3
Chesapeake Rainbow
Reviews, discussion questions, Q and A's and other curriculum aids for Priscilla's books are available at www.priscillacummings.com.
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Most people think I'm from Maryland because I've written so many stories about
Chadwick the Crab and even set some of my novels for older children on the Chesapeake
Bay. But actually, I grew up the middle of three children on a dairy farm in western
Massachusetts, far from the water. I loved living on a farm where I was surrounded by
animals and always in touch with nature. And lucky me, I had a palomino horse named
Goldenboy that I galloped up and down the pastures almost every day after school. We
had another horse, too, an appaloosa named Lollipop, who shared the pasture with
Goldenboy and our herd of beautiful black and white Holsteins. Besides other farm
animals, I cared for several other pets including lots of cats, two white rabbits, a hamster
and several goldfish.
