Miss Rumphius Meeting the King of an Indonesian Fishing Village illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Time continues to pass, and streaks of gray appear in her hair. It is in the library where she learns about more faraway places. She goes to work in a library where people call her Miss Rumphius and she helps them find books they're looking for. He agrees that her plans are 'all very well,' but goes on to tell her that she must do one more thing: 'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.' Alice resolves to follow her grandfather's advice, though she is not sure how.įor a time, life goes on normally and, eventually, Alice grows up. Inspired, Alice tells her grandfather that, when she grows up, she will travel to faraway places and settle down by the sea when she grows old, just as he did. At night, he regales his granddaughter with stories of exotic places across the sea. Her grandfather, an immigrant who arrived by boat to America himself, now carves the figureheads for sailing ships in his old age. In illustrations depicting the late 1800s, a young Alice lives with her grandparents near a waterfront shipping town. Miss Rumphius & her Grandfather illustrated by Barbara Cooney. The book opens with the narrator telling readers about a little old woman nicknamed 'The Lupine Lady' who 'lives in a small house overlooking the sea.' The story of her Great Aunt, Miss Rumphius, begins to unfold, starting from when her aunt was just a little girl named Alice. The Lupine Award of the Maine Library Association is named in honor of the book, as is the New Jersey Center for the Book's Miss Rumphius Award given to librarians and teachers who develop creative activities to support literacy education. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book as one of its 'Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children.' In 2012 it was ranked number 13 among the 'Top 100 Picture Books' in a survey published by School Library Journal. Ĭooney and William Steig ( Doctor De Soto) shared the 1983 National Book Award for Children's Books in the Hardcover Picture Books category. Miss Rumphius was inspired by the real life 'Lupine Lady,' Hilda Hamlin, who spread lupine seeds along the Maine coast, as well as Cooney's own experiences traveling the world. It features the life story of fictional Miss Alice Rumphius, a woman who sought a way to make the world more beautiful and found it in planting lupines in the wild. Miss Rumphius is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney and originally published by the Viking Press in 1982.

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney