Nancy Evans Cooney
Biographical Information
Children’s book author Nancy Evans Cooney was born in Northfork, West Virginia, September 9, 1932. She attended the University of North Carolina, earning a B. A. in 1954. She then attended Marshall University, completing an MA in 1956. Cooney taught junior high in Northfork for a year (1954-55) before moving north to serve as a teacher and guidance counselor at West Windsor Elementary School in Dutch Neck, New Jersey for the 1956-57 school year. She then worked for a year in the Princeton Seminary library and then as an assistant in a Cambridge, Massachusetts bookstore. Since 1978, Cooney has devoted herself full-time to her writing. She is married to John Mason Cooney, a university administrator. The couple has four children. Cooney currently lives in Bridgewater, New Jersey.Nancy Evans Cooney published her first children’s book, The Wobbly Tooth, in 1978. The story of a kindergartner whose wobbly tooth will not come out, The Wobbly Tooth was well-received by parents and educators and remains a recommended book for young children. Since then, Cooney has published five more books for children—all focusing on issues that pre-school aged children face as they approach the start of their school careers.
Critical Responses
Nancy Evans Cooney has published six books for children—all of which have been praised for their focus on empowering children and helping them to face the potentially scary or upsetting times in their lives. J. J. Votapka of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library described Go Away Monsters, Lickety Split!, the story of a young boy coping with moving to a new and bigger house in a new neighborhood, as “not only an appropriate selection for those children experiencing the trauma of a move, but it also makes a reassuring bedtime story for all children.” A reviewer of The Umbrella Day for Publishers Weekly remarked that “Cooney’s text is perfectly attuned to the ups and downs of a child’s day; she lingers on fearful moments long enough to add suspense, but not so long that Missy can’t escape with grace.” Another Publishers Weekly reviewer, this one commenting on Donald Says Thumbs Down, wrote “This book handles the problem of thumb-sucking with sensitivity and tact . . . Parents can learn a lot from Cooney who recognizes that only inwardly motivated change allows children to grow.”
Works Published
- The Wobbly Tooth
- The Blanket That Had to Go
- Donald Says Thumbs Down
- The Umbrella Day
- Go Away Monsters, Lickety Split!
- Chatter-Box Jamie
Selected Bibliography
Fakih, Kimberly Olson and Diane Roback. The Umbrella Day (book review). Publishers Weekly, April 14, 1989. 235(15), 66.
Knoth, Maeve Visser. Chatter-Box Jamie (book review). The Horn Book Magazine, July-August 1993. 69(4), 441.
Mercer, Jean F. The Wobbly Tooth (book review). Publishers Weekly, February 27, 1981. 29, P150.
Roback, Diane. Donald Says Thumbs Down (book review). Publishers Weekly, March 13, 1987. 231, 84.
Stebbins, Pamela Warren. The Blanket That Had to Go (book review). School Library Journal, February 1982. 28, 65.
Votapka, J. J. Go Away Monsters, Lickety Split! (book review). School Library Journal, July 1990. 36(7), 57.
Author Website
none available