Author Eloise Jarvis McGraw

I have always been a reader, able to get lost completely in whatever fantasy world I'm inhabiting at the moment. From my kindergarten year, when my mother tells me that by Christmas I was reading anything I picked up, to my current status as a homeschool mom of four, I have been a reader and a lover of books. I remember many, many books from my childhood fondly; even more amongst the many I have probably forgotten. But Eloise Jarvis McGraw, standing out sharply with just a handful of others from that myriad of forgotten childhood authors, holds a very special place in my heart.

One day in sixth grade - it might have been a Tuesday - my feet followed the well-worn (by me at least) path to the school's library. Wandering down the aisles, waiting for my next book or three to jump out at me from the leaning titles - or maybe I had just reached the Mc's as I read my way down the row of fiction authors - I chanced upon Mara, Daughter of the Nile. A turning point, indeed, in my reading career.

I read the book cover to cover in one sitting ... no great feat for me. But on closing the back cover of the book, I found that I had not had enough. For the first time in an already lengthy reading career, I sighed happily, flipped the book over, and started again at page one. Over the next months and years, I came back to this wonderful story many times, joined by readings and rereadings of Eloise's other splendid titles: Sawdust in his Shoes, Moccasin Trail, Greensleeves, The Golden Goblet.

Now, 30 or so years later, a certain exclamation still pops into my head occasionally (though I keep it to myself, as I don't greatly wish to be viewed as even more eccentric than I already am): "Amon and Isis and Osiris and the sacred cat of Bast!" Indeed, long passages and whole scenes of Mara and other McGraw books still come easily to my mind with a warm rush of remembered pleasure in the reading.

Much as I loved Mara and other wonderful stories by McGraw, they did fall off my reading list ... until recently. Now, however, my oldest children are 12 and 10 years of age, and it is high time they discover the magic of McGraw with me, as I discover it again - along with all the new books she published after I had moved on to other authors!

Sawdust in His Shoes we just read aloud and I was charmed to see my children enjoying every moment as much as I did on my first reading. My daughter has already read The Moorchild herself, a pleasure denied me at that age since it had not yet been written when I moved on to more adult fare; but of course I read it too, thrilled to have a new title from one of my most beloved authors.

In eight MP3 sound clips, listen to the beloved author discuss Oz fan letters, her relationship with her readers, the collaborative process she used to write with her daughter, character analysis, and many other interesting topics. Manuscript transcription also available. Listen to An Evening with Eloise now!

1950 Sawdust in His Shoes
1952 Moccasin Trail (Newbery Honor Book)
1953 Mara, Daughter of the Nile
1958 Pharaoh
1961 The Golden Goblet (Newbery Honor Book)
1963 Merry Go Round in Oz
1968 Greensleeves
1977 A Really Weird Summer (Edgar Award Book)
1979 Joel and the Great Merlini
1980 The Forbidden Fountain of Oz
1981 The Money Room
1983 Hideaway
1986 The Seventeenth Swap
1987 Master Cornhill
1988 The Trouble With Jacob
1991 The Striped Ships
1993 Tangled Web
1997 The Moorchild (Newbery Honor Book)
2001 The Rundlestone of Oz

McGraw's books are not just great reads, but good reading for academic purposes as well. Here you'll find online resources for lesson plans, supplemental units, discussion topics, and activities for some of McGraw's titles.

The Golden Goblet
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
The Moorchild

Many thanks for
SquidAngel blessings from

Thanks to tagsforkids for his angelic SquidArt.
Squidoo logo is a trademark of Squidoo LLC. Graphics, Squidart and Squidoodles © 2008 by tagsforkids (Steve Thompson).
Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.