Cynthia Rylant was born on June 6,1954 in Hopewell, Virginia. Her parent's marriage was going downhill; they were divorced when she was four years old. Cynthia didn't have her father's name; she had her mother's maiden name, Rylant. After he parents were divorced her mother took her to live with her grandparents, for eight years, while she went to nursing school. She has never forgotten the advice her grandparents gave to her " Always do the best you can with what you've got". Living in a poor area of Appalachia Cynthia had no real idea of what she wanted to do after high school. Cynthia found a college and decided to attend. .
The university of Charleston is the first college she chose to go to. Later she completed her master's degree in English at Marshall University. After leaving college she worked as a writer for a while, until she found a job as a librarian, at the Akron public library. While working there she read many children's books. She later became a professional librarian and then completed her master's of Library science. She would accomplish that at Kent state University in Ohio. The first book she wrote was When I was Young in the Mountains, which received the American book award in 1982 and was a Caldecott Honor book. .
- Overview.
At the beginning of the story John Dante (main character) lives in Pittsburgh. He lived there with his mother, his father (Robert), and his sister Diane. When John was nine his father had bought him a castle set that came with knights and everything. When John seventeen years old President Roosevelt enacted a peacetime registration draft. John and his guy friends decided they would join. The only problem was they weren't of age until they were eighteen with their parents consent. Later that year he would meet a girl named Ginny. Ginny would alter his life forever. She would be the girl that would make him stand out among the other young soldiers.
When John joined the war he wasn't virgin and he had gotten drunk.
