Meet the author

Cynthia Rylant.

Writer · United States · b. 1954

Cynthia Rylant: Newbery-winning American author of Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter and Tabby and Poppleton — the gold-standard gentle early-reader voice for ages 5–9.

Cynthia Rylant is an American author born in 1954, one of the defining voices in late twentieth-century US children's writing, particularly for early-reader chapter books. Best known for the Henry and Mudge series (a boy and his oversized dog, illustrated by Suçie Stevenson), the Mr. Putter and Tabby books (a retired man and his cat, illustrated by Arthur Howard), the Poppleton early readers, and the Newbery Medal-winning Missing May. Rylant's voice is unmistakably gentle, observant and emotionally quiet, closer to William Maxwell than to most children's writing, and her early readers are widely considered the gold standard for emotional intelligence at that reading level. A core American early-reader author for ages 5–9.