Vivian Gussin Paley
Biography

Vivian Gussin Paley writes and teaches about the world of young children. She examines their stories and play, their logic and their thinking, searching for meaning in the social and moral landscapes of classroom life.

A kindergarten teacher for 37 years, Mrs. Paley brings her storytelling/story acting and discussion techniques to children, teachers, and parents throughout the world.

She is the recipient of the 1987 Erikson Institute Award for Service to Children and a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989. She received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for Lifetime /Achievement in 1998. In 1997, her book, The Girl with the Brown Crayon was given the Harvard University Press Virginia and Warren Stone Prize as the outstanding book about education and society. In 1999, the same book brought her the NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. Mrs. Paley received the John Dewey Society’s Outstanding Achievement Award for the year 2000, and, more recently in 2004, was named Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts by the National Council of Teachers of English.

Her books are:
White Teacher, 1979, Harvard University Press
Wally’s Stories, 1981, Harvard University Press
Boys and Girls, 1984, University of Chicago Press
Mollie is Three, 1986, University of Chicago Press
Bad Guys Don’t Have Birthdays, 1988, University of Chicago Press
The Boy Who Would be a Helicopter, 1990, Harvard University Press
You Can’t Say You Can’t Play, 1992, Harvard University Press
Kwanzaa and Me: A Teacher’s Story, 1995, Harvard University Press
The Girl with the Brown Crayon, 1997, Harvard University Press
The Kindness of Children, 1999, Harvard University Press
In Mrs. Tully’s Room, 2001, Harvard University Press
A Child’s Work, 2004, University of Chicago Press

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