Cynthia

Cynthia DeFelice

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Cynthia Defelice is an American author. Her father’s name is William Carter; her mother’s name is Ann Carter. Cynthia’s father worked as a psychiatrist while her mother worked as an English teacher. When she was small, she used to sit beside her brothers and sisters while her mother read them stories. When Mrs. Carter told the children to play outside, the children didn’t play. They read a book in the corner of the house instead. When Cynthia grew up she went to college in New York. When she left college, she tried to find a job. She found a job at a farm. She didn’t really like it because she had an accident on a ladder. After that accident she thought there can be an easier life, so she quit her job at the farm.

After Cynthia graduated from college, she married Ralph Defelice. She became a mother of two children. When the children left to go to college, Cynthia went back to college to get a librarian’s degree. By 1980, she became a librarian. When students came to hear her read stories, she read one of her favorite stories that her mother read to her. When she finished the book, she was amazed by what she saw. She saw that all the students’ faces were full of expression and wonder. When she saw that, she wondered if she wanted to write a book to make them look that, too.

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Cynthia Defelice posed in front of our mural of one of her books in our media center at City Park.

She read a book to teenagers and the same thing happened. She felt like she wanted to write a story that would make people wonder. The next day, the children came in and started to hear Cynthia read her stories. After class the children asked Cynthia if she could make copies of one of her books. That night Cynthia began to get a lot of phone calls “I hear you are a storyteller,” the caller would say. “I am?” Cynthia would respond When she decided to be an author, she quit her job as a librarian. She gave herself a year to finish one her books. When she finished it, she made a title which is, “The Strange Night Writing of Jessamine Colter.” Cynthia was so proud of herself for what she did that she couldn’t believe that she wrote a whole book by herself. Cynthia wrote 19 books in 13 years. She remembered when she was small; she didn’t really want to be an author. But, she finally wrote a book when she was 36 years old.

This website is the book “The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker.” She got the idea of the book on one Sunday she read an article called “1990 Discovery”. She read that the archeologists were looking through graves. They thought there is a cure to tuberculoses. Cynthia got interested of the discovery, so she decided to look in the graves with the archeologist. . They where searching in graves that were put to rest. It was creepy, interesting, and amazing. So that night she started writing her book called “The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker.” If you liked “The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker” you’ll also like Weasel, Clever Crow, Dancing Skeleton, and Devil’s Bridge. Cynthia also making new things from her books. She is also writing new books called Under the Sky, The Ghost of Cutler Creek, and Old Granny and The Bean Thief. She is much exited to see the new things she has made in her website. Cynthia even hopes that you like it too. I remembered when Cynthia came over that all I can say is: We were so lucky to have Cynthia come to City Park. She even bought a brick for our school's outdoor classroom.

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