Born:1947
Kearny, New Jersey,
United States Of America
Current Home:
Maplewood, New Jersey,
United States Of America
Jim Murphy
Biography
Jim Murphy was born in 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in the nearby town of Kearny. Growing up playing sports, exploring abandoned factories, and roaming the vast New Jersey Meadowlands, Murphy didn't have much time for or interest in reading — until a high school teacher named a book the students were absolutely forbidden to read. Rushing out to see what the fuss was all about, Murphy began reading everything he could, especially books he felt would particularly shock his teachers. He then went on to attend Rutgers University, graduating in 1970, and did graduate work at Radcliffe College.
After college, Murphy worked in juvenile publishing for seven years, starting as an editorial secretary and working his way up to managing editor. He then left to devote himself to his own writing, and published his first book, Weird and Wacky Inventions, in 1978. His varied interests — and his willingness to read book after book on the subjects he finds interesting — have helped him create a wide range of entertaining, thoroughly researched nonfiction books for young readers, as well as fictional picture books, many of them — Dinosaur for a Day and The Last Dinosaur, for example — based in fact. Recently he has contributed entries to the acclaimed historical fiction series Dear America and My Name Is America, something he finds particularly rewarding. “One of my goals in writing about events from the past is to show that children weren't just observers of our history,” he says. “They were actual participants and sometimes did amazing and heroic things.”
When Jim Murphy is not working, he enjoys cooking, gardening, and searching for the perfect hamburger and french fries. He lives with his wife and children in a Victorian house in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Murphy is the award-winning author of more than 25 books about American history. He has won the Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for The Boy's War and The Long Road to Gettysburg. His book The Great Fire was named both a Newbery Honor book and a Boston Globe Horn Book Honor book. He also received the 2001 award for nonfiction from the Children's Book Guild of Washington, D.C. and the Washington Post.
Most recently, Murphy won a 2004 Newbery Honor for An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793.
Visit Jim Murphy's Web site at www.jimmurphybooks.com.
- Teacher Store
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The Great Fire
The Teacher Store 
The Great Fire
by Jim MurphyWeaving together personal accounts of actual survivors with carefully researched historic detail, this award-winning book recreates the Chicago fire of 1871 with drama and immediacy. "Gripping... The energy and depth of the presentation, along with the inherent drama of the fire, make this thought-provoking history lesson absorbing and riveting reading." - Horn Book
$7.95
Paperback Book | Grades 3-5
Grades 3-5 $7.95
- Teacher Store
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My Name Is America: The Journal of James Edmond Pease
The Teacher Store 
My Name Is America: The Journal of James Edmond Pease
by Jim MurphyWhen his lieutenant orders James to keep an "honest and accurate" account of his experiences, the result is a compelling journal that captures both the glorious and mundane in the life of a Civil War soldier. Experience the sights and smells of a runaway turned soldier, who reveals his thoughts on everything from bad coffee to his battlefield brush with death.
$9.95
Hardcover Book | Grades 4-8
Grades 4-8 $9.95
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