Miss Rumphius is a 1982 picture book, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Cooney won Caldecott Medals in 1980 (for Ox-Cart Man) and in 1959 (for Chanticleer and the Fox),
Like those earlier books, Miss Rumphius feels like it belongs to another age in many ways. It is wordy for a modern picture book, and moves at a slower pace.
However, it also has, in both story and images, an original vision, one that blends the historical and the personal. The narrator tells the story of her great-aunt Alice, starting the story when Alice was a little girl, long enough ago that Alice’s grandfather sailed to the U.S. on a sailboat.
Alice’s grandfather tells her that she must do one thing, no matter what else she does: make the world more beautiful. Alice works, goes to school, grows up and becomes Miss Rumphius, and lives a long and varied life. She travels to faraway places, meets mysterious people, and finds a home by the sea. Eventually, she starts to plant lupines everywhere she goes. People call her crazy, but she has made the world more beautiful. And she passes that story on to her grand-niece, who takes it as her mission to make the world more beautiful too.
This is a book about a long and unique life, and the woman who lives it, going her own way every step of the way. It is also a book about generational heritage, and inherited vision.
It is a rare and quiet book, great for children and adults seeking their path.
