The Winter Room
| Author | Gary Paulsen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Scholastic Books, 1989[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 103 |
| Awards | Newbery Honor Book, 1990[2] |
The Winter Room is a young adult novel by American author Gary Paulsen.[3] It is a realistic fiction story about logging and farming, narrated in the first person to two boys by their Norwegian uncle in the "winter room" of a farm in northern Minnesota, United States. Like many of Paulsen's works, it evokes a harsh rural environment using vivid imagery, and has elements of a coming of age tale.
The Winter Room received the 1990 Newbery Honor.[4]
Reception
The Winter Room was well received by critics. Upon the novel's release, James A. Schmitz of The ALAN Review rated the novel as one of Paulsen's best.[5]
While evoking the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ernest Hemingway, and Jim Harrison, Publishers Weekly proclaimed that "Newbery Award-winner Paulsen never disappoints, and proves his talent again in this remarkably good tale."[6]
Kirkus Reviews called The Winter Room a "beautifully written evocation of a Minnesota farm", while noting that it's "more a prose poem than a novel".[7]
Release details
- 1989, USA, Scholastic Press (ISBN 0-531-05839-5), Pub date ? September 1989, hardback (1st edition)
- 1989, USA, Orchard Books (ISBN 0-531-08439-6), Pub date ? October 1989, hardback
- 1996, USA, Yearling Books (ISBN 0-440-40454-1), Pub date ? July 1996, paperback
- 1991, USA, Perfection Learning Prebound (ISBN 0-7807-0416-9), Pub date ? September 1991, hardback
- 1991, USA, Bantam Doubleday Dell (ISBN 0-440-80228-8), Pub date ? April 1991, paperback
- 1995, USA, Yearling Books (ISBN 99954-61-53-6), Pub date ? February 1995, paperback
- 1996, ?, Laurel Leaf (ISBN 0-440-22031-9), Pub date 2 May 1996, paperback
- 1998, ?, Laurel Leaf (ISBN 0-440-22783-6), Pub date ? December 1998, paperback
- 1999, ?, Rebound by Sagebrush (ISBN 0-8335-6149-9), Pub date ? October 1999, hardback
- 2005, USA, Thorndike Press (ISBN 0-7862-7251-1), Pub date 16 February 2005, hardback (large print edition)
References
- ^ The Winter Room. OCLC 19353118 – via OCLC Worldcat.
- ^ "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present". Association for Library Service to Children. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ^ "The Winter Room". Booklist. Retrieved March 15, 2026.
- ^ "The Winter Room". American Library Association. Archived from the original on November 10, 2025. Retrieved March 15, 2026.
- ^ Schmitz, James A. (Fall 1994). "Gary Paulson: A Writer of His Time". The ALAN Review. 22 (1). doi:10.21061/alan.v22i1.a.5. Archived from the original on April 4, 2006. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ^ "The Winter Room". Publishers Weekly. September 1, 1989. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
- ^ "The Winter Room". Kirkus Reviews. September 15, 1989. Retrieved March 15, 2026.