Cynthia DeFelice


Cynthia Carter DeFelice was an American children's writer. She wrote 16 novels and 12 picture books for young readers. The intended audience for her novels is children of reading ages nine to twelve.

Life and career

Carter was born in 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was a psychiatrist, and her mother was an English teacher, who stopped working to raise Cynthia and her siblings. DeFelice credited her mother for sparking her interest in books. She graduated from William Smith College in 1973. Among her three siblings was former US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. She began writing children's books in 1987. She lived in Geneva, New York. DeFelice died on May 24, 2024.

Children's novels

Selected children's picture books

Dancing Skeleton, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker, – named a Best Book of the Year by the Library of CongressClever Crow, illus. S. D. Schindler, Cold Feet, illus. Robert Andrew Parker,. 2001 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for best picture book
  • Casey in the Bath, illus. Farrar Straus Giroux