Miss Rumphius is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney and originally published by the Viking Press in 1982. It features the life story of fictional Miss Alice Rumphius, a woman who sought a way to make the world more beautiful and found it in planting lupines in the wild. Miss Rumphius was inspired by the real life "Lupine Lady," Hilda Hamlin, who spread lupine seeds along the Maine coast, as well as Cooney's own experiences traveling the world. Cooney and William Steig (Doctor De Soto) shared the 1983 National Book Award for Children's Books in the Hardcover Picture Books category. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." In 2012 it was ranked number 13 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal. The Lupine Award of the Maine Library Association is named in honor of the book, as is the New Jersey Center for the Book's Miss Rumphius Award given to librarians and teachers who develop creative activities to support literacy education. Plot The book opens with the narrator telling readers about a little old woman nicknamed "The Lupine Lady" who "lives in a small house overlooking the sea." The story of her Great Aunt, Miss Rumphius, begins to unfold, starting from when her aunt was just a little girl named Alice. In illustrations depicting the late 1800s, a young Alice lives with her grandparents near a waterfront shipping town. Her grandfather, an immigrant who arrived by boat to America himself, now carves the figureheads for sailing ships in his old age. At night, he regales his granddaughter with stories of exotic places across the sea. Inspired, Alice tells her grandfather that, when she grows up, she will travel to faraway places and settle down by the sea when she grows old, just as he did. He agrees that her plans are "all very well," but goes on to tell her that she must do one more thing: "You must do something to make the world more beautiful." Alice resolves to follow her grandfather's advice, though she is not sure how. For a time, life goes on normally and, eventually, Alice grows up. She goes to work in a library where people call her Miss Rumphius and she helps them find books they're looking