Lesley Howarth (born 29 December 1952)[1] is a British author of children's and young adult fiction. For the novel Maphead, published by Walker Books in 1994, she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers,[2] and she was a runner-up for the Carnegie Medal.[3][a]

Lesley Howarth
Born (1952-12-29) December 29, 1952 (age 71)
Bournemouth, England
Alma mater
Notable awardsGuardian Children's Fiction Prize (1995)

Reviewers including Philip Pullman have remarked upon Howarth's ability to "humanize" highly technical or unusual subjects, a tendency which she calls "the romance of hard things".[4][5]

Biography

edit

Howarth was born 29 December 1952 in Bournemouth, England.[1] As a child, she attended the Bournemouth School for Girls, then, as an adult, received education from the Bournemouth College of Art and Croydon College of Art.[1]

Awards

edit

The Pits (1996) is a Junior Library Guild book.[6]

In January 2000, The Guardian named Mister Spaceman the children's book of the week.[7]

Awards for Howarth's writing
Year Title Award Result Ref.
1993 The Flower King Whitbread Children's Book Award Shortlist [1]
1994 MapHead Carnegie Medal Shortlist [3][a]
1995 MapHead Guardian Children's Fiction Award Winner [2][8]
1995 Weather Eye Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (ages 9–11) Winner [citation needed]
1995 MapHead W. H. Smith Mind Boggling Books Award Shortlist [1]
1995 MapHead Young Telegraph Book Award Shortlist [1]

Works

edit
  • The Flower King (1993)
  • MapHead (1994)
  • Weather Eye (1995)
  • The Pits (1996)
  • Fort Biscuit (1996), illustrated by Ann Kronheimer
  • Welcome to Inner Space (1997)
  • MapHead 2 (1997); US title, Maphead: the return
  • Quirx : The Edge of the World (1998)
  • Bad Rep (1998), illus. Mark Oliver
  • Paulina (1999)
  • Yamabusters (1999)
  • The Squint (1999), illus. Jeff Cummins
  • Aliens for Dinner (1999)
  • Mister Spaceman (2000)
  • I Managed a Monster (2000)
  • No Accident (2000)
  • Ultraviolet (2001)
  • Carwash (2002)
  • Dade County's Big Summer (2002)
  • Drive (2004)
  • Colossus (2004)
  • Calling the Shots (2006)
  • Bodyswap: The Boy Who Was 84 (2009)
  • Tales from the Sick Bed (London: Catnip, 2009), as by L. P. Howarth
Tales from the Sick Bed: Brainstorms
Tales from the Sick Bed: Fever Dreams
Tales from the Sick Bed: The Medicine Chest
  • Swarf (2010)

See also

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ^ a b Today there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. According to CCSU some runners-up through 2002 were Commended (from 1954) or Highly Commended (from 1966). The latter distinction became approximately annual in 1979; there were 29 highly commended books in 24 years including Howarth and Berlie Doherty for 1994.

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d e f "Howarth, Lesley 1952-". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners" Archived 27 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian 12 March 2001. Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  3. ^ a b "Carnegie Medal Award" Archived 27 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine. 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  4. ^ "Lesley Howarth". Penguin Books. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  5. ^ Victor Watson; Elizabeth L. Keyser, eds. (2001). The Cambridge guide to children's books in English (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 348. ISBN 978-0-521-55064-2.
  6. ^ "The Pits by Lesley Howarth". Junior Library Guild. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  7. ^ Pullman, Philip (11 January 2000). "Children's book of the week". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  8. ^ "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched". The Guardian. 12 March 2001. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2023.