Lesley Howarth

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

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]

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

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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

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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

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  • 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

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Notes

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  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

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  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.