Ballard, John 1945-

(John Henry Ballard)

PERSONAL: Born 1945; U.S. citizen. Education: Harvard University, B.A. (cum laude); New York University, graduate study.

ADDRESSES: Office—c/o World Citizens Publishing, 96 Laverne Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941.

CAREER: Writer, 1968–; feature film director and screenwriter; motivational speaker for students and teachers.

AWARDS, HONORS: Included among "Best Books for the Teen Age," New York Public Library, 1996, for Brothers and Sisters—Real Love Knows No Boundaries!

WRITINGS:

(And director) The Orphan (screenplay; also known as Friday the 13th: The Orphan), World Northal, 1979.

(Under name John Henry Ballard) The Guide to End World Hunger (young adult), New Horizons Book Publishing (Venice, CA), 1985.

(Under name John Henry Ballard) MacBurnie King in Monsoon: A Novel (young adult), New Horizons Book Publishing (Marina del Rey), 1985.

Roots Reggae and Rastafari: A Movement that Has Rocked the World (young adult), World Citizens Publishing (Mill Valley, CA), 1993.

"SOUL TO SOUL" SERIES

African-American Consciousness: Reclaiming Your History, two volumes, World Citizens Publishing (Mill Valley, CA), 1993.

MacBurnie King in—Soul to Soul: A Daring Adventure!, introduction by Coretta Scott King, World Citizens Publishing (Mill Valley, CA), 1993, revised edition, 1998.

Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters: Real Love Knows No Boundaries!, introduction by Nelson Mandela and Janet Jackson, World Citizens Publishing (Mill Valley, CA), 1993.

MacBurnie King in SoulMates: A Novel to End World Hunger; India Revealed: The "True Roots" of Hinduism and Our World's Largest Democracy, introduction by Mother Teresa, World Citizens Publishing (Mill Valley, CA), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: As a student in the 1960s, John Ballard became active in the civil rights movement. He left his studies at Harvard University to help lay the groundwork for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s voter-registration march in Selma, Alabama. He was even jailed briefly, and the entire experience fueled his interest in theories of civil disobedience and how social change occurs. Ballard grew particularly interested in the political teachings of Gandhi, and back at Harvard wrote his senior thesis on black youth and the choices confronting African-American teenagers. During a time of urban tensions in the summer of 1967, Ballard was hired by the mayoral campaign of John Lindsay because of the author's ability to relate to and reconcile racial differences. While there, he helped found the Harlem Community Service Center.

Ballard studied film at New York University, and garnered praise for his early films, one of which was the feature film The Orphan, a story of child abuse starring actress Joanna Miles and author Malachy McCort, and featuring the music of Janis Ian. In the 1980s, the socially active Ballard became involved in efforts to aid Ethiopian and Eritrean famine victims, and from this work evolved a series of socially conscious young adult novels. These became his "Soul to Soul" adventure series featuring MacBurnie King, a smart, politically aware, and culturally inquisitive teenager from New York City.

MacBurnie, the daughter of divorced parents, debuts as the protagonist in Ballard's MacBurnie King in Monsoon: A Novel. MacBurnie becomes concerned about famine in India and sponsors a child through a charitable agency. When letters from the child mysteriously stop, she contacts an Indian health worker, Lori, who also worries about the child's disappearance but has no information of his whereabouts. MacBurnie convinces her father to take her to India so that she might find him, and they arrive at the mission during monsoon season.

Monsoon details real-life crises such as the lack of adequate health care that plagues many corners of the globe. Ballard also explores the injustices of the caste system and other experiences that bewilder the liberal-minded MacBurnie. The heroine herself becomes embroiled in the life-or-death realities of the villagers she has come to regard as family. At the end of the novel, a special illustrative supplement, "A Guide to End World Hunger," gives teen readers more information on world hunger and suggestions on how they can help. In this "attention-keeping" novel, Donna Fisher concluded in her review for School Library Journal, "Ballard leaves readers with the knowledge that world hunger is a tragedy that should concern America's youth."

In MacBurnie King in—Soul to Soul: A Daring Adventure!, featuring a special introduction by Coretta Scott King, Ballard enlists MacBurnie King on a journalism assignment in Africa, chronicling the adventures of a group of musicians (soul, rap, and reggae) embarking upon an exhaustive tour of the continent. The characters, each from varying backgrounds themselves, encounter a vast variety of cultures on the continent, and through their eyes Ballard attempts to dispel misrepresentations of the continent as one homogenous geographical entity. They begin in Morocco and travel to fourteen other countries. Along the way, Ballard explains why some of Africa's countries suffer because of conflicts with one another, and how Africans view African-Americans. If the author's objective was to show the diversity of cultures among the countries of Africa, he achieved his purpose according to Hazel Moore in her review for Voice of Youth Advocates. Moore found the characters "well developed" as "believable persons bearing their souls to the souls of nations visited on the tour."

MacBurnie King also appears in Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters: Real Love Knows No Boundaries!, featuring a special introduction by Nelson Mandela speaking to the youth of America. MacBurnie's musical friends from Soul to Soul continue their tour of African nations. Ballard infuses the plot with history and contemporary culture told through MacBurnie's kitabu (diary). As they travel, romance and intrigue follow the characters, particularly Brock James, an African-American saxophonist from Harlem, and Shana Lee and Marvin Knight, two former superstars trying to restore their careers and their marriage. Writing in the Voice of Youth Advocates, Judith N. Mitchell called Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters "valuable and compelling because of its wealth of photos, and accessibility of its nonfiction background information." Pat Royal, reviewing the book for the School Library Journal, liked Ballard's blend of fiction, history, current events, and culture. "It is an interesting and arresting way of writing and of putting a book together," wrote Royal, who also noted that such a format would greatly appeal to teen readers.

Ballard told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is outrage at hurtful injustices, both societal and intra-personal. My writing is influenced by current events and by authors I read in my teens (Arthur Miller, William Faulkner, Joseph Conrad, Dostoevsky)."

In describing his writing process, Ballard commented: "First, I pick a subject that I'm outraged about, one that evokes such passions in me that it will sustain me long past the first burst of creativity through the mind-numbing months of revisions. Then I find an image or character to embody the passion behind the subject and plot out the changes this character will go through to evolve (character transformation is pivotal for me). Only then do I begin to write."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Children's Book Watch, November, 1993, review of MacBurnie King in—Soul to Soul: A Daring Adventure! and Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters: Real Love Knows No Boundaries!, p. 3; March, 1998, review of MacBurnie King in—SoulMates: A Novel to End World Hunger; India Revealed: The "True Roots" of Hinduism and Our World's Largest Democracy p. 342.

Horn Book Guide, fall, 1998, review of MacBurnie King in SoulMates, p. 197.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1993, review of MacBurnie King in—Soul to Soul, p. 1586.

Kliatt, May, 1994, review of MacBurnie King in—Soul to Soul and Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters, p. 6; May, 1998, review of MacBurnie King in SoulMates, p. 9.

School Library Journal, October, 1985, Donna Fisher, review of MacBurnie King in Monsoon: A Novel, p. 179; March, 1994, Pat Royal, review of Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters, p. 236; June, 1998, review of MacBurnie King n SoulMates, p. 140.

Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 1986, review of MacBurnie King in Monsoon, p. 390; April, 1994, Hazel Moore, review of MacBurnie King in—Soul to Soul, pp. 21-22; June, 1994, Judith N. Mitchell, review of Brock James and MacBurnie King in—Brothers and Sisters, p. 80.