Collins, Yvonne

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Collins, Yvonne

PERSONAL:

Born in Canada; married. Education: University of Toronto, B.A. (criminology).

ADDRESSES:

Home—Canada.

CAREER:

Writer and member of film crews. Worked as television production assistant, 1981-83, and on camera crews for film and television, beginning 1994.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woody Award, Panavision Canada, 2003.

WRITINGS:

YOUNG-ADULT NOVELS

(With Sandy Rideout) Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid: Daughter of the Diva, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Sandy Rideout) Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Training, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(With Sandy Rideout) The Black Sheep, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2007.

(With Sandy Rideout) The New and Improved Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Control, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(With Sandy Rideout) Girl v. Boy, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2008.

NONFICTION

(With Sandy Rideout) Totally Me: The Teenage Girl's Survival Guide, Adams Media Corporation (Holbrook, MA), 2000.

ADULT NOVELS

(With Sandy Rideout) Speechless, Red Dress Ink (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

(With Sandy Rideout) What I Really Want to Do Is Direct, Red Dress Ink (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

It took Yvonne Collins a while to figure out what she wanted to do as a career. She earned her B.A. from the University of Toronto in criminology and hoped to go into law enforcement. "Fortunately for the citizens of Toronto, I flunked the psychological profile," the Canadian writer admitted on the home page she shares with writing partner and friend Sandy Rideout. Collins also worked at a restaurant, where she met her future husband, before establishing a career as a camera crew member for television and feature films. In addition to writing with Rideout, Collins has worked on such well-known films as Titanic, Blues Brothers 2000, and Chicago.

Though Collins and Rideout met as teens while volunteering together at their local public library, it was not until Collins' niece asked them to put some of their sage wisdom on paper that they became coauthors. Their first book, Totally Me: The Teenage Girl's Survival Guide, shares their time-tested advice regarding the common travails of teen girls.

In their first novel for teens, Collins and Rideout drew on Collins's experience in the film industry. Introducing Vivian Leigh Reid: Daughter of the Diva introduces fifteen-year-old Leigh, who is the daughter of a movie star. In the book, her father ships her off to Ireland to stay with her actress mother, a woman she barely knows. When Leigh arrives, she is given a bit part in the film her mom is starring in. The opportunity gives the estranged mother and daughter a chance to bond, despite jealousies and a very close living space, and the experience leaves them with matching tattoos and quality memories. "The story is witty, unpredictable, and well written," wrote Amanda MacGregor in her Kliatt review of Introducing Vivian Leigh Reid. Cindy Welch, writing in Booklist, called Leigh "a likable, spunky American teen."

Leigh's adventures in film continue in Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Training. Bitten by the acting bug, Leigh decides to spend the summer of her sixteenth year in Los Angeles, taking an acting course and staying with her mom. After landing the role of a British snob in a soap-opera, the teen has trouble separating her character's bad attitude from her own behavior. Despite her mother's diva tendencies, the movie star offers Leigh the advice she needs to keep the role from getting the best of her. "This volume is pop-culture fun with a moral," wrote Tracy Karbel in School Library Journal. In The New and Improved Vivien Leigh Reid, Leigh's mom becomes engaged to a film producer who offers the teen a role on his television show. Determined to prove that she can be an actress without a bad attitude, she jumps at the chance, landing a part that casts her as a humanoid warthog and means she must perform stunts in an awkward costume. "Leigh is a likeable, funny, and realistic heroine," wrote Amanda MacGregor in her Kliatt review of the budding actress's third book-length adventure.

Another area of the television industry is the setting for The Black Sheep, the name of both the book and the reality television program that fifteen-year-old Kendra Bishop tries out for in order to get away from her boring, uptight family. Tired of New York, Kendra is delighted to switch places with Maya, daughter of California hippies and sister to a dreamboat would-be marine biologist. With her every move recorded on film by a producer who wants to keep the drama high, Kendra develops a crush on Maya's brother Mitch, but also develops a deep concern for the sea otters her surrogate parents are fighting to save. "Kendra's bright and breezy first-person narration moves things along at a rapid clip," wrote a contributor to Publishers Weekly, and a Kirkus Reviews critic called Kendra "an admirable character who discovers inner strength."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2004, Kristine Huntley, review of Speechless, p. 1144; June 1, 2005, Cindy Welch, review of Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid: Daughter of the Diva, p. 1781; December 15, 2005, Kristine Huntley, review of What I Really Want to Do Is Direct, p. 29; May 15, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of The Black Sheep, p. 39.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2007, review of The Black Sheep.

Kliatt, July, 2005, Amanda MacGregor, review of Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid, p. 19; May, 2007, Amanda MacGregor, review of The New and Improved Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Control, p. 22.

Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2007, review of The Black Sheep, p. 64.

School Library Journal, September, 2005, Suzanne Gordon, review of Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid, p. 202; January, 2006, Tracy Karbel, review of Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Training, p. 129; March, 2007, Laurie Slagenwhite, review of The New and Improved Vivien Leigh Reid, p. 206; September, 2007, Jeffrey Hastings, review of The Black Sheep, p. 194.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2006, Lucy Schall, review of Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid, p. 40.