Geras, Adèle (Daphne Weston) 1944-

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GERAS, Adèle (Daphne Weston) 1944-

PERSONAL: Surname pronounced with a hard "G" and rhymes with "terrace"; first name accented over the first "e"; born March 15, 1944, in Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel); immigrated to England, 1955; daughter of Laurence David (a lawyer) and Leah

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(Hamburger) Weston; married Norman Geras (a lecturer and writer), August 7, 1967; children: Sophie, Jenny. Education: St. Hilda's College, Oxford, B.A., 1966. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: "I enjoy the movies more than anything and read an enormous amount of everything, but my great love is thrillers and detective stories. I am very lazy, and like sleeping in the afternoons."

ADDRESSES: Office—10 Danesmoor Rd., Manchester M20 3JS, England. Agent—Laura Cecil, 17 Alwyne Villas, London N1 2HG, England.

CAREER: Fairfield High School, Droylsden, Lancashire, England, French teacher, 1968-71; writer, 1976—. Actress in Four Degrees Over (play), London, 1966.

AWARDS, HONORS: Taylor Award, 1991, for My Grandmother's Stories: A Collection of Jewish Folktales; National Jewish Book Council Award, 1994, for Golden Windows and Other Stories of Jerusalem; Houseman Society prize and Arts Council award, 2000, for The Sampler Alphabet; Boston Globe/Horn Book Award honor book designation for fiction/poetry, 2001, for Troy.

WRITINGS:

CHILDREN'S FICTION

Tea at Mrs. Manderby's, illustrated by Doreen Caldwell, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1976.

Apricots at Midnight and Other Stories from a Patchwork Quilt, illustrated by Doreen Caldwell, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1977, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1982.

Beyond the Cross-Stitch Mountains, illustrated by Mary Wilson, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1977.

The Painted Garden, illustrated by Doreen Caldwell, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1979.

A Thousand Yards of Sea, illustrated by Joanna Troughton, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1980.

The Rug That Grew, illustrated by Priscilla Lamont, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1981.

The Christmas Cat, illustrated by Caldwell, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1983.

Little Elephant's Moon, illustrated by Linda Birch, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1986.

Ritchie's Rabbit, illustrated by Vanessa Julian-Ottie, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1986, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Finding Annabel, illustrated by Alan Marks, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1987.

Fishpie for Flamingoes, illustrated by Linda Birch, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1987.

The Fantora Family Files, illustrated by Tony Ross, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1988.

The Strange Bird, illustrated by Linda Birch, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1988.

The Coronation Picnic, illustrated by Frances Wilson, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1989.

Bunk Bed Night, Dent (London, England), 1990.

My Grandmother's Stories: A Collection of Jewish Folktales, illustrated by Jael Jordan, Knopf (New York, NY), 1990.

Nina's Magic, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1990.

Pink Medicine, Dent (London, England), 1990.

A Magic Birthday, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 1992.

The Fantora Family Photographs, illustrated by Ross, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1993.

Golden Windows and Other Stories of Jerusalem, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1993.

Baby's Bedclothes, illustrated by Prue Greener, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

The Dolls' House, illustrated by Prue Greener, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

Keith's Croak, illustrated by Prue Greener, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

Mary's Meadow, illustrated by Prue Greener, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

Mimi; and Apricot Max, illustrated by Teresa O'Brien, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

Josephine, illustrated by O'Brien, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

The Return of Archibald Gribbet, illustrated by Sumiko, Longman (Essex, England), 1994.

Toey, illustrated by Duncan Smith, Heinemann (London, England), 1994.

Gilly the Kid, illustrated by Sue Heap, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

Little Swan, illustrated by Johanna Westerman, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Stories for Bedtime (with cassette), illustrated by Amanda Benjamin, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

A Candle in the Dark (part of the "Flashbacks" historical fiction series), A. & C. Black (London), 1995.

(Compiler) Kingfisher Book of Jewish Stories, illustrated by Jane Cope, Kingfisher (London, England), 1995, published in America as A Treasury of Jewish Stories, Kingfisher (New York, NY), 1996.

(Adapter) Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, illustrated by Louise Brierley, Viking (New York, NY), 1996.

The Magical Storyhouse, illustrated by Joanna Walsh, Macdonald (Brighton, England), 1996.

Chalk and Cheese, illustrated by Adriano Gon, Transworld (London, England), 1996.

Cinderella, illustrated by Gwen Tourret, Macdonald (Brighton, England), 1996.

From Lullaby to Lullaby, illustrated by Kathryn Brown, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1997.

Picasso Perkins, illustrated by Tony Ross, Transworld (London, England), 1997.

Louisa's Secret, illustrated by Karen Popham, Random House (London, England), 1997.

Louisa in the Wings, illustrated by Karen Popham, Random House (London, England), 1997.

Louisa and Phoebe, illustrated by Karen Popham, Random House (London, England), 1997.

Blossom's Revenge, illustrated by Tony Ross, Transworld (London, England), 1997.

Silent Snow, Secret Snow, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1998.

The Fantora Family Files, illustrated by Tony Ross, Avon Books (New York, NY), 1998, published as The Fabulous Fantoras, Book One: Family Files, illustrated by Eric Brace, Avon Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Callie's Kitten, illustrated by Tony Ross, Transworld (London, England), 1998, published as The Cats of Cuckoo Square: Callie's Kitten, Dell Yearling (New York, NY), 2003.

Geejay the Hero, illustrated by Tony Ross, Transworld (London, England), 1998, published as The Cats of Cuckoo Square: Geejay the Hero, Dell Yearling (New York, NY), 2003.

The Gingerbread House, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1998.

Lolly, Orchard (London, England), 1998.

The Fabulous Fantoras, Book Two: Family Photographs, illustrated by Eric Brace, Avon Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Sleep Tight, Ginger Kitten, Dutton (New York, NY), 2001.

The Cats of Cuckoo Square, illustrated by Tony Ross, Delacorte (New York, NY), 2001.

My Wishes for You, illustrated by Cliff Wright, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2002.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

The Girls in the Velvet Frame, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1978, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1979.

The Green behind the Glass, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1982, published as Snapshots of Paradise: Love Stories, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1984.

Other Echoes, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1983.

Voyage, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1983.

Letters of Fire and Other Unsettling Stories, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1984.

Happy Endings, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1986, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1991.

Daydreams on Video, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1989.

The Tower Room, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1990, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1992.

Watching the Roses, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1991, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1992.

Pictures of the Night, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1993.

A Lane to the Land of the Dead, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1994.

(With Pauline Stainer) Up on the Roof (adult poetry), Smith Doorstep (Huddersfield, England), 1987.

Yesterday (memoirs), Walker (London, England), 1992.

Voices from the Dolls' House (adult poetry), Rockingham Press (Ware, England), 1994.

The Orchard Book of Opera Stories, Orchard (London, England), 1997, published as The Random House Book of Opera Stories, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.

Troy, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 2001.

ADULT FICTION

Facing the Light, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

"MAGIC OF BALLET" SERIES

Giselle, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, David & Charles (New York, NY), 2001.

Sleeping Beauty, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, David & Charles (New York, NY), 2001.

Swan Lake, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, David & Charles (New York, NY), 2001.

The Nutcracker, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clarke, David & Charles (New York, NY), 2001.

Also author of The Sampler Alphabet, an adult poem; and of children's books Josephine and Pobble, The Six Swan Brothers, and Sun Slices, Moon Slices.

Contributor to periodicals, including Cricket. Geras's work has been translated into several languages, including Dutch and German.

SIDELIGHTS: A childhood spent following her father on his wide-ranging assignments for the Colonial Service had a great influence on the work of novelist and short story writer Adèle Geras. Using her experiences of historic Jerusalem, where she was born, exotic Africa, and Great Britain, where she attended boarding school and now lives, Geras weaves a strong sense of place and time into her fiction. "I write because I enjoy it," Geras once told CA. "I write about places and things that have been important to me in one way or another." Her portraits of vivid characters, also often drawn from recollections of the people she encountered during her childhood years, have been praised by reviewers and readers alike. Sea travel, Jewish culture, and a love of tradition also play strong roles in shaping her stories for children and teenage readers.

"I used to write a lot as a child," Geras explained to CA, "and then I found that what happened was, as you got more and more educated and had more and more academic work given to you, you had less and less time to do your own stuff. And of course the other thing is that, as you become an adolescent, you become very self-conscious, and you get the idea that if you can't be Tolstoy or Jane Austen, then you're not going to be anybody at all and you should stop. So I did stop when I was about fourteen, and I didn't start again until after my daughter was born. Then I rediscovered what fun it was—which is what every child knows."

Her artistic impulses led Geras to study acting and music in her early adulthood. "I was going to be the new Judy Garland," she recalled in an interview with Julia Eccleshare for Guardian Unlimited. She got as far as a college revue that went to the West End. "It got rave reviews, though I haven't forgiven the critic for calling me a 'stocky brunette.'"

Geras's first attempt at writing as an adult was spurred on by a competition in the London Times. "As soon as I saw the contest announced, . . . I wrote a story and sent it off," she recalled in an essay for Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS), "and although it did not win, it did become the starting point for Apricots at Midnight. It's a ghost story called 'Rose' and the moment I'd finished it, I knew that this was what I wanted to do from now on."

"Rose" was be joined by several other short tales and published by Geras in 1977 as Apricots at Midnight and Other Short Stories from a Patchwork Quilt, a collection of story "patches" narrated by Aunt Piney, a dressmaker, as she works on a quilt with her young niece. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the collection an "unusual and entrancing book," while Horn Book contributor Kate M. Flanagan praised the tales as "rich in detail and delightfully recounted."

Geras's enthusiasm for her newfound craft also found an outlet in writing picture books for young children; the first, Tea at Mrs. Manderby's, is a story about a young girl who resigns herself to taking afternoon tea with an elderly neighbor at her parent's urging. Several more books for young readers followed, including A Thousand Yards of Sea, about a fisherman who releases a mermaid from his net and is rewarded with beautiful sea-colored cloth that the women of his village make into skirts; and Toey, about two children who hope for a new pet and end up with a pair of playful kittens. Geras has also published many short stories in magazines such as Cricket; several of her tales have also been collected in 1995's Stories for Bedtime.

In addition to short stories and picture books for young children, Geras is the author of several collections of short fiction with older readers in mind. In 1983 she wrote The Green behind the Glass, a set of eight tales about young love that was released in the United States as Snapshots of Paradise: Love Stories. Called "an intriguing departure from the sunny sentimentality of so many romance collections for young adults" by Booklist reviewer Stephanie Zvirin, The Green behind the Glass includes "Don't Sing Love Songs," narrated by a young woman who is on her own with a friend in Paris until their shared attraction towards handsome Jim threatens their friendship; the title story, in which a woman's older sister knows herself to be the real object of the sister's now-dead fiancé's true affections; and "Tea in the Wendy House," which tells of a young, pregnant woman's lament for her soon-to-be-lost youth as she faces a shotgun wedding and a future as wife and mother in a tiny house. Horn Book writer Mary M. Burns hailed the variety of styles and settings of Geras's love stories, calling them "distinguished by perceptive insight into human nature, dexterity in plot construction, and a sense of style remarkable for its readability and its imagery and constraint."

In 1994's A Lane to the Land of the Dead, Geras uses suspense and elements of the supernatural to add spice and a touch of melancholy to the lives of her young protagonists. "Geras shows her usual lightness of touch," Elspeth S. Scott observed in School Librarian, predicting the collection would have wide appeal. In contrast, the five tales in Golden Windows and Other Stories of Jerusalem show readers what life was like in early twentieth-century Jerusalem. In "Beyond the Cross-Stitch Mountains," one story from this collection, eleven-year-old Daskeh conspires with friend Danny to escape the care of her aunt Phina and visit his own aunt, despite the danger in leaving the bomb shelter where they routinely spend the nights during Israel's 1948 War for Independence. And "Dreams of Fire" shows the after-effects of this experience on young Danny as memories of death and violence return to haunt him in the form of a memorial built to honor the War. Reviewer Ellen Mandel praised Golden Windows in Booklist as "well-written, laced with subtleties of history, and rich in personal emotion."

In addition to being included in Golden Windows, Geras's "Beyond the Cross-Stitch Mountains" is the title of another book for younger readers that draws on the author's Jewish heritage. Similarly, the 1978 novel The Girls in the Velvet Frame takes as its setting the city of Jerusalem in 1913. It tells the story of five girls whose only brother, Isaac, has left for the United States and from whom they have not heard for months. "The appeal of this charming book comes . . . from the accurate, penetrating and quite unsentimental portraits of the five children and of their elders," Marcus Crouch noted in the Times Literary Supplement. Cyrisse Jaffee acclaimed Geras's characters, and added in School Library Journal that "marvelous descriptions of time and place add contours."

The 1983 novel Voyage also focuses on the history of the Jewish people, as it follows a group of characters who flee from the poverty of Eastern Europe by enduring a fifteen-day crossing of the Atlantic Ocean aboard a tightly packed ship. The sight of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor at journey's end is the beginning of a new life for the characters. The book's vignettes "cleverly [reveal] not only the happenings on board but the thoughts, hopes, fears, and memories of the little community," Ethel L. Heins wrote in Horn Book.

Geras has also written several other novels for young adult readers. Among the most notable are three books that comprise her "Egerton Hall" series. Set in Egerton Hall boarding school in 1963, the stories revolve around three friends—Alice, Bella, and Megan. In 1990's The Tower Room, Megan becomes a modern-day Rapunzel as she is freed from a lackluster tower room in the boarding school after falling in love with a handsome young laboratory assistant at Egerton Hall. In 1992's Watching the Roses, Geras draws from the Sleeping Beauty legend in telling Alice's story. On the night of her eighteenth birthday party, Alice is attacked and raped by the son of her family's gardener. Her story is told to her diary as she tries to recover from the shock of the event. Time seems to stop while Alice deals with her concerns over how the rape will affect her relationship with Jean-Luc, her own handsome prince. Florence H. Munat praised Watching the Roses in Voice of Youth Advocates, noting that Geras "has deftly added just the right modern twists and details to allure older readers back to the story that enchanted them as children." Geras's fairy-tale trilogy is completed with a modern re-telling of Snow White's story, casting eighteen-year-old Bella in the lead. Pictures of the Night features an evil stepmother, Marjorie, who becomes so jealous of her stepdaughter's budding singing career that she tries to kill the young woman. In a Kirkus Reviews assessment of the novel, one critic called Geras "a writer distinguished for her imaginative power and fresh, vivid writing."

With Troy, Geras brings the tumultuous Trojan War to life through the eyes of four teenagers of ancient Greece, all of whom are connected to major figures in the epic conflict. Xanthe is nursemaid to Andromache and Hector's infant son; her sister, Marpessa, is maidservant to Helen and Paris. Polyxena, identified as the granddaughter of the "singer"—Homer—is her grandfather's caretaker. And stable hand Iason, who adores Xanthe, is too shy to express his feelings; he is more comfortable talking to Hector's war horses. "It's a domestic and youthful view of Troy," the author told Julia Eccleshare from Guardian Unlimited, "rather than the heroic and traditional one." The teens, while learning about the realities of love and war, also encounter the gods, as when Eros shoots his arrow at Xanthe.

To Ruminator Review writer Christine Alfano, Geras integrates myth and reality by presenting the gods and goddesses "as living characters. They are strongly present throughout the novel and keep their fingers on the strings of fate." Patricia Lothrop-Green of School Library Journal found some of the key characters "thin, one-dimensional figures." A Publishers Weekly contributor stated the novel accomplishes two goals: "Mythology buffs will savor the author's ability to embellish stories of old without diminishing their original flavor; the uninitiated will find this a captivating introduction to one of the pivotal events of classic Greek literature." New York Times Book Review critic Elizabeth Deveraux, citing Geras's "contemporary" attitude, noted that Troy performs "a valuable service: it paves a road into the realm of Homer, then lures young readers along its course."

The classical arts of opera and ballet also figure into Geras's writing. Her "Magic of Ballet" series prepares children to view the dances by narrating the stories behind four ballets—Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker. And her Random House Book of Opera Stories presents the tales behind such productions as Aida, The Magic Flute, Turandot, and The Love for Three Oranges.

For all her success in publishing, Geras still takes exception at the image of children's writers as not on par with "real" authors. "When you tell people you write children's books," she elaborated in an Open Book online article, "they routinely ask . . . 'Will you write a real book when you've had the practice?'" That question, she continued, "leaves me at the same time speechless and aghast. I spend much of my time trying to persuade everyone that the writers of books for children are not childish." While the press and the general public still have a way to go in changing that perception, Geras pointed to one step in the right direction: When Voyage was first published, she recalled, "it was reviewed in an Irish newspaper as an adult book. The word 'children' didn't appear on the dustjacket . . . , and no one was any the wiser, mainly because many of my characters were elderly and middle-aged."

"Geras is interested in people and understands them, especially girls," Eccleshare wrote in an essay for Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. "Her books have an emotional integrity which makes them satisfying. Though not challenging or highly plotted they are all very well constructed and the fluent writing makes them easy to read and enjoy." Geras has just published her first novel, Facing the Light, a mulit-layered story about a family over a time-span of seventy-five years.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Something about the Author, Volume 87, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.

Something about the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 21, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.

St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, third edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1989.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August 1984, p. 1609; October 15, 1993; November 15 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 582; April 15 1997, Lauren Peterson, review of From Lullaby to Lullaby, p. 1436; October 15 1998, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Random House Book of Opera Stories, p. 414; November 1, 1998, Michael Cart, review of The Fabulous Fantoras, Book One: Family Files, p. 490; June 1, 1999, review of The Fabulous Fantoras, Book Two: Family Photographs, p. 1829; April 1, 2001, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Troy, p. 1482; September 1, 2001, Zvirin, review of The Cats of Cuckoo Square, p. September 15, 2001, Zvirin, review of Troy, p. 225; December 15, 2002, Lauren Peterson, review of My Wishes for You, p. 766.

Books for Keeps, May, 1996, review of A Lane to the Land of the Dead and Other Stories, p. 17; September, 1996, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 32; March, 1999, review of The Six Swan Brothers, p. 21, and Silent Snow, Secret Snow, p. 27; May, 1999, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 27; July, 1999, review of Sun Slices, Moon Slices, p. 20; November, 1999, review of Josephine and Pobble and Mimi; and Apricot Max, p. 16.

Books for Your Children, autumn, 1992, p. 27.

Children's Bookwatch, May, 1997, review of From Lullaby to Lullaby, p. 3.

Christian Science Monitor, May 13, 1983.

Emergency Librarian, May, 1998, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 51.

Guardian (London, England), March 28, 2000, review of Troy, p. 63.

Horn Book, February, 1983, pp. 43-44; August, 1983, p. 452; September-October, 1984, p. 596; March-April, 1993, p. 211.

Horn Book Guide, spring, 1997, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 148; fall, 1997, review of From Lullaby to Lullaby, p. 265; spring, 1999, review of The Fabulous Fantoras, Book One, p. 66; fall, 1999, review of The Fabulous Fantoras, Book Two, p. 291.

Junior Bookshelf, December, 1976, p. 326; June, 1994, p. 100; August, 1994, p. 134; June, 1996, review of A Candle in the Dark, p. 113; December, 1996, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 251.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 1984, p. J8; March 15, 1993; October 15, 1996, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 1532; April 1, 1997, review of From Lullaby to Lullaby, p. 554; May 1, 2001, review of Sleep Tight, Ginger Kitten, p. 659; October 1, 2001, review of The Cats of Cuckoo Square, p. 1423.

New Statesman, December 4, 1998, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 60.

New York Times Book Review, July 15, 2001, Elizabeth Deveraux, review of Troy, p. 25.

Publishers Weekly, October 15, 1982, p. 66; November 25, 1996, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 74; March 17, 1997, review of From Lullaby to Lullaby, p. 82; August 10, 1998, review of The Fabulous Fantoras, Book One: Family Files, p. 388; August 31, 1998, review of The Random House Book of Opera Stories, p. 78; May 7, 2001, review of Sleep Tight, Ginger Kitten and Troy, pp. 245, 248.

Ruminator Review, summer, 2001, Christine Alfano, review of Troy, pp. 53-54.

School Librarian, June, 1983, pp. 162, 165; November, 1992, p. 157; May, 1994, p. 60; May, 1995, p. 77; May, 1996, review of A Candle in the Dark, p. 62; winter, 1999, review of Sun Slices, Moon Slices, p. 185; summer, 1999, review of Silent Snow, Secret Snow and The Six Swan Brothers, pp. 79, 99.

School Library Journal, September, 1979, p. 138; February, 1997, Donna Scanlon, review of Beauty and the Beast: And Other Stories, p. 90; July, 1997, Sue Norris, review of From Lullaby to Lullaby, p. 67; October, 1998, Renee Steinberg, review of The Random House Book of Opera Stories, p. 153; January, 1999, Eva Mitnick, review of The Fabulous Fantoras, Book One, p. 127; May, 2001, Rosalyn Pierini, review of Sleep Tight, Ginger Kitten,p. 115; July, 2001, Patricia Lothrop-Green, review of Troy, p. 108; December, 2001, Carolyn Ward, review of The Cats of Cuckoo Square, p. 102; December, 2002, Be Astengo, review of My Wishes for You, p. 96.

Times Educational Supplement, February 5, 1999, review of Silent Snow, Secret Snow, p. 27; September 24, 1999, review of The Cats of Cuckoo Square, p. 48.

Times Literary Supplement, September 29, 1978, p. 1083; March 27, 1981, p. 340; January 27, 1984; November 30, 1984; June 6, 1986.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 1992, p. 278.