Howarth, Lesley 1952-

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HOWARTH, Lesley 1952-

PERSONAL: Born December 29, 1952, in Bournemouth, England. Education: Attended Bournemouth College of Art and Croydon College of Art.

ADDRESSES: Home—Cornwall, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Puffin Publicity, 345 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Writer. Worked at market gardens and various other jobs.

AWARDS, HONORS: Shortlisted for Whitbread Children's Book Award, 1993, for the The Flower King; winner, Guardian Children's Fiction Award, 1994, for MapHead; shortlisted for Writers' Guild Award, 1994; shortlisted for W. H. Smith Mind Boggling Books Award and Young Telegraph Book Award, all 1995, all for MapHead; Smarties Book Prize, 9-11 category, 1995, for Weather Eye.

WRITINGS:

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

The Flower King, Walker Books (London, England), 1993.

MapHead, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Weather Eye, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

The Pits, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Fort Biscuit, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

MapHead: The Return, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

Quirx: Welcome to Inner Space, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1997.

Epix: Bad Rep, Mammoth, 1998.

Aliens for Dinner, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1999.

Yamabusters!, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1999.

Mister Spaceman, Walker Books (London, England), 1999.

Paulina, Walker Books (London, England), 1999.

The Squint, Walker Books (London, England), 1999.

No Accident, Barrington Stoke (London, England), 2000.

I Managed a Monster, Puffin (New York, NY), 2000.

Ultraviolet, Puffin (New York, NY), 2001.

Carwash, Puffin (New York, NY), 2002.

Dade County's Big Summer, Barrington Stoke (London, England), 2002.

Colossus, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2004.

Drive, Puffin (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: With her first young adult novel, The Flower King, English author Lesley Howarth made it to several shortlists for fiction awards. With her second book, MapHead, she served up a fictional brew that "one only occasionally happens upon," according to Robyn Sheahan in a cover story in Magpies. Sheahan went on to note that Howarth writes the sort of book that "is respectful of its readers' imaginative and intellectual capabilities, and which offers real insights into the difficult business of growing up."

Howarth herself was coming of age as a writer with these first published books and has since broadened her fictional universe to encompass not only a turn-ofthe-century world filled with flowers and a modern country town with alien visitors in its midst, but also a wind farm in the near future in Weather Eye, and the chilly world of prehistory in The Pits, a story of an ice-age man told by a chatty ghost. These are all parts of Howarth and are indicative of the varied life she herself has led.

Born in Bournemouth, England, Howarth attended grammar school there and at the Bournemouth School for Girls. A self-confessed dreamer, she commented in an interview with Stephanie Nettell for Magpies that she puts her lack of success in school down to stubbornness and a "fierce strain of individualism: the more people told me to buckle down the less likely I was to do it." But she did develop a love for story at an early age; as an only child she created a rich interior life. "I'd live in a story, in its atmosphere, for days," she told Nettell, "and spent long hours plonking out stories on my Dad's typewriter." Growing up in the Westbourne district of Bournemouth, she was also in close proximity to the house where Robert Louis Stevenson lived while writing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped. Howarth would sit in the garden of the house where Stevenson created those classics and marvel at how close the past was to her. Stevenson continues to be a major influence in her own writing—especially his sense of adventure and his ability to use "just the right word every time," as she explained to Nettell.

After marrying and moving to Cornwall, Howarth proceeded to write short stories and short screenplays which were submitted for a BBC video project. Though the films were not accepted, the process of writing them spurred Howarth into taking evening classes in creative writing. Soon her stories were expanding, turning into novels, and the voice she consistently wrote in was one directed at children. Finally, with three novels under her belt—none of them accepted by a publisher—she was able to place her fourth with the British publisher, Walker Books. This was "only the second unsolicited novel published by Walker," according to Kevin Steinberger in Reading Time. As Steinberger went on to point out, Howarth's varied background in work and family all play a large part in her fiction. This first young adult novel, The Flower King, is a "gentle turn-of-the century story," according to a Magpies reviewer, and some of the characters that she worked with in the retirement home find their way into the novel, as well as Howarth's experiences working in flower gardens. Shortlisted for both the Whitbread and Guardian children's fiction prizes, The Flower King won Howarth recognition and an agent.

For her second published novel, MapHead, Howarth adopted a science fiction format. Alien beings from the Subtle World, twelve-year-old MapHead and his father, Ran, come to Earth to search for the boy's mother, Kay. Before MapHead's birth, Ran saved his human mother from death by a lightning bolt, and she returned with him to the Subtle World where they had a baby. But pining for her home, Kay returned to Earth with no memory of her encounter with Ran nor of her son. Now MapHead—so-called because of his ability to project a map of the terrain on his face and bald head—needs to find his mother before he can enjoy the Dawn of Power. Under the names of Boothe and Powers, the son and father take up residence in a tomato glasshouse on Earth, and Boothe enrolls in the local school where he meets the boy who is his half-brother and will take him to find his mother. In the process, he and his half-brother, Kenny, become friends, and MapHead begins to fit in and know what it means to be loved. Meeting his mother, he experiences an internal integration that gives him power equal to his father's, but the actual process of his search has led him to this self-integration.

Told with humor and attention to detail, MapHead "is a sweet, tender, coming-of-age story . . . a marvelous read," according to Dorothy M. Broderick in Voice of Youth Advocates, and a "deliciously grotesque tale," according to John Peters in School Library Journal. Merri Monks in Booklist noted that "Howarth skillfully evokes the internal landscapes of a young man's emotions and imagination," while Magpies' Sheahan praised the novel's "felicitous turns of phrase," noting that it was "brimful with lyrical, luscious language; written with an intensity, a distillation of the senses." Though MapHead eventually leaves Earth without his mother, he has most definitely found himself: "Don't you know?" he asks toward the end of the book. "Can't you see? I'm not a little kid anymore. No one's got me, because I've got myself." In Junior Bookshelf, a reviewer concluded that "Lesley Howarth has mixed the imaginary and the real ingredients with great skill."

Howarth reintroduced MapHead and his adventures in a 1997 sequel, MapHead: The Return, in which the title character finds himself alone without his father for the first time and must return to Earth to find his destiny. In his loneliness MapHead misuses his powers, transferring his memories into the mind of his newfound friend, Jack Stamp, an action that has unintended consequences. Voice of Youth Advocates critic Roxy Ekstrom applauded the work, calling it a "great coming-of-age story that dwells on a respect for freedom, the desire for autonomy, and the fear of that independence." A reviewer in Horn Book also praised MapHead: The Return, stating, "Insightful characterization, concise prose, and sophisticated humor distinguish the fantasy." Steven Engelfried, writing in School Library Journal, remarked that MapHead's "deep concern for the humans he comes to love and his burning need to find his own place in the world are truly touching."

With increased recognition came the working hours of a full-time novelist. "I'm not interested in oral storytelling," Howarth told Steinberger for his Reading Time article. "For me the whole buzz is the word—the word making an effect on the page; that's what interests me." Normally Howarth does not begin her novels with a grand plan, but once in the story, she relishes in doing research and gathering more information than she'll ever need. "Then I let the stuff percolate for a long time," she told Steinberger. "You have to edge up to a story. . . . The whole essence of storywriting is to be excited. Once I get bored or find it a slog I decide to let it go."

Howarth's third novel is sometimes typified as an environmental story, though the author herself rejects the notion that she begins with a theme. For her, story is paramount and meaning follows story. With Weather Eye, Howarth was influenced both by an article about a near-death experience and by an apocalyptic feeling engendered in the novel by changing weather patterns. Thirteen-year-old Telly lives with her parents on a weather farm in Cornwall in 1999, just before the millennium. She helps her parents on this farm which generates electricity with huge windmills. All around the world unseasonal weather patterns are causing immense damage to property and life; in Cornwall strong winds have been blowing for days, and Telly is almost killed when struck on the head by a damaged turbine blade from one of the giant windmills. Telly feels she is imbued with special powers after this close scrape with death and resolves to do something to alter the human destructiveness responsible for the severe weather. Networking with youths around the world via computers, Telly, the Weather Eye, hopes to save the planet by redirecting energies. After many adventures and much hard work, a new turbine is brought on-line at the climax of the novel, just in time for the new millennium. Telly describes it, "wheeling into the twenty-first century. Dad has the right idea: 'Next century belongs to you lot. . . . I've a feeling you'll all make the best of it.'"

In a Magpies review of the novel, Steinberger noted that Weather Eye "may be read as a very reassuring 'environmental' novel but it is immediately a humorous, suspenseful, thoughtful narration. . . . It is a story for, and of, our times, but in Howarth's inimitable style." Other critics, including Maeve Visser Knoth in Horn Book, also commented on Howarth's humor: "The author . . . has written an unusual novel that will appeal to readers with its empowering theme and its strong element of humor." In Junior Bookshelf, a critic also remarked on Howarth's use of humor, saying "[Howarth's] vision of the world is essentially comic as well as profoundly moral." The reviewer went on to conclude that young readers "will read her book with joy and satisfaction because her children are drawn clearly and with humour as well as understanding."

Steinberger, in his Reading Time article on Howarth, noted that her use of idiom for both comic effects and depth of story set her apart from other writers. In The Pits she uses idiom to heightened effects. The book was inspired by news reports of the discovery of an iceman in the west of Austria and also by an article relating the discovery of an Ice Age pine chewing gum. This started Howarth looking for parallels between that time and ours and ended up with "a West Side Story-like gang rivalry set in Ice Age coastal Britain," according to Steinberger. The archaeologist Needcliff discovers Arf, the Iceman, a relic of a distant age, but his daughter, with him for the summer, wonders all the time what really made the Iceman tick. Such particulars are supplied by an adolescent ghost, Broddy Bronson, who was a pal of Arf. Broddy has been drifting around for some 9,000 years, picking up the speech and experiences of each succeeding age, and it is his voice—entered into the archaeologist's computer—that relates the story of Arf, and of Broddy. It is Broddy's distinctive idiom that gives life to the tale. There are parallels between Broddy's time and ours, especially the gang fighting and turf wars. There is also "much humor," according to a reviewer in Magpies, who went on to conclude that "The Pits is a great read. It rollicks along . . . and rejoices in telling an original story in an original way." Janice M. Del Negro, writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, echoed this opinion of originality and commented that "what is most unusual about this book is that it works, and works remarkably well. Howarth creates a prehistoric world that is eminently credible, peopled by individuals with complex personalities."

In Mister Spaceman Howarth turns her attention to a contemporary teenager, Thomas Moon, who is doing badly in school because of his obsession with becoming an astronaut. Moon's interest in space leads him to do some strange things by way of "training": sleeping upright in a sleeping bag, eating only foods that come out of tubes, and wearing six tracksuits at the same time. His obsession also leads him to withdraw from his friends and family to spend all his time in the imaginative world of space travel. With the help of a teacher who knows how to ease Moon back into normal school life, things eventually work out for the best. "The crisis," explained Philip Pullman in the Guardian, "is resolved with great storytelling tact and craft, and the happy ending grows naturally out of the way things have been since the start of the story." Nicholas Tucker in the Independent found Mister Spaceman to be a "touching and above all a very funny story."

Carwash focuses on a group of English teens during one small-town summer. Luke has set up Loony Luke's Carwash, a one-man operation at a local car dealer. Luke is infatuated with his neighbor, Liv, who spends her time reading Jane Austen. Liv's sister, Sylvia, spends her days sitting high in a tree, surveying the goings-on below. Other characters include Matt Kramer, obsessed with cars, and Michael Paxman, a know-it-all. "Out of this Howarth weaves a backcloth of summertime incident that includes a teenage pregnancy, which is made part of a thread in the novel that sees some of the characters confronting the end of their childhood," Michael Thorn wrote in the Scotsman. "Carwash is an awesomely good read, with quickfire teenage dialogue that is utterly convincing." Christine Madden in the Irish Times found Carwash to be "an entertaining tangle of changing young lives for a perfect poolside holiday read."

Howarth, who complains that she is easily bored, has created in a short span of time, a most original group of works, full of adventure, humor, and meaning. Nicholas Tucker, writing in the Independent, maintained that she is "one of the best contemporary writers for the young, Howarth is still going from strength to strength." Howarth once told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is to have fun! Loads of people have influenced me, but my big heroes are Robert Louis Stevenson, Raymond Carver, Alan Bennett, Paul Jennings, and the authors of all the classic books I read as a child, the 'Penguin Modern Poets,' et cetera.

"My writing process is simple. I get excited about an idea, read a lot (but not too much) around it, then sit down in front of my word processor and begin. I set up the most exciting situation and the most believable, if quirky, characters that I can, then I let 'em roll and see what happens. Then I have to keep control over the 'shape' of the story as it unfolds. I am never entirely sure it will all work out until I am almost through, but that's the excitement of it!

"What inspires me to write? It is the sheer excitement of reaching out to touch someone else with what I am excited about."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1994, Merri Monks, review of MapHead, p. 319; September 15, 1995, Chris Sherman, review of Weather Eye, p. 160.

Book Report, January-February, 1995, Jo Clarke, review of MapHead, p. 47; January-February, 1997, Judith Beavers, review of The Pits, p. 34.

Books for Keeps, November, 1993, p. 14; July, 1994, pp. 6, 28; July, 1995, p. 12; January, 1996, p. 11.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 1995, p. 93; December, 1996, Janice M. Del Negro, review of The Pits, pp. 138-139; March, 1998, p. 246.

Guardian, January 11, 2000, Philip Pullman, review of Mister Spaceman.

Horn Book, November-December, 1994, Anne Deifendeifer, review of MapHead, p. 732; March-April, 1996, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of Weather Eye, pp. 208-209; January-February, 1998, Anne Deifendeifer, review of MapHead: The Return, pp. 74-75.

Horn Book Guide, spring, 1995, p. 78; spring, 1996, p. 73.

Independent (London, England), November 6, 1999, Nicholas Tucker, review of Mister Spaceman, p. 11; December 12, 1999, Laurence Phelan, review of Mister Spaceman, p. 10; July 13, 2002, Nicholas Tucker, review of Carwash, p. 27.

Irish Times, July 6, 2002, Christine Madden, review of Carwash, p. 59.

Junior Bookshelf, August, 1994, review of MapHead, p. 145; June, 1995, review of Weather Eye, p. 108.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 1997, p. 1583.

Magpies, May, 1994, p. 24; July, 1994, Robyn Sheahan, review of MapHead, p. 4; July, 1995, Kevin Steinberger, review of Weather Eye, p. 25; May, 1996, Stephanie Nettell, "Know the Author: Lesley Howarth," pp. 18-21, and review of The Pits, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, November 14, 1994, review of MapHead, p. 69.

Reading Time, May, 1996, Kevin Steinberger, "Lesley Howarth," p. 12.

School Library Journal, October, 1994, John Peters, review of MapHead, p. 124; November, 1995, Lyle Blake Smythers, review of Weather Eye, p. 100; January, 1998, Steven Engelfried, review of MapHead: The Return, p. 112.

Scotsman, June 29, 2002, Michael Thorn, review of Carwash, p. 10.

Times Educational Supplement, November 12, 1993, p. R12; December 24, 1993, p. 8.

U.S. News & World Report, December 5, 1994, Marc Silver, review of MapHead, p. 97Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 1995, Dorothy M. Broderick, review of MapHead, p. 348; April, 1998, Roxy Ekstrom, review of MapHead: The Return, pp. 55-56.