Sparks, Beatrice (Mathews) 1918-

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SPARKS, Beatrice (Mathews) 1918-

PERSONAL: Born January 15, 1918, in Goldberg, ID; daughter of Leonard Clarence (a painter) and Vivian (Johns) Mathews; married La Vorn G. Sparks (an investor); children: La Vorn G., Jr., Suzette Sparks Pembleton, Cynthia. Education: Attended University of California—Los Angeles, and Brigham Young University; earned Ph.D. Religion: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon).

ADDRESSES: Home and office—174 West 4750 N. University Ave., Provo, Utah 84601. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd. St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Youth counselor, 1955—; writer. Teacher in division of continuing education at Brigham Young University; music therapist in youth division at Utah State Mental Hospital. Guest on television and radio programs; public speaker. National Book Award judge for young people's literature, 1996.

AWARDS, HONORS: Young Adult Notable Book selection and Quick Pick for Recommended Reading, both from the American Library Association; Christopher Medal; Best Books citation, School Library Journal.

WRITINGS:

Key to Happiness, Deseret (Salt Lake City, UT), 1967.

Voices: The Stories of Four Troubled Teenagers as Told in Personal Interviews to Beatrice Sparks, Times Books (New York, NY), 1978.

editor

Go Ask Alice, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1971.

Jay's Journal, Times Books (New York, NY), 1979.

It Happened to Nancy, Avon (New York, NY), 1994.

Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets, Avon (New York, NY), 1996.

Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

Treacherous Love: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager, Avon (New York, NY), 2000.

Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

other

Author of columns, including "Today," in California Intermountain News, "What's New on the Malibu," in Malibu Monitor, and "News and Views," in Santa Monica Outlook.

ADAPTATIONS: Go Ask Alice was made into a television movie, starring William Shatner, in 1973.

SIDELIGHTS: Beatrice Sparks is widely known as the editor of several "diaries" that highlight issues faced by teenagers living in a complicated world. Throughout her many works, Sparks discusses abuse, eating disorders, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, and AIDS. Most of her books are presented as teenage diaries of teenagers in counseling. While some have accused Sparks of fabricating the diaries, her books have provided young adult audiences with personal voices that speak specifically to teens. Her ability to capture and hold the attention of her troubled audience has been praised by reviewers. While questioning the authorship of the books edited by Sparks as well as their minor factual inconsistencies, Booklist contributor Frances Bradburn thought though these issues are "frustrating for adults who monitor the children's/YA field, it's doubtful that it will make much difference to the … intended audience." Bradburn predicted, "YAs will devour [It Happened to Nancy] just as they did its predecessor."

Sparks once told CA: "Since 1955 I have been working with kids who have problems. I have found them at Utah State Mental Hospital, at Brigham Young University, and at seminars and youth conferences. I have talked to mixed groups at runaway houses and school assemblies. My husband and I drove from San Francisco to New York, taking a northern route, and returned via Los Angeles on a southern route. In all, I talked with well over one thousand young people, privileged kids, underprivileged kids, and 'inbetweens.' I talked to scholars and nonreaders; those who were conformers and those who were rebellious. Hurting kids are everywhere!"

Perhaps Sparks' most popular and well-known book, Go Ask Alice features the diary of an unnamed teenage girl addicted to drugs. The book tracks Alice's progression from an innocent but confused teenage girl to a drug addict. Sparks once commented, "Alice is fifteen, white, middle class. She diets. She dates. She gets decent grades. She fights with her younger brother and sister. She has her own room. She thinks someday she'd like to get married and raise a family. Alice turns on to acid. She digs it. Alice's parents don't know what's going on. They cannot help her. The difference between Alice and a lot of other kids on drugs is that Alice keeps a diary. After Alice's death I put her diary into book form, Go Ask Alice."

Go Ask Alice has been both criticized and praised for its portrayal of teenage drug addiction. The book first appeared, according to a writer for Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, "at the height of the drug culture, and its poignant message hit home for many teens who themselves found drugs titillating and nearly impossible to resist." The content of Sparks' book has caused debate about its appropriateness for inclusion in school libraries, but Go Ask Alice has remained a popular read for both teenagers and adults.

According to Sparks, her next work, Voices: The Stories of Four Troubled Teenagers as Told in Personal Interviews to Beatrice Sparks, "documents with horrifying honesty the lives of four teenagers: Mary, Mark, Milly, and Jane, who, in their poignant, futile struggle to be loved and cared about, settled for something far less. They tell their own stories in their own words, about what it is like to deal with homosexuality at school, to be high on drugs at the dinner table with two unsuspecting parents, to be fourteen years old and introducing a younger sister to amphetamines, to join a cult and live through the agony of deprogramming."

Jay's Journal is another of Sparks' diary-type books, this time detailing the life of a teen involved in a satanic cult. "Jay is an exceptionally intelligent and articulate boy, with all the advantages of a prosperous and loving home; but he is also unhappy, confused, self-pitying, guilty, bored, and lonely," Sparks once said. "He gets in over his head in the eerie and dangerous world of the occult. At the age of sixteen Jay shoots himself, leaving behind his raw and haunting message—what scared and troubled him, what he couldn't tell his parents, what he couldn't tell anyone, except his [diary], published as Jay's Journal." Again, Sparks speaks to her young adult audience through the diary of a troubled teen, this time both detailing and warning of the dangers of the occult.

Sparks' success as a young adult author, claim reviewers, can be accredited to her ability to communicate important messages to her audience through a teenage voice. In It Happened to Nancy, Nancy reveals the passionate to painful progression of her relationship with her boyfriend. At first, Nancy is happy and exuberant about Collin, but after he gets her drunk, rapes her, and leaves her infected with HIV, the teen must face a harsh reality. The diary then details Nancy's deterioration as she progresses from being HIV-positive to having full-blown AIDS, and eventually passes away. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called It Happened to Nancy a "thought-provoking narrative" and "a rapid-paced and horrific account of the disease's progress." The book serves as a warning to sexually active teens who feel they are invulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDS.

Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets is written as a series of taped counseling sessions Sparks conducted with the book's narrator, Sammy. According to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, Sammy "gradually reveals the traumatic incidents from his past that have stripped away his self-esteem and self-respect." Through counseling, Sammy is able to work through his depression.

In Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager, Sparks tackles the prominent issue of teen pregnancy. The writer of the diary, fourteen-year-old Annie, is impregnated by her older, abusive boyfriend. Annie deals with her pregnancy with the support of her single mother. A critic for Adolescence called the book "eloquent and moving," while a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted, the book has "an aura of soap opera." The reviewer concluded, however, that Annie's Baby, "provides a plethora of objective and valuable information about sex, pregnancy, and birth control." Sparks' next book, Treacherous Love: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager, tracks fourteen-year-old Jennie's abandonment by her father, pill-addicted mother, and friends, as well as her subsequent relationship with a substitute math teacher. The diary captures the thrill of her new relationship, but its tone slowly changes as she begins to feel lonely, upset, and confused by the affair.

Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager is the journal of a weight-obsessed teen who spirals downward in a cycle of fasting, binging, and purging. Kim is a student at the University of California—Los Angeles who wants to join the gymnastics team but must first lose weight. Once on the team, Kim maintains her weight by binging and purging, behaviors that eventually lead to anorexia. Michele Capozzella of School Library Journal commented that Kim's "rapidly changing emotions ring true, as do her feelings of helplessness." In a Metapsychology Online book review, Su Terry called Kim "an excellent book" that "illustrates the slow but steady change in the thinking of an individual with an eating disorder." Kliatt contributor Lynne Remick noted, the book "proves enlightening and ends with hope."

Sparks once told CA: "My books are all 'message' books in the sense that I sincerely believe we cannot isolate today's kids from today's problems. We can only hope to educate them so they will accept as a privilege their right to free agency, will take responsibility for their own actions, and will make intelligent decisions concerning their own lives."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, Volume 14, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

periodicals

Adolescence, fall, 1998, review of Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager, p. 720.

Booklist, October, 1979; June 1, 1994, Frances Bradburn, review of It Happened to Nancy, p. 1791; April 1, 1995, review of It Happened to Nancy, p. 1415; March 15, 2001, review of Treacherous Love: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager, p. 1384.

Hollywood Press, October 13, 1978.

Jackson Sun, September 5, 1971.

Kalamazoo Gazette, September 28, 1975.

Kliatt, July, 2002, Lynne Remick, review of Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager, p. 24.

Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1979.

New York Times, September 19, 1975.

Publishers Weekly, February 21, 1994, review of It Happened to Nancy, p. 256; June 17, 1996, review of Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets, p. 67; June 22, 1998, review of Annie's Baby, p. 93.

School Library Journal, October, 1979; July, 1996, review of Almost Lost, p. 105; July, 1998, review of Annie's Baby, p. 100; September, 2002, Michele Capozzella, review of Kim, p. 234.

Teen, January, 1979.

Television Weekly, October 22, 1973.

Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 1994, review of It Happened to Nancy, p. 231; October, 1995, review of It Happened to Nancy, p. 210; October, 1996, review of Almost Lost, p. 224; June, 1998, review of Annie's Baby, p. 138.