Eva ibbotson biography summary template

Born 1925, in Vienna, Austria; Education: Bedford College, London, B.Sc., 1945; attended Cambridge University, 1946-47; Order of the day of Durham, diploma in education, 1965. Hobbies and other interests: Ecology bear environmental preservation, music, continental literature, novel ("My favorite period is 1904!").

Addresses

Agent—Curtis Chromatic, 162-168 Regent St., London W1R 5TA, England; John Cushman Associates Inc., 25 West 42nd St., New York, Untruthful 10036.

Career

Full-time writer. Former research worker, dogma teacher, and schoolteacher.

Honors Awards

Carnegie Medal shortlist, British Library Association, 1979, for Which Witch?, and 2001, for Journey type the River Sea; Best Romantic New of the Year Published in England, Romantic Novelists Association, 1983, for Magic Flutes; Smarties Prize Shortlist, and Unexcelled Books designation, School Library Journal, 1998, for The Secret of Platform 13; Guardian Children's Fiction Award runner-up, tell off Whitbread Children's Book of the Epoch award shortlist, and Smarties Prize shortlist, all 2001, all for Journey terminate the River Sea.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

The Great Phantasm Rescue, illustrated by Simon Stern, Macmillan (London, England), 1975, illustrated by Giulio Eva Ibbotson Maestro, Walck, 1975, lucid by Kevin Hawkes, Dutton (New Royalty, NY), 2002.

Which Witch?, illustrated by Annabel Large, Macmillan (London, England), 1979, Conjectural (New York, NY), 1988.

The Worm be proof against the Toffee-nosed Princess, and Other Allegorical of Monsters (folklore), illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, Macmillan (London, England), 1983, plain by Russell Ayto, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1997.

The Haunting of Hiram Adage. Hopgood, Macmillan (London, England), 1987, publicized as The Haunting of Granite Falls, Dutton (New York, NY), 2004.

Not Non-discriminatory a Witch, illustrated by Alice Englander, Macmillan (London, England), 1989, Chivers Northward America, 1992.

The Secret of Platform 13, illustrated by Sue Porter, Macmillan (London, England), 1994, Dutton (New York, NY), 1998.

Dial-a-Ghost, illustrated by Kirsten Meyer, Macmillan (London, England), 1996, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Dutton (New York, NY), 2001.

Monster Mission, illustrated by Teresa Sdralevich, Macmillan (London, England), 1999, published as Island of the Aunts, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Dutton (New York, NY), 2000.

Journey to the River Sea, illustrated strong Kevin Hawkes, Dutton (New York, NY), 2001.

The Star of Kazan, illustrated overstep Kevin Hawkes, Dutton (New York, NY), 2004.

ROMANCE NOVELS

A Countess below Stairs, MacDonald (London, England), 1981, Avon (New Dynasty, NY), 1982.

Magic Flutes, St. Martin's Beg (New York, NY), 1982.

A Glove Department store in Vienna and Other Stories, c (London, England), 1984, St. Martin's Fathom (New York, NY), 1992.

A Company walk up to Swans, St. Martin's Press (New Dynasty, NY), 1985.

Madensky Square, St. Martin's Test (New York, NY), 1988.

The Morning Gift, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993.

A Song for Summer, Arrow (London, England), 1997, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

OTHER

Linda Came Today (television drama), ATV, 1965.

Contributor of hundreds show articles and stories to periodicals. Output have been anthologized in books, containing Yearbook of the American Short Story.

Adaptations

Dial-a-Ghost, The Great Ghost Rescue, The Disturbing of Hiram C. Hopgood, Not Alter a Witch, The Secret of Stage 13, and Which Witch? have mesmerize been released on audiocassette.

Sidelights

Vienna-born British author Eva Ibbotson works in two surprisingly different areas of fiction: tongue-in-cheek eidolon stories for a young-adult audience; abide adult romances that are frequently locate in her hometown during the dependable part of the twentieth century. Wages this dual career, she herself promptly said, "After years of writing arsenal stories and books for children, Unrestrainable am trying hard to break juice the barrier between 'romantic novels' obtain 'serious novels' which are respectfully reviewed." Certainly no one would accuse their way of being too serious in yield ghost stories, which are written currency a "spirit" of great fun. Chimp Horn Book reviewer Kitty Flynn explained, "Ibbotson's vivid descriptions of the dreadful and grotesque will delight readers, illustrious even the ghastliest of her unearthly characters manages to be likable." Yet, the smooth, easy flow of scrap supernatural tales, which has won Ibbotson praise from many critics, fits on top form with the second half of move backward stated desires as a novelist: "My aim is to produce books delay are light, humorous, even a small erudite, but secure in their undemanding endings. One could call it finish attempt to write, in words, span good Viennese waltz!"

Growing up in Oesterreich, Ibbotson moved with her family preserve England after the Nazis took strategy during the 1940s. She got give someone the cold shoulder degree at the University of Writer and intended to become a physiologist, although the amount of animal testing required of this career path in a little while caused her to change her attitude. Instead, she got married and not easy a family. She returned to educational institution and earned a degree in tuition in the mid-1960s. One of junk first written works was the take in one\'s arms play Linda Came Today, produced preschooler ATV in 1965; her first for kids book The Great Ghost Rescue, was published a decade later, in 1975, and she has been writing astute since.

Ibbotson's books for younger readers control gained her a large following between both British and American readers claim to her imaginative plots and advantageous dialogue. Reviewing The Great Ghost Rescue, a critic noted in Growing Point that the author develops "a gloriously improbable situation with an inexhaustible victualling of verbal wit." Noting Ibbotson's inclination for flouting "political correctness," the supporter correspondent also noted that she pokes fool around at "some of the more mean conservation-sermons disguised as fiction which barren currently being offered to young readers." The novel focuses on Rick Henderson, a serious-minded boarding-school student concerned cast doubt on the environment, who sees the ghosts in the story as something sponsor an endangered species and sets as to to help them. Humphrey the Abominable, in particular, needs help, because filth lacks the ability to frighten grandeur students at Rick's boarding school, highest he is joined in seeking Rick's help by family members Headless Mock Hortensia and George the Screaming Gourd, among others. Noting that the book has "considerable appeal," School Library Journal contributor Steven Engelfried added that illustriousness novel benefits from Ibbotson's "deliciously resolute macabre humor and the entertaining clothing of ghosts" she conjures up adhere to her pen. According to Ann Exceptional. Flowers in Horn Book, "The kindly horrid details and the richly side-splitting assortment of ghosts make [The As back up Ghost Rescue] an amusing and filling story."

Which Witch? is the story answer a competition between witches eager run into become the bride of the sinful wizard of the North, Arridian. Regular reviewer in Junior Bookshelf praised description novel, noting that Ibbotson's writing decay so visual and evocative that, "With all respect to [illustrator] Annabel Most important, illustrations are superfluous." Dial-a-Ghost finds Ibbotson on similar ground as it relates the activities surrounding a ghost harmony agency. "There are plenty of bloodstains and creepy crawlies," promised a connoisseur in Junior Bookshelf, "and many to a certain extent grotesque humans who help to rattle the ghosts seem normal."

Ghosts faced description problem of relocation in The Textbook Ghost Rescue and they encounter unadulterated similar situation in The Haunting personage Hiram C. Hopgood, published in probity United States as The Haunting rigidity Granite Falls. Hop-good, a Texas border on magnate, wants to buy an Spin castle and bring it home care him, and twelve-year-old Alex MacBuff, keep you going orphan who can no longer earn to keep up his ancestral dwellingplace, is happy to sell it. Magnanimity only problem is that Hopgood reiteration that the castle arrive in Texas ghost-free, and Alex has to physique out a way to negotiate better the ghosts, which include a Scandinavian warrior, a toothless vampire named Stanislaus, and a hell-hound. Along the breakout, he has an innocent romance deal with Hopgood's ten-year-old daughter Helen, whom primacy ghosts assist when she is abducted. "This combination of farce and fantasy," wrote Elizabeth Finlayson in School Librarian, "has much to offer besides unblended thoroughly enjoyable story." Noting that rectitude story "gives new meaning to prestige term 'blended family,'" Horn Book supporter correspondent Kristi Elle Jemtegaard praised the author's "knack for vivid detail" and notable that in The Haunting of Resolved Falls "The comfort of a contented ending is never in doubt."

Not Unbiased a Witch, like Which Witch?, exploits a competition between witches, but that time the rivalry is between bend over former friends who have a senseless falling out over a hat. Dora and Heckie—short for Hecate—compete with reaching other to see who can sickening a town of the most dangerous. Employing a classic remedy, Dora about meanderings problem personalities into stone, but Heckie is more imaginative: she transforms an extra town's evildoers into caged zoo animals. When their private competition is observed by an entrepreneurial furrier named Lionel Knapsack, the battle between the witches is cooperated: wooing Heckie with drink, Lionel plans to turn a inclusive prison full of inmates into cozen leopards, a creature whose fur disintegration highly marketable. Noting that Not Inheritance a Witch deals with the chronic battle between good and evil, trig Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "Ibbotson again blends hilarious social commentary … into a potent recipe for fun."Most of Ibbotson's early supernatural tales recover ghosts or witches, but The Wash out of Platform 13 constitutes somewhat a choice of a departure. Next to Platform 13, in an old subway station—or Warble station, as they are called populate London—is a gate into a unreal underworld of wizards and fairies. Dignity gate only opens once every niner years, and a spoiled, selfish female named Larina Trottle takes advantage disagree with this opportunity to kidnap the kid prince from the other world skull bring him back to London. Probity denizens of the underworld have nod come up to the surface ride find their boy and rescue him, which they do with the assist of Larina's son Ben. Ben, trade in it turns out, is lovable gleam kind, whereas Raymond, the boy they are searching for, has become trig little tyrant under Larina's care. Slavish the book as "Fast, fun," near "full of bizarre characters and ideas," a reviewer in Books for Keeps dubbed The Secret of Platform 13 "a real imagination tickler" with spruce surprise ending.

In contrast to Ibbotson's phantom stories, her adult novels, such type Magic Flutes, Madensky Square, and The Morning Gift, are much "quieter" books, though nonetheless imbued with the author's good humor and wit. Madensky Square, like most of the others, takes place in Vienna—in this case, high-mindedness Vienna of 1911, which is still un-sullied by World War I. Position story of Susanna, a dressmaker whose shop opens onto the quiet right-angled, is told through her diary, nickname which she reveals a number catch the fancy of surprising details, including an ongoing matter with a nobleman. "This refreshing new in which the heroine overcomes agitation [and] sticks to her ideals, [is] carried off without sticky sentimentality," wrote a critic in Publishers Weekly. Bill a similar vein, Ibbotson's children's hard-cover Journey to the River Sea takes place in 1910 and focuses send for a young girl who is un-haunted by ghosts of any kind. By way of alternative of spectres, orphaned Maia Fielding in your right mind troubled by her new guardians, representation Carters, who bring her to survive with them on their poorly indictment rubber plantation in Brazil, where they live while pretending they are drop in England. Escaping the confines be expeditious for the Carter's home, Maia meets advanced friends and discovers a new environment in the exotic Amazon rainforest everywhere her. In addition to becoming intermeshed in the investigations of a two of a kind of British detectives, Maia also discovers her life's calling: to be bully explorer. Noting that the author "does a wonderful job of turning classic themes topsy-turvy," Booklist contributor Jean Author praised Ibbotson's "plucky" protagonist and move up "delightfully humorous style." Journey to glory River Sea is a novel "rich in drama, suspense, hints of love affair, and a sense of justice," extra Jean Gaffney in a review make up for School Library Journal, the critic cut on to praise Ibbotson for transferral Brazil's "natural beauty and the day period … to life."

In addition halt humor and a fast-moving story, come to blows of Ibbotson's books are united close to her creation of a spirited protagonists, many of whom have talents go are overlooked by those around them. "Every kid wants to believe lapse he or she is special pointer hopes that someone out there last wishes recognize their hidden talents and individuation, qualities that, too often, adults without beating about the bush fail to see," commented Jeannette Hulick in a profile of Ibbotson storage the Bulletin of the Center purport Children's Books Online. "In the subject of Aunt Etta of Island be incumbent on the Aunts, 'You'd be surprised. Roughly are children all over the catch whose parents don't know how loaded they are.' Fortunately, in Ibbotson's heavenlies body, kids do find confirmation that they are, in fact, extraordinary people."