Bredsdorff, Bodil

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BREDSDORFF, Bodil

PERSONAL: Born in Hillerød, Denmark. Education: Degree in education.

ADDRESSES: Home—Havlitvej 9, 3390, Hundested, Denmark. Agent—Louise Langhoff Koch, Gyldendal Group Agency—Children's Books, 3 Klareboderne, 1001, Copenhagen K, Denmark.

CAREER: Taught preschool and produced children's programming for Danish television.

AWARDS, HONORS: Nemo grant, 1979; BOFA cultural award, 1982; Ministry of Culture children's book award, 1995; Danish Arts Council Committee for Literature grant, 1996-99; Parents' Choice Silver Honor, 2004; Booklist Editor's Choice, and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, both 2004, both for The Crow-Girl.

WRITINGS:

CHILDREN'S BOOKS; "CHILDREN OF CROW COVE" SERIES

Krageungen, Host, 1993, translation by Faith Ingwersen published as The Crow-Girl, Farrar Straus (New York, NY), 2004.

Eidi, Host, 1994.

Tink, Host, 1994.

Alek, Host, 1995.

Also author of other works in Danish.

SIDELIGHTS: Bodil Bredsdorff is a Danish author of children's fiction. On her Web site, she describes her target audience as "the twelve-to-thirteen year-olds who ask the important questions but are not yet hit by a youth's or adult's love problems, jealousy, and disappointments." She writes about "the high point of childhood, which is the time just before it is past." Her novel Krageungen was her first work to be translated into English; it was published in 2004 as The Crow-Girl.

Bredsdorff was born in a town on the Danish island of Zealand. She studied advertising art and obtained a degree in education. After teaching preschool, she worked in children's television, producing programming for Danish National Television. She began writing children's books in the 1970s, and a manuscript she entered in a competition for Scandinavian writers was named a runner-up. Krageungen (The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove) was published in Denmark. Other books in the popular series followed.

The Crow-Girl takes place in a village similar to one its author once visited on the Scottish island of Jura, a remote spot in a small cove where she had first observed wild goats and seals. Myna lives with her grandmother on a lonely stretch of coast. The grandmother teaches Myna how to use the bounty of the sea, but when she senses that her life is coming to an end, she also offers the girl advice on survival that later serves Myna well. When the old woman dies, Myna follows two crows until she meets a cold-hearted woman who names her Crow Girl. Myna flees from this evil person and continues following the crows. She goes on to meet a number of people, some of whom have also suffered great loss, and forms lasting bonds with several of them. When she returns to her grandmother's cottage, she is no longer alone. The friends who now accompany her help in planting a garden, caring for a flock of sheep, and hunting for game.

A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that Bredsdorff's story "winds to a close that, despite its fairy tale quality, is credible and satisfying." Carol A. Edwards noted in School Library Journal that the book "has the depth and flavor of a tale from long ago and far away. It's a rewarding read for youngsters who are fond of the details and the simplicity of earlier times."

Bredsdorff has turned the world of Crow Cove into a continuing series of books, each title featuring characters introduced in the first story. Eidi is about a girl who leaves home to work at processing wool. She meets a neglected boy named Tink and brings him back to Crow Cove with her. The boy becomes the main character of the next book, Tink, while in Alek, readers are reintroduced to a boy who appeared in Krageungen.