Kabak, Carrie

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Kabak, Carrie

PERSONAL: Born in United Kingdom; married; children: five boys.

ADDRESSES: Home—Kansas City, MO. Agent—James Gill, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England.

CAREER: Formerly a children's book illustrator; writer.

WRITINGS:

(Illustrator) Benjamin R. Doolittle The Grundilini: From the Chronicles of Audelae (children's book), New Canaan Publishing Company (New Canaan, CT), 2002.

Cover the Butter (novel), Dutton Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Carrie Kabak was born and raised in the United Kingdom, but eventually moved to the United States and settled in Kansas City, Missouri, where she lives with her husband and five sons. She got her start as an illustrator for children's books before making the transition to author/illustrator with Cover the Butter. The story focuses on forty-something wife and mother Kate Cadogan, who arrives home to find her house destroyed by her teenaged son. The incident prompts Kate to reassess her goals, and Kabak tells the story of her life by sending Kate back in time to relive her own teen years and revisit the turning points on her road to adulthood. Once Kate returns to the present, she is equipped to take a stand for herself, one that includes a divorce, a new career, and a move from Wales to France. A contributor for Publishers Weekly remarked that "the dialogue is chick-lit generic but exact; scenes play out fluidly and are nicely detailed, particularly in Kate's sophisticated foodyism." Beth Lindsay, in a review for Library Journal, wrote that "Kabak accurately captures the various decades through which Kate, her family, and friends live, while offering strong character development and using humor effectively," and a contributor for Kirkus Reviews stated that "Kabak's gift for describing wonderful food and decor, and her way of encapsulating decades in a few swift strokes, take this tale beyond the standard middle-age revenge formula."