Lawrence, Iain 1955–

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Lawrence, Iain 1955–

PERSONAL: Born February 25, 1955, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada; son of Raymond Lawrence and Margaret (Smart) Lawrence; partner of Kristin Miller (a quilt maker). Education: Studied journalism in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

ADDRESSES: Home—RR No. 1, S16, C26, Gabriola Island V0R 1XO, Canada. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House Children's Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. E-mail—iain@nanaimo.ark.com.

CAREER: Worked variously as a firefighter, in forestry, with a carnival and a circus, on a fish farm, and as the caretaker of a radio transmitter; journalist for newspapers in British Columbia, Canada; Prince Rupert Daily News, Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada, editor.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Pick citations, American Library Association (ALA), Geoffrey Bilson Award for historical fiction for young people, Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee for best children's mystery, New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age citation, Booklist Editor's Choice, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year citation, and Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book, all 1999, all for The Wreckers; Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Pick citations, ALA, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book, and New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age citation, all 2000, all for The Smugglers; Notable Book and Best Books for Young Adults citations, ALA, School Library Journal Best Books citation, Publishers Weekly Best Books citation, and New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age citation, all 2001, all for Ghost Boy; Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book citation, 2001, for Lord of the Nutcracker Men; Best Books of 2005 citation, Kirkus Reviews, for The Convicts.

WRITINGS:

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

The Wreckers ("High Seas" trilogy), Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 1998.

The Smugglers ("High Seas" trilogy), Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Ghost Boy, Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2000.

The Buccaneers ("High Seas" trilogy), Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Lord of the Nutcracker Men, Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Lightkeeper's Daughter, Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2002.

B for Buster, Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2004.

The Convicts, Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Cannibals (sequel to The Convicts), Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Gemini Summer, Delacorte Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of short fiction to periodicals, including Boys' Life.

NONFICTION

Far-Away Places: Fifty Anchorages on the Northwest Coast, Orca Books (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), 1995.

Sea Stories of the Inside Passage: In the Wake of the Nid, Fine Edge Productions (Bishop, CA), 1997.

ADAPTATIONS: Novels adapted for audio by Recorded Books include The Wreckers, The Smugglers, The Buccaneers, and Ghost Boy.

SIDELIGHTS: Iain Lawrence was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, of parents newly arrived from England. According to his entry on the Random House Web site, the family moved frequently, and by the time he had finished high school, Lawrence had lived in eleven houses and gone to nine different schools. He describes himself as being "shy and quite friendless, but now I think I was lucky to have grown up like that."

A third-grade teacher first spotted Lawrence's talent, but he would work at many jobs before finally studying journalism in British Columbia and spending ten years as a journalist. Lawrence met his partner, Kristin Miller, at a writers's group. She is a quilter who had written a book about her craft, and her agent, Jane Jordan Browne, agreed to represent Lawrence. It was her advice, to switch from adult to young adult writing, that became the turning point in Lawrence's career. He rewrote his first novel, which she had been unable to sell in the adult market, and The Wreckers became the first of his award-winning young adult novels.

Set in 1799, The Wreckers is the first of a series of three. Isle of Skye, the ship of fourteen-year-old John Spencer's father, is wrecked off the coast of Cornwall, England. John survives to discover that the villagers are wreckers rather than rescuers, pirates who lure ships onto the deadly rocks that lie beneath the surface of the shallow waters. They kill the survivors, but John escapes in search of his father, whose fate is unknown to him. In reviewing this well-received debut, Horn Book reviewer Mary M. Burns wrote: "Fast-moving, mesmerizing, this is a tale in the grand tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson and Leon Garfield."

The Smugglers is set two years later, with John and his father bound for London on the Dragon, hoping to engage in the wool trade. When the captain is murdered, his replacement and most of the crew that he brings aboard turn out to be criminals involved with smuggling. The trilogy ends with The Buccaneers, in which seventeen-year-old John survives a number of adventures to take command of the ship and safely guide it home after the captain becomes ill. Kliatt reviewer Claire Rosser recalled the "highly praised" first two books and wrote that "this one is equally exciting and well-written."

In his 2000 work, Ghost Boy,, Lawrence advanced his setting by nearly 150 years to just after World War II. Harold Kline, the protagonist in Ghost Boy, is a fourteen-year-old teenager whose life is made difficult by the fact that he is an albino and nearly blind. Eventually, Harold finds happiness with the circus, where he trains elephants, and achieves acceptance among other people often considered different by society.

Lord of the Nutcracker Men is set in 1914 England in an atmosphere of anticipated war. Ten-year-old Johnny is sent away by his parents to live with an aunt, where he regularly receives letters from his toy maker father, along with wooden soldiers for his collection. Johnny wonders why his father has taken a sudden dislike to their German neighbors and worries, as war looms, for his father's safety if he takes part. As time passes, the toy soldiers become cruder, and the letters reveal the weariness of his father, who is now serving on the front lines while Johnny's soldiers engage in toy battles. Writing in Kliatt, Shaunna Silva called Lord of the Nutcracker Men "a superb story told with vivid language and real characters and emotions."

Squid McCrae is the central character in The Lightkeeper's Daughter, in which she returns to her father and mother and the lighthouse where she grew up with her own young daughter in tow. This book for older young adults is a story of sorrow and making peace with family secrets.

B for Buster follows the story of Kak, a sixteen-year-old boy who lies about his age in order to join the Canadian Air Force during World War II. He serves as a wireless operator and soon learns that there is a good chance that he will not survive the war. His most calming influence is "Dirty Bert," a demoted pilot who is assigned to care for carrier pigeons. A Publishers Weekly contributor described B for Buster as being "powerful enough to make audience members re-evaluate their concepts of war and courage."

The Convicts is a Dickensian story set in nineteenth-century England. Tom Tin's ship's captain father is commanding a floating prison that takes criminals to the penal colonies in Australia, leaving Tom to make his own way. After being convicted of a number of serious crimes actually committed by his evil twin, Tom finds himself on the prison ship, where he is mistaken for a boy named Smasher, and makes a friend of Midgely, with whom he plans an escape. School Library Journal contributor Bruce Anne Shook found the book "action packed and … thoroughly researched," going on to recommend the story for "reluctant readers who are looking for an exciting adventure."

In the sequel to The Convicts, The Cannibals, an escape is accomplished, but danger is high as the seven boys who stole the long boat travel from island to island in order to avoid the headhunters who pursue them. Kliatt reviewer Paula Rohrlick called the story a "thrilling, action-packed adventure tale," while a Publishers Weekly contributor predicted that readers who enjoy "exotic adventure tales" would be attracted to the "Robert Louis Stevenson brand of excitement." Similarly, School Library Journal critic Carolyn Lehman thought: "Readers in search of swashbuckling adventure, gripping plot twists, and hair-raising encounters will gravitate to this sequel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1999, review of The Wreckers, p. 782; April 1, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Smugglers, p. 1424; May 1, 2000, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Wreckers, p. 1606; November 1, 2000, Frances Bradburn, review of Ghost Boy, p. 526; May 15, 2001, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Buccaneers, p. 1753; January 1, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of The Lightkeeper's Daughter, p. 870.

Boys' Life, August, 2004, Richard Haddaway, review of B for Buster, p. 8.

English Journal, November, 2000, Ken Donelson, review of The Smugglers, p. 153.

Horn Book, July-August, 1998, Mary M. Burns, review of The Wreckers, p. 491; May, 1999, review of The Smugglers, p. 331; July, 2001, review of The Buccaneers, p. 455; November-December, 2005, Susan P. Bloom, review of The Cannibals, p. 720, and Kristi Elle Jemtegaard, review of B for Buster, p. 743.

Kliatt, May, 2003, Claire Rosser, review of The Buccaneers, p. 19; September, 2003, Shaunna Silva, review of Lord of the Nutcracker Men, p. 18; November, 2004, Claire Rosser, review of The Lightkeeper's Daughter, p. 19; November, 2005, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Cannibals, p. 8.

Publishers Weekly, June 1, 1998, review of The Wreckers, p. 48C; June 29, 1998, Bella Stander, "Iain Lawrence," p. 26; March 22, 1999, review of The Smugglers, p. 93; November 8, 1999, review of The Wreckers, p. 71; October 30, 2000, review of The Smugglers, p. 68; July 30, 2001, review of The Buccaneers, p. 86; July 5, 2004, review of B for Buster, p. 57; October 24, 2005, review of The Cannibals, p. 59.

Resource Links, October, 2003, Lori Lavallee, review of Lord of the Nutcracker Men, p. 35; June, 2005, Margaret Mackey, review of The Convicts, p. 31.

School Library Journal, June, 1999, Starr E. Smith, review of The Smugglers, p. 132; July, 2000, Pat Griffith, review of The Wreckers, p. 55; September, 2000, Toni D. Moore, review of Ghost Boy, p. 233; July, 2001, Connie Tyrrell Burns, review of The Buccaneers, p. 110; July, 2005, Bruce Anne Shook, review of The Convicts, p. 105; January, 2006, Carolyn Lehman, review of The Cannibals, p. 136.