Peet, Mal (Malcolm Peet)

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Peet, Mal (Malcolm Peet)

PERSONAL:

Born in Norfolk, England; married Elspeth Graham (a writer); children: Charlie, Lauren, Tom. Education: University of Warwick, B.A., M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Exmouth, England.

CAREER:

Author, illustrator, and cartoonist. Formerly worked as a teacher, in a hospital mortuary, as a plumber and builder, and on a road crew. Freelance writer, beginning c. 1986.

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults designation, Nestlé Smarties Bronze Award, and Branford Boase Award, all 2004, all for Keeper; Carnegie Medal, 2005, for Tamar.

WRITINGS:

YOUNG-ADULT NOVELS

Keeper, Walker Books (London, England), 2003, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Tamar, Walker Books (London, England), 2005.

The Penalty, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Author's works have been translated into German, Greek, and French.

FOR YOUNG READERS; SELF-ILLUSTRATED

A Floating World, illustrated by Tudor Humphries, Ragged Bears (Andover, England), 1998.

Cloud Tea Monkeys, illustrated by Alan Marks, Ragged Bears (Sherborne, England), 1999.

EDUCATIONAL READERS; FOR YOUNG READERS

(Illustrator) Elspeth Graham, Scrub-a-dub, Collins Educational (London, England), 1995.

(With wife, Elspeth Graham; self-illustrated) Never Sell a Hen on a Wet Day, Collins Educational (London, England), 1996.

Wicked, Collins Educational (London, England), 1996.

(With Elspeth Graham; self-illustrated) What's Cooking, Collins Educational (London, England), 1996.

(With Elspeth Graham; self-illustrated) Spending a Penny, Collins Educational (London, England), 1996.

Keep Your Hamster Happy, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1999.

(With Elspeth Graham and Michaela Morgan) Read Aloud and Talk about Duck Green School Stories (readers), Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1999.

(Compiler, with Elspeth Graham) Creatures, Kings and Scary Things, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

The Giants, illustrated by Ian Newsham, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

A Bird in the Bush, illustrated by Ian Newsham, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

(With Elspeth Graham) Wolves, Eyes, and Stormy Skies, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

(With Elspeth Graham) Spiders, Chips, and Rocket Ships, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

The Wolf Whistle, illustrated by Ian Newsham, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

(Compiler, with Elspeth Graham) Moonlight, Seas, and Chocolate Trees, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

The Spooky Eyes, illustrated by Ian Newsham, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2001.

The Troll's Hat, illustrated by Ian Newsham, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2001.

Author, with Elspeth Graham, of numerous other educational titles for British publishers, as well as academic titles.

SIDELIGHTS:

A writer, illustrator, and active soccer enthusiast, Mal Peet has worked in educational publishing in his native England, writing and sometimes illustrating primary-grade readers for several educational publishers. With dozens of titles to his credit, Peet remained relatively unknown until 2004, when his first young-adult novel, Keeper, won two significant literary awards: the Nestlé Smarties Prize Bronze award and the Bradford Boase award. A second novel, Tamar, was awarded the prestigious Carnegie Medal in 2005.

Keeper is told in an interview format, and relates how a renowned South American soccer goalie known as El Gato rose to prominence in his sport. At first, journalist-interviewer Paul Faustino focuses on El Gato's current newsworthiness: the thirty-year-old goaltender has just won the World Cup for his team. However, the discussion soon turns to the athlete's past, and El Gato shares the story of his unusual rise to success. Growing up in a logging town in a South American rainforest, the poverty-stricken boy plays soccer in a secret clearing during every spare moment when he is not working, afraid to test his skills against his more accomplished friends. He learns the rudiments of the game from a mysterious mentor, referred to only as "the Keeper," who appears, ghostlike, to the young El Gato and trains the boy rigorously for two years. At the age of fifteen he begins working as a trainee machinist at the logging camp. There he starts playing in rough Saturday afternoon games. His boss recognizes his outstanding skills and contacts a professional club; as a result the boy's life is transformed.

Praising Keeper as a "haunting tale," Kliatt reviewer Paula Rohrlick added that while the novel "is full of sports action," Peet also explores the athlete's "anguished loyalty to his family and to the Keeper." In School Library Journal, Kathryn Childs deemed the novel "unusual and compelling," adding that it "mesmeriz[es] … readers with a supernatural mystery in a tale about relationships, loneliness, and believing in oneself." Peet's "stirring adventure … defies expectations," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer, the critic adding that the award-winning novel is "both lyrical and gripping."

In Tamar, Peet takes readers back in time to the end of World War II as two Dutch soldiers parachute secretly into the Netherlands, avoiding the occupying Nazi forces in order to establish resistance forces. From this point their stories are interwoven with those of their friends and wives, and ultimately their children and grandchildren, in a novel that Guardian reviewer Jan Mark called "as fine a piece of storytelling as you are likely to read" due to the "quality of the writing." As Peet explained on the Walker Books Web site, the novel was inspired by a conversation with a friend whose father had been an undercover radio operator for the Dutch resistance. This man still possessed the codes, printed on silk, that he had used to transmit his Morse messages to London. This set Peet to thinking about how secret events might cast shadows onto future generations. Tamar is "a story about secrets, lies, false identities, coded messages," Peet noted. "It's also, I hope, a plea for forgiveness. I'm a father myself now."

The Penalty, Peet's next work for young adults, revisits the world of Keeper. Ricardo Gomes de Barros is an eighteen-year-old soccer star who disappears mysteriously following an important match. Sports writer Paul Faustino is determined to find out what happened, but in the course of his investigation, he is kidnapped and taken out into the countryside. There he learns of a sect of people who worship their ancestors in a special ritual passed down from the slaves brought there centuries earlier. The story is divided between Faustino and his modern-day mystery, and Paracleto, a slave who had become a high priest of the ritual. The book garnered mixed reviews, with some critics finding the split narrative confusing and a detractor from the suspense, while others praised its fresh perspective. Gillian Engberg, reviewing for Booklist, remarked that the "surface mystery will intrigue readers, but it's the deeper questions … that will linger." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews found the book "stunning, original and compelling."