Goodhart, Pippa 1958-

Personal

Born 1958; married 1986; husband's name Mick; children: three. Education: Attended Leeds University and Durham University.

Addresses

Home—Leicester, Leicestershire, England.

Career

Writer. Heffers Children's Bookshop, Cambridge, England, bookseller and manager, 1974-79; Rhyme and Reason Bookshop, Leicester, England, bookseller, 1986; Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, reader of children's book submissions, 1986—; tutor, Leicester Adult Education College, 1999—.

Awards, Honors

Nestlé Smarties Prize shortlist, and Kathleen Fidler Award shortlist, both for Flow; East Midlands Arts' Writers' Award, 2000; Stockport Children's Book of the Year shortlist, 2007, for Raven Boy.

Writings

PICTURE BOOKS

Flow, illustrated by Anthony Lewis, Heinemann (London, England), 1994, published as Rescued by a Dog Called Flow, illustrated by Anthony Lewis, Barn Owl (London, England), 2005.

Ginny's Egg, illustrated by Aafke Brouwer, Heinemann (London, England), 1995.

Hamper's Great Escape, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Oxford University Press (London, England), 1996.

Lie Spider, illustrated by Rian Hughes, Mammoth (London, England), 1997.

Milly, illustrated by Jason Cockcroft, Hodder (London, England), 1997.

Play Time, illustrated by Brita Granström, Watts (London, England), 1997.

Shopping Time, illustrated by Brita Granström, Watts (London, England), 1997.

Morning Time, illustrated by Brita Granström, Watts (London, England), 1997, published as My Morning Time, 2002.

Bed Time, illustrated by Brita Granström, Watts (London, England), 1997, published as My Bed Time, 2002.

Pest Friends, illustrated by Louise Armour-Chelu, Mammoth (London, England), 1997.

Noah Makes a Boat, illustrated by Bernard Lodge, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat, illustrated by Stephen Lambert, Crown (New York, NY), 1997, published as Row Your Boat, Mammoth (London, England), 1998.

Snooty Prune, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1998.

Flying Lessons, illustrated by Sharon Lewis, Hodder (London, England), 1998.

Alona's Story, Mammoth (London, England), 1999.

All That Glitters, Hodder (London, England), 1999.

Catnapped, illustrated by Joanna Harrison, Mammoth (London, England), 1999.

Time Swing, illustrated by Mark Robertson, Mammoth (London, England), 1999.

Jack's Mouse, illustrated by Stephen Lambert, Mammoth (London, England), 1999.

Happy Sad, illustrated by Stephen Lambert, Mammoth (London, England), 1999.

Me and My Newt, illustrated by David Mostyn, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1999.

Frankie's House-Tree, illustrated by Leonie Shearing, Mammoth (London, England), 2000.

The House with No Name, illustrated by Peter Kavanagh, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2000.

Sister Ella, illustrated by Jane Bottomley, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000.

Peter and the Waterwolf, illustrated by Ian Beck, Corgi Pups (London, England), 2001.

Kind of Twins, illustrated by Ailie Busby, Egmont (London, England), 2001.

Molly and the Beanstalk, illustrated by Brita Granström, Walker (London, England), 2001.

Slow Magic, illustrated by John Kelly, Red Fox (London, England), 2002, Crabtree (New York, NY), 2004.

Fire Cat, illustrated by Philip Hurst, Egmont (London, England), 2002, Crabtree (New York, NY), 2006.

Friends Forever, illustrated by Ailie Busby, Egmont (London, England), 2003.

Pam's Maps, illustrated by Katherine Lodge, Red Fox (London, England), 2003.

Pudding, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church, Chicken House (London, England), 2003, published as Pudgy: A Puppy to Love, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2003.

Arthur's Tractor: A Fairy Tale with Mechanical Parts, illustrated by Colin Paine, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2003.

You Choose, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, Doubleday (London, England), 2003.

Dragon Boy, illustrated by Martin Ursell, Egmont (London, England), 2003, Crabtree (New York, NY), 2005.

Ratboy, illustrated by Polly Dunbar, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2004.

Slow Magic, illustrated by John Kelly, Crabtree (New York, NY), 2004.

Hoppy Birthday, Jo-Jo!, illustrated by Georgie Birkett, Egmont (London, England), 2004, Crabtree (New York, NY), 2005.

Connor's Eco Den, illustrated by Martin Remphry, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2005.

Ronnie's Treasure Hunt, illustrated by Deborah Allwright, A. & C. Black (London, England), 2006, Picture Window Books (Minneapolis, MN), 2008.

Three Little Ghosties, illustrated by AnnaLaura Cantone, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2007.

Pocket Hero, illustrated by Zoografic, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2007.

Cake Test, illustrated by Jan McCafferty, Egmont (London, England), 2007.

The House with No Name, illustrated by Brett Hawkins, Stone Arch Books (Minneapolis, MN), 2007.

Glog, illustrated by Nick Maland, Walker Books (London, England), 2007.

Raven Boy, Catnip (London, England), 2007.

Sidelights

Pippa Goodhart began working with books as a bookseller at the age of sixteen, and she has since become known for her beginning readers and picture books. "I loved books, particularly children's books, and have been a bookseller and a teacher and a mother and a publisher's reader, but I had never dared to think of trying to write books myself," Goodhart explained in an interview for the Bloomsbury Publishing Web site. Beginning writing in the early 1990s, with the encouragement of her husband Mick, she had her first novel, Flow, published in 1994. Well received by critics and shortlisted for both the Nestlé Smarties Prize and the Kathleen Fidler Award, Flow has been republished as Rescued by a Dog Called Flow and continues to be beloved by readers due to its warmhearted story about the friendship between a boy and his puppy.

Goodhart's books cover a wide range of topics: Pam's Maps, for example, tells a pirate story, while Peter and the Waterwolf features a folktale from the Netherlands about a boy who saves his country by plugging a leak in a dyke with his finger. In Noah Makes a Boat she retells the story of Noah and the ark, but features Noah's grandson, Little Noah, as the brains behind the building of the ark. For toddlers, her board books Time to Play, Shopping Time, and My Morning pair illustrations by Brita Granström with simple lyrical texts that capture common childhood experiences, while novice readers are treated to amusing tales in Goodhart's beginning readers Ronnie's Treasure Hunt, Glog, and Fire Cat, the last inspired by the famous diaries of Samuel Pepys and Pepys' record of the Great Fire of London. Her novel Raven Boy, which takes readers back to mid-seventeenth-century London and a boy who is determined to seek vengeance on the king for losing his father to a press gang, was also inspired by Goodhart's reading of Pepys' diary; in the London Guardian Kate Agnew wrote that the "fast-moving adventure … paints a vivid picture of momentous historical events and their impact on ordinary people."

Pudding, published as Pudgy: A Puppy to Love in the United States, is a story of two loners who become friends. No one wants to play with Pudgy the puppy; the girl Lucy has no one to play with either. Eventually, Pudgy runs away from home, finds Lucy, and forms a lasting bond with the girl. Goodhart tells the story in only six sentences, which Sally R. Dow called "playful" in her review of Pudgy for School Library Journal. A critic for Kirkus Reviews noted that in a small amount of text, "Goodhart addresses a range of universal emotions."

Goodhart used fairy tales for her inspiration in such books as Sister Ella, a twist on the Cinderella story, and Molly and the Beanstalk, an adaptation of the traditional English story about Jack and his magic beans. Arthur's Tractor: A Fairy Tale with Mechanical Parts contains fairy-tale themes, and treats readers to two stories happening simultaneously. As a knight tries to save a princess from a dragon, a nearby farmer hears the noises the knightly battle makes and becomes convinced that his tractor is broken. Whenever the princess shrieks, Arthur attributes the sound to his squeaky farm tractor, and he continues to apply oil to his machinery while remaining oblivious to the ruckus occurring behind him. However, by story's end, the two tales connect when the interested princess joins the farmer in troubleshooting the squeaky tractor in an unusual happily-ever-after ending. Arthur's Tractor "bubbles with delightful British colloquialisms," noted Karin Snelson in Booklist, and a reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised Goodhart's "snappy storytelling." G. Alyssa Sadler complimented the author's "clever tale" in her review for School Library Journal, concluding that the picture book "will appeal to children who love a tale with a twist."

Brought to life in quirky artwork by AnnaLaura Cantone, Three Little Ghosties finds Goodhart putting a fun spin on a scary rhyming tale. In the book, three ghosts brag to each other about their ability to be scary, and each tries to best the others by claiming to have scared, first ghouls, then witches, and then a large ogre. When they then head out to scare a group of children, the ghosts prove to be not so brave after all. A Kirkus Reviews writer deemed Three Little Ghosties "fine fare" for children who are "more comfortable with feighted fright than the real sort," while a Publishers Weekly critic called it "a bouncy and mischievous Halloween tale." "Kids will enjoy reading about the boastie ghosties year-round," predicted Susan Dove Lempke in her Horn Book review of Goodhart's humorous story.

In an interview on the Word Pool Web site, Goodhart explained that she enjoys writing for children "because they are a fresh, honest, interested audience open to almost anything." Goodhart told her interviewers at the Bloomsbury Publishing Web site that she gets her ideas from "everything around me and inside me, from the past, the present, and my imagination."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of Noah Makes a Boat, p. 323; February 15, 2003, Karin Snelson, review of Arthur's Tractor: A Fairy Tale with Mechanical Parts, p. 1074.

Guardian (London, England), January 15, 2002, Lindsey Fraser, review of Peter and the Waterwolf, p. 69; October 25, 2003, Julia Eccleshare, review of You Choose, p. 33; January 22, 2008, Kate Agnew, review of Raven Boy, p. 7.

Horn Book, September-October, 1997, Martha V. Parravano, review of Noah Makes a Boat, p. 557.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2003, review of Arthur's Tractor, p. 60; April 1, 2003, review of Pudgy: A Puppy to Love, p. 534; January-February, 2008, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Three Little Ghosties, p. 71.

New York Times Book Review, February 15, 1998, review of Noah Makes a Boat, p. 25; October 14, 2007, Julie Just, review of Three Little Ghosties, p. 19.

Publishers Weekly, August 25, 1997, review of Noah Makes a Boat, p. 65; December 23, 2002, review of Pudgy, p. 69, and review of Arthur's Tractor, p. 70; September 24, 2007, review of Three Little Ghosties, p. 72.

School Librarian, November, 1994, review of Flow, p. 151; spring, 2003, review of Fire Cat, p. 18; summer, 2003, review of Arthur's Tractor, p. 75; spring, 2008, Prue Goodwin, review of Three Little Ghosties, p. 27.

School Library Journal, September, 1997, Kathy Piehl, review of Noah Makes a Boat, p. 182; December, 1997, Maria B. Salvadore, review of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, p. 90; March, 2003, G. Alyssa Sadler, review of Arthur's Tractor, p. 193; April, 2003, Sally R. Dow, review of Pudgy, p. 120.

Times Educational Supplement, April 25, 2003, Geraldine Brennan, "Read It Any Way You Want," p. 37; September, 2007, Catherine Callegari, review of Three Little Ghosties, p. 166.

ONLINE

Bloomsbury Publishing Web Site,http://www.bloomsbury.com/ (January 5, 2009).

Pippa Goodhart Home Page,http://www.pippagoodhart.co.uk (January 5, 2009).

Word Pool Web Site,http://www.wordpool.co.uk/ (February 12, 2004).