Hawes, Louise 1943- (Jamie Suzanne)

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Hawes, Louise 1943- (Jamie Suzanne)

Personal

Born June 21, 1943, in Boulder, CO; daughter of Maurice (an economic consultant) and Isabel (a homemaker) Hawes; married Stephen Jacobson, December 26, 1965 (divorced, 1978); children: Marc, Robin. Education: Swarthmore College, B.A., 1965; attended Lehigh University, 1971-73, and Barnes Foundation, 1977-78. Hobbies and other interests: Drawing, sculpting, long walks.

Addresses

Home—Pittsboro, NC. E-mail—mail@louisehawes.com.

Career

Children's book author and educator. State of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division on Aging, Trenton, public information director, 1967-69; Supermarkets General Corp., Woodbridge, NJ, assistant editor of Pathmark News, 1970-72; Barbizon School, Paramus, NJ, instructor in advertising and writing, 1978-79; Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers, New York, NY, advertising manager, beginning 1980; freelance writer, 1985—. Spalding University, KY, in- structor in M.F.A. writing program; Vermont College M.F.A. Writing for Children program, cofounder and member of faculty; lecturer at schools; teacher at writing workshops.

Awards, Honors

New Jersey Authors Award, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 1987, for Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut; two New Jersey writing fellowships; South Carolina Young-Adult Book of the Year nomination and YALSA Popular Paperback designation, both 2002, both for Rosey in the Present Tense; New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age designation, 2003, for Waiting for Christopher; Children's Book Council/International Reading Association Choice designation; New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age designation and Bank Street College of Education choice, both 2004, both for The Vanishing Point.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut (middle-grade novel), illustrated by Bert Dodson, Lodestar (New York, NY), 1986.

Nelson Malone Saves Flight 942 (middle-grade novel), illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Lodestar (New York, NY), 1986.

Rosey in the Present Tense, Walker (New York, NY), 1999.

Willem de Kooning: The Life of an Artist, Enslow (Berkeley Heights, NJ), 2002.

Waiting for Christopher, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

The Vanishing Point: A Story of Lavinia Fontana, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

Muti's Necklace: The Oldest Story in the World (picture book), illustrated by Rebecca Guay-Mitchell, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Anteaters Don't Dream, and Other Stories, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2007.

Short fiction included in anthologies Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth, 2001; Such a Pretty Face, 2007; and Be Careful What You Wish, 2007.

"SWEET VALLEY TWINS" SERIES; UNDER PSEUDONYM JAMIE SUZANNE

Stretching out the Truth, Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.

Outcast, Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.

New Girl Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.

Sneaking Out, Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.

OTHER

Also author of filmstrips for Time-Life and Educational Reading Services, 1973-74. Author of monographs for State of New Jersey, 1969-86. Contributor of articles and short fiction to periodicals, including Mademoiselle, Scholastic Voice, Extension Journal, and Midnight.

Sidelights

Louise Hawes writes for children and teens, as well as for adults. Her award-winning novels for older readers include Rosey in the Present Tense, Waiting for Christopher and The Vanishing Point: A Story of Lavinia Fontana. In addition to longer works, Hawes has published nonfiction, has produced the short-story anthology Anteaters Don't Dream, and Other Stories, and has had her short fiction included in several anthologies. She has also authored the picture book Muti's Necklace: The Oldest Story in the World, an adaptation of an ancient Egyptian tale about a young woman who risks everything to recover a prized family possession, the book was praised by School Library Journal reviewer Coop Renner as "an original fairy tale about familial love and its power to thwart even the majesty of Pharaoh." In addition to writing, Hawes dedicates much of her time to teaching. In addition to serving on the faculty at Spalding University's graduate-level writing program, she was a cofounder and instructor at Vermont College's innovative M.F.A. program in writing for children.

Praised by Booklist contributor Shelle Rosenfeld as "a multifaceted, insightful exploration of heartbreak and loss," Rosey in the Present Tense focuses on Franklin, a seventeen year old who is having difficulty dealing with

the recent death of his girlfriend. When Rosey appears to him as a ghost, called back by his grief, Franklin is at first glad. With the help of Rosey's grandmother Lin, who can also see the ghostly teen, he eventually comes to realize that, just as Rosey's spirit must move on, so must he. Rosenfeld praised Hawes's decision to compose her novel in both first-and third-person narratives, going on to write that Hawes creates an "appealing" teen protagonist whose story is told in an evocative, "lyrical" text.

Concerns over child abuse justify kidnapping, in the opinion of the two young teens that star Hawes' young-adult novel Waiting for Christopher. When readers meet fourteen-year-old Feena Harvey, she has just moved from New England to Florida with her depressed single mother. Shy, lonely, and friendless, and still grieving the death of infant brother Christy from SIDS nine years before, Feena becomes emotionally involved with an unhappy young child she has seen crying in a city park near her home. Rather than turn the situation over to authorities, however, Feena comforts the sobbing toddler and hides him in a secret place. The logistics of caring for him is made easier when classmate Raylene figures out what is going on and decides to help. As they plan a life focused on the toddler, the girls also create a bond of friendship, but are eventually forced to confront the realities of the situation they have created. Hawes' "simple, eloquent words reveal complex truths of family love and sorrow," noted Hazel Rochman in Booklist, while in Kliatt Paula Rorhlick described Waiting for Christopher as "emotionally convincing and suspenseful."

An historical novel based on the life of late sixteenth-century Italian painter Lavinia Fontana, The Vanishing Point brings to life a talented young woman as she attempts to overcome social obstacles in order to follow her calling as an artist. Taught to paint by her portrait-painter father Prospero while growing up in Bologna, Lavinia marries an artist who also supports her painting. Hawes tells Lavinia's story through a first-person narration that finds the young protagonist, at age fourteen, eliciting the aid of her father's apprentices in getting paper; meeting Paolo, the young man who will become her husband; battling the measles; and obtaining clandestine critiques of her work. "Hawes deftly blends history and invention" in her fictional biography, noted Booklist contributor Jennifer Mattson, while in School Library Journal Ginny Gustin deemed the novel "a fascinating glimpse into the life of a Renaissance artist." Praising The Vanishing Point as "well-written" and "unique," Claire Rosser added in Kliatt that Hawes successfully "immerse[s] her readers into life in Italy so long ago."

"Before I was ten years old, I had decided to be a writer," Hawes once told SATA. "Not that there weren't detours along the way to this happy outcome. Both my parents were gifted, bright people who enjoyed painting as well as writing. For years, I painted and drew as

much as I wrote. I also tried my hand at acting and even had a sculpture studio for several years before I returned to that rock-hard place at the pit of my soul, the place where a very calm, sure voice told me, ‘You can flirt with all these exciting modes of expression, you can wriggle and twist and carry on, but the way you're meant to be you is by writing. It's lonely, it's frustrating, and you can't do it at parties to the amusement and delight of your friends. But it's you.’

"Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut was written for my children when they were very close to Nelson's age, eleven. I wanted to make sure they were exposed to some stories that didn't teach or preach or serve any other nefarious, ‘useful’ purpose. I wanted Nelson's adventures to be what children crave most and get least: silliness and fun.

"Nelson Malone Saves Flight 942 is a sixth-grade curtain call for Nelson's fifth-grade foolishness and carryings-on. He may have gained a grade in this sequel, but he's lost none of his propensity for crazy adventure—with preening rock idols, has-been magicians, newly hatched pterodactyls, not to mention pint-size ghosts and a teacher who takes her class on field trips to horror movies and amusement parks.

"Whenever anyone asks me how on earth I come up with such off-beat stories, I have a ready excuse: my mother. In fact, Nelson's wonderful teacher, Sylvia Tuckman, is patterned after the woman who used to beg my sisters and me to skip school in favor of shadow shows, talking animals, and life-size paper dolls. Because she didn't have an ‘outside’ job and because she was endlessly creative, lonely, and loving, she was forever bursting with exciting projects and plans. Physically, she's a small woman who lacks ‘Terrible Tuckman’' s imposing girth, but emotionally she was unquestionably the largest influence in my childhood.

"Perhaps the most rewarding part of writing for young readers is the mail. I have received letters from all over, letters from girls and boys I'd never met, but who had met me! What a wonderful, life-redeeming feeling to be told that, because of a book of mine, some youngster wants to be a writer, too!"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 1999, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Rosey in the Present Tense, p. 1398; July, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 1838; November 1, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of The Vanishing Point: A Story of Lavinia Fontana, p. 496; July 1, 2006, Jennifer Mattson, review of Muti's Necklace: The Oldest Story in the World, p. 66.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May, 1999, review of Rosey in the Present Tense, p. 314; September, 2002, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 41.

Horn Book, September-October, 2002, Kitty Flynn, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 573.

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, March, 2003, Pamela Osback, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 527.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1986, review of Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut; May 1, 2002, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 655; September 1, 2004, review of The Vanishing Point, p. 866; May 15, 2006, review of Muti's Necklace, p. 518.

Kliatt, March, 2002, Paula Rohrlick, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 11; September, 2004, Claire Rosser, review of The Vanishing Point, p. 10.

New York Times Book Review, March 12, 1989, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, June 27, 1986, review of Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut; March 8, 1999, review of Rosey in the Present Tense, p. 69; May 20, 2002, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 66; November 15, 2004, review of The Vanishing Point, p. 61.

School Library Journal, August, 1986, review of Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut; May, 1988, review of Nelson Malone Saves Flight 942; May, 1999, Alison Follos, review of Rosey in the Present Tense, p. 125; June, 2002, Connie Tyrrell Burns, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 140; March, 2003, Mary Elam, review of Willem de Kooning: The Life of an Artist, p. 251; December, 2004, Ginny Gustin, review of The Vanishing Point, p. 146; June, 2006, Coop Renner, review of Muti's Necklace, p. 119.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2002, review of Waiting for Christopher, p. 655; December, 2004, Gale Giles, review of The Vanishing Point, p. 382.