Sally Gardner

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Sally Gardner (* 1954 in London as Sarah Gardner ) is a British illustrator , picture and children's book author . In 2013 she was awarded the Carnegie Medal for her novel Maggot Moon .

biography

Sally Gardner was born in 1954 to two lawyers in Birmingham and grew up in London. She has dyslexia (a form of dyslexia ). She was diagnosed with the disease for the first time at the age of twelve, but two years later the Briton learned to read and write. The first book she read fluently was supposedly Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë . Because of her handicap , she was expelled from several schools as uneducable , so that she was eventually sent to a school for people with learning disabilities or difficult-to- educate young people.

This did not prevent Sally Gardner from completing an art academy with top honors after graduating from school and then working as a costume designer at various well-known theaters for 15 years . After her twin daughters (* 1983) and her son (* 1987), who also suffer from dyslexia, were a little older, she began to illustrate picture books ; since 1992 she has also worked as a writer .

In her first picture book with text, The Little Nut Tree , in 1993 she took up the traditional fun rhyme of the same name and therefore spun a richly illustrated story about a girl, her magical nut tree and a Spanish princess, to whom she gave this tree. She based her story in the 1830s and furnished it with richly colored scenes, such as B. a fold-out inside panel depicting the pompous arrival of the daughter of the Spanish king. This mixture particularly appealed to the critics: "Brimming with historical detail, this gentle period piece strikes just the right balance between the fanciful and the realistic."

The second picture book, My Little Princess , took up her own career as a costume designer the following year, as it was possible for young readers to furnish their princess with clothes of their choice. While the princess motif was to be a constant constant alongside that of the fairies in the next few years of her activity, this allusion to her earlier profession remained an exception. However, she was quite successful with the visualization and setting of traditional nursery rhymes ( Playtime Rhymes: All Our Favorite Rhymes ) and downright princess anthologies ( A Book of Princesses. Five Favorite Princess Stories. 1997).

But from now on children with special (super) powers moved into their narrative foreground, which enjoyed great popularity with the young readership, their editions were quickly out of print and were therefore published either in compilations as "Magical Kids" or as audio books, whereby Well-known actors such as Emilia Fox or Andrew Sachs served as narrators. What these stories have in common, such as B. The Boy with the Lightning Feet , 2006 that children surprisingly overcome their physical deficits (Gramps is obese ) through encouragement from adults from their parents' environment and outgrow themselves by developing special talents (with the boy it is the goal-threatening " Foot ”) in yourself. The parallels to their own development described at the beginning are accordingly there.

Nevertheless, with her following books, which for the first time addressed a readership beyond the ten-year-olds, Sally Gardner took a different path, in which she - as with her literary beginnings - took advantage of the always fascinating recourse to history. As a result, all of their stories now took place in the past (England under Oliver Cromwell in I, Coriander , 2005; French Revolution in The Red Necklace , 2007, and The Silver Blade , 2008), although their protagonists all with an idealized dream and Related to the magic world. Nevertheless, the critics praised the general comprehensibility of their presentation of the historical background and the attention to detail in their narrative.

In 2003 she received the Smarties Book Prize, Bronze Award for The Countess's Calamity in the category children aged six to eight. For her youth novel I, Coriander (in German : Ich, Coriander ) she was awarded the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in the category children aged nine to eleven in 2005. The book is about a girl who tells the story of her childhood in London as the daughter of a silk merchant in the 17th century, in whose life magic and fantasy play a special role thanks to a parallel world . The following year Gardner won the award again; this time with Wibbly Pig's Silly Big Bear in the under five category.

The BBC she stood in several interviews and listener surveys on dyslexia and infant program.

According to her own words, it is much easier for her to write because she always has a “story in her head” , while illustrating always has to deal with the subject matter. Her advice for budding writers was true to her own story: “Don't feel a failure if you can't spell. If you've got a story to tell, tell it. ” ( Don't feel like a mistake if you can't pronounce it. If you have a story to tell, tell it. )

In her own words, she owes the fluency of writing primarily to her laptop , thanks to whose correction program she can let herself fall into the autosuggestion that the machine corrects her mistakes: “I did it on a laptop. When I wrote before in exercise books, it was hopeless because I would forget I'd written something or lose the page. I bought one of those Apples that looks like a Barbie 's loo seat. I rather loved it; it was blue. I realized that this machine thought like I did ... It lets me freefall and write and write and write without thinking. It's like jumping out of a plane. When I come to the end most goes into the trash and I gently piece together the bits I like. ” Then your texts go to an editor who works on your grammar before the manuscript is passed on to the actual editor .

In 2012 Gardner received the Costa Book Award in the children's book category for Maggot Moon .

Sally Gardner has two daughters and one son. She lives with her family in the north of her native London.

Press review

Maggot Moon (2013)

"But Maggot Moon is far from being the heart-warming story of a boy who finds friendship and overcomes his difficulties. [...] At the heart of this David and Goliath story is the voice of the boy who cannot read. It rings out, full of verbal swagger, celebrating the human spirit that refuses to be crushed. "Why is mankind so fucking cruel?" demands Standish. "Why?" Teenage readers deserve big themes, big ideas and big emotions. Encourage one to read this powerful and affecting novel, and supply a large box of paper hankies. "

- Linda Buckley-Archer : " Maggot Moon" by Sally Gardner - review , in: The Guardian of December 28, 2012

"The outstanding teenage novel of the autumn, arresting and original and written in a singular voice, is Sally Gardner's Maggot Moon [...]. Narrated by a boy with dyslexia, Standish Treadwell, it takes you inside the workings of his mind (something Gardner is well-placed to do as a dyslexic herself, and which the enhanced iBook for iPad brings vividly to life), as well as offering up something much darker: a parable about the perils of totalitarianism. Despite its simple language, it's a disturbing read, but it also has a hopeful message - that a teenager, especially one with dyslexia, can have agency in the world. "

- Lorna Bradbury : Ask Lorna: Sally Gardner's "Maggot Moon" , in: The Telegraph , 27.09.2012

"Just when it seems that there's nothing new under the dystopian sun, Gardner ( The Red Necklace ) produces an original and unforgettable novel about a boy in a totalitarian society who risks everything in the name of friendship. [...] Parts of the story are very hard to read — early on, a classmate is beaten to death by a teacher in the schoolyard — but the violence asks readers to consider what the world would be like if certain events in history had turned out differently. Gardner does a masterful job of portraying Standish's dyslexia through the linguistic swerves of his narration, and although the ending is pure heartbreak, she leaves readers with a hopeful message about the power of one boy to stand up to evil. "

- Maggot Moon , in: Publishers Weekly of December 17, 2012

Works (selection)

as an author and illustrator
as an author
as an illustrator
Audiobooks
  • The Smallest Girl Ever . As told by Emilia Fox , (abridged) Orion 2000
  • The Smallest Girl Ever and the Strongest Girl in the World , MC, as told by Susan Jameson , Chivers North America 2002, ISBN 978-0754052647 (JCG winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award, 2004)
  • Magical Children: "The Boy with the Magic Number", "The Invisible Boy", "The Boy with the Lightning Feet". Read Andrew Sachs and Emilia Fox, Orion 2010, ISBN 978-1409115748 .
  • The Silver Blade: The French Revolution, Book 2 . As told by Janet Suzman , (unabridged) Orion 2009
in German translation

reception

In December 2009, Gardner announced on her blog that actor and director Dominic West had acquired the film rights to her two books, The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/aug/02/highereducation.health
  2. ↑ She changed her name from Sarah to Sally, as it was less difficult to pronounce because of her dyslexia and a friend of her mother with the same name advised it. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/14/nestleprize
  3. ↑ http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=1195
  4. ↑ http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=1195
  5. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_32_mon_01.shtml
  6. ↑ http://www.blogger.com/profile/02552194156583772523
  7. ↑ I had a little nut tree,
    Nothing would it bear,
    But a silver nutmeg,
    And a golden pear.

    The King of Spain's daughter,
    Came to visit me,
    And all for the sake,
    Of my little nut tree.

    I skipped over water,
    I danced over sea,
    And all the birds in the air,
    Couldn't catch me.
    For comparison: Roald Dahl's version
  8. ^ Publishers Weekly, July 1993. Quoted from www.biggerbooks.com
  9. ↑ Summary - http://egsweb.egipps.vic.gov.au/amlibweb/
  10. ↑ Collected, abridged reviews of I, Coriander on bookbrowse.com
  11. ^ Review of The Silver Blade - timesonline.co.uk
  12. ↑ www.thebookbag.co.uk
  13. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4304102.stm
  14. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_33_mon_05.shtml
  15. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bbc.co.uk
  16. ↑ Lewis' interview with Sally Gardner , at news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/, December 16, 2005
  17. ↑ Polly Curtis: The dyslexic novelist. Sally Gardner changed her name because she couldn't spell it. So how does she manage to write novels? In: The Guardian , August 2, 2005.
  18. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/28/maggot-moon-sally-gardner-review
  19. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9570753/Ask-Lorna-Sally-Gardners-Maggot-Moon.html
  20. ↑ http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7636-6553-1
  21. ↑ English review of The Red Necklace - www.thebookbag.co.uk
  22. ↑ Review in Publishers Weekly , May 26, 2008
  23. ↑ German review on www.kinderbuch-couch.de
  24. ↑ German meeting on www.perlentaucher.de with cross-references to the Süddeutsche Zeitung March 14, 2006
  25. ↑ http://sallygardner.blogspot.com/?spref=tw
personal data
SURNAME Gardner, Sally
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gardner, Sarah (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British picture and children's book author
DATE OF BIRTH 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH London