Deborah Smith Howe (August 12, 1946 – June 3, 1978) was an American children's writer and actress. She and her husband

James Howe James Howe (born August 2, 1946) is an American children's writer who has written more than 79 juvenile and young adult fiction books. He is best known for the Bunnicula series about a vampire rabbit that sucks the juice out of vegetables. Bi ...

wrote two books, '' Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery'' and '' Teddy Bear's Scrapbook'', but she died of cancer at age 31 before they were published in 1979 and 1980, respectively. Deborah Smith was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 12, 1946. Her father was Lester Smith, a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

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in New York. In 1968, she graduated from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

with a B.F.A. in theater. At college, she met James Howe, another student studying acting. They married on September 28, 1969 and then together, they moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for their acting careers. She played in

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

shows, working as an actress from 1969 to 1978. Howe also worked as a model and tape recording artist, and she and her husband created children's records. In 1978, Deborah and James Howe wrote ''Bunnicula'' and ''Teddy Bear's Scrapbook'' while Deborah was staying at

St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York d/b/a as Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's, or SVCMC) was a healthcare system, anchored by its flagship hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, locally referred to a ...

due to her illness. Her husband stated "writing the books became a form of therapy" for them while they were staying at the hospital, since the books were "humorous and they gave us laughter in writing them." She was diagnosed with

ameloblastoma Ameloblastoma is a rare, benign or cancerous tumor of odontogenic epithelium (ameloblasts, or outside portion, of the teeth during development) much more commonly appearing in the lower jaw than the upper jaw. It was recognized in 1827 by Cusack. ...

, a tumor-forming bone disease, and died 11 months after her diagnosis on June 3, 1978. A children's library at St. Vincent's was later named after her. She was survived by her parents, her husband James, and her younger brother."Writing Bunnicula: The Story Behind the Story" by James Howe, in ''Bunnicula'',

Atheneum Books Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Athene ...

, New York, NY, Revised Format Edition 1999.

Awards

Howe's work has won the following awards: * AL Notable Children's Books * CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council) *

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award The Vermont Golden Dome Book Award (formerly the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award) annually recognizes one new American children's book selected by the vote of Vermont schoolchildren. It was inaugurated in 1957. The award is co-spon ...

(VT) * Emphasis on Reading Book Award (AL) * Golden Sower Award (NE) * Iowa Children's Choice Award * IRA/CBC Children's Choices * Land of Enchantment Children's Book Award (NM) * Nene Award (HI) * Pacific Northwest

Young Reader's Choice Award The Young Reader's Choice Award is an award program of the Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) which was inaugurated in 1940 by Harry Hartman, a well-known Seattle based bookseller. It is the oldest "children's choice" award in the U.S. an ...

* Sequoyah Children's Book Award (OK) * South Carolina Book Award * Sunshine State Young Readers Award (FL)

References

External links

James Howe at Baltimore County Public Library
(archived 2011-12-29) – "Used with permission of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing" * 1946 births 1978 deaths Deaths from cancer American children's writers {{US-child-writer-stub