Jenny Valentine (born 1970) is an English

children's novel Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

ist. For her first novel and best-known work, ''

Finding Violet Park ''Finding Violet Park'', or ''Me, the Missing, and the Dead'' in the U.S., is a young adult novel by Jenny Valentine, published by HarperCollins in 2007. It is about a fatherless teenage boy, Lucas Swain, who finds an urn containing the ashes of ...

'' (HarperCollins, 2007), she won the annual

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author ...

, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. Valentine lives in Glasbury-on-Wye, Wales with her husband singer/songwriter Alex Valentine, with whom she runs a health food shop in nearby

Hay-on-Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the t ...

Writer

HarperCollins has published Valentine's novels in Britain and usually one year later in America. ''

'' (2007) was re-titled ''Me, The Missing and The Dead'' in the US (2008). Beside winning the Guardian Prize it made the shortlist (seven finalists that year) for the annual Carnegie Medal, which the

British librarians British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

confer upon the year's best children's book published in the UK Basque, Catalan and Italian translations of the book were published in 2008, followed by versions in Dutch, French, German, Slovenian, Spanish, and Norwegian. Her critically acclaimed second novel, ''

Broken Soup ''Broken Soup'' is a 2008 children's novel by Jenny Valentine. It was shortlisted for the 2008 Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the 2008 Costa Book Children's Book Award, and longlisted for the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize. It has also b ...

'', published in January 2008, was shortlisted for the 2008

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is there ...

and the 2008 Costa Book Children's Book Award,Waterstone's Children's Book Prize
Costa Book Awards
/ref> and longlisted for the 2008

Booktrust Teenage Prize The Booktrust Teenage Prize was an annual award given to young adult literature published in the UK. The prize was administered by Book Trust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading. The Booktrust Teenage Prize was last awarded in ...

.Booktrust Teenage Prize
/ref> By 2010 it had also been published in Dutch and German-language translations. "Ten Stations", a short-story prequel to ''

'', was included among 2009

World Book Day World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day or International Day of the Book, is an annual event organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote reading, publishing, and copyrig ...

publications. That year Valentine also inaugurated a series of short stories for young children entitled ''Iggy and Me''. Valentine's third novel, ''The Ant Colony'', was published in 2009. By 2011 it had been published in Dutch and in German translations. Her fourth novel, ''The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight'', was set in her home town of

. It was also her fourth novel nominated for the Carnegie Medal, i. e. it was one of the year's top forty children's books published in the UK, in the estimation of librarians. By 2011 it had also been published in Dutch. Valentine takes part annually in the

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

Works

References

External links

"The Story of My Children's Book Prize"
by Valentine, ''theguardian.com'', 9 October 2007 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valentine, Jenny 21st-century British novelists British children's writers British writers of young adult literature Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1970 births