Leisure

Featured Author

Jenny Valentine

Jenny Valentine

Jenny Valentine is an exciting new teenage writer. She has written two fantastic novels to great critical acclaim.

Debut novel Finding Violet Park won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. This is a quirky and original voyage of self-discovery triggered by a lost urn of ashes:

The mini cab office was up a cobbled mews with little flat houses either side. That's where I first met Violet Park, what was left of her. There was a healing centre next door, a pretty smart name for a place with a battered brown door and no proper door handle and stuck-on wooden numbers in the shape of clowns. The 3 of number 13 was stuck on sideways and I thought it was kind of sad and I liked it at the same time.”

Convinced that Violet Park is communicating with him, Sixteen-year-old Lucas Swain contrives to gain possession of the urn, little realising that his quest will take him on a voyage of self-discovery and identity, forcing him to finally confront what happened to his absent (and possibly dead) father!

Jenny’s second novel, Broken Soup, has been shortlisted for the Waterstones 2008 Children’s Book Prize. It’s an action-packed adventure which starts in a supermarket. When a good-looking boy with the American accent presses a negative into Rowan's hand, she's sure it's all a big mistake. But next moment he's gone, lost in the crowd of bustling shoppers. And she can't afford to lose her place in the checkout queue -- after all, if she doesn't take the groceries home, nobody else will. Rowan has more responsibilities than most girls her age. These days, she pretty much looks after her little sister single-handedly -- which doesn't leave much time for friends or fun. So when she finds out that Bee from school saw the whole thing, it piques her curiosity. Who was the boy? Why was he so insistent that the negative belonged to Rowan?

One fan commented: This book had me laughing and crying all the way through.”

Jenny Valentine moved house every two years when she was growing up. She worked in a wholefood shop in Primrose Hill selling organic loaves and has also worked as a teaching assistant and a jewellery maker. She is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children.

She is an original and entertaining new voice in writing for young people. If you fancy something different, she’s definitely worth checking out!