Janni Howker is the author of several award-winning volumes of fiction for young readers. Often focusing on characters and situations common to the working class in northern England, her books earned her recognition as one of Britain's major new talents in the 1980s. Since the first publication of one of her books, 1984's Badger on the Barge and Other Stories, Howker has received an enthusiastic response from critics and the public alike. Frequently lauded for her impassioned and sensitive portrayals of her protagonists, she is also noted for her effective use of colloquial dialect, for her vivid and unconventional depictions, and for her incorporation of humor and wisdom. Her evocative story lines have explored themes ranging from the relationship between troubled youths and the elderly, to the hardships endured by residents of a small town after a factory closing, to the destruction of a family resulting from a...