Karen Wallace

I was born in Canada and grew up in a log cabin in Quebec. My childhood was spent playing in the forests and messing about on the Gatineau River. It was a wonderful wild time and in many ways is the source of all of my writing. Children's writers are an eccentric bunch. Someone once said they never grow up and in many ways, this is probably true in my case.
I write books for children from five to fifteen years old. The ability to recall how you felt and what your world was like at a particular point in your childhood is something that all children's writers share. It's like pushing a rewind switch and going back in time. Many of my natural history books for children, like THINK OF AN EEL, which won awards on both sides of the Atlantic, IMAGINE YOU ARE A TIGER, or I AM A TYRANNOSAURUS REX all reflect my own sense of wonder exploring the woods and the river around me when I was a child. Years later, I wrote about this childhood in my first novel RASPBERRIES ON THE YANGTZE, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize.

 

 

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Featured Books, with extracts by Karen Wallace

The Comet of Doom
Karen Wallace
How the collapse of the Aztec kingdom was predicted by a young boy with skills as a soothsayer makes a strong story, rich in historical detail. Chantico has the gift of prophecy and when he sees the strange comet in...
Featured in: 7+ readers | Books of the Month | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/08/2009
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The Honourable Ratts
Karen Wallace
A gloriously spooky and unusual tale tells of a strange old house and the very strange family who live in it. It is a family with a difference, a small family whose size and shape have been changed over the...
Featured in: 7+ readers | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/03/2009
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Fearless Fiona
Karen Wallace
Do you have a keen writer in your midst?  Karen Wallace’s brilliant heroine, Fiona Metalpress is an ace reporter who has the ability to sniff out a story from nothing.  Fearless Fiona is full of dastardly adventures and mad-cap action;...
Featured in: 5+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 18/04/2007
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The Unrivalled Spangles
Karen Wallace
Set against a richly evoked historical background, The Unrivalled Spangles is a haunting and tragic romance played out within the world of the circus. Daughters of the ringmaster of Spangles Circus, Ellen and Lucy perform a bareback horse riding spectacular....
Featured in: 11+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/06/2006
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