Holly Smale | |
---|---|
Born | Holly Miranda Smale 7 December 1981 England, UK |
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | British |
Education | English literature |
Alma mater | University of Bristol |
Genre | Young-adult novels |
Notable works | Geek Girl series |
Notable awards | Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2014 Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013 |
Holly Miranda Smale [1] (born 7 December 1981) is a British writer. She wrote the Geek Girl series. The first book in the series won the 2014 Waterstones Children's Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013. The final book, Forever Geek, was published by HarperCollins in March 2017.
Her first adult novel, The Cassandra Complex (UK)/ Cassandra in Reverse (US) was the June 2023 pick for Reese's Book Club [2] and a pick for the BBC Radio 2 Book club. [3]
Holly Miranda Smale was born on 7 December 1981 in Hertfordshire, England. From an early age she loved reading and writing, and has stated that her childhood experiences of being bullied have influenced the subjects she chooses to write about. At the age of 15, Smale was recruited by a London modelling agency and became a fashion model. She modelled for two years but has stated in interviews that she did not enjoy it. [4] [5] [1]
Smale attended Dame Alice Owen's before studying at the University of Bristol, and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Master of Arts in Shakespeare studies. At Bristol, Smale was a deputy editor of Epigram newspaper. She has held various jobs, including teaching English in Japan, and has travelled extensively. [4] [5] [1]
Smale was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum at the age of 39 [6] and subsequently with developmental coordination disorder. [7] She has also mentioned having synesthesia, which in her case involves processing emotions as colours, [8] dyscalculia, hyperlexia, coeliac disease and endometriosis. [9] She identifies as a feminist. [10]
Originally meant to be a trilogy, the Geek Girl series consists of six books. [11] The humorous fiction follows the life of Harriet Manners, a nerdy 15-year-old girl who tries out modelling to "reinvent herself". Following her own diagnoses of autism and dyspraxia after the series concluded, Smale has retroactively described Harriet as having both conditions as well. [12] [13]
The first book in the series, Geek Girl, received favourable reviews and was the Number 1 debut teen fiction book of 2013 in the UK. It won the 2014 Waterstones' Children's Book Prize in the young adult category. [14] [15] It also received the 2014 Leeds Book Award in the ages 11–14 category. [16] and was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013, [17] the Queen of Teen award 2014 and the Branford Boase Award 2014.
For World Book Day (UK and Ireland) 2015, Smale also wrote an extra spin-off book titled Geek Drama set between Model Misfit and Picture Perfect. Also, a Christmas special not part of the main series titled All Wrapped Up was published in 2015, and a summer special titled Sunny Side Up was published in 2016.
The Geek Girl series is currently in development for TV with Netflix. [18]
In February 2019 Smale published Happy Girl Lucky, the first in a new series called The Valentines, about three sisters and a brother. [19]
The Cassandra Complex, an adult novel with an autistic woman as protagonist, was published in May 2023 in the UK. [20] It was chosen as a BBC Radio 2 [21] Book Club pick. Its US title, Cassandra In Reverse, was chosen as the June 2023 pick for Reese's Book Club [22] and a June pick for Aardvark Book Club.
Roald Dahl was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".
Sophie Dahl is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, The Man with the Dancing Eyes, was published in 2003 followed by Playing With the Grown-ups in 2007. In 2009, she wrote Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, a cookery book which formed the basis for a six-part BBC Two series named The Delicious Miss Dahl. In 2011, she published her second cookery book From Season to Season. Her first children's book, Madame Badobedah, was released in 2019. She is the daughter of Tessa Dahl and Julian Holloway and the granddaughter of author Roald Dahl, actress Patricia Neal, and actor Stanley Holloway.
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Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won an Eisner Award, a Lodestar Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery Honor.
Developmental coordination disorder (DCD), also known as developmental motor coordination disorder, developmental dyspraxia or simply dyspraxia, is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired coordination of physical movements as a result of brain messages not being accurately transmitted to the body. Deficits in fine or gross motor skills movements interfere with activities of daily living. It is often described as disorder in skill acquisition, where the learning and execution of coordinated motor skills is substantially below that expected given the individual's chronological age. Difficulties may present as clumsiness, slowness and inaccuracy of performance of motor skills. It is often accompanied by difficulty with organisation and/or problems with attention, working memory and time management.
Judith Lewis, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.
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 therefore open only to authors who have published no more than two or three books, depending on which category they are in. The prize is awarded by British book retailer Waterstones.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) or autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) describe a range of conditions classified as neurodevelopmental disorders in the DSM-5, used by the American Psychiatric Association. As with many neurodivergent people and conditions, the popular image of autistic people and autism itself is often based on inaccurate media representations. Additionally, media about autism may promote pseudoscience such as vaccine denial or facilitated communication.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave FRSL is a British poet, playwright and novelist. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Liz Pichon is a British author and illustrator of children's books. She is best known for her Tom Gates series of "satirical realist comedy fiction", which has sold 16.5 million copies and has been translated into 44 languages across 47 international markets.
Erin Kelly was born in London in 1976 and grew up in Romford, Essex.
Geek Girl is the debut novel by Holly Smale, published in 2013. It won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize Teen category prize in 2014 along with the Leeds Book Award for 2014, and has spawned a series of Geek Girl novels by Smale.
Sarah Hilary is an English crime novelist known for the Marnie Rome series of novels. She won the Fish Criminally Short Histories Prize in 2008 for her story, Fall River, in August 1892. In 2012, she was awarded the Cheshire Prize for Literature.
Emily Joanna Carey is an English actress. She began her career as a child actor on stage and in the BBC One soap opera Casualty. She went on to play young versions of characters, such as Diana Prince in Wonder Woman (2017), Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (2018), and Alicent Hightower in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon (2022). She also appeared in BBC iPlayer teen series Get Even (2020).
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Elle McNicoll is a Scottish and British bestselling children's writer. McNicoll has been described as "undoubtedly" an outstanding new talent in children's books [who] will inspire readers young and old for generations to come".
Holly Jackson is a British author of young adult mystery novels. She is best known for her A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is a young adult mystery debut novel, crime by Holly Jackson. The novel is the first in a series of three novels and one novella: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2019); Good Girl, Bad Blood (2020); As Good As Dead (2021); and Kill Joy (2022). All books were published by Electric Monkey in the UK and by Delacorte Press in the USA.
Geek Girl is an upcoming British-Canadian television series based on the 2013 young adult novel of the same name by Holly Smale. It is set to be released on 30 May 2024 on Netflix.