Lynne Reid Banks

Lynne Reid Banks admits that she herself was a “reluctant reader” as a child, but that stories – told or read to her mainly by her imaginative Irish actress mother – were the breath of life to her. “Though I was the only child, I never remember being lonely. Every waking hour was filled with daydreams, songs, poems and imaginary characters, most of them played by me! I’ve always talked to myself. I still do. My sons get embarrassed. ‘Who were your talking to, Mum?’ And I answer. ‘I was giving so-and-so a piece of my mind,’ or ‘Oh, just someone I made up.’”

As a writer for children, Lynne has strong views about the importance of fantasy in developing

children’s inner worlds – fantasy in their reading and their own writing. She even has a theory that children trained to project themselves into the skins of others imaginatively are less likely to commit crimes later. “But for teachers, it’s hard work,” says Lynne, who for eight years taught on an Israeli kibbutz. “I used to teach English language through drama, and learning songs and poems by heart, and by making students write creatively but correctly! That’s very important. Good English is the basic tool of self-expression.”

Born in London, Lynne was evacuated to Canada as a child “war guest” during World War II. Her separation from her home at that time was to cause her some trauma later, when she returned to England and felt that she had “missed” the war. She studied the theater and acted in small companies for five years before realizing she needed to earn a steadier income. She went into journalism, becoming one of the first two women TV reporters in Britain. Later she emigrated to Israel, where she lived for eight years, and married a sculptor and had the three sons who are “personated” in the Indian in the Cupboard series. They are now adults.

Lynne lives with her husband in a 300-year-old farmhouse in Dorset, England. She writes full-time, but also travels and visits schools, at home and abroad. Her latest novels are Broken Bridge, a sequel to her teenage novel One More River, and Angela and Diabola, a story of good and evil.

Fine books by Lynne Reid Banks

The Indian In The Cupboardby Lynne Reid Banks, Brock Cole (Illustrator)
A young man receives two presents that will change his life: a plastic miniature Indian that magically comes to life inside a mysterious old cupboard.
Reading level: Ages 9-12

Broken Bridgeby Lynne Reid Banks
A sequel to One More River finds two newly arrived teens walking through the streets of Jerusalem, until they are attacked by a terrorist and one is killed, forcing the other to confront the horrors of present-day Israel.
Reading level: Young Adult

One More Riverby Lynne Reid Banks
Fourteen-year-old Lesley is upset when her parents abandon their comfortable life in Canada for a kibbutz in Israel prior to the 1967 war.
Reading level: Ages 9-12

Angela and Diabola
by Lynne Reid Banks
Mrs. Cuthbertson-Jones is surprised by the arrival of newborn twins. One is terribly, terribly good and the other is terribly, terribly rotten.
Reading level: Ages 9-12

Harry The Poisonous Centipedeby Lynne Reid Banks, Tony Ross (Illustrator)
Harry, a curious centipede, and his best friend, George, venture out of their creepy underground world to visit the surface world of the most dangerous creatures alive--humans.
Reading level: Ages 9-12

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