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A.P, MeCredia Layne Christensen

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Sarah Ellis unfazed by critic

HREE DAYS before
.this year’s Governor
a. General’s Awards

were announced in
Montreal, Canada’s self-
anointed national newspaper
ran a review trashing all but
one of the nominees in the
children’s literature catego-"

ry.

Among the works savaged was
Vancouver writer Sarah Ellis’ Out
of the Blue (Groundwood Books,
$14.95), which had been nominated
along with four other books. Ellis,
complained children’s books critic
Elizabeth MacCallum, seemed all

-.too aware of her role as a moral
feader, Not only did her “squeaky-
clean earnestness” taint the book,
her characters lacked subtlety and

“texture,

Ellis, meanwhile, who is neatly
arranging a tray of tea and choco-
late-covered biscuits for a guest in
the kitchen of her Eastside
Vancouver home, seems for the
most part unfazed by the bad pr

“She didn’t like my first book,
anyway,” the North Vancouver
librarian and book critic (ENis is a
critic for Quilt & Quire and Horn

Evelyn Jacob _—
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

Bock magazine) says with a halt-
smile. This gue sera, sera attitude «
is laudable, and easy to understand
in Ellis’ case. After all, she had
already won a GG three years ago
for Pick-Up Sticks. Had it been just
a few yeurs cartier, however, those
disparaging comments might not
have been so easy to shrug offs the
criticism, she concedes, could have
erushed the confidence of a less
seasoned writer. :

But with five critically
acclaimed books under her belt.
Ellis has managed to build herself a
fairly sturdy suit of armor.

Besides. she confesses, Out of
the Blue wouldn't even have been
her choice given the list of GG con-

See Author paxe 29
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Sheet BY

AUTHOR OF children’s
book Out of the Blue,
Sarah Ellis was recent-
ly nominated for a
Governor General's
Award for literature.
She has _ previously *
won a GG Award for
her Pick-Up Sticks. She
has written five critical. -
ly acclaimed books.

Wy

NEWS photo Mike