Author Eva Ibbotson died October 20 at her home in Newcastle, England. She was 85. Born in Vienna, Ibbotson moved to the U.K. in 1934 at age eight. In a career that spanned three decades, she wrote more than 20 novels for children and adults. Her first book, The Great Ghost Rescue, was published by Macmillan in the U.K. in 1975; she was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for 1979’s Which Witch?, and her novels Journey to the River Sea (2001) and The Star of Kazan (2004) received numerous awards and citations (the latter won the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal).
Ebbottson’s latest book, The Ogre of Oglefort, was shortlisted for the 2010 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and is scheduled to be published in the U.S. by Dutton in summer 2011.
