Burtinshaw, Julie 1958–

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Burtinshaw, Julie 1958–

Personal

Born 1958.

Addresses

Home and office—Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Agent—Transatlantic Literary Agency, 72 Glengowan Rd., Toronto, Ontario M4N 1G4, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Young-adult writer. Editor for suite101.com; member of part-time staff in an independent book store. Writer-in-residence in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, 2007.

Member

Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia, Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable.

Awards, Honors

Red Cedar Award nomination, Chocolate Lily Award nomination, and Diamond Willow Award nomination, all for Dead Reckoning; Canadian Library Association Book of the Year nomination, 2002, Chocolate Lily Award nomination, Langley Book of the Year Award nomination, and Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award nomination, all 2004, all for Adrift; Stellar Book Award nomination, British Columbia's Teen Readers' Choice Award, 2008, for The Freedom of Jenny.

Writings

YOUNG-ADULT NOVELS

Dead Reckoning, Raincoast Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2000.

Adrift, Raincoast Books (San Diego, CA), 2002.

The Freedom of Jenny, Raincoast Books (Berkeley, CA), 2005.

The Perfect Cut, Raincoast Books (Berkeley, CA), 2008, published as Being Brian, Raincoast Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2008.

OTHER

Romantic Ghosts (adult short fiction), Lone Pine, 2003.

Sidelights

Canadian writer Julie Burtinshaw is the author of novels for young adults. Her first book for teens, Dead Reckoning, earned critical praise and was nominated for several awards for its retelling of the nautical disaster of the Valencia, a ship that sunk on its way from San Francisco, California, to Vancouver, British Columbia. "The descriptions of the sea, the storm, the boys' final moments aboard ship, and their struggles ashore create a vivid picture of that stretch of coast," wrote a reviewer for Resource Links in a review of the book.

Although its focus is contemporary rather than historical, like Dead Reckoning, Adrift is also set along the Canadian coast. David and Laura have effectively been abandoned by their parents: their mother has fallen into depression, and their father, unable to cope, has left his family behind. David takes on the role of caring for younger sister Laura, a responsibility that only eases when his father sends the children to stay with their aunt on Fern Island. There, David learns to relax again, but when his father returns to take the children home again, the boy explodes with anger and puts himself and his sister in a dangerous situation wherein they must battle nature to survive. "Burtinshaw is at her best as she describes a West Coast landscape and [rural] lifestyle," wrote Cora Lee in Resource Links. Susan Cooley, reviewing Adrift in School Library Journal, concluded that, "with its quick pacing and interesting detail about island life," Burtinshaw's novel "will be popular" with teen readers.

Drawing on historical events in British Columbia in the mid-1800s, The Freedom of Jenny is the story of former slaves who journey from Missouri to British Columbia after they gain their freedom. Their road is a treacherous one, however, and along with the challenges of finding a place to belong, they must also tame their environment. The result is a mix of pioneer survival and African-American history as told through the eyes of ten-year-old Jenny. Burtinshaw's story of a girl forced to carry the responsibility for her family after her mother dies "dramatizes the heartache and backbreaking work that sometimes made the newly free feel ‘more a slave [than] ever,’" wrote Jennifer Mattson in Booklist. While noting that Burtinshaw's authorial voice sometimes overwhelms her young heroine's narrative, Pat Leach acknowledged in School Library Journal that The Freedom of Jenny "successfully reflects the complexity of the times." A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt that "Jenny proves a resilient heroine and her story is jam-packed with the stuff of history." In Resource Links, Victoria Pennell concluded that The Freedom of Jenny "is a great addition to the collection of literature concerning blacks in Canada."

Alongside her work as a writer, Burtinshaw offers creative-writing workshops for middle-school and high-school students in her native Vancouver. She also holds a part-time job that allows her to engage in an important writer's hobby: watching people interact. "I work

part-time in a bookstore where I can indulge my second passion—listening, watching and observing human behaviour," she explained on the Suite 101 Web site. "Like all writers, I am curious almost to the point of [being] nosy."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2006, Jennifer Mattson, review of The Freedom of Jenny, p. 61.

Canadian Review of Materials, April 13, 2001, review of Dead Reckoning.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2006, review of The Freedom of Jenny, p. 179.

Resource Links, February, 2001, review of Dead Reckoning, p. 11; October, 2002, Cora Lee, review of Adrift, p. 27; February, 2006, Victoria Pennell, review of The Freedom of Jenny, p. 42.

School Library Journal, January, 2003, Susan Cooley, review of Adrift, p. 134; May, 2006, Pat Leach, review of The Freedom of Jenny, p. 120.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2002, review of Adrift, p. 374.