Eileen Browne is an author and illustrator best known for being the author of the ''Handa'' books.
Biography
Browne was born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
, United Kingdom. She lived in London for more than 20 years before moving to the county of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...
. Browne has worked as a school teacher and a youth worker before becoming a full-time writer and illustrator.
Work
Browne's books have been praised by ''Early Childhood Review'' for including diverse characters and properly presenting different cultures, such as Kenyan life in ''Handa's Surprise''. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' also recognized ''Handa's Surprise'' as one of the "50 best culturally diverse children's books." ''Handa's Surprise'' is also noted for the use of illustrations to provide the reader with information the main character doesn't have. In 1995, ''Handa's Surprise'' was on the shortlist for the Sheffield Children's Book Award. ''Handa's Surprise'' has also been adapted into a theatre production using song and
puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...
.
Browne continues to fight for diversity in children's books and media, commenting for example, on the lack of female characters in children's television. The narrative that Browne creates is a sense of inclusion, where "colour seems merely incidental."
Browne has related that she was first interested in exploring diversity in the 1980s when she lived in the
Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London park ...
area of London.
She was running a junior youth club that had a diverse group of children and when the children from her club asked her to put people like them in her books, Browne to realised "how important it was for them to see pictures of themselves."
Books
* ''Boo Boo Baby and the Giraffe''
* ''Caraway and the Cup Final''
* ''Handa's Hen''
* ''Handa's Surprise''
* ''Handa's Surprising Day''
* ''Handa's Noisy Night''
* ''In a Minute''
* ''Mary Had a Dinosaur''
* ''Nicki''
* ''No Problem''
* ''Through My Window''
* ''Tick Tock''
* ''Up the Tree''
* ''Wait and See''
* ''Wait for Me!''
* ''Where's That Bus?''
* ''Winnie Wagtail''
References
External links
Author Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Eileen
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
English women novelists
English children's writers
Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century English novelists
21st-century English women writers