Katherine Anne Banks (February 13, 1960 – February 24, 2024) was an American children's writer. Her books, ''The Night Worker,'' won the 2001

Charlotte Zolotow Award The Charlotte Zolotow Award is an American literary award presented annually for outstanding writing in a picture book published in the United States during the preceding year. By contrast, the Caldecott Medal is for outstanding illustration in a ...

, ''And If the Moon Could Talk'' won the 1998

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

for best picture book. ''Dillon Dillon'' was a finalist for the 2002

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), his ...

for Young Adult Fiction. ''Howie Bowles, Secret Agent'' was nominated for the 2000

Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor ...

for Best Juvenile. ''Max’s Math'' won the 2016 Mathical Book Prize.

Early life

Kate Banks was born on February 13, 1960, in

Farmington, Maine Farmington is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,592. Farmington is home to the University of Maine at Farmington, Nordica Memorial Auditorium, the Nordica Homeste ...

. Her father was a history professor at the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

who was killed in a botched robbery in 1979. Banks said that the grief she experienced after her father's murder influenced the themes of her novels.

Career

While a student at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

, Kate Banks applied for an internship at the

Atlantic Monthly Press Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself " ...

, where she worked for two years in the children's books department. In 1984, she was hired by editor

Frances Foster Frances Helen Foster (née Brown; June 11, 1924 – June 17, 1997)Mapp, Edward (1978). Directory of Blacks in the Performing Arts'. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. p. 120. . was an American film, television and stage actress. In addition t ...

to work as her assistant at

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

. Banks worked with Foster for five years before leaving to become a writer, with Foster editing her books for the following couple of decades. Banks came up with the idea for her first book, ''Alphabet Soup'', while still working with Foster, who encouraged her to write it down and paired the author with

Peter Sís Peter Sís (born Petr Sís; May 11, 1949) is a Czechs, Czech-born American people, American illustrator and writer of children's books. As a cartoonist his editorial illustrations have appeared in ''Time (magazine), Time'', ''Newsweek'', ''Esquire ...

, an illustrator looking for work who had just arrived in New York.

Personal life

Banks and her husband, Pierluigi Mezzomo, had two sons. They lived in Italy for several years before moving to France. Banks lived with several major health issues. She was diagnosed with

chronic fatigue syndrome Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling Chronic condition, chronic illness. People with ME/CFS experience profound fatigue that does not go away with rest, as well as sleep issues and problems with memory ...

in her twenties and had chronic pain from complications in childbirth. She also had

mast cell activation syndrome Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) one of two types of mast cell activation disorder (MCAD); the other type is idiopathic MCAD. MCAS is an immunological condition in which mast cells, a type of white blood cell, inappropriately and excessivel ...

, which left her unable to pursue treatment for

neuroendocrine cancer Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are neoplasms that arise from cells of the endocrine (hormonal) and nervous systems. They most commonly occur in the intestine, where they are often called carcinoid tumors, but they are also found in the pancreas, lun ...

, which she was diagnosed with in 2022.

Death

Banks died through

assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland, on February 24, 2024, at the age of 64.

Books

* ''Alphabet Soup'', Dragonfly Books, 1988 * ''Big, Bigger'', Biggest Adventure, Random House, 1991 * ''The Bunnysitters'', Random House, 1991 * ''Peter and the Talking Shoes'', Knopf, 1994 * ''Baboon'', Frances Foster Books, 1997 * ''Spider Spider'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997 * ''And If the Moon Could Talk'', Frances Foster Books, 1998 * ''The Bird, the Monkey, and the Snake in the Jungle'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999 * ''Howie Bowles, Secret Agent'', Scholastic, 1999 * ''Howie Bowles and Uncle Sam'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000 * ''The Night Worker'', Frances Foster Books, 2000 * ''A Gift from the Sea'', Frances Foster Books, 2001 * ''Mama’s Little Baby'', DK Publishing, 2001 * ''Close Your Eyes'', Frances Foster Books, 2002 * ''Dillon Dillon'', Frances Foster Books, 2002 * ''The Turtle and the Hippopotamus'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 * ''Mama’s Coming Home'', Frances Foster Books, 2003 * ''Walk Softly'', Rachel, Frances Foster Books, 2003 * ''The Cat Who Walked Across France'', Frances Foster Books, 2004 * ''Friends of the Heart/Amici del Cuore'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 * ''The Great Blue House'', Frances Foster Books, 2005 * ''Max’s Words'', Frances Foster Books, 2006 * ''Fox'', Frances Foster Books, 2007 * ''Lenny’s Space'', Frances Foster Books, 2007 * ''Max’s Dragon'', Frances Foster Books, 2008 * ''Monkeys and Dog Days'', Frances Foster Books, 2008 * ''Monkeys and the Universe'', Frances Foster Books, 2009 * ''That’s Papa’s Way'', Frances Foster Books, 2009 * ''What’s Coming for Christmas?'', Frances Foster Books, 2009 * ''The Eraserheads'', Frances Foster Books, 2010 * ''Max’s Castle'', Frances Foster Books, 2011 * ''This Baby'' illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, Frances Foster Books, 2011 * ''The Magician's Apprentice'', Frances Foster Books, 2012 * ''The Bear in the Book'', Frances Foster Books, 2012 * ''Thank You, Mama'' illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, Frances Foster Books, 2013 * ''City Cat'', illustrated by Lauren Castillo, Frances Foster Books, 2013 * ''Max’s Math'', illustrated by Boris Kulikov, Frances Foster Books, 2015 * ''Boy's Best Friend'', with

Rupert Sheldrake Alfred Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English author and parapsychology researcher. He proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture that lacks mainstream acceptance and has been widely criticized as pseudoscience. He has ...

, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015 * ''How to Find an Elephant'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Kate 1960 births 2024 deaths 2024 suicides 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American children's writers American expatriates in Italy American emigrants to France American women children's writers People from Farmington, Maine People with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome Novelists from Maine Suicides in Switzerland Wellesley College alumni