Monica (Ince) Hughes (1925–2003) Biography

Born 1925, in Liverpool, England; naturalized Canadian citizen, 1957; died March 7, 2003, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Education: Attended Convent of the Holy Child Jesus (Harrowgate, Yorkshire, England); attended Edinburgh University, 1942–43. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Swimming, walking, traveling, beachcombing ("very difficult on the prairies"), gardening, sewing, puzzles, church activities.

Career

Author and editor. Dress designer in London, England, 1948–49, and Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 1950; bank clerk in Umtali, Rhodesia, 1951; National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, laboratory technician, 1952–57; full-time writer, 1975–. Writer-in-residence at universities, including University of Alberta, 1984–85, and at Canadian public libraries. Military service: British Women's Royal Naval Service, 1943–46.

Member

Canada PEN, Writers Union of Canada, Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers, International Board of Books for Young People, SF Canada, Writers Guild of Alberta (secretary, 1988–89).

Honors Awards

Vicky Metcalf Award, Canadian Authors Association, 1981, for body of work, and 1983, for short story "Ironbarred Door"; Alberta Culture Juvenile Novel Award, and Bay's Beaver Trophy Award, both 1981, Canada Council Children's Literature Award, 1982, for Guardian of Isis; R. Ross Annett Award, Writers Guild of Alberta, Canada Council Children's Literature Award, Young Adult Canadian Book Award, and Best Book for Young Adults citation, American Library Association (ALA), all 1983, Silver Feather Award, Federal Association of Women Doctors of Germany, 1986, Booken Leeuw (Book Lion) Award for young-adult fiction (Netherlands), 1987, and Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis honour book designation (Germany) all for Hunter in the Dark; International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour List, and ALA Best Books for Young Adults citation, both 1982, and Phoenix Award, Children's Literature Association, 2000, all for The Keeper of the Isis Light; Guardian Award runner-up, 1983, for Ring-Rise, Ring-Set; Hans Christian Andersen Award nomination, IBBY, 1984, for body of work; R. Ross Annett Award, 1984, for Space Trap, and 1986, for Blaine's Way; International Order of Daughters of the Empire (IODE) Book Award, 1989, for Little Fingerling; Alberta Achievement Award, 1986; City of Edmonton Cultural Creative Arts Award, 1988; Canadian Library Association Notable Book citation, 1991, for Invitation to the Game; Children's Book Centre Award, 1992, and R. Ross Annett Award, 1993, for Crystal Drop; Red Cedar Young Reader's Choice Award nomination, 1997–98, for Castle Tourmandyne; Silver Birch Award nomination, Ontario Library Association, 2000, for The Other Place; Phoenix Award special recognition for literary merit, Children's Literature Association (International), 2000, for "Isis" trilogy; named to Order of Canada, 2002.

Writings

FICTION; FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Gold-Fever Trail: A Klondike Adventure, illustrated by Patricia Peacock, LeBel (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1974, reprinted, Stoddart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Crisis on Conshelf Ten, Copp Clark (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1975, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1977.

Earthdark (sequel to Crisis on Conshelf Ten), Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1977, Methuen (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1981.

The Ghost Dance Caper, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1978.

The Tomorrow City, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1978, Methuen (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1982.

Beyond the Dark River, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1979.

Hunter in the Dark, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1982, reprinted, Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Ring-Rise, Ring-Set, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1982.

Beckoning Lights, illustrated by Richard A. Conroy, LeBel (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1982.

The Treasure of the Long Sault, illustrated by Richard A. Conroy, LeBel (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1982.

My Name Is Paula Popowich! illustrated by Leoung O'Young, Lorimer (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1983.

Space Trap, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1983.

Devil on My Back, MacRae, 1984, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1985.

Sandwriter, MacRae, 1984, Holt (New York, NY), 1988, reprinted, Stoddart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

Mike, Chasseur de Tenebre, Pierre Tisseyre (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1985.

The Dream Catcher (sequel to Devil on My Back), Methuen (London, England), 1986, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1987.

Blaine's Way, Irwin, 1986.

Log Jam, Irwin, 1986, published as Spirit River, Methuen (London, England), 1988.

The Promise (sequel to Sandwriter), Methuen (London, England), 1989, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

The Refuge, Doubleday (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

Invitation to the Game, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1990, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

The Crystal Drop, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.

The Golden Aquarians, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

Castle Tourmandyne, HarperCollins (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Where Have You Been, Billy Boy? HarperCollins (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

The Seven Magpies, HarperCollins (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

The Faces of Fear, HarperCollins (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

The Story Box, HarperCollins (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

The Other Place, HarperCollins (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Storm Warning, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2001.

The Maze, HarperTrophy (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

"ISIS" TRILOGY; YOUNG-ADULT SCIENCE FICTION

The Keeper of the Isis Light, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1980.

The Guardian of Isis, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1981, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1982, reprinted, Tundra (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

The Isis Pedlar, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1982.

PICTURE BOOKS AND EASY READERS

(Reteller) Little Fingerling (picture book), illustrated by Brenda Clark, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989, Ideals Children's Books (Nashville, TN), 1992.

A Handful of Seeds (picture book), illustrated by Luis Garay, Lester (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1993, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Jan's Big Bang (easy reader), illustrated by Carlos Freire, Formac (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1997.

Jan and Patch (easy reader), illustrated by Carlos Freire, Formac (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1998.

Jan on the Trail (easy reader), illustrated by Carlos Freire, Formac (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2000.

Jan's Awesome Party (easy reader), illustrated by Carlos Freire, Formac (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2001.

OTHER

(Editor and contributor) What If …? Amazing Stories (anthology), Tundra Books (Plattsburgh, NY), 1998.

Contributor of essays and short stories to anthologies, including Magook, McClelland & Stewart, 1977; Owl's Fun Book for Spring, Summer, and Fall, Grey de Pencier, 1982; Out of Time, Bodley Head, 1984; Dragons and Dreams, Harper, 1985; The Windows of Dreams, Methuen, 1986; Canadian Children's Treasury, Key Porter, 1988; Canadian Children's Annual, Grolier, 1988; Take Your Knee off My Heart, Methuen, 1990; Mother's Day, Methuen, 1992; and Too Young to Fight: Memories from Our Youth during World War II, Stoddart, 1999.

Hughes's books have been translated into several languages, including Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Swiss.

Hughes's papers are housed in permanent collections at the University of Calgary, Alberta, and at the de Grummond Collection, University of Southern Mississippi.

Sidelights

Born in England, Monica Hughes was acclaimed within her adopted country of Canada, as well as elsewhere, for her novels, short stories, and picture books for children and young adults. Penning contemporary realistic novel and survival stories, Hughes was also well known as an advocate of science fiction, using distant galaxies or future times as a backdrop for tales focusing on problems faced by contemporary teens. Her works, which were based on careful research and an attention to detail, continue to be recognized for their plausibility, authenticity, and integrity, their fully realized fictional worlds peopled by well-rounded characters. One of Hughes's most popular works, the "Isis" trilogy, chronicle the evolution of a colony on a faraway planet over three generations while describing the coming-of-age of several teenaged characters. She is also well known for young-adult novels such as Hunter in the Dark, in which a sixteen-year-old boy comes to terms with his impending death from leukemia while on a quest to shoot his first deer. In the Christian Science Monitor, Kit Pearson called Hughes "[p]erhaps her country's most distinguished writer for children," while In Review contributor Irma McDonough predicted that Hughes's books will cited as "classics by many new generations of young people."

Canadian settings, characters, and history were frequently featured in Hughes' books, as were native Canadian peoples such as Inuits and Cree and Blackfoot Indians. Noted for centering each of her novels on a major social, moral, or economic issue, she explored topics as varied as adapting to alien environments, the misuse of technology and scarce natural resources, the importance of traditional culture, and the loss of individuality. The importance of communication; the value of tolerance and kindness; and the interrelationship of culture, environment, and humanity are all explored within her work, and her protagonists—often orphans or outsiders—face crises that could have potentially devastating consequences, both for themselves and for their societies. Accepting these challenges, Hughes' characters ultimately triumph, and return to their familiar surrounding with a greater maturity.

Born in Liverpool, England, Hughes was the daughter of Edward Lindsay Ince, a prominent mathematician, and Phyllis Fry Ince. When she was a few months old, the family moved to Egypt, where her father became the head of the mathematics department at the Univer-sity of Cairo, but returned to Great Britain in 1931. Fascinated by history, language, and folklore, Hughes embraced E. Nesbit as her favorite writer, was fascinated by the speculative adventures of Jules Verne, and once noted in an essay for Canadian Children's Literature that she quickly realized that "magic lay between the covers of books, and that all that was necessary to do to partake of the treasures was to open the covers and plunge in."

During World War II, Hughes was sent to school in Argyllshire on the west coast of Scotland, and after a year enrolled at the school of the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus in Harrowgate, Yorkshire. Encouraged to write fiction as well as the required essays and compositions, Hughes won a prize for the best story—a chocolate bar, which was considered a luxury during wartime. Although Hughes had planned to attend Oxford University and study English literature, her father's death made this impossible. Enrolling at Edinburgh University, she planned to study mathematics, but after one year left to join the Women's Royal Naval Service and spent two years working on one of the most secret projects of the war: the breaking of the German code.

In 1948, Hughes was released from the Royal Navy and went to live with her mother and sister in London. After taking a course in dress designing, she worked as a freelancer in the garment trade and for a theatrical costumier. At a friend's suggestion she spent two years living and working in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), returning to England after her sister became ill. She traveled to Canada intending to work her way across to the West Coast, and thence to Australia, but instead made the country her permanent home.

In 1952 Hughes got a job as a laboratory technician at Ottawa's National Research Council, where she tested airplanes and new materials and discussed the possibility of flying saucers and life on Mars with her coworkers. Hughes generally found social life in Ottawa a bit lacking. With few social engagements, writing short science-fiction stories became a way of passing her free time. When the fledgling author joined a writing group, she met a friend who introduced her to Glen Hughes, a fellow writer who was also creating science fiction; the couple were married in 1957. For the next few years Hughes continued to write, although she never sold her work. In the early 1970s she decided to dedicate one year to her writing. After a few false starts, she produced the middle-grade novel Gold-Fever Trail: A Klondike Adventure, in which thirteen-year-old Harry and his eleven-year-old sister, Sarah, face separation when their mother dies and their prospector father cannot be located.

Addressed to young adults and set in the twenty-first century, Crisis on Conshelf Ten describes how Kepler Masterman, a teenage boy born and raised on the Moon, comes to Earth for the first time with his father, who has been sent to persuade the government to give the colony more money and influence. Kepler is sent to live with relatives in an underwater community, Conshelf Ten, where he discovers the Gillmen, a surgically altered race evolving in secret who are sabotaging essential oil and fishery plants. At the end of the novel, Kepler convinces the Gillmen to stop their violent actions. Gerald Rubio, writing in Canadian Children's Literature, called Crisis on Conshelf Ten "epic in scope, structure, and theme," while Booklist reviewer Barbara Elleman added that Hughes's "picture of twenty-first century undersea living … is fascinating." Earthdark, the sequel to Crisis on Conshelf Ten, addresses the exploitation of colonists and natural resources.

In 1980, Hughes produced the first volume of her "Isis" trilogy. The Keeper of the Isis Light, which is set in the twenty-second century, introduces one of the author's most popular characters, Olwen Pendennis. As an infant, Olwen was brought to the planet Isis by her parents, scientists who were researching the arid, radiation-filled environment. Before their deaths, Olwen's parents programmed a robot, the Guardian, to take care of her. The Guardian, seemingly emotionless but actually kind and loving, has taken care of Olwen, now age sixteen, from the time that she was four. In order to facilitate her survival on Isis, the Guardian has given Olwen enlarged lungs, broad nostrils, and tough greenish skin. Olwen meets Mark London, a seventeen-year-old settler from Earth, and falls in love. However, Mark and his fellow settlers reject her because of her appearance. Given the option of medical treatment to restore her to human form, Olwen chooses isolation over conformity. As Irma McDonough stated in In Review, The Keeper of the Isis Light "reverberates in the reader's mind long after she reads the last word because these truths enrich Olwen's story."

The Guardian of Isis and The Isis Pedlar complete Hughes' trilogy. In the former, settlers from Earth are living at a subsistence level and are involved in a taboo-laden religion based on misconceptions of history. When Jody N'Kumo, a twelve-year-old boy whose ancestors came from East Africa, rebels against the society, he is banished to the realm of the Ugly One, where he finds Olwen and her Guardian. With their help, Jody saves his people from a natural disaster and learns that it is prophesied that he will one day be a revolutionary leader who will bring about positive change on Isis. Writing in the Junior Bookshelf, Marcus Crouch noted that "It is a long time since I was so impressed by a book about the future…. Hughes brings before us the strange world of Isis in all its beauty, and integrates setting and action and character in exemplary fashion." Calling Jody "a compelling character," School Library Journal contributor Jody Roacher concluded that The Guardian of Isis "is a well-written and finely descriptive narrative which contains several ideas worthy of contemplation by young minds."

Hughes concluded her series with The Isis Pedlar, which finds Irish space trader Mike Flynn coming to Isis in-A sixteen-year-old space-suited planetary lighthouse keeper welcomes settlers from Earth with mixed feelings, especially when she falls in love but realizes that revealing her true form may well threaten the budding romance. (Cover illustration by Greg Call.)tending to exploit the settlers. However, teenager Moira realizes Flynn's plan and thwarts it with the help of Guardian, falling in love with a relative of Jody's in the bargain. Writing in the Times Educational Supplement, Jessica Yates cited Hughes for her "resourceful heroes" and "particular skill in depicting primitive, self-sufficient cultures, whether on our planet or an alien world." Calling the "Isis" trilogy "surely the most impressive achievement in young adult literature to appear in a very long time," in Quill and Quire Rubio dubbed The Isis Pedlar "a daring tour de force" that is "an aesthetically satisfying conclusion to the Isis epic."

Hunter in the Dark, considered Hughes' most acclaimed book, introduces sixteen-year-old Mike as he discovers he has leukemia. Mike undergoes physical changes, medical treatments, and the reactions of family and friends. In an effort to come to terms with his fate, he goes hunting alone in the foothills of Alberta, hoping to kill his first deer. He find the deer, an impressive buck, but as he tracks it, the teen goes on a spiritual journey that leaves him with a different perpective on his quarry as well as on life. Writing in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, Rubio noted that Hunter in the Dark "remains Hughes's masterpiece," while Irma McDonough commented in In Review, that the novel is "a sobering book but an honest one. And young readers deserve honesty." In Maclean's Cathleen Hoskins noted that Hughes "writes with a gutsy realism that bodes well for the future of intelligent juvenile fiction in this country."

A versatile writer, Hughes explored the fantasy genre with young-adult novels such as Sandwriter, The Promise, and The Maze. Sandwriter introduces sixteen-year-old Antia, a spoiled princess of the twin continents Komilant and Kamalant. Sent to the desert country of Roshan to marry Prince Jodril, Antia is brought under the spell of her evil tutor, Eskoril, who, hoping to control both continents, convinces the princess to spy on her betrothed. When Antia learns the valuable secret of the desert—twin lakes under the sand, one containing water and the other crude oil, that are guarded by the ancient priestess known as Sandwriter—she tells Eskoril. Realizing her mistake too late, she joins with Sandwriter and Jodril to save the country, and also learns the value of loyalty. According to Canadian Children's Literature critic Gertrude Lehnert, Sandwriter "communicates some of the essential ambivalence of human lives and feelings instead of offering a simple ready-made solution," and Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books contributor Roger Sutton added that, "feisty and headstrong, Antia is a true heroine."

In The Promise, a sequel to Sandwriter, Antia and Jodril's daughter Ramia is sent, against her will, to be apprentice to Sandwriter. Rebellious at first, the girl learns to accept her new life, but the spartan lifestyle and her need for companionship eventually take their toll. Sandwriter sends Ramia to live with an ordinary couple for a year, and the teen falls in love. Faced with a dilemma: should she marry and have a normal life or accept her destiny as the heir to Sandwriter, sacrificing her own desires in order to serve her country? Lehnert concluded that, in both novels, Hughes "rais[es readers'] … consciousness of different ways of treating nature. One may read these books as dealing with ecological problems, or as describing a person's search for herself or for her duty toward society. But any pedagogical purpose is unobtrusively transmitted in a well-told story." A more modern-day fantasy is the focus of The Maze, as high school misfit Andrea is given a magical maze by a strange woman and uses the game's power to help untangle the confusion in her own life. Like Sandwriter, The Promise, and Hughes' science-fiction novels, The Maze is a coming-of-age tale in which a young person draws on inner strength of character to make choices that empower their future while also tapping what In-grid Johnston described in a Resource Links review as the "complex emotional worlds" of adolescence.

In addition to her books for older children and teens, Hughes also penned the picture books Little Fingerling, a retelling of a Japanese folktale, and A Handful of Seeds, a book published for UNICEF. Little Fingerling tells the story of Issun Boshi, a tiny but courageous young man who becomes the favorite in the home of a Kyoto merchant and falls in love with the man's daughter, Plum Blossom. When Issun Boshi overcomes two evil giants, he uses their magic and, with Plum Blossom's help, becomes a handsome samurai warrior. A critic in Booklist called Little Fingerling "[a]n elegant retelling," while Books in Canada critic Linda Granfield noted that Hughes's "detailed descriptions enhance … the story" and praised Hughes and illustrator Brenda Clark for creating "an authentic Japanese ambience" in their well-researched tale.

A Handful of Seeds introduces Concepción, an Hispanic girl who is forced to move from a farm to a barrio after the death of her grandmother. In the city, Concepción meets a gang of homeless orphan children who survive by stealing and picking through garbage. With the seeds she brought with her from her home in the country, she teaches her new friends to grow vegetables. Soon, other groups of hungry orphans appear, and Concepción spreads her knowledge further. School Library Journal reviewer Maria Redburn stated that, while "Hughes's well-written narrative does not hide the ugliness of life in the barrio, … it is a good vehicle for introducing a difficult subject." Writing in Quill and Quire, Sarah Ellis praise the author's "clean, pared-down style that gives this story of social realism a fable-like feel." As Ellis concluded, A Handful of Seeds "is not a solution to the complex problems of poverty and development. But it is not a bad place to start, for any age."

Remarking on her life as a writer, Hughes once commented in an essay for the St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers: "I write in response to my excitement at the wonder of our world, and sometimes in response to my dismay at what we are doing to it." In 2002, a year before her death, Hughes was made a member of the Order of Canada. As a testament to the quality of her fiction, many of her books were still in print at her death, some almost three decades after first being published; as Johnston wrote in Resource Links, Hughes' "passing has left a hole in the world of Canadian children's books."