Article

Joanna Ruth Nichols

Published Online April 10, 2008

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Joanna Ruth Nichols, children's writer (b at Toronto 4 Mar 1948). In A Walk Out of the World (1969) and The Marrow of the World (1972), Nichols portrays the adventures of troubled children transported to alternate universes. The latter was Canadian Children's Book of the Year.

Nichols, Joanna Ruth

Joanna Ruth Nichols, children's writer (b at Toronto 4 Mar 1948). In A Walk Out of the World (1969) and The Marrow of the World (1972), Nichols portrays the adventures of troubled children transported to alternate universes. The latter was Canadian Children's Book of the Year. In Ceremony of the Innocence (1969) an adolescent must resolve conflicting feelings towards her father. Song of the Pearl (1976) treats the moral growth of Margaret, who, after her death, examines her behaviour in earlier incarnations, while The Left-Handed Spirit (1978) recounts the young heroine's discovery of her special healing powers. The Burning of the Rose (1989) is an adult romance set in Renaissance Italy and France.

In all her novels, Nichols traces the difficult quest to attain self-knowledge.