Time Travel in Toronto...

Did you know Fort Rouillé was a tiny French trading fort which stood at the foot of what is now Dufferin street in Toronto, from 1750-1759? 

The French inhabitants (12 people for most of the year), and local First Nations, traded furs for hatchets, blankets and silver. Fort Rouillé was the first permanent European settlement in Toronto and a monument still stands, beside Scadding Cabin on the CNE grounds.  

 Learn about Fort Rouillé at the CNE this summer, on Kid's Toonie Monday! Travel back in time, learn about Toronto's history, and enjoy a reading from my children's book in a chapter about the fort, Carter and the Curious Maze...

... Carter enters a curious maze at the fair, only to discover that he has travelled back in time! He visits three time periods, 1903, 1813 and 1750, all on the same spot on the CNE grounds!

Hosted by the York Pioneer and Historical Society, the event will include historical children's games, a scavenger hunt, prizes, a reading, book signing and more. Come join us for Time Travel in Toronto:

Event: A visit to Fort Rouille with Philippa Dowding

When: Monday, August 21 & Monday, August 28

Time: 1-3 pm 

Where: CNE Grounds, Scadding Cabin

Cost: $2 CNE admission for kids 13 and under

More About Carter and the Curious Maze, book 3 in the award-winning middle-grade series, Weird Stories Gone Wrong:

Book Trailer, Carter and the Curious Maze
Blog Posts, Carter and the Curious Maze
CM Magazine Review (4/4 stars)
Goodreads Reviews

NEW BOOK COMING MARCH 2018!
The Weird Stories Gone Wrong series, for kids 8-12, has a new little brother coming in 2018: Alex and The Other.

Free Colouring Pages from Carter and the Curious Maze

 Free Colouring Pages, ENJOY!

This summer and fall, I've handed out hundreds of these wonderful illustrations from Carter and the Curious Maze, book 3 of the award-nominated Weird Stories Gone Wrong series. The illustrations are by Shawna Daigle, who has kindly allowed me to make them available.

Kids have coloured these images in Fort York, the CNE and at library and bookstore events. Some of their work is pretty amazing!

The first image is Carter discovering he has traveled back in time, to the CNE in 1903! The second image is when he realizes he is sitting below a canon at Fort York in 1813, on the

day the Americans invade York (and the GRAND MAGAZINE explodes, making the largest man-made explosion in history up until that time). KA-BOOM!

HAVE FUN! Please click on the images, print them out and have fun colouring them! It's all the rage these days. Enjoy!

It's 1903 and the ice cream is melting!

Me (in the rocking chair), Shawna Daigle (handing out crayons & art) at the CNE, Aug. 27/16. Photo courtesy CNE staff.

It's 1903 ... and the ice cream is melting! The CNE is the oldest continually running fair in Canada, it started in the late 1880s and has run during the last two weeks of August, ever since. 

Last weekend I was so honoured to read my newest book, Carter and the Curious Maze, (book 3, Weird Stories Gone Wrong), on the KidsWorld Stage there. Above is a photo of my fantastic illustrator, Shawna Daigle (who did all 22 illustrations, including the covers, for the series), and I getting ready. 

Ride the Switchback! (CNE archives, @1903)

The story is set on the CNE fairgrounds, and is about a young boy who travels back in time through a strange and magical maze. He visits three time periods all on the same spot: 1903 at the CNE, then 1813 during the Battle of York, and 1750 at Fort Rouille, a little-known French fur-trading post, which still has a memorial on the CNE grounds.

I read for about 10 minutes, taking kids back to what that very spot would have been like in 1903 ... they seemed pretty entranced. It was a dream come true for me, honestly. I've always loved the CNE, I visited every summer as a child, and took my own kids.

Carter in 1903, by Shawna Daigle

So to sit there and read my book, to those kids, in that place while the ferris wheel and midway rides went on behind me ... well it doesn't get a lot better than that for an author, I don't think.

I also read the book to summer camp kids a few weeks before, at Fort York, also amazing.

All to say, I'm totally lucky, and many, many thanks to the CNE staff, the Fort York staff, the Toronto Pioneer and Historical Society, and to my publisher, Dundurn Press, for helping me make it all happen.

Enjoy last week's blog post about the book and thoughts on Writing Historical Fiction for Kids.

To see more of Shawna's wonderful art, take a look at the Book Trailer.

Carter and the Curious Maze at the CNE!

I'm really pleased to say that I'll be reading from my new book, Carter and the Curious Maze, on the Kids World Stage at the Canadian National Exhibition this weekend (Sat. Aug 27/2016)!

A thousand thanks to the Fort York and CNE staff for all the support, and for helping me to arrange the reading.

Here are the details:

Event: Philippa Dowding at the CNE
Place: Kids World Stage (CNE, near Dufferin Gates)
Date: Saturday, August 27th
Time: 4 pm - 4:30 pm
FREE with admission to the CNE. The author and the illustrator Shawna Daigle, will be selling/signing books after the reading.

I hope you'll come and join us.

The book is a time-travel story set on the CNE grounds. Young Carter is bored with the CNE this year, until he enters the curious maze, and travels back to 3 time periods on the same spot: the CNE in 1903, the Battle of York on April 27, 1813, and then back to a fur-trading day at little-known French Fort Rouille, in 1750. The Fort Rouille monument still stands at the foot of Dufferin Street, behind the bandshell and next to Scadding Cabin. I've lived in Toronto all of my adult life, and had no idea that it existed, and that Fort Rouille was actually the first European settlement in the area.

Me signing books at Fort York, thank you for having me!

I had so much fun writing this book, although it was an incredible amount of work for 20,000 words. But as I delved further into the 3 time periods, there was more and more I wanted to say. It was tough to keep the word count for each chapter to about 1,000 words and to say what I wanted to say in 3 chapters per period. I also needed to keep the tension high, since the maze is actually another midway ride, after all, with chills, thrills and scream-inducing moments. Just like any good roller-coaster.

The next stage, the getting-the-word-out stage, has been fun, too. I was lucky enough to read at Fort York twice in August 2016 to summer camp kids, that was pretty special. Many thanks to the Fort for having me. (Note: a room of kids yelling KA-BOOM makes me laugh, apparently, every time.)

Fort York 2016

The book isn't really a history lesson, although it was my hope that the mystery of the maze will pique young reader's interest in the historical aspects of the story. And certainly it isn't didactic, it's a yarn about growing older and the infinite mysteries of the world around us as we leave childhood. I leave it to the reader to form their own impressions of the awful practice of freak shows in the last century, the terror of the Battle of York, or to recognize that the fur-trade was the sad first step in the European domination of First Nations people. The information is all there, Carter is sympathetic and curious, and it's my hope that teachers and librarians will open the conversation with their students, and use this book as a jumping off point for further inquiry and critical thinking.

I also wrote Carter and the Curious Maze because I have lived in and around Toronto most of my life, and I have the fondest memories of travelling to the CNE on the GO train from Oakville as a young teenager (one of a gaggle), and wandering through the CNE until the last train left for home. The words "Doggie Doggie" will mean something to a few readers of this piece, and send anticipatory shivers down a few spines, like they still do for me.

A trip to the CNE was, for most of my friends and certainly for me, our first taste of real freedom, through a world of wonder, strange and luminous to us. I wrote Carter and the Curious Maze to share some of that wonder with the next generation of readers, a sort of love song if you like, to Toronto. Finally, to be able to read this book at Fort York and now the CNE this weekend ... how lucky am I? Thanks to all who made it happen.

Recent reviews of Carter and the Curious Maze:

"This original take on time-travel historical fiction is a sure bet" Kirkus Reviews
"Readers will be compelled by historical tales of Toronto's past" 4/4 Stars, Highly Recommended, CM Magazine
Goodreads Reviews

Find a few more thoughts about why I wrote the book here: AUTHOR ARC LETTER

And to showcase illustrator Shawna Daigle's fantastic art, here is the BOOK TRAILER

Enjoy!

Goodreads Giveaway of Carter and the Curious Maze

"This original take on time-travel historical fantasy is a sure bet for young scary-story enthusiasts."
--KirkusReviews

The publication date for my forthcoming title, Carter and the Curious Maze, is coming up next week, on August 6th! I'll be reading at Fort York and bookstores in the coming weeks, take a look at the "New Events" section at right for details.

HOT NEW RELEASE on Amazon: You can preorder a copy here Carter and the Curious Maze

PUT A HOLD AT THE LIBRARY: You can put a hold on the title at the Toronto Public Library Here

WIN A COPY: You can also get your chance to WIN A COPY on Goodreads HERE

For a look at the "engagingly eerie" illustrations by Shawna Daigle, here's the booktrailer: Carter BookTrailer