A visit to the costume shop, a day skiing, a guitar visitor

A few February updates for you:

AUTHOR VIRTUAL VISITS

FIREFLY went to Thunder Thighs costume shop last week, while I was getting photos for school visits together. The Corseted Lady costume shop in the book is based on Thunder Thighs, the real costume shop run by my extended family. More images to come.

If you're looking for an author virtual visit, I still have some availability!  Here is the WITS Author Visit Subsidy page. You may get a grant to invite me to talk to your class.

FOREST OF READING

Look for my Forest of Reading Red Maple presentation on February 11, 2022, available on the Ontario Library Association website that day.

WINTER WINTER WINTER

How are you getting through this interminable winter? I've had a few days skiing, bright blue sky and white winter snow just north of Toronto. Cold though. I've cross-country skied most of my life, here in Ontario, in Alberta and Quebec. If there is snow, you might as well find a way to enjoy it.

Also, I had a visitor come and hang out in my office last week (son came for a visit). I snuck a photo of him playing my Yamaha classical guitar in my messy office. Note the Vaseline lip balm for general dried out winter lips.

That helped with winter, too. 

Hope you're doing okay ... miss everyone.

OCULUM is featured on CBC BOOKS, livestream event and more!

IMAGE of author and OCULUM from CBC Books, click image for link.

So honoured to have OCULUM featured on the CBC Books site this weekend! Thanks to my publisher DCB Young Readers, the Forest of Reading, and CBC Books.

Here is the featured page: OCULUM on CBC Books

OCULUM is nominated for the Forest of Reading Silver Birch award this year, which is the largest reader's choice award in Canada, with over 250,000 children between kindergarten and grade 12 engaged in reading! Due to COVID19, all festivals and celebrations were cancelled this spring, however, CBC Books partnered with the Ontario Library Association and now there will be an online celebration and a winner announced on June 16. 

UPDATE: Here are the Forest of Reading Winners (I'm in the Silver Birch category): 

FREE JUNE 2, 1:15, LIVESTREAM EVENT!

Also, I will be live-streaming on the Peel District School Board Youtube channel on Tuesday, June 2/2020 at 1:15, reading from the book and answering kids' questions about OCULUM. Here's the link, I hope you can join me: OCULUM LIVE STREAM (I start at @ 43 minutes; author Helaine Becker is before me; author Zetta Elliott is after me)

On stage at Harbourfront in Toronto, celebrating
Forest of Reading in 2017 with Illustrator
Shawna Daigle (left)

Our book, Myles and the Monster Outside,
won Silver Birch Express Honour book!
A great day. Image courtesy Riley Murray

They are streaming more Forest of Reading nominated authors all week, so check out the PDSB Youtube channel for more great free events!

I hope you can join in on June 2, June 16 or some other time, and celebrate Canadian authors, books and kids. If you read a book and enjoy it, please consider posting a review online, giving a copy to a friend, or telling the world somehow. Canadian authors need your support more than ever!

My motto these days: we can't hold each other right now, but until we can, it might help to hold a book.

More about OCULUM on this blog including free teacher's guides, 5 Questions about OCULUM 
answered, free read-aloud licensing agreement
and much more.

I Read Canadian! Do you?

Today is the inaugural I READ CANADIAN day! I'm proud to say that as a Canadian, and a Canadian author, I DO read Canadian, all the time. 

Here's a link to more info about the day: I Read Canadian Day

The idea is that today, February 19, 2020, each of us will spend 15 minutes reading a Canadian book, and tell someone about it. Tell a friend, write a review, tell the world.

Why? Because the Canadian publishing industry needs you. Sales of Canadian books have dropped by more than 44% in the last 10 years. Read more in The Toronto Star Here.

But even if I wasn't a Canadian, or a Canadian author, I'd be reading Canadian books anyway. Why? Because they're fantastic. Canadian authors are some of the best in the world.

There are Canadian writers of adult fiction who you probably already know: Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Yann Martel, Esi Edugyan, Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, Miriam Toews, Lawrence Hill and so many more ...

But I Read Canadian day is the brain child of another fantastic Canadian author, Eric Walters, a children's book author. He's written over 100 kids' books, been awarded the Order of Canada, and supports literacy and reading efforts all over the world.

He specifically wanted to shine a light on all the terrific CHILDREN'S books written by Canadian authors. Here's the Toronto Star article again, about why: How Eric Walters plotted to Create a Day to Push Canadian Books

Some of my favourite (with a "u") Canadian kids' authors? Monica Kulling, Rebecca Upjohn, Lena Coakley, Leah Bobet, Cary Fagan, Kevin Sands, Kevin Sylvester, Susin Nielsin, Teresa Toten, and on, and on and on. Check out more great authors at the Canadian Children's Book Center.

So take 15 minutes today to show some love to the Canadian publishing industry. Read a book by a Canadian author, review it, buy a copy as a gift, tell a friend. We all have stories to tell, and Canadian authors and the Canadian publishing industry need your support to keep telling those Canadian stories. Join us, and read, enjoy, and support Canadian authors today!

OCULUM is a Silver Birch 2020 nominee and optioned for TV!

"We are delighted to announce that not only is @phdowding’s Oculum on the @ForestofReading Silver Birch Fiction Shortlist, we’ve also just sold rights to @saloonmedia, who want to produce a podcast, audiobook & tv series!"
--DCB, October 17/2019

My publisher, DCB (formerly Dancing Cat Books), posted that tweet last week.

Here's the tweet: OCULUM DCB NEWS

I couldn't be more honoured. An OLA Forest of Reading Silver Birch nomination for 2020 and an option on the book from a great Canadian production company like Saloon Media.  

Someone please pinch me (maybe twice). 

I couldn't be more honoured and surprised. It's just been an incredible week, THANK YOU to the Ontario Library Association, my publisher and editors at DCB, the wonderfully talented team at Saloon media, and everyone else who helped make these things happen for my middle-grade, science fiction dystopia. (The book also received an SYRCA Diamond Willow nomination in April, 2019, thank you!)
I cannot wait to discuss the book with the young readers of Ontario and Saskatchewan in the months ahead ...

Author and her publisher, OLA 2019

I also want to thank my editor Allister Thompson, who has guided me through the pitfalls of commas, adverbs, and nonsensical dialogue (plus much more) for TWELVE books now. And also warm thanks go to Emma Dolan, the talented illustrator of the absolutely beautiful cover for the book. Thank you guys!

And many thanks go to publisher Sylvia McConnell too (because I don't thank her enough), for publishing my first book, The Gargoyle in My Yard, in 2009, and getting this party started.

A writer just doesn't get the kind of week I had last week very often. The truth is there are long spells, years really, when you write and write and write, not knowing if the book is good, if anyone will publish it, and if anyone does publish it, will anyone buy it, read it, review it, nominate it ...

... and so on. It's such a strange, perilous journey from idea, to manuscript to book deal to book, that really, it's such a surprise whenever something amazing happens. It's never expected, and always hugely appreciated.

So thank you everyone, this writer is really, really appreciative of all the support and great news. It's going to be a fun ride! More to come on the Silver Birch award and the Saloon Media option in the months ahead, but for now, read more about OCULUM:

Purchase a copy of OCULUM now

More about OCULUM on this blog
FREE Teacher's Guide for OCULUM 

OCULUM at OLA Super Conference on Jan. 31!

OCULUM, Dancing Cat Books, 2018

Hey Librarian and teacher friends! I'll be signing OCULUM, my new middle-grade dystopia from DCB (formerly Dancing Cat Books), at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference this month.

When: Thursday, January 31/2019
Time: 2:40 pm
Where: OLASC, OBP Pavilion

MORE INFO: OLASC Author Signing Schedule

I hope you'll drop by, say hello, and grab a copy of the dystopia for younger readers that Quill & Quire calls "folksy and whimsical" (and other nice things). See you there!

All Posts about OCULUM on this Blog.

3D gargoyle AND Ontario Library Association Interview!

I love being a writer. Every once in a while, something really cool happens! How lucky am I?

This month BEHOLD ... my gargoyle puppet and I are immortalized forever in 3D printing!! Thank you so much to the wonderful librarians at the Innisfil IdeaLab and Library, who sent this to me as a thank you gift, after I did the Seepe Walters Kids Writing Contest tour.

Here's my "Secrets to Being a Writer" Youtube video, to inspire kids to enter the contest, hilarious!

I talked to over 4000 kids in 3 days, in every school in Innisfil, Ontario. It was a blast, I loved every minute. Here's an image of this adorable 3D gargoyle from behind (I think it's cuter from behind!)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And hard at work in front of a group of kids in Innisfil
vvvvvvvvvv

In more awesome news, MANY THANKS to the Ontario School Library Association, for interviewing me for their current issue of The Teaching Librarian!

It's a 4-page interview, in which I talk about Charlotte's Web (the book that made me want to become a writer at age 9), my influences (Lord of the Rings and fantasy in general), where I get my ideas (walking around Toronto helps), my process, reading to my kids, the importance of cliffhangers, loving  your monster and more! Pick up a copy to read all you could possibly ever want to know (plus much, much more) about yours truly.

One last picture of me holding my gargoyle puppet, who is holding the 3D statue of me holding my gargoyle puppet (hee hee!):

The Best Part of The Forest of Reading and more ...

"We had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Philippa Dowding to talk about her experience at the Festival of Trees and participation in the Forest of Reading."--OLA Live (Ontario Library Association), Forest of Reading, July 27, 2017

Winner, OLA Silver Birch Express
Award Honour Book, 2017

The pleasure was all mine! Thank you to the Ontario Library Association and the Forest of Reading for posting this interview with me, filmed at Harbourfront Festival of Trees in May, 2017. I laugh at the beginning of every question, not because I'm unusually happy or laugh effusively all the time, but because the interviewer (Michael, you know who you are), is so affable. I blame him.

So, watch it if you'd like to find out how a Forest of Reading nomination changed my life, or what I love most about being a nominee, or the most memorable moment if I had to pick one (and there are many)!

Here's the Youtube link: Philippa Dowding interview, Festival of Trees. There are more creator interviews from Festival of Trees 2017 at OLA Live, including authors Richard Scrimger, Vikki VanSickle, Arthur Slade, my series illustrator Shawna Daigle, and many more. Fun to hear what each creator has to say about the event, how it inspires them and impacts their career.

Here are more posts about the Forest of Reading, on this blog, enjoy!
Myles and the Monster Outside, Book Trailer with illustrations by Shawna Daigle.

Myles and the Monster Outside is the Silver Birch Express Regional Winner!

Author with her surprised face on!

Myles and the Monster Outside was the Regional Award Winner at the Festival of Trees in London, Ontario yesterday (May 12, 2017)!

Thank you to the Ontario Library Association, the fabulous teachers, librarians, and 1700 young readers, it was a great day for reading. So surprised and delighted to win, and such a lovely award!

Lovely Award for the London 2017 Silver Birch Express

Next week, the Festival of Trees continues in Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie. I'll be in both cities, come join us!

what 1700 kids look like at the London Festival of Trees

Here are dates, schedules and ticket sales:

May 17: Festival of Trees, TORONTO
(Appearing with series illustrator Shawna Daigle in Toronto)
May 19: Festival of Trees, SAULT STE. MARIE

I see you, Myles ...

Here's the Myles and the Monster Outside Book Trailer.

It's almost time for Forest of Reading Events in May!

Somehow, the year of being a Silver Birch Express  nominee is almost over! 

The Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading events are all coming in the next few weeks, and I'm so honoured to be presenting my nominated title, Myles and the Monster Outside!

Come to one of the festivals in London, Toronto or Sault Ste. Marie, and say hi, listen to a Q&A, grab a signed book, hear a reading.

I see  you, Myles ...

Here is where you'll find me, dates, schedules and ticket sales:

May 12: Festival of Trees, LONDON, ON
May 17: Festival of Trees, TORONTO
(Appearing with series illustrator Shawna Daigle in Toronto)
May 19: Festival of Trees, SAULT STE. MARIE

I'll be doing an author Q&A, book signing, and stage appearance with all the other great nominees, at all three events. As an added bonus, the book's illustrator, Shawna Daigle, and I will both be at the Toronto Festival of Trees, answering reader's questions together.

Join us!

Forest Fridays was so much fun, thanks everyone!

Thanks to Librarian Karen Upper for the image

Forest Fridays was really fun! Thank you to the Ontario Library Association, for inviting me to talk to kids across Ontario and Canada today.

We had dozens of schools, hundreds of kids, teachers and librarians joining in to listen and ask great questions.

I talked about being a writer, and about my Silver Birch Express nominated title, Myles and the Monster Outside.

The questions were all fantastic, but here are my three favourites:

1. From a student: I'm a writer too. What advice can you give me? A: Believe in yourself, write the stories you are most passionate about, don't let anyone tell you you can't be a writer, and keep writing!

2. From a teacher: What was it about Charlotte's Web that inspired you to be a writer at age nine?
A: It was the first time that a book made me feel something, the first time I realized that books are powerful.

3. From a school: do you like reading horror stories?
A: Yes, I like reading some horror writers. I like Stephen King, Anne Rice, Kelley Armstrong, but I don't like watching horror movies!

As always, a real honour to be a Forest of Reading nominee and have the privilege to talk to young readers. Keep reading, everyone!

Here's the Myles and the Monster Outside BookTrailer, enjoy!
Here's the schedule for the rest of the Forest Fridays author presentations. All you need to do is register, and enjoy.

Join me for Forest Fridays on March 24th!

Ontario Library Association FOREST FRIDAYS are NEW this year, join us!

I hope you'll join me this Friday, March 24th, at 11:45, for a FREE Cross Canada internet presentation. All you need to do is register and log on.

Here's the info: Forest Fridays, Philippa Dowding

I'll be talking about my Silver Birch Express nominated title, Myles and the Monster Outside (book 2 in the Weird Stories Gone Wrong series), plus I'll answer questions from across the country.

Come one, come all!

I see you, Myles ...

More about The Forest of Reading here.
More about Myles and the Monster Outside.
Myles and the Monster Outside BOOK TRAILER

Wonderful art from Toronto school kids, thank you!

Toronto school kids draw alternate covers for Myles and the Monster Outside.

The Author at Bloor-Gladstone Library

Cover art by
Shawna Daigle

I'm so lucky.  Last week I was invited to
Bloor-Gladstone library in Toronto, to speak to school kids in grades 3-5. Demand was high, and we ran the presentation twice, to a total of 5 schools, about 8 classes and over 200+ kids.

I love talking to children about books, being a writer, and reading to them, answering their questions. But I'm also always touched at the little things they do, the sweet extras they bring with them for me. One class did a class set of alternate covers for my Silver Birch Express title, Myles and the Monster Outside.

They are so great, and I was so touched. Each cover shows a lot of thought, and talent, and also tells me a lot about the child who drew it: the thinkers, the artists, the optimists, they're all there.

So thank you so much to Bloor-Gladstone library, the librarians and teachers who bring books to life for our youngest readers. Thanks also, once again, to the Ontario Library Association for nominating Myles and the Monster Outside for the Silver Birch Express award this year!

If you'd like me to visit your school or library, I still have booking space this spring. Here's how to contact me.

Here's a link with more information about my presentations: 
Philippa Dowding Presentations

Introducing Everton Miles is Stranger than Me

I am SO HAPPY to introduce the amazing cover of my forthcoming book, Everton Miles is Stranger than Me, (Dundurn Press, Oct. 2016). This is the sequel to my Red Maple nomimated book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. The series is called The Night Flyer's Handbook.

Here's a link to Dundurn Press for more information.

Much more to come in the months ahead, but for now, I just want to bask in how much I love this cover and how great it feels to finally have this magic realism YA story almost out in the world. Many, many readers (and librarians, teachers and friends) have asked me when the sequel is coming out, so now you know: October 2016.  Enjoy!

A few memories of OLA Superconference 2016

L to R (back) Jennifer Mook-Sang, me, Karen Bass, Jennifer Maruno, Sylvia McNicoll & lovely librarian Melanie Mulcaster

The Ontario Library Association SuperConference was so much fun this year, I met a lot of writers I've always wanted to meet and I got to chat with great librarians.Thanks to Jennifer Mook-Sang for the photo (one of the aforementioned authors I was happy to finally meet).

I signed copies of Myles and the Monster Outside for an hour at the Dundurn booth until we ran out, there was a lineup around the corner and not everyone got a book, unfortunately. But I did make sure everyone in line got a bookmark.  I handed about 60 copies to eager librarians, thank you all! I hope you and your students enjoy it.

Dundurn publicist Karen McMullin
(me in the background looking stern)

And here's my favourite memory from the day. A librarian came by to tell me that she shared my Red Maple nominated title, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, with her niece. Her niece had just lost her father, and the story really helped her through a difficult time.

I was saddened, touched and thanked her for sharing that with me. When someone reaches out to tell you a story like that, you remember the real reason to keep writing.

Thanks OLA, for another great year.

The lineup for books at Dundurn. Suzanne Sutherland (Under the Dusty Moon)
and I are behind the lady in the purple shirt. Thanks to Dundurn publicist Jaclyn Hodsdon for the booth photos. Great day!

Red Maple Forest of Reading 2015 was amazing!

108 great Canadian books selected in 9 categories.

Well, the 8-month Forest of Reading party is over for another year. 

And what a party!

I have to say that once again, I'm totally honoured to have been an Ontario Library Association Red Maple 2015 nominee. My book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, didn't win the Red Maple award but it hardly matters. It was a fantastic experience to be nominated, to travel around Ontario talking to kids in grade 7 and 8,  meeting librarians and the other wonderful authors.
Take a look at this Forest of Reading youtube video to get some idea of the fun (yes, that's yours truly around the 1 minute 17 second mark, my sign gets bashed into a tree).

Here are my top 6 take-away memories in a fascinating and wonderful year, thank you to the OLA!

Harbourfront, May 12, 2015

1. October/2014: finding out I was nominated for a Red Maple award alongside some iconic Canadian authors including Eric Walters, Richard Scrimger, Sigmund Brouwer, Sarah Ellis, Ken Oppel, Deb Ellis ... and all the others. Wow. Memorably sitting on stage with Richard twice, and realizing how funny he is, trying not to laugh. (Me: Richard, if we were in the same grade two class, the teacher would never let us sit together.) And telling Ken Oppel the story about how he and his wife used to live in my neighbourhood in Toronto, and for the longest time whenever I met someone new, they'd ask if I was married to Ken Oppel. (His wife's name is Philippa). That went on for years until they moved away. Until May 12, the day I got to tell him that story, I'd never met him.

Thorn between roses: Pignat, Dowding, Van Sickle on stage

2. March/2015: getting letters from grade 7 fans, and answering this question a lot: Why did Martin just think that Gwendolyn liked him? (A: he has no idea how to go about telling a girl he likes her, because it's his first crush. He has to learn to be better at that.)

3. April 2015: Travelling to Thunder Bay to meet all the kids, teachers and authors up there. Hanging with the great TVO hosts Melissa and Daniel in the green room, and asking them if they are ever worried about blurting out something inappropriate on air? (A: not really, the only problem is mild swearing, Holy Moly is always a safe one).

4. May 12,  2015: Sitting on stage with 19 other fiction and non-fiction Red Maple authors, and getting up to read my T-shirt from my publisher, Dundurn: Canadian Authors Telling Canadian Stories. About 60% of kids put their hands up to my question: do you have a Canadian author in your top 5 all-time faves?

5. Signing line-up conversation, May 12, Forest of Trees: a boy comes up and tells me that my book was his favourite. Me: Really? That's nice. How come? Him: Because it got me through a really terrible winter.

My wonderful presenter, OLA 2015

Signing table, OLA 2015

6. Best question ever at my OLA presentation, from a young author. Q: Do you prefer your first draft or your finished book? Me: Wow, what a great question, I'll have to think about that. Um. I guess the first draft is probably closest to the book you imagined. The finished product is hopefully the book you never imagined you could write so well.

Thank you to all my readers, the volunteers, the librarians and teachers who work so hard to bring the Forest of Reading to schools and libraries, the other Canadian authors, and the OLA. A truly great year.

Birdman, The Karman Line and The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

Michael Keaton in Birdman

It seems that stories and movies about floating are hot these days. Really hot. 

Back in February, I was delighted to see Birdman win the Oscar for Best Picture, since it's a wonderfully magical, playful and frankly pretty un-Hollywood take on creativity and the power of imagination. Don't want to spoil the movie if you haven't seen it (and you probably should see it, it's great), but floating takes a major front seat.

Actress Olivia Colman floats in The Karman Line

Then, I just stumbled across this lovely, sweet and very strange BAFTA-winning short, posted on the New Yorker Screening Room site yesterday, about a woman afflicted with a terminal case of floating. It's called The Karman Line, and is directed by Oscar Sharp. Watch it now, it's 24 minutes, then read the fascinating New Yorker interview with the director.
Of course, floating is a beautiful metaphor for change, life, death, and pretty perfectly captures human mutability and transition. Our fascination with flight and all things floating goes back to the story of Icarus, and likely well before that.

This week, on Tuesday May 12, I'll sit on stage at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto for the Ontario Library Association Festival of Trees, in front of an audience of 1000+ grade 7 and 8s, who have read my book and voted on it as one of 10 books shortlisted for the Forest of Reading Red Maple award. It's Canada's largest literary festival for children and teens, and it's sold out in Toronto this year.
I couldn't be more honoured to be part of it, and to bring my story about an adolescent girl who discovers she can float to the young readers of Ontario.

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is a gentle magic realism story about teenage change ... just as The Karman Line or Birdman are for adults, so my story explores all the potential in a young girl about to morph into an adult. The book has been well-received, although magic realism isn't for everyone, it really does require an extended case of what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called our "willing suspension of disbelief" and takes a deft touch to bring it off well. Whether Gwendolyn's story wins the Red Maple award on Tuesday or not, I couldn't be more pleased that she and I have been included with some fantastic Canadian writers, and her story is a young adult version among some great movies, too. It's been a wonderful winter visiting schools and talking to kids, a brilliant flight for sure. Wish us luck!

Thunder Bay Forest of Reading was GREAT!

 Oh, it's Forest of Reading month! My book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, is nominated for The Red Maple award, the winner of which is going to be announced on May 12th at Harbourfront in Toronto. I'll be there on stage with the other nominees, can't wait. Here's a full list of the other great books.

On April 30-May 1 2015, I attended the first of the Forest of Reading celebrations up in Thunder Bay, that was really fun. Here's me standing in the Thunder Bay Silver City beneath my name in lights, getting ready to do my presentation (and I'm a 3D Avenger, apparently). And below is a photo of my presentation on the Silver City screen ... probably the only time my name will ever be on a 40-foot high movie screen! Pretty cool. (I asked the kids in the front row to stand up for some size context).

It's going to be an exciting month. Thank you to the Ontario Library Association for all their hard work, and all the librarians, teachers and young readers who love books, reading and authors.Wish Gwendolyn and I luck!

Here's me doing a library presentation on April 23 in Aurora, that was fun too!

Are writers born or made?

Aspiring writer at 9 years old ...

I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was 9 years old...

Is it true that we can know what we want to be from a really young age? Maybe. I certainly did. But if you told me then that my dream of being a writer was actually going to come true, I doubt I would have believed you.
That first flash of knowing what I wanted to do with my life happened the day I finished reading Charlotte's Web to myself. I put the book in my lap and decided then and there I wanted to do what the writer of that story did.

... and 40 years later.

I wonder how many other authors would say something similar? I'd love to know.

Fast forward 40 years ... and today I'm playing with my scanner and preparing an author presentation for grade 7 and 8s. I'll be touring Thunder Bay and Toronto with the Ontario Library Association for the Red Maple award this spring, with my 4th YA book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. I sometimes  can't believe how lucky I've been with my writing career. It's been hard work, yes, but I also have a lot of people to thank, along the way. (And for the record, there are lots of ways to become a writer, and I think writers are both born and made).

So today, I've been wondering what I should talk to grade 7 and 8 students about? But looking at this picture of me from so long ago, maybe I already know: Who here wants to be a writer? You can do it. You might not believe it, but I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was 9 years old ...

It's a Red Maple nomination for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden!

I could not be more honoured to announce that my 2014 novel, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, has just been nominated for a Red Maple Award by the Ontario Library Association. This is an annual Reader's Choice award, and young readers in grades 7 and 8 (ages 11-14) all across Ontario will be reading the book in school, and discussing it in book groups all winter, then voting on their favourite book out of the ten selected next spring.

Here is the amazing list of nominees: Kenneth Oppel, Eric Walters, Richard Scrimger, Vikki VanSickle, Jaqueline Guest, Sigmund Brouwer, Jess Keating, Sarah Ellis, Caroline Pignat, and me.

I'll be touring the province with many of these wonderful Canadian authors (cannot wait to meet Ken Oppel!), talking to young readers about the book, about writing, about my fascination with the gift of flight. Next spring, May 2015, the program culminates in a huge celebration of reading and books at Harbourfront in Toronto, at the Forest of Reading.

I'm so very honoured to be part of this in 2014-2015, it's a huge achievement and a remarkable program. Hundreds of thousands of children in Ontario take part, from ages 4-18, and all the authors are locally-grown Canadians, which is also wonderful.

Thank you to the Ontario Library Association, and to my publisher, Dundurn Press, for letting me tell a strange story about a girl who wakes up one morning floating on the ceiling of her bedroom. More to come, but for now, please have a look at some reviews and earlier posts about Gwendolyn Golden:

Starred Review in Quill & Quire
Goodreads reviews
Why I chose Gwendolyn MacEwen's poem for an epigraph
Earlier Blog Posts

Kids dance the gargoyle shuffle in North Bay

Kids often ask me what it is that I like best about being an author. Watch this video, it's the best answer I can give. That's me playing the Gargoyle Shuffle in North Bay on April 29th, 2014, at the Near North Forest of Trees Festival. My third book, The Gargoyle at the Gates, was the Silver Birch Express Regional Winner up there, and as you can see, we all had lots of fun. Many thank you's to my friend Rebecca Upjohn for the video expertise.
Here are links to more articles about the great time:
North Bay Nugget article
Nipissing News article
Moose Call Challenge