CCBC Best Books for Kids and Teens Fall 2018, OCULUM makes the list!

Every spring and fall, the Canadian Children's Book Centre puts out their list of the 

Best Books for Kids and Teens.

So pleased that OCULUM made the list in the latest issue, Fall 2018! Thanks guys! 

I love the tags: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Adventure, Environment, Robots, Survival, Secrets. 

They could have added one more: Shakespeare 

The main characters in OCULUM are Miranda1 and Mann (remember The Tempest), and the main book that the children living in the domed world of OCULUM read is the WillBook, which is a collection of Shakespeare's plays and poems. 

Thanks to wonderful author Kate Blair for the picture (I still don't have my copy yet, due to a postal strike here in Canada).

Enjoy the full fall catalogue online at CCBC

Get a copy of OCULUM now

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OCULUM gets a CYBILS longlist nom!

Well that's a very nice surprise! My middle-grade dystopia, OCULUM, received a long-listing for the CYBILS awards in the Elementary Speculative Fiction category.

Thank you!

The list is long (hence the name), over 100 books, and although it's largely a U.S. award, there are Canadians on the list with me, notably Kenneth Oppel, Kevin Sylvester, Rachelle Delaney and Wendy Orr (sorry if I missed anyone).

Full List: CYBILS Elementary Speculative Fiction/18

Thank you to my publisher, Dancing Cat Books, for the chance to tell this near-future dystopia that ponders a question for older middle-graders (ages 10-13): what will matter most as humanity rebuilds itself after the fall?

Will it be love? Food? Friendship? Shakespeare? Peaches? Or will it be kindness, community and storytelling? Or something else?

A few readers have described the book as "Cormac McCarthy's The Road for kids", which is interesting. (It's not nearly as disturbing though, honest.)

My favourite character in the book has to be Grannie, who holds fast against poverty, starvation, neglect, and fosters dozens of children at her homestead in the wilderness. She seemed like an important character that we see too rarely in children's books: a brave older woman, holding the world together. I'm pretty happy to see her in print!

For more, here is the publisher's page: OCULUM
Free Teacher's Guide
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