Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet BOOK TRAILER

My next book, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet, comes out in September 2019! It's the sixth and final book in the award-winning Weird Stories Gone Wrong series.

It's an environmental resistance dystopia for younger readers (grade 3-6), and it's got a great new BOOK TRAILER, with illustrations from the amazing Shawna Daigle, the series illustrator. Enjoy!

Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet will be ready in book form for early readers in September/2019. But if you'd like to preview a pdf copy, please contact me (leave a message in the comments below) or Dundurn Press (you can also ask to receive a print copy as soon as they are available).

What could be more important and timely than a book about children standing up to a greedy corporation in an act of environmental resistance? Plus it has robots! 

The book has already been named a 49th Shelf Editor's Pick of the Week for Aug. 4 and a Dewey Diva and the Dudes pick for Fall 2019. It's also on the CanLit for Little Canadians fall list with other fantastic Canadian writers, compiled by Helen Kubiw. 

Stay tuned for more on Quinn!

You'll find all 6 book trailers here: Weird Stories Gone Wrong BOOK TRAILERS

More about Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet on this blog
All posts about Weird Stories Gone Wrong on this blog

NEW! 4 Free Teacher's Guides for Weird Stories Gone Wrong

By September 2018, look for
5 books in the award-winning Weird Stories Gone Wrong 
horror series for middle grade readers!

NEW this month, the first four books in the series now have
FREE Teacher's Guides.

Students use the books for predictive thinking projects, drama ideas, crosswords, character studies and more fun, engaging activities to develop reading and writing skills.


Guides are developed by Dundurn Press and educator Eleanor Creasy (thanks Eleanor!)

Try these free guides now: 

Alex and The Other, Teacher's Guide
Carter and the Curious Maze, Teacher's Guide
Myles and the Monster Outside, Teacher's Guide Winner, OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book
Jake and the Giant Hand, Teacher's Guide

Book Trailers for the series, featuring illustrations by Shawna Daigle:

Blackwells and the Briny Deep, Book Trailer
Alex and The Other, Book Trailer
Carter and the Curious Maze, Book Trailer
Myles and the Monster Outside, Book Trailer
Jake and the Giant Hand, Book Trailer

More about the Weird Stories Gone Wrong on this BLOG.

Happy Book Birthday to Myles and the Monster Outside!

Ages 8-12, IN STORES NOW!

Happy Book Birthday to my newest title, Myles and the Monster Outside, which officially launches today!

Book 2 in the Weird Stories Gone Wrong series (following Jake and the Giant Hand, 2014) this is a paranormal, road-trip thriller about Myles, an anxious 12-year-old boy on a long car trip to his new home with his travel-weary family. On their final night in the car, Myles starts to see, then hear, something following them out in the night.

A monster? A ghost? His fears made manifest?

Read Myles and the Monster Outside to find out!

Available in bookstores now
Read my Q&A about the book, writing horror for kids and more on my publisher's blog.
Kirkus Review: "a carefully written Goosebumps from north of the border ... a gentle but still shivery spook tale."
Goodreads Reviews
Book trailer featuring 6 spooky illustrations by Shawna Daigle and music by the author

Jake and the Giant Hand reviewed in School Library Journal

Coming Sept. 2014, Dundurn Press

"The tale has a great ending with a clever wrap-up that will keep readers wondering. This is a well-crafted horror story with a suspenseful buildup and truly creepy details, such as the giant flies. The artwork adds to the disturbing effect of the story, the drawings of the flies are cartoonish but somehow still menacing, and the picture of them swarming Jake is frightening. This is a book for kids who like chills and thrills."–Gretchen Crowley, Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA August Print Issue, School Library Journal

What a terrific review for my upcoming book, Jake and the Giant Hand. This is the first time I've been reviewed in the School Library Journal, and I'm just delighted! I'm also a little chuffed (okay, very chuffed) to see that Neil Gaiman's new book, Hansel & Gretel, is also reviewed in this issue of SLJ. He's always been a favourite author of mine. If there is one book I wish I'd written it would be The Graveyard Book, which is on my Top 5 shelf with The Hobbit, Charlotte's Web, and Tuck Everlasting. (I realize that's only 4 books, I'm still waiting for book #5.) The reviewer also mentions the wonderful illustrations which are adorably creepy, a million thanks to illustrator Shawna Daigle. The Book Trailer highlights her work (those flies ARE menacing!) I'm just finishing up the next book in the series, Myles and the Monster Outside, coming in 2015. Stay tuned.

Read more reviews on the book's Goodreads page. Read an adapted excerpt in Taddle Creek Magazine.

Dowding, Philippa. Jake and the Giant Hand. illus. by Shawna Daigle. 136 p. (Weird Stories Gone Wrong: Bk. 1). Dundurn. Oct. 2014. pap. $9.99. ISBN 9781459724211; ebk. $8.99. ISBN 9781459724235. 

The Perfect Summer Read for your middle grade girl ...

School comes to an end today. Long summer days beckon, the days when, if we're 11, 12, 13, 14 years old, we might dust off our library card, take out armloads of new books and find a perfect reading spot underneath a shady tree, where we'll read, read, read to our heart's content all summer long.
Of course, that may not be our experience at all. We may not enjoy reading as much as say, soccer, or baseball, or camp. But someone who loves us will tuck a book into our overnight bag, all the same.
Summer is magic, isn't it?
I wrote my new book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, for long summer days spent under a tree, or in a camp bunk with a flashlight, in a stolen ten minutes after lights out. Gwendolyn's is a story about the very heart of summer, the very heart of being a young girl who is on the teen cusp, whether she's an avid reader or not. It's a magical read about a girl who discovers her strange new gift one summer, and although her gift is a pain to her at first, it gently shows her a new community, new truths about her family and her lost father. Finally her gift shows her a path she may choose to follow one day. I hope you'll introduce a young reader to Gwendolyn's story this summer, or take a step back into your own long-ago summers, however strange and lovely.

REVIEWS: Starred Review in Quill & Quire, Goodreads reviews, Book Trailer

A beautiful book trailer in which I play guitar ...

Gorgeous book trailer

Here it is, the most gorgeous book trailer for my forthcoming novel, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, available January 25, 2014:

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden Book Trailer

Thanks to George Panayotou, the video maestro. And thanks also to Chris Haddad, who generously provided the cornfield footage. The music is a piece I composed for the book, and that's me playing guitar. And the little dog is my bichon-poodle, Samwise Gamgee, who was a good boy and barked on cue.

Enjoy the flight!

YOU'RE INVITED: I'll be having a book-signing event at Yorkdale Indigo on Saturday February 1, 2014, at 2:00. I hope you'll come and say hello!

Beautiful book trailer for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

See the book trailer

"This morning, I woke up on the ceiling."
So begins The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, 
my new novel for readers aged 9-12, available January 2014. One morning, for no particular reason, Gwendolyn wakes up floating around her bedroom like one of her little brother's Batman balloons.

Puberty is weird enough, she thinks, now this? What follows is a coming-of-age story that Icarus himself would have loved.

I'm so pleased to announce that the book now has an astonishingly beautiful book trailer, shot partly in my house (that's my dog!), and cut with flight footage. It's an incredible gift to see the emotions conveyed in your book brought to life in a short piece like this, I can't imagine how it must feel to have your book made into a movie. It must be overwhelming. The copywriting expert in me says, yes, book trailers are an important part of the marketing mix for any book, but I can also tell you after helping in the creation of this piece, the REAL reason to do a book trailer is because they're beautiful, rewarding, joyful and creative little jewels, that say more about your book than a press release, tweet or facebook announcement ever could. I couldn't have asked for anything better, the trailer is a work of art. 

I have very talented friends. My special thanks to George Panayotou, for his careful and tender ministrations to the design and production of the video. Also many thanks to Chris Haddad, for generously supplying the cornfield video. That's me playing the guitar, too, a piece that I wrote for the trailer.

Here's the link: The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden Book Trailer

Enjoy the flight!