A beautiful review for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

Coming Jan. 2014, available for pre-order now

"The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is the kind of coming-of-age story that resonates. Combining teen angst with magic and a dash of mystery creates a richly layered story, and Dowding presents a heroine that readers of all ages will surely be able to relate to. Humorous and touching, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is like a finely-tuned musical instrument that, when thrummed, you feel in your very bones." 
Giraffe Days

What a beautiful review for my upcoming YA novel, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. It seems like the reviewer not only understood WHY I wrote the book, but possibly even how I wrote the book.

My favourite passage is this:

"Yet despite Gwen’s habit of blowing up at small provocations at school, she narrates her story with intelligent wit and more than a dash of irony. Like many teens, the character of Gwen is a precarious and sometimes volatile balance of childlike immaturity and wisdom, naïveté and insight, adolescent foolishness and glib artfulness. Gwen is on the cusp, and this is her coming-of-age story. What I really admired, alongside the writing itself, was Dowding’s ability to maintain this fine balance. She put Gwendolyn in situations that forced her to confront her issues, thus putting her on the path to maturity, without making her grow up too fast. Gwen was able to keep hold of her childhood; it just became richer. I’m reminded of one of my favourite characters who similarly embodies this fine line between childhood and maturity: Danny from Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World."

Thank you Shannon, I'm really honoured. And a comparison to the great Mr. Dahl, too! 

Find the full review on Giraffe Days website here.

Or visit The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden Goodreads Page, for a look at Shannon's review and others. 

CM Magazine Recommends The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden!

 CM . . . . Volume XX Number 5. . . .October 4, 2013

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. Philippa Dowding. Toronto, ON: Dundurn, January, 2014. 200 pp., trade pbk., PDF & EPub, $9.99 (pbk.), $12.99 (PDF), $8.99 (Epub). ISBN 978-1-4597-0735-1 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-4597-0736-8 (PDF), ISBN 978-1-4597-0737-5 (EPub). Grades 3 and up / Ages 8 and up. Review by Stephanie Dror. *** /4 Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy.

CM Magazine has given my forthcoming book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden,
3 out of 4 stars and their much-coveted "Recommended" status. Thank you CM, I'm very honoured!

It's a good review. Here are some of the highlights:

"Gwendolyn Golden is an average kid with average kid problems. She is going through puberty, has anger management issues, and problems fitting in at school, but it all becomes even more complicated when she discovers that she is a Night Flyer. Waking up on the roof is not normal, but then her body does not feel normal any more either. Undergoing the initiation as a Night Flyer is not easy. Gwendolyn has to learn to trust her body and control her mind. There are dangers that threaten to eat away at her self-esteem and destroy her, but she has help. Gwendolyn has to grow up fast, and she just isn't quite ready yet.

     

The story of Gwendolyn Golden's coming of age is engaging – the kind of book you cannot put down. Gwennie narrates the story, which gets up close and personal with what it feels like to grow up, and to learn how to fly. Gwennie is a regular, relatable kid. She is funny, dealing with issues as they come. While the book focuses on Gwennie’s new ability, she also helps her single mother, struggles with her family's past, deals with her best friend, and everything else that goes along with life as a young teenager....

... The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is an engaging realistic fantasy. It would be wonderful to read aloud to children; it may be a valuable suggestion for children dealing with loss, and it is great for middle graders who love stories with a little magic, a modern setting and which are a quick read.

Recommended." 

Thanks again, CM! You'll find the complete review and more here.

COMING OCTOBER 2016, Everton Miles is Stranger than Me

Sequel to The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, shortlisted for the OLA Red Maple Award.

'I wander around like any normal, paranoid self-absorbed teenager. Do we all think we're being chased by deadly entities, I wonder? Probably, but how many of us actually are?'

Gwendolyn Golden, Night Flyer, floats over the cornfields all summer. What draws her to the same spot, night after night? All she knows for sure, is that change is coming: she's starting high school, plus there's a strange new boy in town.

He's Everton Miles, and he's a Night Flyer, too.

Soon the mismatched teenagers face dangers they never imagined, including a fallen Spirit Flyer, kidnap, and the eternal darkness of the Shade. How will Gwendolyn handle her new life and grade nine? With help from The Night Flyer's Handbook, and her strange new friend, it might not be that hard. 

Read more on the Dundurn Press Site

I have to say that I couldn't be more excited about a book! This story, book 2 in The Night Flyer's Handbook series, takes us further into Gwendolyn's life, and through her first year of grade nine. She's a little older, wiser, and more comfortable with her strange gift of flight, but there is still a world that she doesn't understand yet. There are boys (a kinder, gentler Martin Evells turns up again), and there's the bizarre world of grade nine, PLUS there's Everton Miles, the only other teenager she's ever met who can fly, too.

At first she thinks that he's nothing like her, but as she gets to know him, she realizes that he really is, at least in the things that matter most. She has a lot to face, including nefarious forces, the loss of her father, and the deadly Shade, not to mention the "decision" she has to make at the end of the book: to fly, or not to fly, for life. She has an 800-page handbook to help her navigate all these changes, plus her old friends, her family, her Mentor, Mrs. Forest, plus (most unfortunately) a school-appointed family therapist ... but more than all that, she has Everton Miles.

Here are reviews of Book 1, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, which was nominated for the OLA Red Maple Award 2015. If you enjoy magic realism, YA and flight literature, you're in the right place! Stay tuned for more!

Related Blog Posts:

Judy Blume's Read-Alikes (49th Shelf)
Birdman, The Karman Line, and The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden: Magic Realism in movies and Literature
Why I Chose a Poem from Gwendolyn MacEwen as an Epigraph and more

Reviews:

Quill and Quire (Starred Review)
Canadian Teacher Magazine (13 year old reader)
International Blogger (Giraffe Days)
Goodreads

Book Trailer:

Here's the Book Trailer for Book 1.

Sales:

The Night Flyer's Handbook Series is available at your library, favourite bookstore and from:

Amazon
Indigo
Dundurn Press

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!

Introducing ... The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

So happy and excited to introduce my next book,
The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, coming from Dundurn Press in January, 2014. 

It's a coming of age story with a 14-year-old heroine from small town Ontario, who lives with her mother and younger twin brother and sister. She has a terrible temper, a dry wit, hates to read, plus she's going through puberty. And, on top of all that ...

" 'This morning, I woke up on the ceiling.'

So begins the strange story of Gwendolyn Golden. One perfectly ordinary day and for no explicable reason, she wakes up floating around her room like one of her little brother’s Batman balloons. 

Puberty is weird enough. Everyone already thinks she’s an oddball with anger issues because her father vanished in a mysterious storm one night when she was six. Then there are the false rumours about her being a drug addict. On top of all that, now she’s a flying freak.

How can she tell her best friend, or her mother? How can she live her life? After Gwendolyn almost dies one night flying too high and too fast, help arrives from the most unexpected place. And stranger still? She’s not alone."

Read more about The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden at my publisher's page here. You can
pre-order your copy at Amazon now, too.

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and A Wrinkle in Time

"This sweet and sensitive coming-of-age story introduces readers to Gwendolyn Golden, a Grade 8 student in a small Ontario town where the candy store is fun central for kids... I found myself frequently reminded of the 1960s classic A Wrinkle in Time – a young heroine with a reliable pal, a female mentor, a dark and threatening spiritual aspect, and an awesome power that makes you wish it were truly possible, all in a delightful and sensitive story."

What a lovely review from blogger Michelle Mallette over on Michelle's Bookshelf. I've excerpted a bit of her review here, but please find the entire review on her blog. I found myself reading many of her reviews, she has good taste and I'll be reading some of her selections (Life after Life looks good!).

I'll never forget reading Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time for the first time. I came to the story later in life, when my own children were just starting to read fantasy. I read the story to myself in one night, entranced, mesmerized and completely fascinated by the premise: an alien gets blown off course and into a child's life on a dark and stormy night. Wow. How cool is that. Fantasy yes, but with a dash of magic realism, where a fantastic event occurs in an otherwise ordinary life and is not overly explained by the author. The event simply is and the story wraps around the strange new reality. In L'Engle's book, the event is the arrival of a mysterious old lady (who reminded me a lot of Granny WeatherWax from Terry Pratchett's Disc World Books). In my book, the strange event occurs when the main character wakes up one morning with the gift of flight.

I'm completely honoured and delighted that Ms. Mallette has compared my latest middle grade novel to Madeleine L'Engle's masterpiece. I'm floored, actually. The book has also been compared to Roald Dahl's Danny, Champion of the World by a blogger from New Zealand, Shannon @giraffedays. Really humbled by that one, too. Many thanks to both bloggers for their thoughtful reviews.

For more reviews of The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, please visit the @goodreads page
Or enjoy this starred review in Quill & Quire 

Why fight when you can just float away?

"It's not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences." --Audre Lorde

We are deep into the last few weeks of reading for the OLA Red Maple nominated books, and soon grade 7 and 8's across Ontario will vote for their favourite book. On May 12, I'll be at Harbourfront celebrating readers and reading with the OLA, and finding out who wins the Red Maple award this year (I know my favourite!).

Today, I found this wonderful video, made perhaps by a teacher or students, comparing two Red Maple books, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden (mine) and Why Do We Fight? by Niki Walker (nominated in the non-fiction section).

What a thoughtful comparison. Here's the Video: What would you do if your troubles could float away?

My favourite slide is #14: 'When Gwendolyn discovers her floating is a part of her...she makes peace with herself and places her struggles aside." Lovely. Love the picture, too.

This is the first time I've seen anyone note specifically that Gwendolyn's Night Flying community is what saves her. The metaphor of flight could be replaced by any number of struggles that teenagers face as they navigate the changes in their lives, from friendships, to relationships with family and the opposite sex, to self-awareness and self-esteem. But gaining a wider sense of community, to me that's the key to Gwen's salvation. Where would she be without her mentor Mrs. Forest? And Mr. McGillies watching faithfully?

As the slide says, "In many respects countries, just as people, must keep their peace promise." So true, thank you.

Here are two more recent and very sweet Red Maple fan-made videos for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden:
Watch My Amazing Book Presentation
The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden Video

BOOK LAUNCH for Everton Miles is Stranger than Me

"Do we all think we're being chased by deadly entities, I wonder? Probably, but how many of us actually are?"
--Everton Miles is Stranger than Me

It's BOOK LAUNCH time! I hope you'll join me on October 22 at Yonge/Eglinton Indigo to launch my newest book, Everton Miles is Stranger than Me, sequel to my Red Maple title, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden (2014).

Date: Saturday, Oct. 22/2016
Time: 12-3 pm (author reads at 1 pm)
Place: Yonge/Eglinton Indigo
Enjoy the coffee, cookies and magic realism.

In a year with two published books (Carter and the Curious Maze, book 3 in the Weird Stories Gone Wrong series, came out August 2016), this is the only event I'm calling a launch.

That's because this is my last book for a while, nothing is planned for publication in 2017. But it's also because I love this book. Yes, I love all my books, but this one is particularly special. It was so fun to write, for one thing. There's a fallen angel/dark Rogue character, and an 800-page medieval Night Flying handbook with illustrations, which is why we named the series The Night Flyer's Handbook. Revisiting the horrors of grade nine was also pretty interesting. But mostly, it was also so easy to fall back into Gwendolyn's life, once again. I missed her.

On the last page of The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, I left Gwen sitting on a swing, thinking about her future. Plenty of people have asked me what happens next, and to please write the next book. So ... I hope you'll enjoy the sequel! Please join me on October 22 to snag your copy. Also, watch for a blog tour, coming in the next few weeks.

Reviews
Kirkus Reviews "Dowding offers a charming sequel, funny, magical and entertaining"
Goodreads
Quill & Quire (Starred Review, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden)

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

Teenagers in my basement

WELCOME! THIS BLOG ROLLS OVER 100,000 VISITS TODAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019! 

To celebrate, below is my first ever blog post in this space, from August 25, 2011. Today is the day this blog will hit 100,000 views, so it's taken 8 years to achieve that milestone. Thank you to everyone for visiting over the  years! 

Note: my first few posts didn't have images, or links. Wow.

When I reposted it on August 27, 2013, here's the introduction I wrote: I must be feeling nostalgic today. It's the end of summer, I always am at this time of year. So, I went looking through some old blog posts. I found this one, the first post I did, almost exactly two years ago to the day. The books mentioned are published or about to be, and WE have a dog now. But the rest rings truer than ever.

And below is what I wrote on August 25, 2011. My third book, The Gargoyle at the Gates (2012), was about to publish and I was signing the contract for my fourth, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden (2014). I am currently about to edit my 12th book, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet (2019). The "teenagers" are now 21 and 24. Time, she flies.

Enjoy Teenagers in my basement:

"It's been a long summer. I'm a writer, and I haven't written. I'm a mother, too, and I haven't mothered. At least, I haven't felt like I have mothered, not in the traditional sense of the word.

No, this summer has been about keeping track of the teenagers in my life, largely by counting how many pairs of gigantic shoes are at the front door. This isn't really mothering, is it? Counting shoes? Keeping track?

I suppose I HAVE mothered in the traditional sense, by buying large quantities of food. And by daily tidying of the teen-pit in the basement, after the bodies who own the shoes have risen, washed and left the building. This usually happens around 1:00 p.m. or so. Never before.

There is little talk in this strange summer of shoe-counting. There is some laundry. There is some food preparation. There are agreed-upon phone-calls and texting and sleeping arrangements. There is allotted money amounts changing hands.

There is a craving from me, to hug someone.

I have been watching other mothers of teens, furtively btw. Some are friends, many are parents I know from the neighbourhood, acquaintances. I'm not seeing a lot of hugging or chatting there either, to be honest. I AM seeing a new crop of puppies though, or the latest batch of rescue dogs (greyhounds are IN IN IN).

September will come. School and writing will resume! I've just signed a new contract with Dundurn Press for my third book, The Gargoyle at the Gates, which will require editing and marketing input from me. My fourth book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, is now with the Acquisitions Editor at the publisher, and that may require a new contract and so forth. With the new month, I'm going to start working on new writing projects I have planned.

But for today, August 25 2011, I'm in that pre-September lull. Still, the teenagers will awake soon, and there are five pairs of shoes at the door."

PD

Year in Review: nominations, book launches, and a magazine excerpt

Here it is, the last day of 2014. Like most of you, I have a Facebook page where I recently received my "Your Year in Review" compilation of photos. While I'm always creeped out when Facebook reaches into my life to show me who I am (weird hall of mirrors there), I did realize after looking at the photos that it was an amazing year for me. In fact, 2014 will be difficult to top. I'm very, very grateful for any successes that came my way, thank you to readers, voting committees, fans, and my publisher, Dundurn Press. Here's a brief rundown of an amazing year:

1. January: A book launch! The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden came into the world.
2. February: The Gargoyle at the Gates was nominated for 5 awards: the OLA Silver Birch Express award, the SYRCA Diamond Willow award, the Hackmatack and Red Cedar awards, and the Co-operative Children's Book Centre Award. It was also a White Raven Book from the International Youth Library in Munich, 2013.
3. March/April: I toured the Near North (North Bay and Parry Sound) with the OLA Silver Birch and Red Maple nominees. Won the Near North vote for best Silver Birch Express book (my first-ever win!), talked to 1500 kids in Nipissing University, had dinner with Kelly Armstrong (yes, THE Kelly Armstrong), and got to do 4 whirlwind presentations with my friend Rebecca Upjohn. Here's a video of kids' dancing to the gargoyle shuffle (that's me playing guitar) and a link to more about my Near North tour.
4. May: did the amazing OLA Harbourfront Festival of trees, where I whipped fake apples into the crowd (that was pretty fun!). Also my daughter and I toured New Brunswick and PEI with the Hackmatack award, which was fantastic. Met Dan Bar-El and Ashley Spires! I also won the Durham County Silver Birch Express vote for best book (my second-ever win).
5. June: Honoured to have an excerpt of Jake and the Giant Hand, published in the first-ever kids' issue of Taddle Creek Magazine. Have a read.
6. July/August: signed contracts for two new books, Myles and the Monster Outside, and Carter and the Curious Maze (the next two books in the Weird Stories Gone Wrong series, thank you to my publisher, Dundurn) coming Oct 2015 and May 2016, respectively.
7. September/October: A second book launch! Jake and the Giant Hand came into the world at Indigo Yorkdale. Shawna Daigle, the wonderful illustrator, and I signed books and answered many questions about our craft, really, really fun. (Her favourite illustration is the last one, of the giant hand, FYI).
8. November/December: An award nomination! Very, very honoured to say that The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden was nominated in November 2014 for an OLA Red Maple 2015 award, a first for me. Fellow nominees include Eric Walters, Kenneth Oppel, Richard Scrimger, Sigmund Brouwer, Jacqueline Guest, Caroline Pignat, Vikki VanSickle, Jess Keating and Sarah Ellis. Wow.

So, 2014 was a year of 2 new books, 6 award nominations, 1 magazine excerpt, and two author tours, plus two regional Silver Birch Express wins for The Gargoyle at the Gates. I'm very lucky, and very honoured, a banner year for sure. Happy New Year, and all the best to my readers in 2015!

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!

My Book Addiction picks The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

Coming January 2014

Thanks to the wonderful bloggers at MyBookAddiction for picking my forthcoming YA novel, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, for its "Waiting on Wednesday" choice this week. This is a list of books that they are "eagerly anticipating." Here's the link:The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden
I love what they said about WHY the book is on their To Be Read list:

Simply put: This just sounds like a fun read! Every now and then I like to read things that aren’t overly complicated or mind-boggling, and this sounds like it fits the bill perfectly. The cover caught my eye and once I read the synopsis it went directly onto my TBR list.

Thanks MyBookAddiction!

Everton Miles is Stranger than Me is a BEST BOOK for KIDS & TEENS!

So honoured to announce that the Canadian Children's Book Centre has selected my latest book, Everton Miles is Stranger than Me, as a Best Book for Kids and Teens this spring!

Thank you! Very, very happy to be included in such select company with great Canadian books.

Everton Miles is Stranger than Me is the sequel to my Red Maple 2015 nominated title, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. The series is called The Night Flyer's Handbook.

Here is the press release from publisher Dundurn Press.

Here's the blurb: 

"I wander around like any normal, paranoid, self-absorbed teenager. Do we all think we’re being chased by deadly entities, I wonder? Probably, but how many of us actually are?

Gwendolyn Golden, Night Flyer, floats over the cornfields all summer. What draws her to the same spot, night after night? All she knows is that change is coming: she’s starting high school plus there’s a strange new boy in town.

He’s Everton Miles and he’s a Night Flyer, too.

Soon the mismatched teenagers face dangers they never imagined, including a fallen Spirit Flyer, kidnap, and the eternal darkness of The Shade. How will Gwendolyn handle her new life and grade nine? With help from The Night Flyer’s Handbook and her strange new friend, it might not be that hard."

For more on Everton and Gwendolyn:
Book trailer on Youtube
Blog posts about Everton Miles is Stranger than Me
Blog Posts about The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

ARCs for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden!

The ARCs for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden go out this week!

Coming January 2014

It's pretty exciting to see your book take shape. For the longest time its an idea, then an outline, then a string of chapters, then a manuscript, then a manuscript with a contract. Then a proof. Then another proof. And another proof. Then ... another proof. Then an e-ARC. Then a paper ARC. Eventually (although we're not quite there yet), it's a book. It's a fascinating process, one which is becoming more familiar and more transparent as I go through it a few times.
This time around, my publisher also asked me to provide a note to accompany the ARCs, to discuss my thoughts about the book. How it sprang to life, major themes, what I want people to know. It was an interesting exercise, which really made me express exactly how I feel about the book and the writing process. All good!
Here's a short excerpt from that letter:

When I was young, I used to have vivid dreams of flying. My favourite character in Greek mythology was always Icarus, I understood his yearning to soar, despite the dangers. When I started jotting down ideas for a new book a few years ago, I kept coming back to the idea of a flying girl. I wondered: If you woke up one day with the ability to fly, how would that change you?

Given all the other changes that teenagers face, it didn’t seem a huge leap to add the gift of flight to my main character. It would be just one more change in a huge jumble of hormones and change. And Gwen’s gift DOES change her, although she doesn’t grow wings or anything so obvious. Instead, her gift of flight is a metaphor for all those teenage changes we can’t see...

If you have requested an ARC, I hope you enjoy it. If you'd like one, please contact my publisher, Dundurn Press. There may be a few left! Here's their ARC announcement: http://ow.ly/i/2Apim

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and Everton Miles is Stranger than Me

 

I'm moving information from my website to my blog. Here is all the information about The Night Flyer's Handbook series, which includes The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and Everton Miles is Stranger than me, enjoy:

Reviews & Interviews:

Everton Miles is Stranger than Me
Best Books for Kids and Teens, Spring/2017 
OpenBook In Character Interview (Dec/2016)
Blog Tour: 4 interviews (Oct/2016)
Goodreads
MomReadIt (Oct 2016)
Fabbity Fab (Oct, 2016)
Best of 2016 LIST (Dec, 2016, Fabbity Fab)
Canlit for Little Canadians (Oct, 2016)

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden
Looking for a Good Book (Jan/2017)
Loves Books & Tea, Review (Sept. 2016)
What would you do if your troubles could float away?
Starred Review in Quill & Quire
Goodreads reviews, 2014-present
Michelle's Bookshelf, Aug/2014
Julie's Reading Corner, Feb/14
Bookish Notions, Jan/2014

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is Best of the Month pick!

OLA Red Maple 2015 nominee

"This book is about more than the magic of flying, it is also about the power of friendship, family and most importantly - belief in yourself."--Rayanne, Children's Service, Aurora Public Library

Here's a nice surprise: The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden has been named the Best of the Month book for July in Young Adult reading, at the Aurora Public Library. Thank you so much! Here's the link to the full review: Best of the Month Reading Corner


And another nice surprise: 49th Shelf and Suzanne Sutherland compared Gwendolyn Golden to Judy Blume's classic, "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret," in its Judy Blume/Canlit Read-alikes article last week. Wow. As a 12 year old, I read Judy Blume's book until it fell apart in my hands. I'm really honoured to pull that comparison.

In other good news, my new middle-grade horror title, Myles and the Monster Outside, is getting some very nice reviews on Goodreads. Kirkus Reviews also had some nice things to say about it, particularly that it is "a well written Goosebumps... a gentle but still shivery spook tale." First a comparison to Judy Blume, now Goosebumps?! Quite a week!

There are lots of great books coming out this fall, take a look at this great New young Canlit releases for Fall 2015, compiled by Helen Kubiw at Canlit for Little Canadians (Myles and the Monster Outside is one of them!)

Deep into summer, are we ... many, many books to read ... 

Upon choosing an epigraph from Gwendolyn MacEwen

"Something has come to pass, you think, something
more important than a mere flight over the ravine."

Gwendolyn MacEwen, "Fragments from a Childhood"

This thoughtful sentiment is the epigraph to my new novel, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. Many thanks to the author's family for kindly permitting me to use it. 

I've been thinking about Gwendolyn MacEwen a lot lately. She died 27 years ago next month (November 1987), at the age of 47. She was a Toronto poet who I really admired.  I often walk through her park at Lowther just north of Bloor and say hello to her statue. 

As an undergraduate English student at The University of Western Ontario in 1985, I saw her perform her work a few times. She was writer-in-residence there at the time, and she held a few readings at the local student centre. Then a few years later, when I was a graduate student at the University of Toronto, she was again writer-in-residence. I never missed an opportunity to see her perform and to glimpse those deep green eyes, listen to that lovely voice. At one reading at  U of T she performed a poem, The Compass, which inspired me to volunteer for literacy programs for years afterward. 

One night in May 1987, Gwendoyn MacEwen visited my graduate poetry class. We had a good night, just nine Canadian poetry students and the Professor, discussing art, life and poetry with her. She was charming, warm, down-to-earth, a wonderful storyteller, and very smart.

I lived in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto as a graduate student, and often saw her riding her enormous, flower-strewn bicycle along Bloor Street. A few times she said hello and waved at me. I was so surprised but I always managed a smile and a hello back, for days afterward wondering how she knew me, but then my student life mirrored her writing residencies and we were at the same universities at the same time so maybe it's not surprising. But that was one of her many gifts, she made people feel very present. At least, she always made me feel very present. Her work inspired me in many ways, and I was very sorry when she died, far too young, and just a few months after her visit to my class.

Years later, I published a book with her name in the title, not even consciously realizing it at the time. I was going for alliteration of the hard "G," Gift/Gwendolyn/Golden, but when I realized I had used her name, I went and revisited her work. How delighted I was to rediscover "Fragments from a Childhood," a magical (and frankly hilarious) poem about a child's gift of imagination, and that delicate moment when new truths about the world and about ourselves are revealed. I felt it perfectly described my Gwendolyn's dilemma: how a gift can set us apart, open our eyes, and change us forever (whether we decide to fly or not). At least that's my interpretation, yours may differ. As the young speaker of the poem says about her former heroes, "Are they really interested in their marvels?" 

I am. I always will be.  I hope you take a moment to read Gwendolyn MacEwen's lovely poem, too.

FAB new cover for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden!

It's a FABULOUS new cover for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. I have to admit, I was pretty married to the old one, and a bit skeptical. But this cover is fantastic, my editor and designer at Dundurn were right, thanks guys.

Here's the back cover blurb:

This morning, I woke up on the ceiling ... So begins the strange story of Gwendolyn Golden. One perfectly ordinary day and for no explicable reason, she wakes up floating around her room like one of her little brother’s Batman balloons. 

Puberty is weird enough. Everyone already thinks she’s an oddball with anger issues because her father vanished in a mysterious storm one night when she was six. Then there are the false rumours about her being a drug addict. On top of all that, now she’s a flying freak.

How can she tell her best friend, or her mother? How can she live her life? After Gwendolyn almost dies one night flying too high and too fast, help arrives from the most unexpected place. And stranger still? She’s not alone.

Coming January 2014 from Dundurn Press!

A great review and a secret admission

"I absolutely adore this book. The author, Philippa Dowding is a really good author and I love how she totally hooked me on this book. I have recommended this book to so many people and I recommend it to you too. This book will surprise you at any minute. When you think all the excitement is over it hits again and you will be super surprised."
Student Red Maple 2015 reviewer

What a lovely review. It really made my day, thank you! You'll find this review on the Red Maple 2015 Bibliocommons site, along with several other wonderful reviews for the book. Check it out.

 The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is magic realism, the sub-set of fantasy which requires the greatest willing-suspense-of-disbelief of all the fantasy genres, at least in my mind. It's a realistic world with one magical element which the reader just has to accept, no questions asked. I think Richard Scrimger's Zomboy is the other magic realism book in the Red Maple selections this year, a wonderful read. In fact, all the selections are great, I've enjoyed them all.

And here is my secret admission: I've read all 10 books on the Red Maple list, and my favourite (after my own of course!) is Sarah Ellis's Outside In, a great little story about the rights of a family, living off-grid, and the uber-eco vigilant. An interesting read, quite provocative. Here's my review of the book on Goodreads. 

I have another secret admission too: I often get asked by readers what's my favourite of the books I've written? Usually I fudge it and say, well, you know, authors try not to pick favourites, just like your parents can't really say if they like you better than your brother or sister ... but the truth is that while I really do love them all (and Jake and the Giant Hand might be my favourite next week), at the moment The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is my favourite. She's a wonderful character, and who wouldn't want to fly? Given the chance, I definitely would!