I’m humbled and honored, and doing a little happy-dance! 😊 It’s official as of today that my young-adult novel Stowaway is one of ten in Canada nominated for a Red Maple 2020 fiction award. I’m also tickled that this is my third nomination (for First Descent and Tracker’s Canyon previously), and second year in a row (2019, 2020).

It means I do a week’s author tour in Ontario in May, speaking to 20,000 kids (and visiting my son, of course). More importantly, it means that 270,000 students across Canada will be reading like crazy between now and then to vote on Forest of Reading nominees.

The Red Maple award is part of the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading program, with winners to be announced in May 2020. The Ontario Library Association is an organization that very successfully promotes and celebrates kids reading.

Congratulations to my fellow nominees: Svetlana Chmakova, Natasha Deen, Byron Eggenschwiller, Gordon Korman, Susin Nielsen, Kevin Sands, Tasha Spillet, Nhung Tran-Davies, and Laura E. Weymouth.

Stowaway is set on Mayne Island, BC, Canada (though it’s called Horton Island in the story). It is published by Dundurn Press. Happy-dance again…

SUMMARY

Owen’s plan to sail away on an adventure puts him on a collision course with some very dangerous people.

When Owen’s parents leave him on his own for a week, the sixteen-year-old gets bored and hatches a crazy idea: sneak onto the yacht that’s visiting the sleepy Pacific Coast island where he lives and stow away on an adventure! Once on board the vessel, Owen quickly finds out this is anything but innocent fun. The ship is packed with teenagers from Central America, and it looks like Owen has stumbled onto a people-smuggling operation.

Complications pile up and as things head from bad to worse, a haunting incident from Owen’s past tightens its grip on him. There’s only one way to break free and make his way home. Owen and the first mate, Arturo ― a former street kid ― must work together to commandeer the boat and win the trust of those on board. But who’s friend and who’s foe in the shifting tides?

Inside story of writing the novel.