CBC Canada Reads 2009 Runner-Up

Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection

"Hilarious and gentle.” — Booklist

“Beguilingly alive.” — Seattle Times

“Laugh-out-loud funny.” — NOW

“Bracingly off-centre.” — Globe & Mail

“Lovely and odd.” — Kirkus Review

“Sweet, tart and forbidden in all the right places” — Entertainment Weekly

When the world feels dark and hopeless, curl up with this heartwarming, laugh-out-loud hilarious book, full of love and warmth in the midst of a difficult and unwieldy world.

What do you get when you cross the Virgin Mary with Brooke Shields, add a trash-talking beauty queen wannabe and throw in a couple of talking nipples? One of the most laugh-out-loud books you’ll read all year.

Peter Paddington is 13, overweight, the subject of his classmates’ ridicule, and the victim of too many bad movie-of-the-week storylines. When Peter’s nipples begin speaking to him one day and inform him of their diabolical plan to expose his secret desires to the world, Peter finds himself cornered in a world that seems to have no tolerance for difference.

Peter’s only solace is “The Bedtime Movies” — perfect-world fantasies that lull him to sleep every night. But when the lines between Peter’s fantasy world and his reality begin to blur, no one is safe from the depths of Peter’s imagination — especially Peter himself.

BRIAN FRANCIS is the author of two previous novels. His most recent, Natural Order, was selected by The Toronto Star, Kobo, and The Georgia Straight as a Best Book of the Year. His first novel, Fruit, was a Canada Reads finalist and was selected as one of Amazon and 49th Shelf’s “100 Canadian Books to Read in a Lifetime”. He lives in Toronto.

Brian Francis' profile page

• Commended, Globe and Mail Bestseller List
• Short-listed, CBC Canada Reads

“Hilarious and gentle.” — Booklist

“Beguilingly alive.” — Seattle Times

“Laugh-out-loud funny.” — NOW

“Bracingly off-centre.” — Globe and Mail

“Lovely and odd.” — Kirkus Reviews