Children's Fiction Fantasy & Magic
The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden
The Night Flyer's Handbook
- Publisher
- Dundurn Press
- Initial publish date
- Jan 2014
- Category
- Fantasy & Magic, Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, Adolescence
- Recommended Age
- 9 to 12
- Recommended Grade
- 4 to 7
- Recommended Reading age
- 9 to 12
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781459707375
- Publish Date
- Jan 2014
- List Price
- $8.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781459707351
- Publish Date
- Jan 2014
- List Price
- $9.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
This morning, I woke up on the ceiling …
So begins the strange story of Gwendolyn Golden. One perfectly ordinary day for no apparent 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 mean, false rumours people are spreading about her at school. 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 meets disaster flying too high and too fast one night, help arrives from the most unexpected place. And stranger still? She’s not alone.
About the author
Philippa Dowding is a children’s author, poet, musician and copywriter. She has won many industry awards and has had poetry and short fiction published in journals across North America. Her children’s books have been nominated for numerous literary awards in Canada and abroad, including the SYRCA Diamond Willow, OLA Silver Birch, OLA Red Maple, Hackmatack and White Raven awards. In 2017, Myles and the Monster Outside was an OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book and her 2021 novel, Firefly, won a Governor General’s Literary Award in the Children’s Literature – Text category. Philippa Dowding currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Awards
- Short-listed, Red Maple Award
- Commended, Canlit for Kids
- Commended, Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom selection
- Commended, Dewey Divas and the Dudes Fall Picks
Editorial Reviews
Dowding’s novel … will appeal to tweens who enjoy realism touched with magic.
Canadian Children’s Book News
. . . a positive story about dealing with loss, being a young teenager, and growing up that will appeal to a wide audience.
Resource Links
Told with wit and intelligence, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden is an entertaining, fast-paced novel that deals with very real situations, such as loss, change, and emotional struggles. At times whimsical and fantastical, this story addresses down-to-earth issues with the maturity and strength of character that would inspire any young reader who is facing the journey toward adulthood.
Waterloo Record
This lively, fast-paced novel by Philippa Dowding (author of the Lost Gargoyle series) moves fluidly from the whimsical to the fantastical and takes an intriguing detour to some dark places in between.
Quill & Quire
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.
Canadian Materials
User Reviews
A delightful book
Gwendolyn Golden wakes up with the ability to fly. As if adolescents don't have enough changes to deal with! Despite this new and strange gift, Gwendolyn is very down-to-earth and believable thanks to Dowding's ability to blend the real with the magical. I wonder if Dowding is telling us that Gwen's gift is no different from the gifts that many individual children have ... gifts which mark kids as different, thus making life difficult for them as they mature. This is a new twist on a 'growing-up' story that pre-teen girls will enjoy.Other titles by
Oculum Echo
Firefly
Weird Stories Gone Wrong 6-Book Bundle
Carter and the Curious Maze / Myles and the Monster Outside / Jake and the Giant Hand / and 3 others
Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet
Weird Stories Gone Wrong
Weird Stories Gone Wrong 5-Book Bundle
Carter and the Curious Maze / Myles and the Monster Outside / Jake and the Giant Hand / Alex and The Other / Blackwells and the Briny Deep
Blackwells and the Briny Deep
Weird Stories Gone Wrong
Oculum
Alex and The Other
Weird Stories Gone Wrong
Everton Miles Is Stranger Than Me Classroom Activity Guide
Dundurn Teachers' Guide
The Night Flyer's Handbook 2-Book Bundle
The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden / Everton Miles Is Stranger Than Me