Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada and Caribbean region)! Nine-year-old Phineas William Walsh has an encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world. He knows that rockfish have swim bladders that can burst and push their intestines out their butts, and he knows that barnacles have the longest penises in the animal kingdom. He's obsessed with animals; it's practically all he talks about, and he spends all his spare time watching the Green Channel or researching obscure facts on the internet or in books. And he's worried sick about what humans are doing to the planet and its other animals.But although he seems to know absolutely everything about the animal world, what he doesn't know is why his granddad had to die or why Lyle the bully always picks on him or why his parents can't live together. He misses his grandad terribly, and he hates to see his grandmother – the only person who understands his eco-worrying – so sad. He misses his dad, too, and wishes he could see him more, and that the separation didn't make his mom so lonely – though he sure doesn't like her talking to creepy Brent. And things only get worse when Phin's mom, desperately worried about his animal obsession, takes him to see a rather unsympathetic psychologist. When his Grade 4 class gets a pet frog – a White's Tree Frog from Australia – it becomes the perfect focus for all Phin's worrying. He can't bear to see Cuddles penned up in a cage so very far from his natural habitat just for the amusement of humans. It's just another example of how cruel and self-centred humans are. And so Phin and his best pal, Bird, are spurred to action. 'Sometimes you start reading a book and fall in love by page two. That's what happened when I tore through Carla Gunn's novel Amphibian … Although the loss of innocence is heartbreaking, Amphibian is also hilarious, and contains some of the best and freshest swears I've read in a long time.' – The Coast 'The moral centre of this darkly delightful eco-novel is nine-year-old Phineas, tireless crusader for the ill-used creatures of our fragile Earth. Phin's voice is irresistible: discerning yet innocent, enraged yet brimming with love. Gunn's story, cutting despair with healing mirth, is his perfect vehicle.' – Globe and Mail
close this panelCarla Gunn's work has been published in the Globe and Mail, the National Post and heard on CBC radio. Along with writing, she teaches psychology and she worries. About everything. But especially climate change, mass extinctions and that mole that she can feel but not see. This is her first novel.
close this panel
