Newton, a ten-year-old science geek, has a ton of problems. Currentlyhis biggest one is avoiding his sports-crazed, quadruplet older brothers who are intent on making Newton pay for embarrassing them. No amount of explaining will convince them he didn’t mean to score the winning goal ON HIS OWN NET during that afternoon’s soccer game.

In a desperate bid to escape their clutches, Newton opens the mysterious door in his attic and is pulled through to another world by a pair of massive, hairy arms. Those arms belong to a spectacularly unattractive giant named Herbert, who is dealing with some XXL-sized problems of his own. Boy and giant form an unlikely alliance to save the Kingdom of Merriwarts and win the hand of a 300-year-old princess. Relying on Newton’s own flying invention, the friendship of a talking toy soldier, and a female scientist from the inter-galactic patent office, Newton comes to an amazing realization about facing life on his own terms. Zapped by self-deprecating, off-the-wall humor, and tethered to a subtle message of self-reliance, Newton and the Giant is a funny and imaginative debut novel.

MICHAEL McGOWAN is the author of Newton And The Giant, a Silver Birch Award winner. He is the writer and director of the award-winning film Saint Ralph, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2004 and went on to screen around the world. He is finishing his next film, One Week, starring Joshua Jackson. McGowan is the creator of the stop-motion children’s show Henry’s World and has also written extensively for magazines and newspapers. McGowan lives with his wife and their three children in the countryside beyond Toronto.

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