• Age: 10 to 18
• Grade: 5 to 12

The story of one boy’s experience with the (not so) sweet hereafter.

Fresh from having stolen a piece of fruit and taunting the grocer, Jim, a fourteen-year-old wannabe gangster, bully, and car thief, is run over by a car. What follows is a hilarious, bleak, and ultimately hopeful visit to the afterworld, courtesy of Richard Scrimger, one of the country’s finest writers.

This is an afterlife peopled with unforgettable characters that might be drawn from video games: angry Slayers, tearful Mourners, and scary Grave Walkers. Jim meets them all and is given the chance to return to earth with the extraordinary gift of knowing what happens when we die. Now he must deal with living demons, including a neighborhood torturer and a truly creepy older sister. With imagery from the mean streets as well as the arcade, Me and Death is thought-provoking, exciting, sad, and funny — sometimes all at the same time.

 

Richard Scrimger a écrit plus de vingt livres pour enfants et adultes, dont Zomboy et Downside Up. Plusieurs d’entre eux ont été publiés dans le monde entier et ont remporté ou ont été mis en nomination pour des prix prestigieux. Il contribue aussi à la série Seven et il est un orateur recherché dans les écoles.

 

Richard Scrimger is the award-winning author of seven novels for children, three picture books, and three books for adults. Columns detailing Richard’ s adventures in parenthood have been published in "The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine," and "Today’ s Parent." His first children’ s novel, "The Nose from Jupiter," won the 10th Annual Mr. Christie’ s Book Award. His first adult novel, "Crosstown," was short-listed for the City of Toronto Book Award. He and his family live in Cobourg, Ontario.

 

Richard Scrimger's profile page

Praise for Into the Ravine:
“Scrimger is a deft and funny storyteller who understands early adolescent boys, their dreams, and their realities. . . . A funny, scary, exciting, and spot-on adventure.” — Booklist

Praise for A Nose for Adventure:
“A hilarious, exciting roller coaster of evasions, captures, and escapes . . . Snappy dialogue, humor, and clever plotting provide a rollicking adventure. . . .” — Booklist

Praise for From Charlie’s Point of View:
“From the mouths of these smartalecky characters come zinger after zinger, resulting in a laugh-out-loud-on-the-subway read . . . an undercurrent of emotion . . . will resonate with readers. . . .” — Time Out New York Kids

Me & Death: An Afterlife Adventure

On the flip side of the coin, the always-good-for-a-laugh Richard Scrimger brings readers a new offering entitled Me & Death: An Afterlife Adventure. This is a more sobering chronicle than his tales of Norbert, the alien who takes up residence in a young boy’s nose in A Nose for Adventure and its sequels. As the story begins, Jim — a teen hooligan who bullies classmates and hotwires cars — is himself hit by a car and his life hangs by a thread. While his physical body lies comatose, his spirit embarks on an afterlife journey in which a series of oddball ghosts revisit various times in his life with him, all the while urging him to recognize the error in his ways. They exhort him to make changes in his life and his relationships in order to spare himself the grim fate that currently awaits him… the same fate that these sorrowful spectres are themselves forced to endure.

With this undisguised nod to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrimger tackles several thought-provoking subjects here. As readers journey through the various episodes of Jim’s young and troubled life, we are given the opportunity to see into the mind and heart of a “bad boy”, to see some of the events that shaped him into the hateful adolescent he has become, and to see also that transformation is possible, even for the unlikeliest of characters. In a sudden and unexpected twist, the author also introduces the topic of abuse within families. This is all new terrain for Scrimger. However, his trademark humour still manages to shine through the narrative; even when handling weightier subject matter he still has the gift of his comedic touch that conspires to add some levity to a potentially grim tale.

Me and Death: An Afterlife Adventure

Jim is the sort of kid you don’t feel sorry for when he gets run over. Which he does. Lying in the middle of the road, Jim has a near-death experience in which he meets some ghosts and learns a few home truths. Jim’s quest for moral redemption does not go smoothly. Thought-provoking, scary and hilarious — sometimes all at the same time.