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Children's Fiction Fantasy & Magic

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden

The Night Flyer's Handbook

by (author) Philippa Dowding

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2014
Category
Fantasy & Magic, Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, Adolescence
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459707375
    Publish Date
    Jan 2014
    List Price
    $8.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781459707351
    Publish Date
    Jan 2014
    List Price
    $9.99

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Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 9 to 12
  • Grade: 4 to 7
  • Reading age: 9 to 12

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.

Philippa Dowding's profile page

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

. . . a positive story about dealing with loss, being a young teenager, and growing up that will appeal to a wide audience.

Resource Links

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

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

Dowding’s novel … will appeal to tweens who enjoy realism touched with magic.

Canadian Children’s Book News

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

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.

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