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

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.

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• 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

Philippa Dowding is an award-winning copywriter, a poet and children’s author. Her YA books in the Lost Gargoyle series were shortlisted for the Diamond Willow, Hackmatack and Silver Birch awards, and The Gargoyle at the Gates was named a White Raven Book 2013 from the International Youth Library in Munich. Philippa lives in Toronto with her family.

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

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

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

Canadian Children's Book News

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

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