• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 10
• Reading age: 13 to 18

"This novel is every high school boy's wet dream: drummer Dak Sifter's adventures forming the rock and roll band Featherless Bipeds, touring, drinking beer, being discovered by the Big Plastic Record Co. and Billy VandenHammer, cutting an album and becoming famous, not to mention dealing with groupies and girlfriends. Did I mention drinking beer? Dak's decision to take a year off from university to play in a band with friends Akim and Tristan leads to new associations with serious feminist and singer, Lola, and the wealthy, annoying, incompetent Jimmy T. whose connections create the band's first gigs. Zoe, the love of Dak's life, wants time away from him to date others, but she always returns to help Dak and the band when they need it most, eventually becoming their lead singer. One year later, in a wrap-it-all-up finale, the now famous band plays once more at the bar where they debuted. Zoe and Dak become engaged, Lola is now gainfully employed with a national feminist organization, the band members' parents are present and proud (in spite of initial doubt and downright opposition to their children's choice of career), and Jimmy T and Billy VandenHammer are exposed for the crooks they are. Bernice (saved by Dak from neo-Nazi skinheads) is now the head of Artist Relations for an up and coming recording studio willing to sign the band. Dak's witty, self-deprecating style is what saves this novel from complete schlock. He tells his own story, exposing his own stupid actions with Zoe, his own cloying lyrics and his own adolescent passion for music above all else. Scarsbrook hits the nail on the head as Dak composes the simple repetitive lyrics that complement typical rock and roll. His descriptions of small, soul-destroying bars will attract those boys who think their future is there. The facts that no young people in Canada today get engaged at 19, that today's band circuit is dominated by drugs (not alcohol), that Dak's father's novel is unlikely to have come to fruition in only one year, and that band celebrity usually takes place over a matter of years (not months) will go right over the heads of the intended audience who will devour Featherless Bipeds in spite of (or because of?) its dream fulfillment. Not only does the hero do what he wants to do, he has a rocking good time doing it, becomes famous overnight (even in music terms), gets the girl and gains even his parents' approval. In between, he catches a rapist, deals with difficult (to say the least) bar audiences, jots down new songs on paper bags whenever inspiration hits, and encourages his parents to return to their creative roots to paint and write." — Joan Marshall CM

Richard Scarsbrook grew up in the tiny rural community of Olinda, Ontario. He lived and taught in Petrolla for nearly a decade, where he acted, directed, and served as a member of the board of directors for the community theatre. In Petrolia, he also wrote original songs, and played the drums and sang in a band called The Know. He also began publishing his first short stories and poems at this time. Scarsbrook now makes his home in Toronto where he teaches creative writing courses at Humber Colege and George Brown College. He also plays and sings in the rock bands The Featherless Bipeds, The Nerve, and Disorderly Conduct, and has performed in venues such as The Rivoli, The Guverment, Healey's Roadhouse, The Opera House, The Tattoo Rock Parlour, The Royal York Hotel, The Hard Rock Cafe and The Black Swan (all in Toronto), The Hard Rock Cafe and The Liquor Store Bar in Ottawa, and The Just For Laughs Studio in Montreal. Scarsbrook's fiction and poetry have appeared in journals and Magazines in Canada and internationally including The Guardian Unlimited (UK), The FISH Anthology (Ireland), Verbicide (US), Prairie Fire, Descant, Matrix, Carousel, The Dalhousie Review, PRECIPICe, Rampike, Storyteller, The New Orphic Review, The Nashwaak Review, The Harpweaver, The Backwater Review, NeWest Review, Lies With Occasional Truth, The Moose and Pussy, Jones Avenue, Surface and Symbol, and Zygote. His stories and poems have won praise and prizes including the 1998 Hinterland Award for Prose, the 2001 New Orphic Short Story Prize, the 2001 Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Prize, the 2002 Lawrence House Centre for the Arts Short Story Prize, and the 2009 Matrix LitPop Award for Fiction. His first book publication was Guessing at Madeleine, a collection of poems which won the 1996 Cranberry Tree Press Poetry Prize. Scarsbrook's first novel, Cheeseburger Subversive (Thistledown Press), 2003) received positive reviews and great reader response.  Renowned author W.P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe, Dance Me Outside), wrote this in Books in Canada: "Cheeseburger Subversive is a coming of age story written with humour and panache. Scarsbrook has a special eye for the absurd, a wonderful way of looking at the world that turns tragedy into humor. A very funny and heart-warming debut." Cheeseburger Subversive was short listed for The Canadian Library Association's 2004 Young Adult Book of the Year Award, The Ontario Library Association's 2005 White Pine Award, and the 2005 Stellar Book Award. Featherless Bipeds ( Thistledown ,2006), its sequel, was also short-listed for short listed for the Canadian Library Association's 2007 Young Adult Book of the Year Award, and listed for the 2008/2009 Stellar Book Award.  Storyteller: Canada's Short Story Magazine wrote: "Featherless Bipeds remains at all times as tightly focused as the best short stories...Fans of live pop music will enjoy Scarsbrook's wonderful evocations of the characters, venues, trials, and successes of such a career, as well as the experience of making music, both onstage and off. " Scarsbrook's latest novel The Monkeyface Chronicles won the 2011 Ontario Library Association's White Pine Award. CM Magazine called the book a "multi-layered, engrossing, complex tale", and Resource Links said "Scarsbrook is an excellent writer with great comic overtones".  A review by author Ann Ewan (Firedrake, Brondings' Honour) said of The Monkeyface Chronicles, "It reminds me of the books of Paul Quarrington and John Irving, creating an over-the-top yet close-to-real world." 

Richard Scarsbrook's profile page

• Short-listed, BC Teen Reader Stellar

Featherless Bipeds

For those wondering what happened to Dak and Zoe at the end of Cheeseburger Subversive, White Pine-nominated author Richard Scarsbrook offers a direct sequel to the novel. Picking up shortly after high school graduation, readers find that Zoe and Dak have broken up and Dak is broken-hearted and pining for Zoe. The second story line concerns the creation of their band Featherless Bipeds and the trials and tribulations of the band and their journey to stardom.

This book does not disappoint, and it covers two of the primary topics that appeal most to boys: rock ‘n’ roll and girls! Scarsbrook perfectly captures the mind of a teenage boy, and Dak finds himself in situations that will amuse and horrify readers at the same time. From getting stabbed (while trying to rescue a girl being attacked on the street) to accidentally offending a “women’s libber,” he has successfully grown from an adolescent in the first book to a mature young man in the second. (Except perhaps, where women are concerned.)

Another strength of the book is the careful attention to the negatives of the music “biz” as well as the positive. The sleazy glory-stealing manager, the sometimes dumpy clubs, and the heartbreaks he experiences along the way are realistically portrayed. While the happily ever after might be slightly far-fetched in the real world, it works in the book, and it’s the ending the reader expects and hopes for.

Whether you have read the first book or not, Featherless Bipeds stands well on its own, or as a happy re-visiting of an old friend.