Our Good Reads events suggest riveting, failsafe books for kids that will keep them amazed and engaged. Co-authors and parent/child team Kevin and Basil Sylvester share a treasure-hunting, literary-sleuthing mystery with Zed and Gabe: two friends who are trying to solve puzzles in the haunted Glyndebourne Manor in Night of the Living Zed. Marty Chan explores a different kind of sleuthing in Izzy Wong’s Nose for News, about a talented young podcaster embarking on an investigation. Trina Rathgeber takes us back to 1944, when teen Ilse Schweder gets lost while checking her family’s trapline in northern Canada—and faces down the ensuing challenges with traditional Indigenous knowledge—in Lost at Windy River. Grades 4–7. Moderated by France Perras.
Themes: Middle-grade fiction, mystery, adventure, Indigenous culture, survival
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts 4-9, Physical and Health Education 4-7
More information about the Festival:
Box Office | Accessibility | Venue Map
Event Participants:
MARTY CHAN is an award-winning author of dozens of books for kids, including Cosplay Crime, Kung Fu Master, Haunted Hospital, Dragon on the Loose and the award-winning Marty Chan Mystery series. He tours schools and libraries across Canada, using storytelling, stage magic and improv to ignite a passion for reading in kids. He lives in Edmonton.
FRANCE PERRAS is a bilingual actress (stage, screen, voice-overs, moderating, live announcing) who has been working in Vancouver and across Canada, for the past many years.
She often works with Théâtre la Seizième, the only professional French theatre company in BC.
You can find out more at: www.franceperras.com or by following her @thefranceperras on Instagram.
TRINA RATHGEBER is a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and grew up in Thompson, Manitoba, where she did all the things that northern kids do, from playing hockey and fishing to building forts in the woods. She enjoys writing for children and is the author of French Fries Are Potatoes and The Bunnies Talk Money. Trina lives in Calgary with her family.
BASIL SYLVESTER is a non-binary writer and bookseller. Their first book, The Fabulous Zed Watson!, co-written with Kevin Sylvester, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award, the 2021 Lambda Award and the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. Night of the Living Zed is their second novel.
KEVIN SYLVESTER is the author/illustrator of more than thirty books, including The Almost Epic Squad: Mucus Mayhem, the MINRS trilogy, the Neil Flambé Capers and the Hockey Super Six series. Sylvester has won awards across Canada, among them the Silver Birch Award and the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award. Kevin Sylvester lives in Toronto.
