After Sylvia

The follow-up to Alan Cumyn’s award-winning first book for children, The Secret Life of Owen Skye, After Sylvia follows the adventures of young Owen after his true love Sylvia Tull (the girl whose very glance turns Owen’s face into a burning tomato) moves away to the town of Elgin. How can one endure such a loss? By adopting a slobbering, bouncy, rock-obsessed hound named Sylvester? By running for class president? By joining his brothers in taking revenge against bossy cousin Eleanor? Or by learning some new life skills, such as getting Horace to show him how to make the perfect fried egg, or asking Uncle Lorne to demonstrate his famous loon call? And what does it mean when Owen’s memory of Sylvia starts to fade? Can he find the courage and confidence that he needs to find her again, and what will happen if he does?

As the new school year unfolds, the magic of the Skye brothers’ antic adventures is replaced by a different kind of magic -- of stillness, when Owen visits the haunted house in the dead of winter, and of insight, as he begins to see his father in a new light.