I Love To Read Month

On Tuesday I visited the Gray academy for I Love To Read Month. I read from "The Lost Locket" for grade 3 and a new, as yet unpublished picture book I have written for grade 1. (Which they loved and that was encouraging.) We made up a story with the grade one class and the grade 3's had more questions than there was time for. It was really great when I asked the children what their favourite book was and two of them said "The Proof that Ghosts Exist." When I said that I thought it was for older kids when I wrote it they were stunned- not realizing I was the author- of course with my friend Perry Nodelman! That was cool.

A Life Cut Short

The cover of this book is particularly haunting. This photo is of a young girl who did not survive The Holocaust. I look at her and wonder who she was and what exactly happened to her, and then think about who she might have become.

Popular Fantasy Soon to be Reissued

Fantasy never becomes dated! I am excited about the reissue of Of Two Minds, the first in a four-book series written with my friend and fellow author Perry Nodelman. Of Two Minds is as fresh as the first day the novel was published, and now has become a well loved classic! It is one of the top selling titles ever in the Japanese library system, and is read all over the world. Check back here for launch date and purchasing links.

Pieces of the Past, my new book launches in April 2013

My new book is finally done and available on Amazon

and will soon be in bookstores. It is a Holocaust book called Pieces of the Past, set in Winnipeg in 1948 about a young Jewish orphan who arrives in the city and then begins to look back over her life during the war. A very haunting thing - the picture is of a young girl, name unknown, who perished during The Holocaust. There are 6 million people who were murdered. We can't tell all their stories but we can try to remember that each one had a story and a life that was precious and a life that was ripped away.

Book Launch Over, Now Onto the Next One

Just back from the launch of Behind Enemy Lines. The place was packed and everyone said the reading went well. (Thanks to 2 years of Drama school in London, England.) Now I need to get back to the Holocaust book I'm writing for Scholastic Canada. Deadline looming. Nearing the end and everything else feels like a distraction. Onward.

CBC and my new book

CBC has done a lovely piece on my new book, Behind Enemy Lines
http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/scene/books/2012/03/15/carol-matas/
The launch is tonight and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm hoping to meet, in person, some of the veterans who helped me get my facts right!

Praise for Behind Enemy Lines

"The narrative voice is potent and realistic, and Carol Matas does a marvelous job capturing both the hope and courage in Sam’s personality as well as the terror he feels as he is transported around Nazi occupied territory against his will ... the truth of his situation is never overwrought with heavy-handed factuality or didacticism. Behind Enemy Lines is a fantastic account of one Canadian’s struggles through World War II in occupied France." — Bob Bittner, CM, Volume XVIII Number 23, Feb. 17, 2012. Read the full review.

"What starts as a rip-roaring adventure soon becomes a sobering account of strength in the face of adversity that encompasses the workings of the French Resistance and illuminates the Holocaust from a fresh angle ... the subject matter is difficult but ultimately uplifting." — Elaine Kalman Naves, The Gazette (Montreal) Feb. 17, 2012.

ORDER Behind Enemy Lines Today!
McNally Robinson
Chapters Indigo
Amazon.ca

My New Book Written Especially for Boys

A tale of courage & endurance

Eighteen-year-old Sam Frederiksen has come a long way from the Prairies. Trained to be a gunner in a Lancaster bomber during WWII, he is shot down over France. Surviving the crash, he joins forces with the French Resistance...only to be betrayed by one of its members. He and other flyers are rounded up by the Gestapo and held in Fresnes prison.
Treated as spies, rather than POWs, these men are beaten — then sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. It is here that Sam witnesses the darkest side of humanity — gas chambers, torture and starvation. Yet it is also here that he comes to understand the true resilience and unfathomable courage of the victims.
Behind Enemy Lines is partially based on a true incident from WWII, in which 168 Allied airmen were captured and sent to Buchenwald. Twenty-six of these men were Canadian.

JOIN ME AT THE BOOK LAUNCH:
Thursday March 15, 7:30 pm
Grant Park in Prairie Ink Restaurant
McNally Robinson Booksellers Grant Park
1120 Grant Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba

Nice Review for Edge of When

Kirkus Reviews just called Edge of When "a thought-provoking and entertaining time-travel tale with a hopeful, message about personal responsibility."

My New/Old Book: The Edge Of When

I wrote four science fiction books 30 years ago. I've rewritten and updated three of them: It's Up To Us, Zanu and Me, Myself and I. They warned of nuclear war, terrorism, corporate greed and a corporate takeover of the world—well...you get the drift. Sounds more like right now than the future. But I live in hope. We can still change the world for the better. Yes, that includes getting involved in politics—because if we don't, those who do will make all the big decisions for us?

It was a fascinating exercise rewriting three books from so long ago. What to keep? What to drop? My editor Christie Harkin was a great help. She was able to look at all three books with fresh eyes and suggest entire chapters and story lines that just weren't necessary once I was melding all three books together. 

I'm really happy with the old/new book. I hope it will give readers lots to think about. And perhaps even propel them into action in politics, the environment, progressive causes that can make our world a better place for everyone, not just a playground for a privileged—or fanatic—few.

The Edge of When has just been released and can be purchased online...

IN CANADA: McNally Robinson Chapters Indigo Amazon.ca

IN THE U.S.: Barnes & Noble Amazon.com

What would it be like to be psychic?

If you agree that being psychic is a possibility, then the next question is: what does that mean? Is the future fixed? Do we have free will? If we have free will how free is it when some people can see the future? Is it only a possible future?

These are just a few of the questions I asked myself when I started to write The Freak series, Tales of a Reluctant Psychic. I was also interested in investigating what it would be like to suddenly have your life changed. One minute everything is set, you have a plan. The next minute it's all been turned upside down and you have to start over — even with the way you think.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3/09, we launch Tales of a Reluctant Psychic at McNally Robinson bookstore in Winnipeg. I predict it will be a lot of fun!