When a book is published, it goes out into the world and then an author waits to see how it is received and what kind of life it will have. Not Your Typical Dragon has had a pretty good life since is was first published in 2013. Sometimes I just watch it from afar, like a parent getting a letter from their child that gives a report of their latest accomplishments.
Just these past few months, Not Your Typical Dragon was adapted into a musical that was performed last week at the Erie Playhouse in Erie, Pennsylvania. There were eight performances in front of an audience of over 3,000 children. The tickets had been made free, so that children of all economic backgrounds would have the opportunity to experience a live performance. The production was put together under the talented and creative guidance of the coordinator, Trish Yates.
All that was required of me was to give my blessing and to record a short video greeting that they showed at the start of each play. Living on the other side of the continent in Vancouver, in Canada, I unfortunately couldn’t attend, but how I wish I could, judging by the photos and the recordings of the musical numbers that Trish sent me over the weeks! As you can see, it was quite the production, and made interactive with the audience as well, using a giant Crispin head that children could go inside to project all the silly things that Crispin breathes out instead of fire.
At the end of the show, children received buttons and copies of the book that were made available by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, who had already included my picture book into its collection for several years in the past.
Thrilled to announce that the audio version of the sequel book is now available for listening. Narrated once again by the very talented Tim Campbell, this book reunites readers with Duane and his friends, and also introduces a new character who tries to disrupt the cozy world that the gentle polar bear has created.
At age five I would create city tableaus atop my dresser. Alphabet blocks were stacked precariously into office towers (I was not a well-coordinated child), pencils anchored in blobs of plasticine served as streetlamps, and my Hot Wheel car collection created the gridlock that ran the city’s length. Assorted plastic animals – elephants, giraffes and tigers –roamed freely within my utopia, which might have played a part in the traffic jam.
When I was six I asked for a Kenner’s Girder and Panel construction set for my birthday because in a commercial wedged between the Saturday morning cartoons, they promised I could create a realistic modern office tower cityscape with cars zipping in between the buildings on raised highways. Even in black and white television, I was sold. The buildings one could make were truly Modern, in the style of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s 1967-69 Toronto Dominion towers. Armed with travel experience I didn’t have at age six, I realize now that the commercial’s vision of elevated transportation was more akin to Tokyo than my hometown Edmonton, Alberta. But in any case, the actual results were underwhelming. I even wondered if I had bought the wrong construction set.
Now I live in Vancouver, and it occurred to me the other day that I’ve been living inside that urban fantasyland I dreamed of as a kid. Most of the track that our city’s unmanned trains whiz along are outside and held aloft on cement columns. Riding the Skytrain, the landscapes you pass through are varied. There are industrial and light industrial areas, there are suburbs of detached homes close enough to snoop into backyards, there’s one trailer park and one RV park that I’ve spotted. Shopping districts go without saying, but there are also vistas across the Fraser River, showing pulp mills and farmland and mountains in the distance. And of course, with each new Skytrain line added, the new stations become magnets for high-rise development. There are many sections in which a trip will take you through a canyon of condos just like those long-ago commercials promised me. It’s as futuristic an experience while on the train as it is looking up from the ground and seeing these people-movers pass across your line of sight.
One of my favorite stations is called 29th Avenue. It’s part of the original Expo Line which was built when Vancouver hosted Expo 86 and was forever changed from sleepy, small-town city to whatever it is now, which depends on who you ask. This station is not raised like most, but is actually semi-submerged. Slocan Park runs along the south side which gives you the impression of this transportation-of-the-future stopping in the middle of nature and quiet rural life just as the interurban trams did at the end of the 19th century.
You can find online, restored and colourized films of streetcar trips along big city streets as seen from the driver’s POV. Because the Skytrain is operated from a central command centre, a single driver’s seat is always available at the front and back of a train. Children rush for them, but so do many adults. The fancy to shrink down to model train size is apparently not only mine.
I abandoned driving when I moved here thirty years ago, for different reasons. Our city planners assume that all of us will merrily replace our cars with bikes, but Vancouver is hilly and yes, even mountainous, and not all of us are up to that challenge. I mostly rely on public transportation. The bus system is a much more onerous option, slow and crowded due to an increasing population and roads that are narrow with no room to expand. But the Skytrain makes many areas effortlessly accessible and I eagerly await the construction of every new line. As a walker, having quick access to other parts of city means I can explore what would otherwise have been ignored. Find the hidden curiosities that are made more poignant by having been stumbled across.
I wish there were Skytrain lines that covered the whole Lower Mainland (as this region is referred to). More to the point, I wish there were Skytrain lines across the globe, zipping here and there, connecting my neighbourhood to a million others. There is so much of the world I still want to see, so many neighbourhoods I’d like to walk through. It’s only through close proximity that we can appreciate the marvelous paradox of how similar we all are and yet how uniquely different. Yes, I know that’s trite. But another paradox I find is that as our planet gets warmer, we are all growing colder. Earth hasn’t changed in size, as far as I know, yet we couldn’t be farther apart from each other. Imagine then if reaching each other, where we live, where we call home, was simply a matter of walking into one station and getting off at another.
Skytrain lines running across the planet? That’s a kid’s fantasy. We need more of those.
I am happy to announce that there will be an upcoming audio book version of Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North, the second book in the middle grade series of stories about Duane the polar bear and his friends.
I’ve received many inquiries about such a version since the book came out, as well as many positive comments about the audio version of the first book, read by Tim Campbell.
Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-el
ISBN-13: 9781534433441 Publication date: October 6, 2020 by Atheneum BYR Purchased by my school
Past the place where icebergs shiver, you will find the Very, Very Far North, where Duane and his friends are sure to make you feel right at home. You might like to share a delicious Snow Delight with warmhearted Duane. While you’re slurping away, if C.C. suddenly asks you where you’ve come from, it’s not because she’s nosy; she is simply gathering scientific data. If Handsome, the musk ox, pays a visit, a quick hair combing is highly recommended. Should you notice a quiet caribou grazing nearby, well, that’s just Boo’s way of saying hello.
And if a less-than-friendly visitor arrives to sneak, shove, and shake things up, Duane and the others might discover that life isn’t always as peaceful as mid-late-afternoon nap. Fortunately, they know…
I will be virtually visiting two schools in Killaloe Ontario today and tomorrow to talk about my middle grade novel, Audrey (cow) and to give writing workshops about Voice & Dialogue.
Thank you to the Ontario Council for the Arts and their Writers-in-Schools program for making this to happen!
Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North is a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. Being nominated for an award is always a great honour, and even more so when it’s in your own province. And I’m thrilled that it is for a sequel, because it tells me I must have done something right with the second book 🙂
Congrats to all the finalists, in all categories this year!
I am so pleased to announce that The Very, Very Far North has been nominated for the 2022 Colorado Children’s Book Award. This is a wonderful continuation of good news from the state, having had two schools there select my middle grade novel for their One Book / One School event which gets a copy into the hands of every student.
It’s October 6th which means that the sequel book is officially released. Here’s a quote from a fun review from yesterday that I may just steal in the future:
“It was a grand adventure … and contained so many pearls of wisdom, one could make a necklace from them.”
Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North
Dan Bar-el 