Colleen Nelson & Deborah Kerbel Dual Online Book Launch
Thursday Apr 15 2021 7:00 pm, Winnipeg, Zoom, Virtual
Join us for an evening of readings, conversation, and surPRIZES as we celebrate the launch of Colleen Nelson's new YA novel The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. (Dundurn Press) and Deborah Kerbel's new Middle Grade novel, Like a Duck (Scholastic Canada) at 7pm CT.
Registration is required to directly participate in the Zoom webinar. It will be simultaneously streamed on YouTube and available for viewing thereafter.
A hundred-year-old circus side show be the key to a seventeen-year-old's mysterious past in Colleen Nelson's The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. Found in an alley when she was a child, Frankie has no memory of who she is. Recurring dreams about a hundred-year-old carnival side show, a performer known as Alligator Girl, and a man named Monsieur Duval have an eerie familiarity to them. Are the dreams her way of working through her trauma or is there a more sinister plan at work?
If you focus too much on what’s missing, you won’t see what you already have. For almost as long as she can remember, it’s been Sarah, her mom and her steadfast duck, Webster. Ten years ago, Sarah’s dad mysteriously left, and it feels more important than ever for her to find out why. But that is going to be harder than she expected. Like a Duck by Deborah Kerbel is a story about love, loss, unexpected friendship and finding out who you are.
Colleen Nelson is a teacher and an award-winning YA author whose novels include Sadia, Blood Brothers, and Finding Hope. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Visit her online.
Deborah Kerbel is an award-winning author of picture books, young adult and middle-grade novels. Her books have been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Canadian Library Association’s YA Book Award, and many readers’ choice awards. She lives in Thornhill, Ontario. Visit her online.
See:
The Life and Deaths of Frankie D.
- Colleen Nelson 
Young adult hardcover
$14.99
Reader Reward Price: $13.49
A fantastical novel from award-winning author Colleen Nelson, about a hundred-year-old side show and a girl with no past.
Frankie doesn't trust easily. Not others and not even herself. Found in an alley when she was a child, she has no memory of who she is or why she was left there. Recurring dreams about a hundred-year-old carnival side show, a performer known as Alligator Girl, and a man named Monsieur Duval have an eerie familiarity to them.
Frankie gets drawn deeper into Alligator Girl's world and the secrets that keep the performers bound together. But a startling encounter with Monsieur Duval when she's awake makes Frankie wonder what's real and what's in her head.
As Frankie's and Alligator Girl's stories unfold, Frankie's life takes a sharp turn. Are the dreams her way of working through her trauma or is there a more sinister plan at work? And if there is, does she have the strength to fight it?
Like a Duck
- Deborah Kerbel
Trade paperback
$9.99
Reader Reward Price: $8.99
From the author of My Deal with the Universe, a lighthearted, tender story of a girl and her steadfast duck.
I spend a lot of time thinking about what Grandad said that day Webster first went missing. How if you spend too much time dwelling on the things you've lost, you might not notice what you've got in its place. And how sometimes those things can be just as wonderful. But in a different way.
Sarah is turning twelve. For the last ten years, ever since her dad mysteriously left, Sarah and her mom have always celebrated together for an entire birthday week. But when Sarah finds out that this year her mother has to work, and that she's signed Sarah up last minute for a week of culinary school instead, things go from bad to worse.
At least the camp has agreed to let Sarah bring her duck, Webster. Sarah knows that with Webster by her side, she can handle whatever comes her way. But then Webster goes missing, just as Sarah's search for her absent father comes up empty as well. Will she have to say yet another painful goodbye?
In a story about love, friendship, search for identity, and the hardship of loss, Sarah finds joy and strength in unexpected friendships and learns that when we focus so much on chasing answers, we can forget to notice what we already have.
