I first became aware of Erin Bow when I read her award-winning YA novel, Plain Kate around 2011. I remember being captivated by her use of language and how she created empathy for the title characters. It was fresh. Something I hadn’t read before. It deservedly won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award that year. I have paid close attention to whenever she brings out a new book ever since, knowing that it will be something special. And I’m not the only one that thinks so.
Each of her books have met with critical acclaim, winning a slew of awards like 2014 Monica Hughes Award for Sorrow’s Knot, the 2016 Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award for The Scorpion Rules (one of my all-time favourites!), and a 2019 Governor General’s Award for Stand on the Sky. All her books are distinctive and original, illustrating Bow’s mastery of many different genres, including science-fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction, as well as stories set in present day. She is also a poet and physicist, which no doubt influence her outlook on storytelling.
Most recently, her tender and wondrous, Simon Sort of Says, has won a coveted Newbery Honour book award. ‘Simon Sort of Says is a middle-grade novel that follows Simon O’Keefe. Simon is a natural storyteller who has just moved with his family to the National Quiet Zone — a community where there is no internet so that radio astronomers can listen for signs of extraterrestrial life. Simon also happens to be the sole survivor of a school shooting and is set on writing a new story and life for himself. Simon Sort of Says is an uplifting book of perseverance and healing.’
Discovering a writer who has the ability to hook you right from the start, sweep you away, tell stories in new and powerful ways that can be counted on to enrich your life experience, is nothing to sneeze at. I treasure it and her.
Read the most excellent Erin Bow like your life depended on it.