• Age: 8 to 11
• Grade: 3 to 6
• Reading age: 8 to 11

Nominated for the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award and the TD Children's Literature Award

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. Owen is growing up, but happily for readers, he never loses his most endearing qualities — his sweet vulnerability, his impulsive courage, and his imagination as big as the sky.

The Secret Life of Owen Skye was a smash hit with readers, reviewers and award juries. In After Sylvia, Alan Cumyn has produced a captivating sequel that captures perfectly the bewilderment and joy of being a kid. A funny, poignant, magical book that will delight a broad range of readers.

Alan Cumyn has written many highly acclaimed novels for both children and adults. His three Owen Skye books have won several major awards. The Secret Life of Owen Skye won the Mr. Christie's Award and was nominated for the Governor General's Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award and the Pacific Northwest Libraries Association Young Readers Choice Award. After Sylvia was nominated for the TD Children's Literature Award, and Dear Sylvia was shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association Children's Book of the Year Award. Alan is also a two-time winner of the Ottawa Book Award. Alan teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently chair of the Writers' Union of Canada.

Alan Cumyn's profile page

• Long-listed, OLA Red Maple Award
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award
• Commended, CCBC Our Choice (starred selection)
• Long-listed, TD Canadian Children's Literature Award
• Short-listed, CLA Book of the Year for Children Award

...a delicious mixture of hilarity and tenderness...[Alan Cumyn's] great achievement...is to give readers not just compulsively readable narratives, but a hero - in fact, an entire cast of characters - that is instantly recognizable yet startlingly fresh and new.

Globe and Mail

Alan Cumyn hits a high note in his portrayal of Owen. His language and style are confident, replete with a wonderful sense of humour that must come with being a big kid himself.

Books in Canada

Cumyn writes like a combination of Beverly Cleary and Robert Frost, alert to the depth of child emotion and with an undercurrent of plain-spoken wisdom and kindness.

Quill & Quire

It's rare to get a novel of such boy appeal that's also funny, wise and literary, simultaneously slapstick and deeply perceptive.

Toronto Star

[An} inspiring first-person narrative of self-sacrifice and human resilience. A riveting, thoughtful coming-of-age tale.

Today's Parent