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Blog postIllustration c. Jon Klassen from THE NESTI’ve been writing down my dreams (and nightmares) for years. Like morning mist, they burn off quickly, so it’s best to write them down first thing on waking. I’ve got a pretty big collection now. They always make good reading, sort of like hearing stories other people might tell about you, with the facts all mixed up, or altogether invented; sometimes with malicious intent.
There is definitely a Top Ten playlist to my dreams. Many share commo5 years ago Read more -
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Blog postCredit: Ian CryslerI'd written a book about a train and I wanted a picture of myself with one. Fortunately for me, photographer extraordinaire Ian Crysler was perfect for the job.
(Ian himself, I've learned, has a fascinating history with trains -- and a much more exciting one than me! When he was a foolish youth, he and his friend would hop westbound trains and ride through the Rockies, gazing at the stars.)
On a chilly November morning we went down to the Toron7 years ago Read more -
Blog postOf all the spaces aboard a train, the caboose is one of my favourite. It's not as luxurious as first class, exciting as a saloon, or thrilling as the locomotive, but it has the cozy charm of a self-contained little world.
Traditionally the caboose is occupied by the guard and a brakeman, who spend the entire journey there. They are responsible for braking the train when needed, and for ensuring the train's safety as it enters and leaves a station. There is a special cupola at the re7 years ago Read more -
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Blog postBehind the miles of its freight and boxcars, The Boundless pulls eighty cars belonging to the world famous Zirkus Dante. One of the first circuses to take to the rails, it has eclipsed PT Barnum as the greatest show on earth.
The ringmaster is Mr. Dorian, a Metis with a vague past, who oversees an unrivalled collection of performers, acrobats, wonders (he abhors the word "freaks"), automatons, and wildlife. He is always on the lookout for new talent and marvels to add7 years ago Read more -
Blog postIt was Van Horne's dying wish that his body be carried within a special funeral car attached to The Boundless. Crossing and re-crossing the continent on the rails he helped lay. Forever.
The funeral carriage is impregnable, welded together from plates of battleship steel, no windows, no doors. Inside is a mausoleum which contains the sarcophagus of Cornelius Van Horne -- and, rumour has it, other things of great value. When at rest in a station, a guard stands watch over the7 years ago Read more -
Blog postThe General Manager of the CPR, Cornelius Van Horne’s job was to make sure the railway got built, pushing it west to meet up with the tracks being built into the mountains from Vancouver. Van Horne's energy and drive were legendary. He joined survey teams and hefted a sixty pound pack through the wilds of the Rockies. No detail of the railway was too small for him to overlook. He had many and varied interests and hobbies, a restlessly curious mind; he slept very little. Alas, he7 years ago Read more
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Blog postOwney used to be the mascot for the United States Railway Mail Service. He travelled aboard the mail cars, through 48 states --
Before joining The Boundless.
While many view him simply as an adorable mascot, others know that Owney has an uncanny for sorting and bagging mail.
And there is a great deal of mail aboard The Boundless, being sorted day and night by a small army of postal workers. Even as the train is in motion, new bags7 years ago Read more -
Blog postIt is the most dangerous job on the railroad.
A brakeman's job is to apply the brakes to slow the train. Sometimes this is done from the safety of a caboose or guard car. Other times the brakemen must cross on top of a moving train, to turn the brake wheels of individual freight and boxcars.
Every day during the 1880's, somewhere on the continent, at least one brakeman is killed on the job. It is common for brakemen to be missing fingers, hands, arms, or7 years ago Read more -
Blog postSandford Fleming is an engineer and a surveyor for the CPR, but he’s probably best known as the inventor of Standard Time. Now that trains were crossing great expanses at great speeds, it became necessary to develop time zones. Before then, time was pretty much up for grabs, decided by every town or region as they saw fit. Fleming divided the entire world up into 24 zones. What’s less well known about him is that he invented something called Cosmic Time, which is the same all ov7 years ago Read more
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Blog postSam Steele, the first Mountie (Actually he was the third to be sworn in, but no one knows about the first two.) An officer of the newly formed Northwest Mounted Police, he is asked to keep law and order on the maiden voyage of The Boundless, With so many people aboard, from all walks of life, this is no small feat. But Steele is more than up to the task. He's a mountain of a man, and conveys unassailable authority. Steele may be the closest thing we have to a Canadi7 years ago Read more
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Blog postSecond Class aboard a train like The Boundless is also very comfortable. The passengers are accommodated aboard Pullman cars that convert to upper and lower berths at night time.
Shooting at passing wildlife through open windows was a very popular pastime in the early days of train travel.
The Boundless made this all the easier by having a repurposed flat bed car for gentlemen and ladies to try their aim at the magnificent, though fast dwindling, herd7 years ago Read more -
Blog postIf, like Will Everett, you were lucky enough to be a first class passenger aboard The Boundless, you could expect unparalleled luxury.
Will boards a double decker palace car...
...where he and his father have a comfortable parlour on the ground floor, and then upstairs... ... each has his own7 years ago Read more -
Blog postThere is no satisfactory photograph of a sasquatch. There are tricky animals to track down.
Certainly the sasquatch in The Boundless look nothing like this burly fellow to the left. They are much, much scarier. But they are certainly a fact in my world -- as much a part of the mountain fauna as a bear or cougar.
There are other names for this creature, namely Big Foot, or -- and maybe Yeti, his Himalayan cousin. The name Sasquatch itself is possible7 years ago Read more -
Blog postIn the May 5th edition of Macleans Magazine, Brian Bethune wrote a piece on The Boundless!
"Adventure, history -- even if Cornelius Van Horne never did shoot at an engineer-hunting sasquatch -- and moral nuance. The Boundless deserves its name."7 years ago Read more -
Blog postAvalanches were a constant hazard in the mountains when they were building the CPR -- one of the many hardships the workers had to endure.
When Will drives the Last Spike, pistols are fired jubilantly in the air; cheers ring out; and the company locomotive blasts its whistle.
It's avalanche season, and the noise is enough to trigger one.
A lot happens during that avalanche.
Someone tries to steal the golden spike, Cornelius Van Horne is swept o7 years ago Read more -
Blog postIt was traditional for 19th century railroads to forge a ceremonial last spike out of gold. They were never left in the ground of course. It was merely for the photo op. After the ceremony it was hastily replaced with an ordinary spike.
But in 1885, up in Craigellachie, the last spike was not made of gold. Cornelius Van Horne grandly said that ordinary iron spikes had been good enough to make the railroad from coast to coast -- and an iron spike was good enough to finish it. Whi7 years ago Read more -
Blog postThis is Will Everett. He's come up to Craigellachie to meet his father who’s been working on the railway for the better part of three years. (Will actually hooked a ride up into the mountains with Van Horne and the other CPR dignitaries in their private train.) And here's a secret about the Last Spike. It isn't Donald Smith who drives it. It’s Will. You won't find it in any official photos. But after Smith bungles the first at7 years ago Read more
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Blog postIf you’re Canadian you’ve probably seen this photo. It's 1885 up in Craigellachie, BC. It’s not even a real town. (It’s near Revelstoke.) This is where the tracks coming from the East met the tracks coming from the West, up in the mountains. You can see the workers in the foreground. The fellow driving the spike is Donald Smith, the President of the CPR. (He actually bent the first spike, and had to do it again. He had a desk job.) Behind him to th7 years ago Read more
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Blog postIt's huge.
It has to be.
Embarking on its maiden voyage across the continent, The Boundless pulls over 900 cars and more than 6000 people, on a train seven miles long.
It’s a rolling city.
It carries tycoons and newly arrived immigrants, famous inventors and murderous charlatans. It contains opulent lounges and staterooms, a swimming pool, a cinema, a raucous saloon and a shooting range.
It pulls hundreds of freight car7 years ago Read more -
Blog postCredit: Ian Crysler Photography Where I’ll be this spring, to talk about, and read from, THE BOUNDLESS!
APRIL 2014
Toronto ON
April 26th
Chapters Brampton, 2:00PM
PHILADELPHIA, PA
April 28, 2014, 4:30 PMChildren's Book World
WASHINGTON DC
April 29, 2014, 10:30 AM Politics and Prose
St. Louis, MO
April 30th, 6:30PM St. Charles City-County Library - Spe7 years ago Read more -
Blog postOppel, Kenneth. The Boundless. 336p. S & S. Apr. 2014. Tr $15.99. ISBN 9781442472884; ebk. $10.99. ISBN 9781442472907. LC 2013009879. Gr 5-8 –All aboard for an exciting tale of steam-powered automatons, a bloodthirsty sasquatch, colorful circuses, and magical paintings. Aspiring artist Will Everett knows he’s not cut out to follow in the footsteps of his railroad manager father, but his pampered life leaves little opportunity for adventure. Then he boards The Boundless, the wor7 years ago Read more
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The first book in a can't-put-it-down, can't-read-it-fast-enough action-thriller trilogy that's part Hatchet, part Alien!
The invasion begins--but not as you'd expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens. They bloom--and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom--everywhere, unstoppable.
Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies--and yet not to these plants. What's their secret? Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They'd better figure it out fast, because it's starting to rain again....
A brilliantly funny, highly illustrated story about how a little ink splot changes a family forever. Perfect for those who love Hoot, Holes, or Frindle!
The Rylance family is stuck. Dad's got writer's block. Ethan promised to illustrate a group project at school--even though he can't draw. Sarah's still pining for a puppy. And they all miss Mom.
Enter Inkling. Inkling begins life in Mr. Rylance's sketchbook. But one night the ink of his drawings runs together--and then leaps off the page! This small burst of creativity is about to change everything.
Ethan finds him first. Inkling has absorbed a couple chapters of his math book--not good--and the story he's supposed to be illustrating for school--also not good. But Inkling's also started drawing the pictures to go with the story--which is amazing! It's just the help Ethan was looking for! Inkling helps the rest of the family too--for Sarah he's a puppy. And for Dad he's a spark of ideas for a new graphic novel. It's exactly what they all want.
It's not until Inkling goes missing that this family has to face the larger questions of what they--and Inkling--truly need.
• A New York Times Notable Book
• A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year -- top ten selection
• "A true-to-life family, some can't-put-it-down excitement, a few deep questions, and more than a little bit of magic. This book is everything, and I loved every page." —Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medalist for When You Reach Me
First the rain brought seeds. Seeds that grew into alien plants that burrowed and strangled and fed.
Seth, Anaya, and Petra are strangely immune to the plants' toxins and found a way to combat them. But just as they have their first success, the rain begins again. This rain brings eggs. That hatch into insects. Not small insects. Bird-sized mosquitos that carry disease. Borer worms that can eat through the foundation of a house. Boat-sized water striders that carry away their prey.
But our heroes aren't able to help this time--they've been locked away in a government lab with other kids who are also immune. What is their secret? Could they be...part alien themselves? Whose side are they on?
Kenneth Oppel expertly escalates the threats and ratchets up the tension in this can't-read-it-fast-enough adventure with an alien twist. Readers will be gasping for the next book as soon as they turn the last page...
Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .
Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.
In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.
"Mr. Cruse, how high would you like to fly?"
A smile soared across my face.
"As high as I possibly can."
Pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries, expert on high-altitude life-forms, are invited aboard the Starclimber, a vessel that literally climbs its way into the cosmos. Before they even set foot aboard the ship, catastrophe strikes:
Kate announces she is engaged—and not to Matt.
Despite this bombshell, Matt and Kate embark on their journey into space, but soon the ship is surrounded by strange and unsettling life-forms, and the crew is forced to combat devastating mechanical failure. For Matt, Kate, and the entire crew of the Starclimber, what began as an exciting race to the stars has now turned into a battle to save their lives.
Award-winning and bestselling author Kenneth Oppel brings us back to a rich world of flight and fantasy in this breathtaking new sequel to Airborn and Skybreaker.
A legendary ghost ship. An incredible treasure. A death-defying adventure.
Forty years ago, the airship Hyperion vanished with untold riches in its hold. Now, accompanied by heiress Kate de Vries and a mysterious gypsy, Matt Cruse is determined to recover the ship and its treasures. But 20,000 feet above the Earth's surface, pursued by those who have hunted the Hyperion since its disappearance, and surrounded by deadly high-altitude life forms, Matt and his companions soon find themselves fighting not only for the Hyperion—but for their very lives.
As the sun sets on the time of the dinosaurs, a new world is left in its wake. . . .
Dusk
He alone can fly and see in the dark, in a colony where being different means being shunned—or worse. As the leader's son, he is protected, but does his future lie among his kin?
Carnassial
He has the true instincts of a predator, and he is determined that his kind will not only survive but will dominate the world of beasts.
From the author of the internationally acclaimed Silverwing trilogy comes an extraordinary adventure set 65 million years ago. Kenneth Oppel, winner of a Michael L. Printz Honor for Airborn, has crafted a breathtaking animal tale that reaches out to the human in all of us.
When Griffin is sucked into the Underworld, his father Shade must act fast—for legend says that if the living stumble into the land of the dead, they only have a short time before death claims them as its own.
But something else is hunting Griffin, too. Something dark. Something sinister. Something buried deep in a past that Shade hoped he'd never have to revisit. Who will find Griffin first? And will it even matter if none of them can make it back into the land of the living?
This thrilling companion novel concludes the Silverwing series.
Shade, a young Silverwing bat in search of his father, discovers a mysterious Human building containing a vast forest. Home to thousands of bats, the indoor forest is as warm as a summer night and teeming with insects to eat. And through the glass roof, the bats can finally see the sun, free from the tyranny of the deadly owls.
Is this Paradise the fulfillment of Nocturna’s Promise to return the bats to the light of day? Shade and his Brightwing friend Marina aren’t so sure. Shade has seen Humans enter the forest and take away hundreds of sleeping bats for an unknown purpose. And where is Shade's father?
It isn’t long before Shade and Marina are swept up on a perilous journey that takes them to the far southern jungle—the homeland of Goth, now king of all the Vampyrum Spectrum: cannibal bats with three-foot wingspans. With the help of an abandoned owl prince and General Cortez’s rat army, Shade must use all his resourcefulness to find his father—and stop Goth from harnessing the dark powers of Cama Zotz to create eternal night.
In this continuation of Shade’s saga, Kenneth Oppel recaptures the adventure and poignancy of Silverwing, which Smithsonian magazine called “a tour-de-force fantasy,” and takes it to a new level of excitement.
When Will ends up in possession of the key to a train car containing priceless treasures, he becomes the target of sinister figures from his past.
In order to survive, Will must join a traveling circus, enlisting the aid of Mr. Dorian, the ringmaster and leader of the troupe, and Maren, a girl his age who is an expert escape artist. With villains fast on their heels, can Will and Maren reach Will’s father and save The Boundless before someone winds up dead?
“Canadian railway history, fantasy, a flutter of romance—and a thoughtful examination of social injustice—collide in this entertaining swashbuckler from the author of Printz Honor–winning Airborne” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Steve just wants to save his baby brother—but what will he lose in the bargain? Kenneth Oppel’s (Silverwing, The Boundless) haunting gothic tale for fans of Coraline, is one of the most acclaimed books of the year, receiving six starred reviews. Illustrations from Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen.
For some kids summer is a sun-soaked season of fun. But for Steve, it’s just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp’s nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered.
All he has to do is say “Yes.” But “yes” is a powerful word. It is also a dangerous one. And once it is uttered, can it be taken back?
Celebrated author Kenneth Oppel creates an eerie masterpiece in this compelling story that explores disability and diversity, fears and dreams, and what ultimately makes a family. Includes illustrations from celebrated artist Jon Klassen.
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