That Boy Red - book launch and reading - by Rachna Gilmore

UPEI graduate and Governor General's Award Winner for Children's Literature, Rachna Gilmore, will read from her new book, That Boy Red, on Saturday, June 18, 2:00 p.m. at Confederation Centre Public Library.

The poignant episodic novel is sure to remind readers of another red-haired Island youngster, Anne Shirley, though That Boy Red is set during the Depression. Celebrating and showcasing the strength and spirit of Canadian families living through this era, the novel, like Anne of Green Gables, features a bevy of memorable characters, in particular, eleven year old Red MacRae, a resourceful, stubborn, even pig-headed lad, and his large and lively family.

Gilmore says she was inspired to write this book by her father-in-law's anecdotes about growing up as a young boy in PEI. 'It feels in a strange and satisfying way like coming full circle,' she says. Her favourite books when she was growing up in India and England were L.M. Montgomery's Anne books. In part, she says, it was her love of those books that influenced her to move to PEI where she married an Islander and lived for fourteen years. She also studied at the University of Prince Edward Island, where she obtained a second degree, a BEd.

'Writing this book involved considerable research to accurately capture the flavour and details of that time,' says Gilmore. 'But the most exciting part of my research was going up in a biplane, much like the one on the cover of this book!'

The event is co-sponsored by the UPEI Department of English.

Rachna Gilmore is the author of many children's books, including the Governor General's Award-winning A Screaming Kind of Day and The Sower of Tales, which won the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. Her most recent novel for younger readers, The Trouble with Dilly, was a Resource Links Best of 2009 book, as well as a Girl Guides of Canada Book Club Pick. Visit Rachna Gilmore online at www.rachnagilmore.ca.