Richard Scrimger – författare

Set primarily in Toronto, with brief stops in Philadelphia and New York, Mystical Rose spans from the 1920s to the 1990s. The story is told in flashbacks, revelations from the disordered mind of the elderly Rose, who, confronting death, has entered into a conversation with God. She revisits her life as an English-born girl growing up in the small town of Cobourg, Ontario. When her father returns from the First World War a burnt-out shell of his former self, her family''s reduced circumstances force Rose into domestic service. Shortly after she enters the wealthy Rolyoke household, Rose finds herself married to the scion of the family and transported into a world she struggles to understand.With lyrical, precise prose and haunting images, Richard Scrimger captures the tale of a woman never quite in control of her own destiny, yet determined to deal with all that life presents.From the Hardcover edition.

How do you shut up when your nose is doing all the talking?Alan is not big or strong. He hates playing soccer and can barely keep up in math class. Moreover he’s fodder for every bully for miles around. But all that changes the day Norbert, an alien from Jupiter, comes to earth on an exploration mission and moves into – Alan’s nose. Soon Alan isn’t acting like himself, but is Norbert really to blame? Loud, pushy and hilarious, Norbert teaches Alan to stand up for himself, even when the odds are stacked against him.From the Trade Paperback edition.

In this hilarious sequel to The Nose from Jupiter, Alan is to take his first airplane ride. He is off to New York, where his father will meet him for some “quality time” together. There are one or two snags, though. First, his father isn’t at the airport. Then there’s his cranky seatmate, Frieda, who is almost kidnapped while she’s waiting for her wheelchair at the baggage claim. Sally, an abandoned mutt, joins the scene. And finally, Norbert is back. He is an alien from Jupiter who had previously taken up residence in Alan’s nose when he was on a fact-finding mission to Earth. Alan had been, to say the least, an unwilling host to Norbert, but when you’re lost in New York City being chased by bad guys, you need all the help you can get!From the Trade Paperback edition.

Nominated in the fiction category for the 2004/2005 Red Cedar Book Awards (British Columbia''s Young Reader''s Choice book award)Norbert’s back, and Alan’s got him! In the third of Richard Scrimger’s wildly popular Nose books, Alan is off on a camping trip with his good friend, Victor. Fun, right? Not if the person who is taking you camping happens to be Christopher, your mother’s new boyfriend. And not if you aren’t exactly a fan of the great outdoors, with its bugs and swamps and bears. The woods are full of dangers, and the boys seem to encounter them all in one hilarious misadventure after another. It’s up to Norbert, the alien from Jupiter, to help Alan find his way out of the forest.From the Hardcover edition.

Norbert, the tiny wisecracking alien from Jupiter, gets an emergency phone call from home. His sweetheart, Nerissa, has been kidnapped by an evil giant and placed in the Lost Tower of Lotubmen. He must find and rescue her, but he can''t do it alone. Norbert has helped Alan through three earthly adventures. Now the tables are turned, and Norbert needs Alan''s help. So Alan, the boy from Earth, comes to Jupiter and finds himself in a strange – and yet in some ways strangely familiar – environment. Richard Scrimger’s The Nose from Jupiter, A Nose for Adventure, and Noses are Red have won avid fans from Illinois to Italy. Alan is truly an everyboy. He is terrible at sports, is living through his parents’ divorce, and has to contend with bullies and even villains. But he has a secret weapon. Norbert, an alien from Jupiter, has come to Earth and established a home-from-home inside Alan’s nose. It’s from there that the wise-cracking, brave, and irresistible Norbert changes Alan’s life.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Readers first met the Peeler family as they went on a hilarious summer road trip in The Way to Schenectady. Now winter has come and with it the school holiday pageant. Jane Peeler, who loves to be the boss at all times, is directing her class production of The Nutcracker. All does not go as well as she planned as she finds the plot of the presentation creeping into her own life. First, there are problems at school, caused by a gym teacher who wants the gym for basketball, not for rehearsal space. Then there’s a budding romance in the cast. At home, Dad has come down with an illness, and Grandma — grumpy, chain-smoking, profane Grandma — comes back on the scene as a reluctant baby-sitter to Jane and her younger brothers Bill and Bernie.The fun that ensues is pure Scrimger, and is sure to delight his legion of fans.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Twelve-year-old Jane Peeler is about to embark on a summer ritual: the family car trip. Along with her two younger brothers, Bill and Bernie, Jane will endure traffic jams, singalongs, and fights over who gets the window on a two-day car trip to New England. With help from her Walkman, it may not be too bad, even if her chain-smoking, grumpy grandmother is coming along. But during a stop at a gas station, the kids meet Marty – a kind, penniless old man with a problem. How will he get to his brother’s funeral in Schenectady the next day? Jane would like to help him out – but how? Bringing a friend along on holiday is one thing, but a total stranger?Readers will delight in the hilarious detours the Peelers must make to get their newest passenger, and themselves, to their destination on time.From the Trade Paperback edition.

From two of Canada''s most renowned children''s authors comes a hilarious, action-packed comic adventure novel!      When chubby, geeky Wylder Wallace spills lunch on cool and aloof Addy Crowe at Toronto''s Comicon, she dashes to the bathroom, leaving behind the latest issue of her uncle''s steampunk comic hit: FLYNN GOSTER in GOLD RUSH TRAIN. Wylder, a fan of the Flynn comics, opens this new one eagerly, astounded to see the girl who was just yelling at him inside the comic. Fascinated, he follows Addy into the bathroom, and the adventure begins ...     Is there a personality conflict? Oh, yes. Addy wants to go home; Wylder wants to stay and explore the world of Viminy Crowe''s comic book. Do things go wrong? You bet they do, from the very start, when Addy loses her pet rat, Catnip, and almost gets shot by a Red Rider. All the while the actual comic book story is going on around them. The train carries a fortune from the Yukon goldfields, and both dashing Flynn Goster (hero of a thousand disguises and thief extraordinaire) and villainous Professor Aldous Lickpenny (criminal genius, aided by malevolent robots but somewhat hampered by doltish nephew Nevins) have plans to steal the gold. There''s romance too -- Flynn''s old flame, the brilliant aviatrix, Isadora Fortuna, is traveling across Canada with her balloon, and her strangely familiar protégée Nelly Day. Addy and Wylder navigate the story with the aid of the comic book itself. Every page turn sends them to a different setting, from the Banff Springs Hotel to an alligator-wrestling arena in Florida. But when they finally find a portal back to the real world, catastrophe follows ... A hilarious thrill-ride of a story that will have kids laughing and on the edge of their seats with every turn of the page.

Fred is a sixth-grader reeling from the loss of his beloved dog, Casey. Every day he walks home from school bouncing Casey''s old worn-out tennis ball. One day, the ball falls down a sewer grate, and Fred can''t bear to leave it down there. He pries open the grate and stumbles down. Through the sewer, Fred enters a parallel universe: Casey is alive, his mom and sister are happier, and there''s a version of Fred who''s happier too. Spending time with Casey, Fred feels joy for the first time since his dog''s death, but he slowly realizes that the loss of Casey is masking an even greater loss: the death of Fred''s father. Fred brings his sister, Izzy, to this upside-down world of lost things in the hope of finding their father and bringing him back. Can everything that is lost be found again?