With my blunt, redheaded sleuth songbird Dinah Galloway now starring in six published mysteries, I feel I can now officially take my place in the ranks of children’s series authors. Now, Dinah’s not unruffled and glam like Nancy Drew. Nor is she versed in magic à la Harry Potter – though just watch her make Purdy’s peanut butter chocolates vanish in a blink.
I’ve waited in vain for the postie to deliver a special membership card to this special cadre of writers. You know, The bearer of this card is an official Serial Flake, or something like that. In lieu of receiving that honor, I decided to investigate just who started children’s series.
Click your heels three times, and the answer is … L. Frank Baum, the actor-turned—farmer-turned journalist who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Raised by a Pennsylvania oil baron, Baum enjoyed an idyllic childhood on his Eden-like family estate, Rose Lawn. While a newspaper editor in South Dakota, he wrote Oz, basing Dorothy’s parched, gray surroundings on the Midwest drought of the time. I’m guessing Rose Lawn was his inspiration for her Over the Rainbow escape from the drought.
Fiona Bayrock interviewed me, along with Pam Withers and Deborah Hodge, about series books in an article for Children’s Writers and Illustrators 2010.
Okay, so some of us don’t ever land graceful hoops like in this photo. Some of us don’t even land ungraceful ones. Educators and fitness experts alike are now saying, “So what?” The point of fitness, they assert, isn’t to look cool, or make every right move, or least of all to impress others. The point is to have fun – to get fit without getting terrified. We have to remove schoolkids’ long-held concept of phys ed as an ordeal. For example, if kids aren’t comfortable running five times around the track field, maybe they can walk briskly instead. And what’s wrong with skipping rope as exercise? Even Dinah Galloway, who very grudgingly comes to love – well, like, fitness in the health-themed mystery Queen of Disguises, can manage the occasional double-under.
In Summer of the Spotted Owl, Dinah Galloway and her buddies save a family of spotted owls from crooked developers in the North Vancouver rainforest. Spotted owls are among the world’s most endangered animals – but they just got a glimmer of hope. In a recent story, the Los Angeles Times reported: “President Obama [recently] overrode the Bush administration on a key step in applying the Endangered Species Act, restoring a requirement that federal agencies consult with experts before launching construction projects that could affect the well-being of threatened species.” CTV News recommended Summer of the Spotted Owl for young readers seeking to learn about fragile ecosystems.
Johannes Gutenberg would be pleased. The German goldsmith (1398-1468), who invented the printing press in 1439, can rest easy in his grave. Computers will never replace print, avers Jeremy Klaszus in the Calgary-based Fast Forward Weekly. Never mind those exciting paperback thrillers that it’s fun to cuddle up by the fire on a rainy day – as one news vendor points out, even a good-sized newspaper would be too much for your eyes if you tried to read it all onscreen.
A thief breaks out of jail to track down the sleuth who put her there – Dinah Galloway. Problem is, the thief is a former actress known as “the queen of disguises” for her cunning costume changes. In Melanie Jackson’s Queen of Disguises, Dinah Dinah knows she’s being stalked, but by whom?
Our heroine already has enough on her plate without the addition of revenge served cold: the red-headed 12-year-old is a finalist to sing in commercials promoting beautiful British Columbia. The deal is, to clinch the job, Dinah has to get fit at a wellness retreat on Salt Spring Island. Veggies? Exercise? Yech! Grudgingly, though, Dinah allows that her lifestyle could be a little healthier. Off to Salt Spring she goes, along with the two other finalists: one friendly, the other the last word in sulky. Her buddies Talbot and Pantelli make their usual disruptive appearances, along with Dinah’s ever-anxious mother and cool, elegant sister Madge. Hoping to shed not only pounds but her vengeful pursuer, Dinah learns the meaning of personal best – that it truly is how you play the game, not whether you win.
ISBN 978-1-55469-037-4
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