Philippa Dowding's Blog

A red maple tree branch, a summer twilight, and an unlikely friendship.

"Governor General's Literary Award-winning author Philippa Dowding creates a charming new tale about an unlikely friendship between a bat and a bird. The lyrical, atmospheric story unfolds as a naive and unsure morning bird meets a kind and worldly nocturnal bat. The two meet by chance at twilight, and over the course of one magical summer, they become friends." From the Press Release, DCB Young Readers

I'm so excited to introduce my next book, The Love Song of Mr. Byrd, coming from DCB Young Readers, October 2025. This story about unlikely friends, love, loss, joy, dawn, the dangers of cats and more, is for readers of all ages, but I really hope that younger readers embrace the message about love. We could all use a little more love.

Awesome Canadian illustrator Caroline Clarke provides 10 beautiful b/w illustrations for each of the ten, short chapters. Stay tuned for more in the coming months about writing process, Q&A, reviews and more.

ISBN 978-1-77086-808-3 | Paperback | Ages 7-9 | 96pp | $10.95 | Oct. 25, 2025 | DRCs Available

For the full Press Release, to request a digital review copy, media, interviews and more, visit my blog: https://phdowding.blogspot.com/2025/0...

"The main challenge of researching and writing this book was learning to cope with the daily, relentless exposure to the horror of war ... " - P Dowding, Final Grant Report Excerpt, May 2024

Yesterday, I printed out the manuscript for my next book for the first time. It's a WWII story for middle-grade readers, still awaiting a final title (stay tuned).

Holding your printed manuscript for the first time is a big step and part of the process, but it's scary.

It's The Moment of Truth.

My writing process is always to take a story as FAR as I can on screen, then when I've got a real first draft with a beginning, middle, and end, I print it out. It's also a tipping point when I feel like I JUST can't look at this book on the screen anymore, because I can no longer see it, connect to it, love it.

So many questions as I start to read the printed, bound manuscript ...

Does this neural capture of symbols work? Do the symbols I assembled on the page in this particular order add up to something that is moving, interesting, reflective of my first impulse to assemble them? Will this particular assembling mean something to me, to others, and is it an assemblage that I can be invested in for all time?

And most important of all: Is this symbol assembly (all 230,866 of them) ANY GOOD?

Wish me luck friends!

This manuscript is the result of a Research and Creation Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, thank you to them. For more about writing process and what it's like to get a grant like this then turn it into a story (does it work?), here's the rest of the blog post: https://phdowding.blogspot.com/2024/0...

Thank you to the Saskatchewan Young Readers Choice Awards (SYRCA) for nominating FIREFLY to the Snow Willow award 2023-2024!

For readers in grades 6-8, I hope the students in Saskatchewan find a favourite Canadian book in the curated list this winter. They vote on this year's winner in the spring.

Here's the full list of nominated titles: https://willowawards.ca/previous-year...

Keep reading everyone!

Thank you to the Canadian Children's Book Centre for including my latest novel, OCULUM ECHO, in their Best Books for Kids & Teens, Spring 2023!

That's a really lovely surprise, and means a lot to be recognized in this way. OCULUM ECHO is the sequel to my middle-grade dystopia, OCULUM (DCB, 2018) and deals with themes of climate crisis, pandemic, inequity, and war. While these are serious issues, the book builds on the humour and kindness of the characters established in book one, and is an age-appropriate journey through a future world where kids make changes for the better.

OCULUM ECHO got a 5-star review from CM Magazine, which are pretty rare these days! Thank you to them, too.

For links and more information on the CCBC Best Books and OCULUM ECHO, visit my other blog: https://phdowding.blogspot.com/2023/0...

Thank you to the Saskatchewan Young Readers Choice Awards (SYRCA) for nominating FIREFLY to their wonderful Snow Willow award 2023-2024!

This means that young readers in Saskatchewan, grades 6-8, will be reading FIREFLY as part of a fabulous curated list of ten grade-appropriate books written by talented Canadian authors, and choosing their favourite for the award ceremony next spring, 2024. The winners will be announced in May of next year.

Here's the full list of SYRCA Snow Willow nominees: https://willowawards.ca/previous-year...

Here's a longer blog post about the nomination for FIREFLY: https://phdowding.blogspot.com/2023/0...

Thank you to SYRCA for getting Canadian books and young readers together, keep reading everyone!

Young readers in Alberta and Manitoba are enjoying great Canadian books and voting on their favourites this spring, 2023. THANK YOU to both the Rocky Mountain Book Awards (RMBA) in Alberta and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards (MYRCA) for including FIREFLY on their curated shortlists for readers in grades 6-8.

Here is the list for the RMBA selected books: https://rmba.info/category/nominees/2...

Here is the MYRCA list: http://www.myrca.ca/2023-northern-lig...

As a lovely addition to the MYRCA excitement, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival is also highlighting the selected books and authors with additional info, here is my page but go and look around, there are wonderful writers here (this site will be dismantled at the end of Feb. 2023): https://thinairkids.ca/user/534/

If you want to know what book I hid from my family as a child, or see images of Thunder Thighs costumes (the costume shop which inspired The Corseted Lady in FIREFLY), go see!

Canadian and provincial Reader's Choice awards are so important to kids, they get to read works written by talented Canadian authors. These awards are also incredibly important to Canadian writers and their publishers since they help get the word out about books and boost sales in the process.

This author is really grateful. Thank you all!

If you're buying books for young readers, check out the CBC Best Kid's Books of 2022 list to help guide your selections. I'm really honoured to say that OCULUM ECHO is included, thank you!

Here are all 28 great Canadian picture books, middle grade, and young adult titles named by the CBC as this year's best: https://www.cbc.ca/books/the-best-can...

If you read one of these titles and love it, please remember to leave a review somewhere! Happy Holidays!

"A very well-written and an imaginative description of a future world struggling to survive, the story ends on a positive note and a hint, at least to this reader, there could be more to come. This timely book should appeal to both boys and girls in search of adventure. Highly Recommended" CM Magazine, Oct 7/2022

Well it's 5 STARS for OCULUM ECHO, thank you CM Magazine! That's the first review out of the gate, and "Highly Recommended" means a lot.

This book is the sequel to OCULUM, my middle grade dystopia which was nominated for the OLA Silver Birch and the SYRCA Diamond Willow awards. The new book picks up right after the first book ends, and continues to cover themes of pandemic, climate collapse, and war. It also asks us to think about what technology is for, and how we use it.

Yes, I was weirdly prescient with the themes in this series, (the first book in The Children of Oculum series was written in 2015 and published in 2018), but the story is also powerful, redemptive, and has a lovely new character, ECHO1, I can't wait for you to meet!

Here's the entire review on the CM Magazine site: https://www.cmreviews.ca/node/3166

"The student jurors who selected Firefly were very enthusiastic about the book.

'We wish we could meet these characters in real life!' they said. 'We love how the staff at the magical costume shop became a family for Firefly, and how every character evolved and grew – even the cat! Firefly is so relatable, with very human flaws, and we want to see her again in another story.' -- Faywood School Jurors"

I could not be more honoured and humbled to say that FIREFLY has won the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award 2022.

This award is managed by the Ontario Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Foundation, with a generous endowment from the Schwartz family. Thank you to them for supporting the arts in Canada. Thank you also to my publisher, DCB Young Readers, for having faith in me and in Firefly's story, right from the start.

What is especially moving for me, is that this award is selected by students who read the shortlisted titles and collectively choose the winner. I was so honoured to meet the students of Faywood school, and to hear what they loved about FIREFLY. I was lucky enough to enjoy a fascinating discussion with one student about how she felt that Firefly (the character) is similar to the character 7-of-9 from Star Trek/Voyager. Both are people in exile, and she convinced me!

Thank you to the students and to everyone involved in this wonderful award!

Here is a longer blog post and the full list of nominated titles, read on: http://phdowding.blogspot.com/2022/06...

FIREFLY has been selected for the Rocky Mountain Book Awards 2023 shortlist. THANK YOU!

FIREFLY is having quite a terrific year, and has been named to the RMBA 2023 list. This means that young readers in Alberta, between grades 4 and 7, will be able to read the 10 books selected and vote for their favourite in spring, 2023.

Here's the RMBA website: https://rmba.info/

This nomination is a huge honour, and I'm really looking forward to talking about Firefly's story, about a homeless girl in downtown Toronto who moves in with her aunt in a costume shop, with kids in Alberta next winter.

Go check out the list here, https://rmba.info/ and get reading!