Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Ivan the Giant

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions

Philip A. Creurer will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

See below or Click on "read more" to sign up for the Giveaway.  



Ivan Morrow has spent his short life waiting for things to happen. Now something has happened. An unknown ancestor has entrusted him with something of great value and it has gone missing. But who stole it and how to get it back? He's grown extraordinarily over the last year since turning eleven, but his mind is stuck in a kid-sized brain. Now he must match wits with a desperate thief if he is to honour the trust placed in him by his distant relative.


my review...

An excellent story and a well-written book. This is not what I expected. There is so much here. History, education, mystery, all sorts of things. This story also contains some excellent examples of the ability to be different, the ability to work on one’s own, even decision making.

I enjoyed this story and I think any YA or adult person would. I do think it may be a little advanced for middle grade readers. I’m searching for the correct word here. While we have all these labels of adult, YA, middle grade, etc., no reader falls perfectly into one category.  This could be construed as a fairly long book. The vocabulary is wonderful but could be advanced for a certain age. Or not.  You can see I am waffling, not about this book but with the proper age of reading.

Maybe the best thing to do as a parent is to get this interesting book for your middle grade or younger YA reader. Then sit down with them and determine whether you’ll read it together or they will enjoy it on their own.

read an excerpt...

When I was eleven, I grew twelve inches and they called me Ivan the Giant. “Hey, Giant Ivan, reach my book for me!” I wasn’t liking it. I would not own it. But I wouldn’t say anything about it, either. I was a January child, which meant that I was slightly older than most of my classmates in the grade six class, so maybe my age was partly to blame, if I was looking for something to blame, that is, which I wasn’t. Nevertheless, it made me sound like some hairy beast from a nursery rhyme, a curiosity dreamed up to either frighten children or be their secret friend. I wasn’t scary and I had no intention of being someone’s imaginary friend, to be left behind when childish dreams were boxed up and put away, to be replaced by adult pretense.

My arms and legs grew proportionately, and my hands and feet too. So that was lucky. But I was never quite sure where my arms were, and my legs flayed out dangerously at inconvenient moments. Most boys have their growth spurt a bit later, so I was an exception. Not exceptional, but an exception. There is a difference.

about Philip Creurer...


Philip Creurer has spent a large part of his life studying at home in Canada and abroad in France and Germany. From his origins in rural Saskatchewan, he returned to the Canadian Prairies in 2013. Long inspired by his English teachers who initiated the Prairie Writers' Workshop in his high school, he took up the passion of his younger years and began writing fiction again in his fifties. The Canadian Prairies form an expansive canvas from which his ideas and his characters arise. Philip lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

 

Connect with Philip Creurer:

WEBSITE  https://philipacreurer.com/

GOODREADS  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19757244.Philip_A_Creurer

INSTAGRAM  https://www.instagram.com/philipacreurer/?hl=en

  

Purchase Links:        

AMAZON.COM  https://amazon.com/dp/0228813972

AMAZON.CA  https://amazon.ca/dp/0228813972

KINDLE  https://amazon.com/dp/B0815QN58J

BOOKSHOP  https://bookshop.org/books/ivan-the-giant/9780228813972

INDIGO CHAPTERS  https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/ivan-the-giant/9780228813972-item.html

BARNES & NOBLE https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ivan-the-giant-philip-creurer/1134798614

BOOK DEPOSITORY  https://www.bookdepository.com/Ivan-the-Giant-Philip-Creurer/9780228813972

RAKUTEN KOBO  https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/ivan-the-giant

SMASHWORDS  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/989944

APPLE BOOKS  https://books.apple.com/us/book/ivan-the-giant/id1486979962 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for your review! I am thrilled you enjoyed the book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for taking the time to review my book, Kathy! Yes, I wondered too how this could be marketed as YA when it is really an adult voice narrating an event that happened when he was eleven. So I tested it on some young adult readers early in the editing process and then the kids were game to look at the final (almost) version again. The debriefing sessions were great fun and insightful! Two of the kids agreed to interview me and excerpts of the video interview are on my website. I feel like writing was a collaborative effort with them, so I dedicated the book to them!

    ReplyDelete

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