Take a big, queer roadtrip to Toronto with this hotly anticipated book by Tom Ryan and Robin Stevenson. Come and celebrate the release of "When You Get the Chance" with the world's oldest LGBTQ bookstore in an evening moderated by Robert Bittner.
As kids, Mark and his cousin Talia spent many happy summers together at the family cottage in Ontario, but a fight between their parents put an end to the annual event. They haven't seen each other in years, but when their grandfather dies unexpectedly, Mark and Talia find themselves reunited at the cottage once again.
Mark and Talia are both queer, but that's about all they have in common, other than the fact they'd both prefer to be in Toronto. Talia is desperate to see her high school sweetheart Erin, who's barely been in touch since leaving to spend the summer working in the Gay Village. Mark, on the other hand, is just looking for some fun, and Toronto Pride seems like the perfect place to find it.
When a series of complications throws everything up in the air, Mark and Talia—with Mark's little sister Paige in tow—decide to hit the road for Toronto. With a bit of luck, and some help from a series of unexpected new friends, they might just make it to the big city and find what they're looking for. That is, if they can figure out how to start seeing things through each other's eyes.
Author Bios:
Tom Ryan is an award-winning author of books for young readers. His books have been Junior Library Guild and ALA Rainbow List selections, and have been included on several best-of-year lists. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction. His 2019 release KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF was the recipient of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award and the 2020 ITW Thriller Award, was nominated for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, the John Spray Award, and the Ann Connor Brimer Award, and was chosen by the Globe & Mail as one of the ‘Globe 100: Books that shaped 2019’. His young adult mystery I HOPE YOU'RE LISTENING is a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Award for Best LGBTQ Mystery. Tom, his husband, and their dog live in Nova Scotia.
Robin Stevenson is the author of 29 books for young readers. Her most recent books include MY BODY MY CHOICE, KID ACTIVISTS, GHOST’S JOURNEY, and PRIDE: THE CELEBRATION AND THE STRUGGLE. Her books have won or been finalists for many awards, including the Sheila A. Egoff Award, the Silver Birch Award, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, the Stonewall Awards, and numerous reader’s choice awards. This spring, Robin is also launching the picture book PRIDE PUPPY, which Kirkus, in a starred review, called “a sheer delight.” She lives on Vancouver Island with her family.
Moderator Bio:
Robert Bittner has a PhD in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies (Simon Fraser University) and is also a graduate of the MA in children’s literature program at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) iSchool in Vancouver, BC. He studies and writes about a wide range of literature, but particularly enjoys stories with diverse and intersectional depictions of gender and sexuality. He lives in BC with his husband and their pet turtle, Fluffy.
Join us online for this exciting event on GDTV:
https://www.gladdaylit.ca/gdtv
