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 the award-winning author of six books for children and teens. His debut novel, Way To Go, was published in 2012 with Orca, and made the 2013 ALA Rainbow List. His follow-up, Tag Along, was nominated for a number of distinctions, including Canadian Children's Books Council Best Books and the 2013 ALA Rainbow List. Tom was born and raised in Inverness, Nova Scotia, and currently lives in Halifax with his husband Andrew and their awesome dog.
Robin Stevenson is the author of more than twenty books for children and teens. Robin's YA novel A Thousand Shades of Blue was a finalist for Canada's Governor General's Award, and is included on CBC's list, "100 YA Novels that Make You Proud to Be Canadian". Her middle-grade novel Record Breaker won the Silver Birch Award, Canada's largest reader's choice award for young readers. Robin lives on the west coast of Canada with her partner and their son.
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