*Please note: Our Kids Book Chats have moved to Saturdays, now that school is back in session. The next one will be held October 3, at 1 pm. For this virtual event only we offer it free for ANYONE and their children.
Email the Guild to ask for the Zoom instructions.
October’s Featured Author is Larry Verstraete.
Biography:
Writer and educator Larry Verstraete has always lived in Winnipeg. A former middle grade teacher with a background in science and a penchant for stories, he began writing for youngsters while still teaching. For his first books, he dipped into a familiar subject to share stories about discoveries, inventions and daring scientific exploits. Later, Larry widened his scope by writing true adventure stories and, more recently, middle grade novels.
Larry’s seventeen books have been on recommended reading lists and many have received honours. The most recent novel, Coop the Great, was voted MYRCA’s 2020 Honor Book by youngsters in the Sundog group. He is a two-time winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year for Young People Award (for S is for Scientists: A Discovery Alphabet & Lost Treasures: True Stories of Discovery). Larry is also a two-time winner of the Silver Birch Award for Non-fiction (for At the Edge: Daring Acts in Desperate Times & Survivors:True Death-Defying Escapes). Honours for other books range from nominations for the Norma Fleck Award (Accidental Discoveries) and the New York Reading Association Charlotte Award (Surviving the Hindenburg) to designations such as Outstanding Science Trade Book of 2011 by the National Science Teachers Association and Children’s Book Council (S is for Scientists: A Discovery Alphabet).
Larry has presented at conferences and festivals including Calgary’s Wordfest, Winnipeg’s International Children’s Festival, Thin Air, Winnipeg’s International Writers Festival, and to literacy groups like the Winnipeg Children’s Literature Round Table and Manitoba School Library Association. As well, he has toured several times with TD Canadian Children’s Book Week and in connection with B.C.’s Red Cedar, Ontario’s Silver Birch, the Maritime’s Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award, and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award.
Between writing pursuits, Larry indulges in other favourite pastimes especially traveling and hiking with his wife, Jo, and spending time with his children and grandchildren.
You can find more about Larry and his books on his website www.larryverstraete.com
Publications:
- Coop the Great (Great Plains Publications, 2018)
- ‘Dinosaurs’ of the Deep: Discover Prehistoric Marine Life (Turnstone Press, 2016)
- Innovations in Everyday Technologies (Crabtree Publishing, 2016)
- Innovations in Transportation. (Crabtree Publishing, 2016)
- Missing in Paradise (Rebelight Publishing, 2014)
- Life or Death: Surviving the Impossible (Scholastic Canada, 2014)
- Surviving the Hindenburg. Illustrated by David Geister (Sleeping Bear Press, 2012)
- Case Files: 40 Murders and Mysteries Solved by Science (Scholastic Canada, 2011)
- S is for Scientists: A Discovery Alphabet. Illustrated by David Geister. (Sleeping Bear Press, 2010)
- At the Edge: Daring Acts in Desperate Time. (Scholastic Canada, 2009)
- G is for Golden Boy: A Manitoba Alphabet. Illustrated by Brian Lund. (Sleeping Bear Press, 2009)
- Lost Treasures: 25 True Stories of Discovery (Scholastic Canada, 2006)
- Survivors: True Death-Defying Escape. (Scholastic Canada, 2003)
- Extreme Science (Scholastic Canada, 2000)
- Accidental Discoveries: From Laughing Gas to Dynamite (Scholastic Canada,
- Whose Bright Idea Was It? (Scholastic Canada,1997)
- Mysteries of Time (Scholastic Canada, 1992)
- The Serendipity Effect (Scholastic Canada, 1988)