Grow up, Dad! Book

In this third installment of the Owen Skye series, Alan Cumyn gives us a characteristically unique epistolary novel, consisting of Owen's letters to his true love - the fabulous Sylvia Tull. We follow Owen as he pours his heart out to Sylvia. He shares his excitement, hopes, and fears as the family survives on a shoe-string budget when his father quits his job selling insurance to write a novel. Owen writes of his disappointments, nervousness, mistakes, adventures, and undying devotion to Sylvia with admirable, endearing humour and profound honesty. His letters are full of spelling errors (including a repetitive tendency to begin most of his letters with 'deer Sylvia'), but Owen is, as usual, all the more lovable for his imperfections. There is certainly never a dull moment in Owen's life. Whether he is imagining the plot of his father's mysterious novel, attempting to learn Scottish dancing or the bagpipes to impress his one and only love, or discovering heartbreaking evidence of his father's possible affair, Owen is often struggling to face his own fears. Dear Sylvia has hilarious moments, such as Owen being summoned regularly to rock his baby cousin Phyllis to sleep at all hours of the night - since he alone appears to have a magic touch where she is concerned. But there are heartbreaking times for the reader to witness as well. We are with Owen as he walks in the awkward limbo between childhood and adolescence, as he deals with the berating discouragement of critical, narrow-minded teachers, and as he tries to recover personal treasures after the family home collapses in a freak accident. When all is said and done, though, Cumyn's readers are privileged to be with Owen as his heart and life ride a rollercoaster. Alan Cumyn's latest absorbing novel grabs attention and holds on tight. All at once poignant, comical, heartwarming and thought-provoking, Dear Sylvia's major victory is a very human Owen Skye who captures the insecurities and preoccupations of growing boys.

Reviewed by Christina Minaki in Canadian Children's Book News
Summer 2008 VOL.32 NO.3