Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Books

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Books

The Ride Home

IggysWorld3

A hi-lo book for middle-schoolers working to improve literacy skills.

Short-listed for both the 2021 BC and Yukon Book Prizes - Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the 2022 Chocolate Lily Awards.

About the book:

Mark is a city kid who has come to a small town to live with his grandmother after his mom goes into rehab. He has to take a school bus home for the first time. The long, noisy ride home is nothing like riding city transit. There’s some kind of secret code of knowing where you’re allowed to sit, the kids scream non-stop, and there’s pudding and cheese flying through the air. Someone even tries to set Mark’s seat on fire. Mark quickly decides that all these kids are nuts and does his best to avoid interacting with any of them. But when the bus is involved in a serious accident, Mark has to work with a couple of other students to get everybody to safety. He soon learns that he has more in common with these rural kids than he would ever have imagined. In turns funny and heartbreaking, The Ride Home is about learning that not everything is as it seems and that everyone has a story.

To order:

Reviews

The Almost Widow

“With unique characters, shocking twists, and an emotional core, Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s latest is impossible to put down.”

— Robyn Harding, international bestselling author of The Party

 

The Almost Widow

The Almost Wife

"Compulsively readable... an engrossing study of the truth that we can never out-run our childhood."

— Gail Bowen, Author of the Joanne Kilbourn-Shreve mystery novels

The Almost Wife

The Spawning Grounds

"Anderson-Dargatz has set the bar dauntingly high for every new work; it’s a measure that The Spawning Grounds more than meets..."

―The Georgia Straight

The Spawning Grounds

Turtle Valley

“Exquisite. . . . Anderson-Dargatz creates a strong sense of the complexity of ordinary life.”

The Globe and Mail

Turtle Valley

A Rhinestone Button

"Gail Anderson-Dargatz writes lovely novels about unlovely people: unlovely people who grow beautiful under her compassionate, masterful, sly authorial gaze."

Quill and Quire


 

A Rhinestone Button

A Recipe for Bees

"In language remarkable for its suppleness and unforced simplicity, Anderson-Dargatz delivers both a quirky love story and a serene meditation on endurance and its rich rewards." 

 ― The Washington Post

A Recipe for Bees

The Cure for Death by Lightning

"Gail Anderson-Dargatz...makes her debut in full stride, confidently breaking the rules to create a fictional style we might call Pacific Northwest Gothic." 

 ― The Boston Globe

 

The Cure for Death by Lightning

Spotting Dottie

“A fabulous read that will leave its readers wondering: 'What would I do if I was placed in a similar situation?’ Highly Recommended.”

– CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Spotting Dottie

My Life Off-key

“Both a coming-of-age story and a road map for processing difficult emotions.”

– Kirkus Reviews

My Life Off-key

Bigfoot Crossing

“Pulse-pounding…A terrific addition to the high/low canon for readers seeking a thrill.”
– Booklist

Bigfoot Crossing

Iggy's World

“Iggy’s World is about family and also fitting in. It also looks at the meaning of true friendship and what a friend can look like. A good read. Highly Recommended."

– CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Iggy's World

The Ride Home

"Delightfully poignant...Will hook all middle school readers into [the] story with language they will understand and find amusing."

― The Ormsby Review

The Ride Home