The Magic Boat

Every summer morning, Ellie and her Nonna go to the beach. They swim and build sandcastles, and while Nonna reads, Ellie watches the other children play.

One day Ellie builds up the courage to approach an older girl playing on her own in a beached rowboat. Piper has a gift, an imagination so great that she whisks Ellie off on grand adventures, going high in the air, deep below the ocean and everywhere in between in their little blue boat, their magic boat. When Piper has to leave, Ellie discovers she has her own vivid imagination.

Available in French as Le bateau magique.

Kit Pearson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and grew up there and in Vancouver, British Columbia. After attending the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia, Kit worked for ten years as a children's librarian in Ontario and BC. She became inspired to write for children after attending Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature. Her books have been published in several different countries and have won many awards, including the Governor General's Award and the BC Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with partner Katherine Farris and their two dogs, Piper and Brio.

Katherine Farris was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and after university moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she worked at Toronto Life Magazine, Greey de Pencier Books and OWL Magazine, researching and editing a wide variety of projects, from rail guides to western and eastern Canada for Greey de Pencier to kids' question-and-answer books for OWL. During that time she began painting, and now, living in Victoria, British Columbia, her focus is primarily on art and playing the alto sax.

Gabrielle Grimard has been drawing since she was young. Her passion for drawing and painting led her to pursue studies in fine arts and arts education at Concordia University. After she had her first child, she began her career as an illustrator. She moved from Montreal to Waterville, Quebec, where she now lives with her two children, several chickens and her husband, who builds wooden boats. They share an old barn as their artists' studio.