OWEN SKYE is skinny and quiet and has big ears. He does everything his older brother, Andy, says--just about--while trying to stay one step ahead of little brother Leonard, who has now started school and is becoming smart at an alarming rate.

The Skye brothers live in a small rural village with their parents and weird Uncle Lorne, a shy bachelor who sleeps on a cot in the basement and takes out his teeth at night.On his way home from hockey practice one evening, Owen catches a glimpse of a girl named Sylvia at her piano lesson. He falls hopelessly in love, and Valentine's Day turns into one big disaster.

Thank goodness for life at home, where there are brothers to talk to and plot adventures with. Yet the Skye boys somehow have a knack for turning every innocent plan into a full-scale ordeal. A search for a hammer turns into a brush with the deadly Bog Man, a midnight visit to the snowfort to meet with aliens becomes a near-death experience, and an enterprising business plan leads to a melee with bullies, a boxing lesson and an eerie moment of truth at the site of a tragic train accident.

This quirky, funny, magical and wise novel celebrates the everyday joys and drama of being a kid and, especially, being a boy. Owen's small-town childhood may be simple, but his days are rich, indeed--full of time for going on adventures with his brothers, observing the crazy world of adults, exploring the vast planet of the surrounding countryside and, most of all, time for pondering the secret mysetries of death, life and love.

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"This episodic story of the strange contortions of boys' brains has moments of absolute mayhem and mirth, but underneath it's a thoughtful portrayal of sweet, painful moments of growth. Cumyn conveys without condescension that childhood state in which the imagined is unquestioned, so certain and real... Even with their subtlety and wisdom, Cumyn's short sentences, brisk pace and straightforward prose are true to a kid's voice. Every moment is interesting: It's full of delight for adults and hilarity for children. Highly recommended."

-- Deirdre Baker, The Toronto Star

"This, [Cumyn's] first children's book, though written for children, will probably be of equal or even greater interest to adult readers... The time is not now; it could be the forties or the fifties or the sixties, but whenever the events in this novel occurred, it was a time when a large part of the lives of small boys--outside school and meals and chores--could still be feral, secret and beyond parental oversight and interpretation. Brushes with death and disaster are the norm: Railroad tracks feature hugely, as does an encounter with the mythical and terrifying Bog Man. Owen's speechless and unrequited adoration of his classmate Sylvia is just one of the highlights of this elegantly written and very, very funny book."

--The Globe and Mail

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The Secret Life of Owen Skye is published by Groundwood Books. Click here to read an excerpt.

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