Noses Are Red

Nominated in the fiction category for the 2004/2005 Red Cedar Book Awards (British Columbia's Young Reader's Choice book award) Norbert's back, and Alan's got him! In the third of Richard Scrimger's wildly popular Nose books, Alan is off on a camping trip with his good friend, Victor. Fun, right? Not if the person who is taking you camping happens to be Christopher, your mother's new boyfriend. And not if you aren't exactly a fan of the great outdoors, with its bugs and swamps and bears. The woods are full of dangers, and the boys seem to encounter them all in one hilarious misadventure after another. It's up to Norbert, the alien from Jupiter, to help Alan find his way out of the forest. From the Hardcover edition.

A columnist and novelist, <b>Richard Scrimger</b> grew up in Toronto, always writing but never really considering it a career, until after the birth of his first two children, twins, when he discovered the only time he could seriously write was during their naps. His style clearly demonstrates the influence of his experiences as a waiter in Toronto’s upscale restaurants, and as a stay-at-home father to his four children. <br><br>Genuinely witty, his work can be described as multi-dimensional - comic elements ride upon the surface, supported by varying levels of seriousness underneath. <br><br>Columns detailing Richard’s adventures in parenthood have been published in<i> The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine</i>, and <i>Today’s Parent</i>, and were compiled in a collection titled <i>Still Life with Children</i>. His first adult novel, <i>Crosstown</i>, was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Award. His first children’s novel, <i>The Nose from Jupiter</i>, won the 10th annual Mr. Christie Book Award, was selected as an A.B.A. Kid’s Pick of the List title, and was a finalist for the Ontario Library Association’s 1999 Silver Birch Award.<br><br>Richard Scrimger is also the author of <i>The Way to Schenectady</i> about the adventures of the Peeler family on the road; <i>Mystical Rose,</i> an adult novel; and a sequel to <i>The Nose from Jupiter</i> entitled <i>A Nose for Adventure</i>. In 2001 Scrimger published <i>Bun Bun’s Birthday</i> a picture book illustrated by Gillian Johnson, and a Peeler Christmas story called <i>Of Mice and Nutcrackers</i>. He and his family live in Cobourg, Ontario.