SATA

PERSONAL

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

EDUCATION:

University of Victoria, B.A., 2004; University of British Columbia, M.F.A., 2007.

ADDRESS

• Home - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Agent - Transatlantic Literary Agency, 2 Bloor St. E., Ste. 3500, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada.

CAREER

Writer and educator. Presenter at schools, libraries, and workshops.

AVOCATIONS:

Running, cycling, travel.

MEMBER:

Children’s Writers and Illustrators BC, Canadian Children’s Book Centre.

AWARDS:

Emerging Writer Award, Canadian Authors Association, 2010, Sheila A. Egoff Award shortlist, Red Cedar Award shortlist, and Chocolate Lily Award shortlist, all 2012, all for The Ship of Lost Souls; Silver Birch Award finalist, Rocky Mountain Book Award finalist, Red Cedar Award finalist, and Book of the Year award finalist, Canadian Library Association (CLA), all 2014, all for The Metro Dogs of Moscow; CLA Book of the Year for Children nomination, 2015, and Young Reader’s Choice Award finalist, Pacific Northwest Library Association, 2017, both for The Circus Dogs of Prague; Diamond Willow Award finalist, 2018, Hackmatack Award finalist and Chocolate Lily Award, both 2019, all for The Bonaventure Adventures; Red Cedar Award finalist, Chocolate Lily Award finalist, Diamond Willow Award finalist, and Joan Betty Stuchner—Oy Vey!—Funniest Children’s Book Award shortlist, 2019, all for Clara Voyant.

WRITINGS

• NOVELS
• “SHIP OF LOST SOULS” MIDDLE-GRADE NOVEL SERIES
• OTHER
• The Metro Dogs of Moscow, Puffin Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2013
• The Circus Dogs of Prague, Puffin Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2014
• The Bonaventure Adventures, Puffin Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2017
• Clara Voyant, Puffin Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2018
• Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster, Puffin Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2021
• The Ship of Lost Souls, HarperTrophyCanada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), , Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 2009
• The Lost Souls of Island X, HarperTrophy Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), published as The Guardians of Island X, Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 2010
• The Hunt for the Panther, Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 2013
• Fuelling Extinction, Pearson (North Shore, New Zealand), 2009
• ,

Contributor to periodicals, including British Columbia Magazine, Folio, Herizons, and Nature Canada.

SIDELIGHTS

Rachelle Delaney is a Canadian writer of award-winning middle-grade novels. Her writings include The Metro Dogs of Moscow, The Circus Dogs of Prague, The Bonaventure Adventures, and Clara Voyant. Delaney is also the author of the “Ship of Lost Souls” series that follows the adventures of a young pirate crew. “There’s something so satisfying about writing for young readers—especially middle-grade readers,” she remarked in a Cracking the Cover blog interview. “You can incorporate magic and humour and adventure into your stories, and your readers are so willing to go along for the ride.”

Delaney published Clara Voyant in 2018. Middle schooler Clara Costa has ambitions of being an investigative journalist. But after her grandmother moves to Florida, she finds life with her mother, Gaby, in their Toronto Kensington Market neighborhood to be frustratingly unpredictable now that the normal rhythms of her life have been interrupted. This change in her life has brought Clara closer together with schoolmate Maeve, who dreams of being an actor one day. Furthermore, Maeve does not mind that Gaby runs a healing business from the house and all the eccentricities that come with it. Clara joins the school newspaper with the intention of creating a good reputation for her journalism, but this immediately pits her against eighth-grade editor Wesley. He assigns her to write a profile of the knitting club. After that, he tells her to take on the pseudonym Clara Voyant in order to write the horoscope columns. Although she is skeptical of astrological predictions, she is shocked when her predictions do end up coming true, questioning whether she may actually be clairvoyant. When the school mascot goes missing, Clara combines her investigative and clairvoyant skills to find out what happened to it.

Writing in School Library Journal, Nancy Nadig opined that “Clara is an utterly likable character and readers will root for her.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews reasoned that “while the plot has amusing twists and turns, the author waffles on the existence of clairvoyance itself.” The same reviewer nevertheless concluded that Clara Voyant is “a lightweight but enjoyable read.” In a review in Resource Links, Helen Mason suggested that “middle grade readers will be amused by the wide range of interesting characters in this novel, and fascinated with Clara’s problem solving abilities.”

 

The Bonaventure Adventures focuses on Sebastian “Seb” Konstantinov, the twelve-year-old son of Dragan, a legendary ringmaster and head of a once-thriving traveling circus. With crowds steadily dwindling as the Konstantinov family performs throughout Eastern Europe, Seb enrolls at the Bonaventure Circus School, where he hopes to learn how to revitalize the family business. Possessing no acrobatic skills whatsoever, Seb fails miserably at his lessons, and the situation goes from bad to worse when he discovers that the academy is also on the verge of financial ruin. With help from a pair of fellow outcasts, Seb must devise a plan to save both the school and the circus.

“At the story’s heart is Seb’s personal journey to find his true talent,” Julia Smith explained in Booklist, and Amy Mathers, writing in the Canadian Children’s Book News, remarked that “Seb’s determination and creative thinking prove to be exactly what he needs to stay in school and offer hope to a dying industry.” According to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “Delaney writes smoothly,” and Resource Links critic Zachary Chauvin observed that the tale’s “characters are certainly full of energy and life.”

Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster revolves around the twelve-year-old title character, who loves to recreate unusual dishes with her father, a culinary historian. Already nervous about entering middle school, Alice grows concerned when her dad’s new girlfriend arranges for the father-daughter team to appear on Culinary Combat, a reality show featuring pugnacious judge Tom Truffleman. When things go awry on the set, Alice believes a saboteur is at large and she joins forces with two new friends to identify the culprit. “Delaney takes readers on an adventure that feels like a cross between Kids Baking Championship and Scooby Doo in all the best possible ways,” Heather Webb commented in School Library Journal. A writer in Kirkus Reviews declared that Delaney offers “a savory tale that tests her young cuisinier—in the face of change as much as in the kitchen—on the way to a flying finish.”

The Ship of Lost Souls introduces Scarlet McCray, the fiery young captain of a pirate ship manned only by orphans and runaways. Scarlet comes to the rescue of Jem Fitzgerald, who was kidnapped by notorious buccaneers, and learns that he has been entrusted with a special map that holds to key to finding an incredible treasure. “Readers will enjoy the quick pace and exciting escapades” of the work, observed School Library Journal reviewer Amy Shepherd. The series continues with The Guardians of Island X and The Hunt for the Panther.

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, March 15, 2017, Julia Smith, review of The Bonaventure Adventures, p. 50; May 1, 2021, Carolyn Phelan, review of Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster, p. 56.

• Canadian Children’s Book News, summer, 2017, Amy Mathers, review of The Bonaventure Adventures, p. 24.

• Canadian Review of Materials, June 25, 2021, Myra Junyk, review of Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster.

• Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2012, review of The Ship of Lost Souls; March 15, 2017, review of The Bonaventure Adventures; April 15, 2018, review of Clara Voyant; March 15, 2021, review of Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster.

• Quill and Quire, January, 2009, Jean Mills, review of The Ship of Lost Souls.

• Resource Links, December, 2010, Claire Hazzard, review of The Lost Souls of Island X, p. 9; April, 2017, Zachary Chauvin, review of The Bonaventure Adventures, p. 29; April, 2018, Helen Mason, review of Clara Voyant, p. 13.

• School Library Journal, September, 2012, Amy Shepherd, review of The Ship of Lost Souls, p. 140; April, 2017, Sara White, review of The Bonaventure Adventures, p. 137; May, 2018, Nancy Nadig, review of Clara Voyant, p. 80; June, 2021, Heather Webb, review of Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster, p. 57.

ONLINE

• CanLit for LittleCanadians blog, https://canlitforlittlecanadians.blogspot.com/ (May 3, 2017), author interview.

• Cracking the Cover blog, https://www.crackingthecover.com/ (May 4, 2017), “Q&A with Bonaventure Adventures author Rachelle Delaney” and “Rachelle Delaney Channels Inner Acrobat for Bonaventure Adventures.”

• Rachelle Delaney website, https://rachelledelaney.com (August 15, 2021).*