• Orphan and friendless Sam is detained at “Blue Gables” youth detention center after assaulting a high school athlete, where he works through his anger issues, despite being targeted by a fellow detainee, as he awaits further sentencing.
• Redheaded, orphaned, and temperamental — Sam is the modern, male Anne Shirley, who finds his own version of Diana Barry in his cellmate, Nigel, and the Cuthberts in his English teacher and social worker.
• Sam finds friendship and comradery in unlikely places, learns to manage his temper, overcomes his tragic past, and becomes invested and optimistic about his own future.
• This novel, published a year after Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 150th birthday, cements the story and themes of Anne of Green Gables as evergreen, while reinventing them for a new, modern audience.
• Eric Walters won the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature – Text for his novel The King of Jam Sandwiches. His novels have all become best-sellers, have won over a hundred awards, including eight Forest of Reading awards and the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award.
• He is a leading collaborator for I Read Canadian Day and has worked closely with many organizations, publishers, booksellers and writers/illustrators to launch the first day which took place on February 19, 2020 and involved almost 2000 schools and libraries across the country championing Canadian books with their students and patrons.
• Eric has presented to more than 1,500,000 students across North America and internationally in Japan, Kenya, and Germany. His presentations blend drama, storytelling, audience participation and interaction. He presents to students from K–Grade 12 as well as adult groups and has been a keynote speaker at a variety of conferences. During the pandemic he has done close to 300 virtual visits, as well as co-hosted a webinar series.