Vivien Bowers

Readings

Vivien Bowers offers three somewhat different versions of her one-hour presentation: (1) a “sampler” presentation (described below) that dips into all of her books, (2) an “All-Canadian” version that focuses on the books about Canada, and (3) a Crime Scene presentation that zeros in on the book by that name. Teachers can choose which one they’d prefer.

During these interactive presentations Bowers takes her audience traveling cross-country, drawing from her books about Canada. The audience will meet the star of Wow Canada! — Bucko the Beaver. They’ll guess what mystery animal’s fur found on the Nunavut tundra ended up on page 140. Brave volunteers can taste dulse from New Brunswick. Bowers will sample the oddball finds in her grab-bag of information, Only in Canada! such as the nosebot (don’t ask). Audience contestants compete in the Wow Canada Contest! and join the Moose and Canada goose from That’s Very Canadian! in brainstorming a new ‘brand’ for Canada. They’ll guess answers to the questions posed by real kids in Crazy About Canada! such as “Why are beavers’ teeth orange? (No, it’s not from too many orange slushees). Canadian content at its most cool.

Then it’s on to the crime scene. The author finds a nasty anonymous note in her copy of Crime Scene and enlists the students’ help in finding evidence that could lead to the culprit. Using volunteer investigators and suggestions from the audience, Bowers introduces various forensic crime-solving techniques — dusting for fingerprints, ink analysis, and more.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed, if requested in advance.

Biography

It Started Like This...
Vivien Bowers was born in Vancouver in 1951, the second of four kids. Her dad was a very smart scientist who could never remember the names of his kids, so he always got their names mixed up, or called them by the dog's name.

Vivien didn't become a scientist, though. She loved reading and writing so she studied English at university. Then she became a Grade 5 teacher. The part she liked most about teaching was coming up with really interesting ways to present topics (like the time she brought rotting logs into the classroom so the students could pull them apart to see what insects live inside, but one of the logs had a red ant colony living in it, and the ants started escaping .)

For the last 27 years, Vivien has been a writer, which is just as interesting and much less noisy. She has written school textbooks, magazine articles, and books for adults and children. She wrote a book for adults about a deadly snow slide called In the Path of an Avalanche. Like teaching, writing allows her to explore all sorts of interesting topics. Then she figures out how to present them in a way that's entertaining and very readable. Sometimes that involves a lot of bad jokes.

Vivien lives in the mountain town of Nelson, British Columbia and escapes into the wilderness whenever she can to hike, ski or paddle a canoe. She has two sons, now almost grown-up. When they were younger, they were a constant reminder to their mother of what kids find really cool and what makes their eyes glaze over. They traveled with Vivien across the country to research her book Wow Canada! and decided that Canada is way too big. Vivien also has a pet Norwegian dwarf rabbit who does a star turn in her book That’s Very Canadian!

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
Vivien Bowers gives talks to adult audiences about her writing. She has been a feature speaker at library and school district conferences, Children's Literature Roundtable gatherings and book industry events. One prepared presentation is titled "Stop When Their Eyes Glaze Over: Presenting Information to Children."