Dear Sylvia

Owen Skye #3

by Alan Cumyn

Now in paperback, Dear Sylvia is a sequel to The Secret Life of Owen Skye (winner of the Mr. Christie’s Book Award) and After Sylvia. Much to his despair, Owen Skye watches his true love, Sylvia Tull, move away. But he still has the stationery set she gave him for his birthday, so at least he can keep telling her stories, even if it’s only by mail. So Owen begins to write down all the things that are going his little brother getting his head stuck in the banister, the disastrous camping trip with his horrible girl cousins, how his new baby cousin will only stop screaming in his arms. But despite his carefully crafted efforts, Owen can’t bring himself to mail the letters. While he knows he’s a born writer, getting the right words onto the page is another story altogether. Young readers can easily identify with Owen as he wrestles with spelling, his insecurity as a writer, and his deep desire to tell Sylvia what’s going on in his life — and in his heart. With this irresistible epistolary novel, Alan Cumyn has given his acclaimed series an original and engrossing twist.

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens

184 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third in the Owen series. This one an epistolary novel, as Sylvia has moved to a nearby town, and left Owen with a pack of stamped envelopes to communicate.
He writes, but seldom mails.
Dad quits his job to write a novel! Which includes as a character the waitress at a local Chinese restaurant who he secretly has a crush on.
And Owen learns to play the bagpipes, and his uncle instills in him the honor that is part of that.
Again, as in the earlier 2 volumes in this series, part of the problem with this is that there is nothing particularly "Canadian" about it, and it is hard to figure out the time frame. Anywhere from the '50's to the '70's.
But a nice YA novel of a pre-teen boy coming of age, and his crush on Sylvia.
AKA "Deer Sylvia" - as he addresses her in the letters until the very end. The volume is filled with misspelled words and corrections.
3/4 out of 5.

[Julie Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Owen cannot forget about his dear friend Sylvia after she moves away. Fortunately for Owen, Sylvia gave Owen a stationery set, envelopes and stamps and all. This turns out to be quite a gift, as the act of letter writing enables Owen to deal with both his feelings for Sylvia and the increased family stress due to his father’s inexplicable decision to quit his job and write a book.

Cumyn uses humor, a quick, sweet voice for Owen, and his disastrous spelling to weave a solid tale of resilience and hope. Wonderful for young to mid-age middle grade readers.

[Canadian Children's Book Centre]

In this third installment of the Owen Skye series, Alan Cumyn gives us a characteristically unique epistolary novel, consisting of Owen’s letters to his true love – the fabulous Sylvia Tull. We follow Owen as he pours his heart out to Sylvia. He shares his excitement, hopes, and fears as the family survives on a shoe-string budget when his father quits his job selling insurance to write a novel. Owen writes of his disappointments, nervousness, mistakes, adventures, and undying devotion to Sylvia with admirable, endearing humour and profound honesty. His letters are full of spelling errors (including a repetitive tendency to begin most of his letters with ‘deer Sylvia'), but Owen is, as usual, all the more lovable for his imperfections. There is certainly never a dull moment in Owen’s life. Whether he is imagining the plot of his father’s mysterious novel, attempting to learn Scottish dancing or the bagpipes to impress his one and only love, or discovering heartbreaking evidence of his father’s possible affair, Owen is often struggling to face his own fears. Dear Sylvia has hilarious moments, such as Owen being summoned regularly to rock his baby cousin Phyllis to sleep at all hours of the night – since he alone appears to have a magic touch where she is concerned. But there are heartbreaking times for the reader to witness as well. We are with Owen as he walks in the awkward limbo between childhood and adolescence, as he deals with the berating discouragement of critical, narrow-minded teachers, and as he tries to recover personal treasures after the family home collapses in a freak accident. When all is said and done, though, Cumyn’s readers are privileged to be with Owen as his heart and life ride a rollercoaster. Alan Cumyn’s latest absorbing novel grabs attention and holds on tight. All at once poignant, comical, heartwarming and thought-provoking, Dear Sylvia’s major victory is a very human Owen Skye who captures the insecurities and preoccupations of growing boys.

Reviewed by Christina Minaki in Canadian Children's Book News
Summer 2008 VOL.32 NO.3

[Rad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Owen Skye returns for another novel, this one told in letters to the titular Sylvia. Owen writes to her often, with many endearing spelling mistakes, but even though Sylvia is now back in his life, his problems are far from over. The biggest problem in the Skye household is Horace’s sudden departure from his job to write a book, which Owen calls “The Invisible Enshurince Man.” Owen records all of his family’s problems in his letters to Sylvia, many of which he ends up burying instead of sending. Along with spelling mistakes, the letters are made more authentic by Owen’s rapid subject-changing, his clarification of what certain pronouns are referring to, and his overuse of exclamation marks, among other grammatical choices. While Owen eventually learns to spell some things correctly, it is his consistent misspellings of other words (such as “Fillus” instead of “Phyllis,” the name of his cousin) that have the greater impact on the reader.

[Kari]

So funny with an authentically boy's perspective.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cartoonish, misspelled adolescent insecurities evolve from grating to endearing in this short epistolary novel.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book although some of the themes are deeper and more convoluted. I like that, for the most part, Owen Skye sounds like a child.

[CanadianReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful. Only adults will "get" what's really going on with Owen's parents. Laugh-out-loud funny with a dark thread woven through