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Bits of Verse, Bytes of Thought (poems & prose journal)
 
 
 
 

Faith at age 4, after reading
"War and Peace"
 
 
 
 

The Peacock's Stone 

The Peacock's Stone is a mythopoeic fantasy set on ancient Earth.  Shahumin, an eleven-summer-child, is invited into her grandfather's fire-circle of wisdom, where she learns the old stories that have shaped the culture of her people.  Encountering a strange, pale youth along the river bank, Shahumin unwittingly steps into a new story, a story that grows as she and the youth, Truel, grow; a story that will challenge the wisdom of her people and turn her village upside down.

Tree Root and River Rat 

Tree Root and River Rat is the fictional story of a fourteen-year-old Native Canadian boy, David Jonathan Yellowfeather, and his coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis of cancer through his relationships with his foster mother, Annie, and a younger girl, Arabella, whom he befriends in the hospital.  Throughout his journey, David meets his totem, the muskrat, who takes him and Arabella into the mystical circle of trees where magic, healing, and meaning-making transform their lives.

The Sea, the Song, and the Trumpetfish 

 
Sylvie's mom can't deal with her divorce and Sylvie's dad's imminent wedding, so she sends twelve-year-old Sylvie to stay with Great Aunt Honoura in Hawaii over Christmas.  Although Sylvie is far from pleased to be shipped off to stay with an aunt she's never met, she is soon caught up in the mystery of a strange woman who disappears into the sea.  With new friend, Keauka, Sylvie enters the world of guardian angels who live as creatures on the earth and in the sea.

Dark is a Colour 

Dark is a Colouris a science fantasy adventure set on the mythical planet Clytie.  Fifteen-year-old Caro lives with her family on a science Base, where her scientist parents work under the direction of the Community.  Caro, her younger brother, and their two friends journey to the dark side of the planet to rescue her parents from an experiment gone wrong: surgically-sighted "lumies," intelligent, wolf-like beasts, have turned on the scientists and have taken over the End Base.

Hoverlight 

A companion novel to Dark is a Colour, Hoverlight is a further adventure of Caro and gang on the planet Clytie.  Caro, inwardly fighting the post traumatic effects of the lumie attack, joins her friends to stand up against the scientific Community to stop experimentation on the huge, benign, "carpies," sea creatures native to Clytie's oceans.  During their underground race to save the carpies, Caro becomes separated from the others.  Lost and despairing, a healing, living light comes to Caro--the hoverlight--who leads her to find what she has lost.

Night Pictures 

Adam and Matthew (6 and 5 years old) finally get a bedroom of their own--downstairs in the basement--miles away from Mom and Dad and their four younger sisters.  They have great fun putting up all their hockey posters and can hardly wait to move in.  But, that night, after a mysterious noise is heard, they discover that their new room has a personality ...... they see their own fears take shape on the walls and ceiling!  Thank goodness, Aunt Sylvie arrives for a visit just in time, and shows them how to transform fear into fun, to enjoy their imaginations' "night pictures."

The House at the End of the Lane 

This is a gentle story rich with pictures of a child's visit with a shy, homey bear, of becoming friends, and the comfort of a large, benevolent presence watching over one.  Written from the perspective of a child recounting the adventure, the reader "recalls" discovering a hidden lane and following it through the trees to a small, rustic cottage; of playing badminton and eating blueberry muffins with a bear, and of finding a glass snowball of warm significance.

I Know Better 

Illustrated with bold colour, this little book recounts a young girl's thoughts as she pities her older brother's ignorance for such things that only the imagination can ever know:  the origin of snow, the essence of clouds and rainbows, understanding the song of a giraffe, and recognizing the dragonfly's considerably much larger mother .....

Stars in the Sea 

A "new" legend of origins about how there came to be stars in the seas surrounding the Hawaiian islands.  Rich with colour, the illustrations underscore the story, depicting angels raining from heaven in the form of flowers, insects, birds, and, of course, seastars, transforming the darkness of the ocean floor into a starry realm of love and light.

Becka and the Water Nymph 

This is a companion illustrated Early Reader book to the Young Adult novels:  Dark is a Colour and Hoverlight.  Written from the perspective of Caro's young sister, Becka, it is a retelling of the myth of Clytie and Apollo.  Caro and Becka's mom reads the myth to Becka to aid the transition of moving from Earth to the planet Clytie.  Becka becomes fixated on the illustration of the "green girl," but Caro and brother Ricky learn why the planet is named after the mythic water nymph.
 
 

About Faith Richardson ......

Author Faith Richardson loves hearing, reading, and spinning stories and is a confirmed, non-recovering "bookaholic".  Early favourites were the Enid Blyton "Adventure" series, the Trixie Beldon and Cherry Ames' books, the Nesbit stories and then later, Madeleine L'Engle's and L.M. Montgomery's novels.  However, the authors that influenced her the most profoundly, remain most by her side today:  C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and George Macdonald.  Faith wrote her first "novel" at age 14 and can boast that it received great reviews from her mother . . .   now, happily, her work has a slightly larger following.   Faith grew up in Vancouver, BC, Canada, surrounded by various and sundry pets (as well as 2 sisters and a brother) and, at the age of eleven, had 7 horses and ponies, 4 calves, 2 dogs, 6 cats, 23 chickens, 13 ducks and geese, and 40 guinea pigs ...  She later added a donkey named Burrito to the menagerie, and the Donkey Chronicles began to emerge shortly after.  Currently, she enjoys a much simplified life, living with her husband (artist Vincent James Richardson) and one dalmatian named Jemma.  Faith is a Registered Nurse as well as writer of juvenile and adult fiction.  Her books are currently in reprint, or hold "in publication" status, and will soon be available again (December 2001 or earlier; please check back for links to publishers & bookstores).

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