The Golden Grasshopper

E. Jane Philipps is head of the Biology Library at Queen’s University
in Kingston.

Billed as a “madcap adventure and coming-of-age story,” this novel
combines delightfully whimsical science fiction with real-world
experiences of school, home, friendship, and first love.

Lisa, the 10-year-old tomboy heroine, lives with her single mother on a
farm in the Okanagan, and daydreams through boring science classes that
focus on listening, reading, and notes and not on the experiential
science that interests her. A veteran of experiments gone slightly and
amusingly wrong, Lisa always involves her more cautious cousin and
classmate, Paul, in her adventures, despite his understandable
reluctance. Enter Gagar, a being from another planet, who assigns the
pair the task of collecting fleas for his world’s power source, the
flea capacitor. Their reward for success is a golden grasshopper that
enables the bearer to fly. With another object in mind—first prize at
the school science fair and a trip to the Vancouver Science Centre and
Planetarium—Lisa and Paul embark on their flea-ridden mission.

Well-written, funny, and highly imaginative, The Golden Grasshopper
will appeal to a variety of readers. Recommended.