Paul Toffanello is a former high school English teacher and education director who spent two summers directing a children’s camp near Timmins, Ontario in the 1980s. Popchuck’s Ghost is based on that camp’s resident ghost. (He never personally met the ghost but always enjoyed sharing stories about it with campers.)
Although Popchuck’s Ghost is Paul’s first published novel, he has been writing stories and poetry regularly since he was young. Throughout his career in education, he was a strong advocate of children’s literacy. Now retired from the school board he directed, Paul works as a management consultant, a court-diversion counsellor and an author. He is also part of a creative team working on development of several television series.
Paul has three daughters and lives with his wife in northeastern Ontario.
You can send emails to Paul at author@popchuck.ca.
You can tweet him @popchucksghost
You can visit Paul’s website. www.popchuck.ca
Boisterous Neil and timid Adam, 12-year-old best friends, head off to Camp McAbre for the first time with distinctively different attitudes.
Only $3.99 on iTunes and Amazon.
Neil is excited by the thought of several days outdoors with a hundred other kids while Adam hates everything about camp except for the presence of attractive schoolmate Ally. Yet as the days go by, Adam becomes a super camper while Neil is dogged by bad luck that puts him in conflict with the creepy camp director, Charles Atrom.
A bit of late night sleuthing leads Neil into a series of abandoned mine tunnels and glimpses of a ghost who may be responsible for Neil’s troubles.
Perfect for readers aged 10-13.
Written by former teacher (and camp counsellor) Paul Toffanello, Popchuck’s Ghost is aimed at preteens with a love for adventure and ghostly encounters. The story will ring true for everyone who has attended a summer camp. The setting, in fact, is based on a real camp in northern Ontario that was built next to a network of abandoned mine shafts that were strictly off-limits to campers and counsellors alike. (Paul declines to reveal the source of his background information on caves and mine drifts.)
Available starting July 25, 2013.
Available as an ebook on Amazon and Apple’s iTunes bookstore, Popchuck’s Ghost is a gripping read that will leave kids laughing and shivering.
