Just an entertaining good time

“I think good art should always beentertaining, or at least give pleasure of some sort. And my chief goal as awriter has always been to tell a good story and give my readers a good time.” –Kenneth Oppel

Born in Port Alberni, Canada in Augustof 1967, Oppel has had a distinguished career as a children’s and young adultwriter.  He holds the distinction ofwinning both Canada’s Governor General's Literary Prize and the AmericanLibrary Association’s (ALA) Printz Honor Award twice, for the books Airborn and TheTimes.

 

Oppel, who now lives in Toronto,started writing as a teen, penning a humorous story about a boy addictedto video games, leading to his first book Colin's Fantastic VideoAdventure published just as he was starting college.  Whileat the University of Toronto he wrote his second bestseller, TheLive-Forever Machine, in a creative writing class.    His more recent works include Skybreaker,named the ALA’s Best Book for Young Adults and his 2022 novel Ghostlight.  

While his books are popular reads, only one has made it onto film -- a TV show based on his Silverwing series.  He thinks it’s arare possibility for books to become movies.

 

“Realistically,” he said, “the chance of any bookbecoming a film is (very) slim.”