The Sundog Season

by John Geddes

The Sundog Season by John Geddes is a wistful coming of age novel, deadly accurate in its portrayal of a 13-year-old small-town boy as he tries to make sense of the adult world that surrounds him. The opening is a grabber. "When I was five years old I wished for the death of another boy, prayed for it, and it happened." He lives in the tiny gold mining town of Spirit Lake in Northern Ontario, and is surrounded by a strong cast of supporting players: an older sister who may be more worldly than he imagines, an immigrant ice-maker for the hockey rink who lives on a tiny island, his less fortunate friend Mike, his pharmacist father, and some gossipy old ladies. The "stranger" arrives and he changes all their lives. The stranger is Sgt. Martin of the provincial police. Various rumours abound: some say he is after drug dealers; others claim he has been sent to investigate high-grading (the practice of miners smuggling gold out of the mine to sell on the black market); and some suspect that he is a bad cop who has been sent into exile-because of something involving girls and money.
The sergeant becomes coach of the narrator's hockey team, and proves to be exceptionally talented in that regard. Still there is something wrong.

- W.P. Kinsella from Books in Canada.

146 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Joy Slykhuis]

So well done, so beautifully written, it almost didn't matter if it had a plot, but there is one. Small northern Ontario West Spirit Lake is a mining town. That's it...that's all there is there. Our boy is 13. There's a new police officer in town. Mike St. Vincent is bad news, but becoming our boy's friend, since they both help out old Julius at the hockey rink. There's a mystery to be solved, but this book is so great, who cares?

[Susan Armstrong]

Beautifully written, the author captures a boy's thought process and the experience of small town northern living so well. The characters are decently developed, I especially loved Julius. Other reviewers have written that nothing happens - it makes me wonder if we read the same book.

[Jc]

One of the shortlisted titles for the CLA Young Adult Book Award in 2006.

[Rachelia (Bookish Comforts)]

I read this for my fourth book to qualify to vote in the White Pine Book Club at my school. I found it was OK, but it was kind of slow and dry.