Dear Sylvia

By Alan Cumyn

Winner of the OLA's Forest of Reading Silver Birch Express Award

Sylvia Tull -- the girl whose very glance turns Owen's face into a burning tomato -- has moved away from the small village where Owen lives with his parents and two brothers. But he still has the birthday gift she gave him -- a stationery set, complete with stamped envelopes -- because she wants him to keep sending her stories.

So Owen nervously begins to write Sylvia about all the things that are going on in his life. How his little brother, Leonard, got his head stuck in the bannister. The disastrous camping trip with his irritating girl cousins. How his new baby cousin will only stop screaming if Owen carries her.

And he tells her about the most bewildering drama to hit the Skye household yet, when the boys' father quits his insurance job to write a novel, and all the Skyes have to cope with the consequences.

Alan Cumyn has written an irresistible epistolary novel. Owen is a true writer in his head -- but getting the right words onto the page is another story. Young readers will easily identify as he wrestles with his spelling, with his writer's insecurity, and with his deep desire to tell Sylvia the truth about what is going on in his life, and in his heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Release date: Apr 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781554984619

Alan Cumyn

Alan Cumyn is the author of several wide-ranging and often wildly different novels. A two-time winner of the Ottawa Book Award, he has also had work shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, the Giller Prize, and the Trillium Award. He teaches through the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a past Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada. He lives in Ontario, Canada.

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Alan Cumyn

Groundwood Books

House of Anansi Press

Copyright © 2008 by Alan Cumyn

Published in Canada and the USA in 2008 by Groundwood Books

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This edition published in 2013 by

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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Cumyn, Alan

Dear Sylvia / by Alan Cumyn.

ISBN-13: 978-0-88899-847-7 (bound).–ISBN 10: 0-88899-847-3 (bound)

ISBN-13: 978-0-88899-848-4 (pbk.)–ISBN-10: 0-88899-848-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-55498-461-9 (ebook)

I. Title.

PS8555.U489D42 2008         jC813’.54         C2007-906025-0

Design by Michael Solomon

We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF).

For my girls, Gwen and Anna, and for both Suzannes

Deer Sylvia,

My brother Leonard got his head stuck in the banastare!

Cinseeerly,

Owen

Deer Sylvia,

Sorry I already sealed the onvlope but I thought of something else. We were going up the stairs to scare my cousins Eleanor and Sadie. But Leonard thought I was the Bog Man! So his head got stuck in the banastare.

Your frend,

Owen

Deer Sylvia,

I’m not going to seal the onvlope any more becuase as soon as I do I think of something else and you only gave me 20 onvlopes yesterday for my birthday and now I just have 18. And we haven’t even got to the hospital yet! Becuase Ant Lorraine had her baby named Fillus. So we’re going to see her this morning at the hospital. Which I can’t write about yet since we haven’t gone.

Dad had to get the crow bar to break Leonard’s head out of the banastare.

Yours trooley,

Owen

Deer Sylvia,

Well now I am back from the hospital and we all saw Fillus. She looks like a red cabbidge. Once when we were on the highway we rode behind an old car with an old dog leaning out the window yowelling becuase a little girl was pulling its old ears hard as a crossbow. That’s what Fillus sounds like.

When I picked up Fillus she looked at me like I was ice cream and even started licking her lips.

I’ll put this in the onvlope now and seal it becuase its getting big!

Deer Sylvia,

I didn’t sign my name last time so I hope you knew it was from me! Andy said if I’m going to be writing a girl all the time I have to sign LOVE becuase that’s what girls want. But Leonard said how did he know and Andy said he’s written to lots of girls and Leonard said name 1 and Andy said a gentleman doesn’t name girls but always signs LOVE or else they get mad.

Girls that is.

So I hope you aren’t mad. I’ll sign whatever you want.

Owen

Deer Sylvia,

By now I hope you aren’t mad becuase I haven’t sent any letters yet. I’m still thinking about the signing. Andy said its very tricky and a girl could get offally upset if you sign the wrong word. So now I don’t know.

Fillus came home from the hospital today. Mom made a big party for her and Ant Lorraine and when we were all their she said to me all of a sudden we should have invited Sylvia! But it was too late.

Sorry.

Eleanor and Sadie took turns picking up Fillus and carrying her around like 1 of thier dolls. Fillus screamed and screamed until I thought my eardrums were going to ruptewer. Then Ant Lorraine picked her up and Fillus became a hole yowelling nucleer orkestra! Leonard and Andy had to run out of the house!

So much for the big party.

I tried to bring in the carrot sticks from the kitchen in case Fillus was hungry but Mom almost hit me over the head with the plate. Well I didn’t know you can’t feed babies carrot sticks.

Ant Lorraine gave Fillus to Mom and then Mom walked around singing a lullaby right into Fillus’s little red cabbidge ear. And Fillus went WAAAAA-waaaaa like a train that’s not going to make it round a corner on top of a cliff over a waterfall a thousand feet above the ocean right over the Marianas Trench which is the deepest place in the hole Earth.

Then Leonard ran back in and said — give her to Owen!

Leonard is the closest thing we have to a baby so maybe he knows how she feels. Anyway Mom gave her to me and it was ice cream licking again. MWIM-MWIM mwim-mwim — Fillus said, right into my shoulder. Loud then softer soft. I giggled her a little and blew on her red cabbidge hair.

From,

Owen

Deer Sylvia,

The reason why Leonard thought I was the Bog Man that other night was becuase I was pretending to be the Bog Man. I had Dad’s big torch flashlight from the kitchen which we are only allowed to use in an emergensy but Andy said it would be OK. Leonard stayed in his sleeping bag and me and Andy went to the kitchen in the dark and found the flashlight in the big drore and Andy switched it on and I held it under my chin like the Mummy. Then I started moaning and straggling like the Bog Man and Leonard forgot it was me. So he screamed and ran up the stairs to warn everybody and somehow his head ended up stuck in the banastare which is hard to do. And his ears were trapped too.

Dad came running down the stairs like his breaks were cut and nearly tripped over Leonard’s feet. And Eleanor stayed at the top of the stairs like she was Queen of the Ejypshiuns asking why did Leonard have his head stuck in the banastare? I don’t think even then Leonard was yowelling as loud as Fillus.

Leonard’s head is better now but the banastare is still broken so Mom is mad about that. Andy and I tried to put Leonard’s head back in the banastare just to see but