Kenneth oppel books in order
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It turned out to be quite a long story, really a short novel, and I rewrote it the next summer. We had a family friend who knew Roald Dahl - one of my favourite authors - and this friend offered to show Dahl my story. I was paralysed with excitement. I never heard back from Roald Dahl directly, but he read my story, and liked it enough to pass on to his own literary agent. I got a letter from them, saying they wanted to take me on, and try to sell my story. And they did.
Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure was published in 1985, in Britain and Canada and the U.S, and later in France. It was easily the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me -- and it gave me the confidence to think I could make writing my career.
I did my BA at the University of Toronto (a double major in cinema studies and English) and wrote my second children's novel The Live-Forever Machine in my final year, for a creative writing course. I married the year after graduation and spent the next three years in Oxford, where my wife was doing doctoral studies in Shakespeare. Since then we've
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Kenneth Oppel
About Author
Kenneth Oppel was born on Vancouver Island, Canada and brought up on both coasts of Canada, east and west. He decided he wanted to be a writer when he was 12 and started out writing sci-fi epics inspired by his love of Star Wars. At 14 he wrote a humorous story called Colins Fantastic Video Adventure about a boy addicted to video games. His big break came when a friend sent his story to Roald Dahl who liked it and passed it onto his own agent. His first book was published in 1985 and gave him the confidence to continue with his writing. He studied at Toronto University where he met his wife and now lives with her and their three children in Toronto. His books included the bestselling Silverwing trilogy which has sold well over a million copies worldwide and Airborn, winner of the 2004 Governor Generals Award for childrens literature. His novel Half Brother was awarded both the Canadian Library Associations Book of the Year Award and the Young Adult Book Award. Like many bestselling childrens writers his books have become just as popular with adult re
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Kenneth Oppel (1967-)
16 minute read
Sidelights
Kenneth Oppel has written several books for young people, ranging from picture books and first readers to young-adult fiction, as well as authoring several screenplays. What is most impressive about Oppel's body of work is the amount he published before age twenty-nine. In recognition of this accomplishment, the Canadian Authors Association awarded him the 1995 Air Canada Award for promise demonstrated by a young Canadian writer.
Born in the small mill town of Port Alberni, British Columbia, in 1967, Oppel grew up mostly in Victoria, British Columbia, and on the opposite coast of Canada, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Oppel's father, who worked in a furniture factory when his second son was born, decided to go back to college, which necessitated the move to Victoria. Then, graduating from the University of Victoria, he decided to go to law school, which took the family to Nova Scotia. "As kids, we hated being moved and went kicking and screaming, but subsequently we loved Halifax," Oppel told Dave Jenkinson in a Canadian Review of
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