Published books by Patricia Bow

The Prism Blade
In The Ruby Kingdom, Amelia Hammer and her cousin, Simon, and friend, Ike, discovered a secret gate leading from the small southern-Ontario town of Dunstone to the extraordinary land of Mythrin — a world populated by the Urdar, a powerful race of winged and magical shapechangers.

Six months later, it’s the day of the annual Dunstone and Area Weird Games (DAWG). Since it’s the only games competition anywhere that favours geeks over jocks, Simon and Ike figure they stand a good chance of winning.

Just then, Mara, chief of the Urdar, seeks the help of Amelia and her friends once again. The Casseri, a group of human refugees from another world, have come to Mythrin searching for the Prism Blade — a legendary weapon forged at the beginning of time. Both the Urdar and the Casseri seek the Prism Blade for their own protection; both fear the Blade falling into each others’ hands.

Caught in the middle, Amelia, Simon, and Ike are also caught by surprise when they discover that the Prism Blade has been hidden in plain sight in their own town. Simon, Ike and Amelia need to find the blade before someone can use it to destroy Mara’s people – or before the shapechangers wipe out the humans. And to do that, they have to win the Weird Games.

Book 2 of the Passage to Mythrin series, Dundurn Group 2008 ISBN 9781550028096

The Ruby Kingdom
Mountains, travel, adventure —Amelia Hammer wants it all. Instead, her globe-trotting parents have dumped her in tiny, boring Dunstone, Ontario in the middle of winter with her grandmother and her geeky cousin Simon. Simon isn’t having much fun either, saddled with this sulky stranger in black leather and neon hair. And he has to be nice to her. That’s tough, even with his best friend Ike there to help.

But life in safe little Dunstone turns dangerously exciting when Mara comes to town. Amelia is enchanted by this tall, proud, fearless girl, but Simon worries Mara’s mixed up in something weird. He’s right. Mara is not what she seems, and neither is the shape-shifting assassin who’s tracking her. When Amelia, Simon and Ike take Mara’s side in a war for an alien world, Amelia has to spread her wings—literally—and Simon must find out how far he will go to save a cousin who has become a friend.

Book One of the Passage to Mythrin series, Dundurn Group 2007 ISBN 9781550026672

Buy online from Amazon and Chapters and from independent bookstores such as Words Worth Books, Waterloo, Ontario.

The Bone Flute
Camrose Ferguson is a perfectly normal 12-year-old living an ordinary life in a small Ontario town. Extraordinarily, she has inherited responsibility for an ancient bone flute, an object of quest for two time-wandering rivals. With the help of her level-headed friend Mark and the not-quite-human Miranda, Camrose puzzles out the flute's hiding place and restores it to its rightful—and unexpected—owner. The Bone Flute is about the very thin wall that separates our everyday world from an equally real world of wonders and terrors. Above all, it's an adventure, meant to be read for the pleasure of the story alone.  Orca Book Publishers, 2004  ISBN 1-55143-301-x

Read a review of The Bone Flute here.

The Spiral Maze
The dark yew maze stands on a hill above Amstey. There is only one way into it, but there are two ways out, and one of them leads into the terrifying mind of the undead Dexter Gunn. His great-great-grand-nephew, Neil, is called upon to make that journey and set free a young woman imprisoned since the last century.

With the help of his new friend Fleur and what may or may not be the ghost of his own twin brother, Neil evades Dexter’s shape-shifting, half-animal agents as he seeks the hidden way to a world from which there may be no return.

“The Spiral Maze is a dark fantasy in which a parallel world is accessed through an abandoned maze. Gripping and suspenseful from the moment Neil glimpses his dead twin brother through a window, the story propels the reader breathlessly forward to the final classic confrontation of good and evil forces.... Bow develops a highly original concept of a new world being created through the dreams of Charlotte, who is imprisoned there, and her long-time jailer Dexter... a sophisticated mix of suspense, mystery, and thriller with a good measure of fantasy thrown in.” —Canadian Materials, vol. 4, no 16

Thistledown Press, 1997   ISBN 1-895449-68-5 

Chimpanzee Rescue introduces readers to our closest relatives: the chimpanzee and its cousin, the rare bonobo. These two African great apes share more than 96 per cent of their DNA with humans. Able to make and use tools and to communicate by signs, capable of both friendship and war, they are so much like humans that some scientists are studying them for clues to how our own distant ancestors may have lived and behaved.

Sadly, the survival of these fascinating creatures is threatened as human populations increase, bringing conflict and disease, and using up the forests on which chimpanzees and bonobos depend. They are also falling prey to hunters who sell “bushmeat” to urban restaurants, where it is served up as a costly delicacy. Some experts predict that all the great apes will be extinct within our lifetime. But not everyone accepts this prognosis. Chimpanzee Rescue profiles several of the projects and people dedicated to helping chimps and bonobos survive.

Firefly Books, 2004   ISBN  1-55297-908-3