All her life, Calantha has wanted only one thing: to apprentice with the Gatherer, and dedicate herself entirely to the Story Pods and the Tales. She dreams and muddles her way through her days, bumbling her chores and exasperating her mother. But when evening comes, and with it the Talemeet, Calantha comes to life. She is open and attentive to everything: the Gathering, the words of release, the Tale itself, and the harmony after, when the villagers, their worries put away for a while, peacefully watch the seeds waft way.
And then something dreadful happens. In every field, in every ditch across the Plains where Story Pods used to grow, there is no new growth. Calantha is sickened, and not just by thinking about the end of the Tales. She can't stand that no one else seems to care: the threat from the northern king is worry enough, they believe. So she decides it's up to her to do what's necessary: to seek the legendary Sower of Tales, and find out what's really happening on the Plains.
In The Sower of Tales, Governor-General's Award-winning author Rachna Gilmore has created a fantastic world and a stirring adventure; and Calantha, impatient and stubborn, dreamy and single-minded is an entirely human heroine whose personal journey goes straight to the heart.
Winner of the National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for 2005
Winner of the 2005 Jane Addams Children's Book Awards in the category of Honor Books for Older Children
A 2006 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award Honour Book
Red Maple Award shortlist, 2005
About the Author: Rachna Gilmore is the author of many critically-acclaimed books for adults and children. Her picture book A Screaming Kind of Day won the Governor General's Award for Text in 1999. The Sower of Tales is her first work of fantasy, but fans will recognize Ms Gilmore's sure hand in character and place here, as in all her novels. Her vividness and immediacy are the result of the way she works, which is to pay attention to the ideas that grab hold of her imagination and her heart, and don't let go.
