Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature Winner, 20102010 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award NomineeOn Resource Links Best Books of 2009 listThe Present Tense of Prinny Murphy picks up the story where The Nine Lives of Travis Keating leaves off - but this time, from the perspective of Prinny, Travis's friend. An alcoholic mother, a distracted father, a best friend who spends all his time with his new "girlfriend", and three relentless schoolyard bullies: Prinny Murphy's past, present, and future certainly are "tense."Adding to her misery, she still can't read well enough to escape from remedial lessons with the dour Mrs. Dooks. But when a kindly substitute teacher introduces her to LaVaughn's inner-city world in the free verse novel, Make Lemonade, Prinny discovers that life can be full of possibilities - and poetry."

Shortly after the publication of her 2003 poetry collection, The Brevity of Red (2003), Jill MacLean‘s nine-year-old grandson Stuart asked her to write him a book with hockey and Skidoos in it. The result was The Nine Lives of Travis Keating (2008) which won the 2009 Ann Connor Brimer Award, was shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children, 2010 Hackmatack, Silver Birch and Diamond Willow Awards, and was a KIND Children’s Honorable Mention Book for the Humane Society of the United States. Its 2009 sequel, The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy, won the 2010 Ann Connor Brimer Award. Both books are set in Newfoundland, where Jill’s family lived for eighteen years.Jill now makes her home in Nova Scotia, which is the setting for her third novel. Always an avid reader, she is delighted to rediscover the world of children’s literature. In her free time she gardens, canoes and hikes.

Jill MacLean's profile page

• Short-listed, OLA Silver Birch
• Winner, USBBY Outstanding International Book
• Runner-up, CLA Book of the Year for Children
• Short-listed, Josette Frank Award
• Joint winner, VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers list
• Winner, Ann Connor Brimer Award
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award
• Joint winner, OLA Best Bets
• Commended, Resource Links Best Books