Leslie Gentile, Canadian author
Leslie Gentile is a Canadian author of middle grade fiction. Her debut novel Elvis, Me, and the Lemonade Stand Summer was published in 2021 by Cormorant Books. Nominated for ten awards, it won the 2021 Victoria Children’s Book Prize and the 2022 Jean Little First-Novel Award. It has recently been shortlisted for Washington State's Library Association's Sasquatch Award.
Her second novel, Shamus The Urban Rez Dog, P.I., was released September 2023, and her third novel Elvis, Me and The Postcard Winter is now in stores!
Leslie's books are available in Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain.
Next to writing and her family, Leslie's great love is music — writing and performing. She now successfully combines readings with songs written for each book, both in person and online.
Leslie is of Scottish, Tuscarora and Coast Salish heritage and lives on southern Vancouver Island with her husband and a German Shepherd who is convinced he's a lap dog.
Photo Credit: Sean Pullen
It's here! OUT IN STORES BY Nov 16th 2024
The long awaited sequel!
Vancouver Island, 1979. Winter rains have swept into Eagle Shores Trailer Park, and twelve-year-old Truly has settled in with Andy El, the Salish Elder who took her in after she was abandoned by her mom, Clarice. When Elvis, the thought-to-be-dead King of Rock ’n’ Roll and Truly’s postcard pen pal, gifts her a secondhand guitar, Truly’s growing love of music deepens her bond with her new family — now including Andy El’s nephew, Raymond, Truly’s new puppy, Gracie, and Andy El’s granddaughters, Agnes and Linda.
But Clarice shatters Truly’s world again when she unexpectedly returns, asking for a second chance at being a good mom. Can Clarice really change? Can Truly ever forgive her? If so, is she willing to give up her new life with Andy El to move back in with her mom?
REVIEWS
“Elvis, Me, and the Postcard Winter is a touching novel that illuminates challenges within parent-child dynamics as a girl pursues personal belonging.”
— Brooke Shannon, Foreword Reviews
“There are moments throughout [Elvis, Me, and the Postcard Winter] that embody this ‘heart’ that fills the work. The love of the neighbours who have chosen to share their home with Truly is such a gift and example of how community should be. The reader knows, even if Truly doesn't quite yet, that this gift will always be love and heart that she can count on.”
— Alison Acheson, The BC Review
Cover art by Julie McNaughton
Shamus The Urban Rez Dog, P.I.
September 2023, Dancing Cat/Cormorant Books
Missing jewelry, a false accusation, and a real thief. Shamus the Urban Rez Dog, P.I. is on the case.
The name’s Shamus. I’m a special kind of dog known as a Rez Dog. That means I’m a mix of different breeds and I come from a reserve. I live in the city with Mom and the twins, Rainey and Cole. We are one of many Indigenous families on our block.
Life is great — until Mom is falsely accused of stealing from the jewelry store she’s worked at for years. When the kids and I set out to catch the real thief, we discover some surprising and, if I do say so myself, hilarious clues — including a false wall, a lucky bowling ball, and a vicious poodle named Hepzibah!
REVIEWS
“The view from the doghouse isn’t half bad, and Shamus the Urban Rez Dog should know. As a pup, he’s got lots to learn about becoming that ‘well-behaved dog,’ but as a P.I., this dog can sniff out a clue like no-puppy else (as long as he avoids those Thai leftovers).”
— Angela Misri, author of Tails from the Apocalypse and the Portia Adams Adventure Series
“Leslie Gentile has written a touching novel with a unique narrator.”— Canadian Review of Materials
Cover art by Julie McNaughton
Elvis, Me and the Lemonade Stand Summer
February 2021, Dancing Cat/Cormorant Books
It’s the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis Presley has been dead for a year. But not eleven-year-old Truly Bateman — because she knows Elvis is alive and well and living in the Eagle Shores Trailer Park. Maybe no one ever thought to look for him on the Eagle Shores First Nation on Vancouver Island.
It’s a busy summer for Truly. Though her mother is less of a mother than she ought to be, and spends her time drinking and smoking and working her way through new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise as much money for herself as she can through her lemonade stand … and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the one and only King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. And when she can’t find motherly support in her own home, she finds sanctuary with Andy El, the Salish woman who runs the trailer park.
REVIEWS
“This may be the book of the summer…” — The Weekend Morning Show, CBC
“Truly, who’s the main character, just kind of jumps off the page into your heart. … I think you should look out for this one around award season.” — Your Morning, CTV
“In the end, Gentile has offered up a profound meditation on the meaning of ‘family’ and the ways in which kinship, love and responsibility can extend far beyond the boundaries of biology.”— Canadian Children’s Book News
Cover art by Julie McNaughton