Peacock, Shane 1957-

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Peacock, Shane 1957-

Personal

Born 1957, in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada; married Sophie Kneisel (a journalist); children: three. Education: Trent University, B.A. (English and history); University of Toronto, M.A. (literature). Hobbies and other interests: Playing hockey, watching sumo wrestling.

Addresses

Home—Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. Agent—Pamela Paul Agency, 12 Westrose Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M8X 1Z2.

Career

Author, playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. Has also worked for Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company, as a wilderness bush sprayer for Ontario Hydro, and as a box mover for a university bookstore.

Awards, Honors

National One-Act Play Competition honorable mention, 1985, for "No Heart Punch"; National Magazine Award nomination, 1999, for "Rulers of the Dohyo"; Red Maple Award nomination, and Arthur Ellis Award nomination, both 1999, both for The Mystery of Ireland's Eye; Canadian Children's Book Centre select choice, 2000, for The Secret of the Silver Mines; National Magazine Award Silver Medal, 2001, for "Team Spirit"; Red Maple Award nomination and Arthur Ellis Award nomination, both 2002, both for Bone Beds of the Badlands; Best Bet for 2002 selection, Ontario Library Association, for Unusual Heroes: Canada's Prime Ministers and Fathers of Confederation; National Magazine Award nomination, 2002, for "As the Crow Flies"; Junior Library Guild of America Premier Selection Award, 2007, Canadian Library Association Children's Book of the Year Honour Book designation, Canadian Library Association Young Adult-Book of the Year Honour Book designation, and Arthur Ellis Award for best young-adult crime novel in Canada, all 2007, all for Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case.

Writings

BIOGRAPHIES

The Great Farini: The High-wire Life of William Hunt, Viking (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Unusual Heroes: Canada's Prime Ministers and Fathers of Confederation, Puffin Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

"DYLAN MAPLES" ADVENTURE SERIES

The Mystery of Ireland's Eye, Penguin Books Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

The Secret of the Silver Mines, Penguin Books Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Bone Beds of the Badlands, Penguin Books Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

Monster in the Mountains, Penguin Books Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

"THE BOY SHERLOCK HOLMES" SERIES

Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case, Tundra Books (Plattsburgh, NY), 2007.

Death in the Air: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Second Case, Tundra Books (Plattsburgh, NY), 2008.

PLAYS

The Great Farini: The Play, performed in Millbrook, Ontario, Canada, 1994.

The Devil and Joseph Scriven, performed in Millbrook, Ontario, Canada, 1999.

The Art of Silent Killing, performed in Millbrook, Ontario, Canada, 2006.

Also author of one-act plays produced in Canada.

TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES

Dangerous Dreams: The Life of The Great Farini (based on Peacock's play), History Television, 2000.

The Passion of Joseph Scriven (based on Peacock's play), History Television, 2001.

(And co-producer) Team Spirit: The Jordin and Terence Tootoo Story, CTV National Network, 2004.

(And story editor) Exhibit Eh!: Exposing Canada, Travel & Escape Network, 2006.

OTHER

Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, Saturday Night, En Route, Toronto Life, Elm Street, Maclean's, Toronto Globe & Mail, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, and National Post.

Sidelights

Award-winning Canadian journalist and novelist Shane Peacock is the creator of the "Dylan Maples" adventure series and the critically acclaimed "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" series. Peacock has also written a number of television documentaries, including Dangerous Dreams: The Life of The Great Farini, which centers on highwire artist, discoverer, and inventor William Leonard Hunt, as well as of stage plays, including The Art of Silent Killing, a love story set during World War II.

In Unusual Heroes: Canada's Prime Ministers and Fathers of Confederation Peacock "brings young adult readers an informative and somewhat entertaining look at the political greats" of that nation, Victoria Pennell stated in Resource Links. "Canada is a remarkable, admirable, and unusual country," the author remarked in an interview on the Puffin Books Web site. "My book tells kids why it is unique and it shows them that it took some unusual folks to create it and keep it going." The collection, which offers profiles of such leaders as Sir John A. Macdonald, Louis Riel, and Jean Chrétien, "provides a very useful and welcome resource in our quest to make the teaching and understanding of Canadian history and Canadian politics relevant and engaging," noted Alexander Gregor in the Canadian Review of Materials.

The Mystery of Ireland's Eye, the first work in the "Dylan Maples" series, introduces the young protagonist, an eleven-year-old Canadian boy. During a kayaking trip to Ireland's Eye, an island off the coast of Newfoundland, Dylan and his parents investigate a ghost town. During his explorations, however, Dylan spots a lit cigarette, finds his name carved into an old desk, and witnesses ghostly apparitions. "Peacock weaves a wonderful adventure full of suspense that grasps the reader's attention from the beginning and holds it until the end," a Resource Links critic observed. In the Canadian Review of Materials, Joan Marshall stated that Dylan's "self-deprecating humour and courage in the face of real and imagined danger make him a character that students will remember."

Dylan returns in The Secret of the Silver Mines, set in the small Ontario town of Cobalt. The story "has a distinct Canadian setting," noted a Resource Links contributor. Dylan and his friends win a trip to a dinosaur park where they are stalked by an escaped convict in Bone Beds of the Badlands, the third work in the series. "The authentic dialogue between the teens" drew praise from Veronica Allen in Resource Links. In Monster in the Mountains, Dylan meets his eccentric great-uncle who convinces the teen to search for the legendary Sasquatch in British Columbia's Rocky Mountains. According to Marshall, "the action is nonstop and very movie-like, and most young readers will be glued to this book just to find out what happens."

Set in 1867, Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case follows the thirteen-year-old budding detective as he investigates a brutal murder in London's East End. Sheila Fiscus, writing in School Library Journal, praised the work, stating that "the details of the plot are plausible, the pacing well timed, and the historical setting vividly depicted." Eye of the Crow "not only honors the intentions of Doyle's storyworld," David Ward wrote in the Canadian Review of Materials, "but it also extends the life of the intrepid detective by exploring the early years of Holmes." In Death in the Air: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Second Case, Holmes looks into the death of an aerialist whose trapeze equipment was sabotaged. Peacock "has remained true to the original spirit of the Holmes series," observed Ward. "Sherlock's pervasive melancholy and his flirtatious relationship with the underworld of London create yet another authentic mystery."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 2007, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case, p. 44.

Canadian Review of Materials, April 14, 2000, Joan Marshall, review of The Mystery of Ireland's Eye; December 13, 2002, Alexander Gregor, review of Unusual Heroes: Canada's Prime Ministers and Fathers of Confederation; October 3, 2003, Joan Marshall, review of Monster in the Mountains; September 14, 2007, David Ward, review of Eye of the Crow; April 4, 2008, review of Death in the Air.

Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), August 24, 1996, H.J. Kirchhoff, "Finding the Reality in an Illusionist's Life: The Great Farini: The High-wire Lifeof William Hunt," p. C16; July 31, 1999, Kate Taylor, "Canadian Holy Man's Tale Stranger than Fiction: Peterborough Theatre Teams up with Toronto Author Shane Peacock to Present the Story of 19th-century Preacher Joseph Scriven"; August 16, 2006, Patrick Mullin, review of The Art of Silent Killing, p. R8.

Quill & Quire, October, 1999, Janet McNaughton, review of The Mystery of Ireland's Eye; December, 2002, Laurie Mcneill, review of Unusual Heroes; July, 2007, Jeffrey Canton, review of Eye of the Crow.

Resource Links, December, 1999, review of The Mystery of Ireland's Eye, p. 29; October, 2000, review of Secret of the Silver Mines, p. 9; December, 2001, Veronica Allen, review of Bone Beds of the Badlands, p. 19; February, 2003, Victoria Pennell, review of Unusual Heroes, p. 52; October, 2003, Rosemary Anderson, review of Monster in the Mountains, p. 18; October, 2007, Leslie L. Kennedy, review of Eye of the Crow, p. 37.

School Library Journal, November, 2007, Sheila Fiscus, review of Eye of the Crow, p. 134.