the exact likeness of living persons

Wry observations on friendship, the fragility of love and survival, and the unfathomable scope of human behaviour in a collection of poems, short stories, a play, and a song. Included in the ensemble is the tale of a WW2 bomber crew’s daring escape; a complicated romance in a retirement residence; and, the youthful lament of a tangled friendship. The Exact Likeness of Living Persons swings from the laughable and ironic, to the deadly serious, much like life itself.

About the Author:

Margaret J. McMaster published her first book of middle-grade fiction, Carried Away on Licorice Days, in 2008. It was nominated for three literary awards: the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award, the 2010/2011 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award, and the 2011 Rocky Mountain Book Award. In 2009 she started writing the Babysitter Out of Control! series. These amusing, fast-paced adventures include: Babysitter Out of Control!, Looking for Love on Mongo Tongo, The Improbable Party on Purple Plum Lane, What Happened in July, The Sinking of the Wiley Bean, and, The Queen of Second Chances. The Complete Babysitter Out of Control! Series, published in 2015, was long-listed for the 2016 Silver Birch Award, was a Best Books for Kids & Teens selection, and won the GOLD MEDAL in the 2015 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award, Early Reader/1^st Chapter Books category. McMaster is a past contributor to the Canadian Children’s Annual and her creative non-fiction piece, After All These Years, was shortlisted for the 2006 CBC Literary Award. So Much Potential, a novel set in the Lake Erie fishing industry, was published in 2013. It was a Best Book for Kids & Teens *Starred* Selection. The first book in her Phoebe Sproule series, 8 Days in DUMBO, was named one of *The Year’s Best* by Resource Links and won an Honourable Mention in the 2019/2020 Reader Views Literary Awards. The sequel, The Haunting of Cedar Hill Plantation, was released in 2020 and won a Bronze Medal in the Reader Views Literary Awards. Her first book of adult short fiction, The Exact Likeness of Living Persons, won a Silver Medal in the 2022/2023 Reader Views Literary Awards.

Books by This Author:

Teen Fiction:

So Much Potential

Juvenile Fiction:

The Haunting of Cedar Hill Plantation

8 Days in DUMBO

Carried Away on Licorice Days

Early Chapter Books:

Babysitter Out of Control!

Looking For Love on Mongo Tongo

The Improbable Party on Purple Plum Lane

What Happened in July

The Sinking of the Wiley Bean

The Queen of Second Chances

The Complete Babysitter Out of Control! Series