M A R T H E J O C E L Y N

Would You

Ready for Summer
Four new board books dress up the seasons!
Collage illustrations bring texture and pattern to life...

EATS

How It Happened in Peach Hill
"Along with the humour, the quips and quirks of the medium's patter, Jocelyn offers her readers real substance – a valiant, enterprising hero of a girl whose struggles for independence from her grasping, manipulative mother are painful and familiar." (Toronto Star)

Annie's mother can speak to the dead. But she can't realy speak to Annie...

Would You

Over Under

Ready for Fall!

Ready for Summer!

Ready for Winter!

Ready for Spring!

One Some Many

ABC X 3
A Trilingual Alphabet

Over Under

One Some Many

Secrets
An anthology of tales about secrets, waiting to be told...

First Times

The Broadway Tunnel

Mayfly

A Home for Foundlings
During the 1800’s, children were particularly vulnerable in the world at large. In much of Europe, the mortality rate among children of the poor was as high as 90%, and there were few social nets for those without parents. The establishment of the extraordinary Foundling Hospital by Thomas Coram, was, in its way, a revolution.

The Palazzo Funeral Parlor
Story in the collection On Her Way
Sisters move into the apartment above a funeral parlour. When their piano teacher dies, their curiosity takes over. . .

Mable Riley:
A Reliable Record of
Humdrum, Peril & Romance
This story of a fledgling writer and awakening activist in 1901 was inspired by diaries I found in the attic of my grandmother's house..

A Day With Nellie
The reaction to my art that I like best is when a child tries to pick something up from the page.
In A Day With Nellie, this could happen over and over, as each part of the toddler's day is illustrated in bright and humorous collage.

Hannah and the Seven Dresses
Hannah twirls, jumps, plays, and of course, gets dressed, with her red sneakers the one aspect of her fashion statement that never changes. Seven days, seven colours, seven dresses. What will Hannah wear today?

Hannah's Collections
This book is packed with things that teachers love, like primary math concepts and problem-solving. But it also has beautiful pictures that were REALLY hard to make! For instance, look closely at those popsicle sticks. Only on one page are they real - all the others are hand-carved to fit the scale of the picture. Look again!

Earthly Astonishments
I first imagined the heroine, Josephine, to be a tiny, magical creature, but soon realized that by making her a real child, readers would be more able to identify with her. Then I placed her in a time when New York City was teeming with construction and con-artists, crowded with lost souls struggling to be found...
I wanted to write a 'dime novel', a page-turner full of adventure.
I like the review (Riverbank Review) that says: "In true Dickensian fashion, Jocelyn makes Josephine comfortable in (her) new life, then resuscitates sundry villains to complicate the melodrama... Jocelyn's novel performs a delicate balancing act, maintaining a moral grounding in spite of a sensationalistic plot."

The Invisible books
The Invisible Day was my very first book.
When my older daughter was nine years old, she began to yearn for more mobility in the big city. Just as Billie Stoner's mother does in the book, I was still walking my daughter to school and anywhere else she needed to go. Kids that age in New York don't get to be alone very often.
"You'd have to be invisible before I'd let you walk around by yourself," I told her.
And there was the IDEA for a story.

The Invisible Harry
"Fans of The Invisible Day will love being reunited with Marthe Jocelyn's unforgettable case of zany characters and Abby Carter's quirky illustrations."

My daughter, Nell, has always longed for a puppy, or even a pet of a less demanding nature. But a small apartment in New York City is really not a good home for a dog. The Invisible Harry was written to prove that, though of course I had to give it a happy ending!

The Invisible Enemy
What do you do when your sworn enemy becomes invisible and only you know how to fix her?
Do you leave her invisible?
Or do you help her, only to have her wreak havoc on you again? And if you do come to your enemy's aid, does that make her your friend?
I wanted to write a story about kids who have to figure out how to get along, how to rely on each other, even if they're not really friends. And having a little messy magic always helps stir up trouble.