GORD YAKIMOW

About the
Author

Gord Yakimow, is a retired teacher who lives, with his wife, in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, about 100 km east of Vancouver. They spent 18 years in the Yukon Territory. Together, they raised three children - a daughter and two sons. They have two grandchildren.

Gord has had many articles published in magazines and newspapers - mostly about travel or about wilderness experiences.

This is his first children's book.

About the
Artistic Advisor & Illustrator

John Yakimow, Gord’s son, is the Grods’ Artistic Advisor. John does design artwork for everything from video games to board games to 3D printing, and now children's books. It was John who first conceptualized the Grod characters.

The Grods' illustrator, Paul Schultz, is an artist/writer who, together with his wife, runs an independent art studio producing many wonderful, playful pieces of artwork. A graduate of Sheridan Tech in Oakville, Paul has been illustrating books and comics for the past twenty years. Their home is in Burlington, Ontario. They have one daughter.

About the Book

Despite Papa Grod’s best efforts, the Grod family’s Christmas lights have always looked “scruffy” and “hodge-podgey” and “tacky” (according to Mama Grod).

But now, with a fresh new set of high-quality Christmas lights (in Mama Grod’s favourite colours), and an eager work-crew to help him out (the three GrodKids), Papa Grod is confident that this year’s Grod family light display will be the best ever in the Valley of the EverGreens.

What could possibly go wrong?

"In this debut illustrated chapter book, Dad works a little too hard on the outdoor Christmas lights. Gord Yakimow deftly combines a story of relatable family life with humor and a fantasy twist. In the colorful, detailed illustrations conceptualized by John Yakimow, the author’s son, and engagingly rendered by Paul Schultz, the Grods are like all the inhabitants in the Valley of the EverGreens. They are tubby, gray, bulbous-nosed, big-eyed folk of indeterminate origin. Papa is endearingly well intentioned, and the love the family members feel for one another—even when Mama and the Grod children (Sister, Gordie, and Tommie) view the Christmas décor with varying degrees of enthusiasm—warms the narrative.

Appealing characters and lively storytelling suggest a welcome series in the making."

- Kirkus Reviews

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