Tumanov, Vladimir A. 1961-

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TUMANOV, Vladimir A. 1961-

PERSONAL: Born December 29, 1961, in Moscow, USSR (now Russia); married Larissa Klein Tumanov (a teacher of French); children: Alexander, Vanessa. Education: University of Alberta, Ph.D., 1993.

ADDRESSES: Home—50 Rexway Rd., London, Ontario, Canada N6G 3C3. E-mail—vtumanov@uwo.ca.

CAREER: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, assistant professor, 1991-96, associate professor, 1996—.

MEMBER: Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers.

WRITINGS:

Listening to Okudzhava: Twenty-three Aural Comprehension Exercises in Russian, Focus Publishing (Newburyport, MA), 1996.

Mind Reading: Unframed Direct Interior Monologue in European Fiction, Rodopi (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1997.

Jayden's Rescue (for children), Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Ecce Bellum: Garshin's "Four Days," edited by Peter Henry, Northgate Press, 2000. Contributor to journals, including Neophilologus, Romantic Review, Orbis Litterarum, Yiddish, Russian Literature, Russian Language Journal, Canadian Literature, and Scando-Slavica.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A sequel to Jayden's Rescue titled Old Scroll; a new novel for children titled Greggie-Boy the Bug.

SIDELIGHTS: Vladimir A. Tumanov told CA, "Before coming to write for children, I published academic books and articles on topics related to comparative literature and second-language acquisition. My first children's novel is Jayden's Rescue. This book—intended for children in grades four to six—is an adventure story complete with sorcery, narrow escapes, and suspense. However, this fantasy comes with a twist: The entire plot revolves around mathematical puzzles presented in verse. The protagonists must solve the puzzles (with the reader's help) in order to save an imprisoned queen and extricate themselves from a very dangerous predicament. The ultimate aim of Jayden's Rescue is to present math for what it really is: an adventure, a quest, and a true thrill for the mind."

"I wrote this book to inspire my son to enjoy math. I knew that he loved fantasy fiction. The novel began as a simple concept: getting out of a prison by solving math puzzles. It evolved into an adventure story with my son and daughter as protagonists. Several teachers have pointed out to me how useful they have found Jayden's Rescue for motivating children to view math in a positive light." A reviewer for Canadian Living called Jayden's Rescue a book "that will intrigue young readers and have them pulling out a pencil to solve the puzzles."