Chris Evans
Chris Evans is a Canadian writer and freelance educator who grew up in eastern Scarborough, Ontario on the Highland Creek valley. He is also a musician and songwriter, with a prolific music catalogue of well-loved original kids and adult songs.
Chris enjoyed a successful 3-decade career as a musical guest artist in hundreds of schools across southern Ontario, singing and writing songs with classes from Kindergarten to Grade 12. He also worked as program co-ordinator at the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre, designing engaging interactive programs, sharing his original songs, and leading classes of kids and adults on hikes to explore the beauty and wonder of nature.
His extensive travels around the world inspired an on-going interest in world music, culture and cuisine. An unforgettable journey through Egypt was the catalyst for this debut novel – ‘The Dream Whistle’. It is the first book in a planned series of stories, set in locations like England, Europe, Indonesia and Canada. They will all feature the exciting adventures of the vibrant young Canadian girl Izzy.
Links
This is a link to my other website, featuring my original songs for kids, and my long and joyous career in the schools as a freelance educator and musical guest artist.
This is my YouTube channel. It has a variety of my kids songs, along with a wide range of my adult songs – which include band songs, solo songs, instrumentals, and poet songs.
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Chris Evans on Writing The Dream Whistle
Where did my inspiration come from?
A trip to England in 1980 brought a most unexpected and surprising result. There I encountered the Ingrams, a long lost branch of our family, and also, my middle name! I found out how fun it was, hanging out with their kids—ranging from ages 8 to 12. They were really bright, and a joy to be around! This was a real revelation to me, as I had been playing in Rock and Roll bands and had no interaction with kids at all. It turned out that they inspired my entire 30 year career as a guest educator and musical artist in the schools, doing music, songwriting, and stories with classes of all age kids. And this led me eventually to writing the book.
What sparked the idea for The Dream Whistle?
I’d like to read you something that sparked the idea for this book, The Dream Whistle. In visiting Leslie Mcfarlane Public School in Whitby, in the fall of 1995, I played my Egyptian song. In order to set it up I told the story of my trip there.
Afterwards one of the Grade 7 students asked me, “Do you write books?”
I said, “No?”
Another one said, “You should!”
I said, “Like what?”
They said, “Like the Egypt story you just told us. We’d read it!”
I wheeled around and said, “Really?”
They said, “Yes!”