Author of
Shirley & Jamila’s Big Fall (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2021)
Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer (Dial Books for Young Readers,2020)
Gillian Goerz is an illustrator, writer and cartoonist. Her comics have been seen in The Walrus, Descant Magazine, the Humber Literary Review, with frequent collaborator and award winning author Mariko Tamaki. CBC books named Gillian’s contribution “a highlight” of the original The Secret Loves of Geek Girls (Darkhorse Comics, Bedside Press). She is the writer and illustrator of the webcomic Jerkface A-Hole. She is also the recipient of both Toronto and Ontario Arts Council grants supporting Shirley Bones, her graphic novel in-progress (a retelling of Sherlock Holmes, set in Toronto, staring nine year old girl detectives), to be published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2020.
Gillian Goerz
Books by Gillian
Shirley & Jamila’s Big Fall (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2021)
For fans of Raina Telgemeier and Victoria Jamieson, this middle grade graphic novel tells the story of Shirley and Jamila, two girl detectives on a mission to stop their school’s biggest bully once and for all
As Jamila settles into the rhythms of classes and after-school basketball practice, Shirley has a new mystery on her mind. Her old enemy Chuck is up to his usual tricks: He’s been blackmailing kids all over school, and Shirley knows that she and Jamila can put a stop to it.
They hatch a plan: They’ll break into his house late one night and recover all the notes Chuck’s been using to blackmail innocent kids. But while Shirley and Jamila are at the house, another intruder arrives—an intruder who can help them put a stop to Chuck’s crimes once and for all.
Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer (Dial Books for Young Readers,2020)
Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer is the first in a Middle Grade graphic novel series inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Set in modern-day Toronto and narrated by 10-year-old Jamila Waheed, the basketball loving youngest daughter of a Pakistani-Canadian family who – as in the original series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – is alternately fascinated and infuriated by her brilliant, mystery-solving friend Shirley Bones.
When Jamila and Shirley first meet at a neighborhood tag sale, Jamila is immediately impressed by Shirley’s powers of deduction: she knows instantly that Jamila is a younger sister to two brothers, and that she’s passionate about basketball. Jamila and Shirley quickly discover that they share the same dream of escaping their mothers’ rigid summer plans for them. So Shirley hatches a brilliant plan and with the unexpected support of Jamila's brother Farooq, the girls get their mothers to agree that instead of undesirable day camps, they can spend their days at the nearby basketball court, as long as they are together. This arrangement allows Jamila to pursue her passion while giving Shirley long stretches of time (and a place where the neighborhood kids can easily track her down) to practice her own crime-solving. Away from their parents’ eyes, the girls begin to forge a new relationship with the multi-cultural city they belong to, all while solving mysteries. In this first case, Shirley and Jamila use their wiles (and enlist the helps local daycare kid informants) to help 8-year-old Oliver and his 12-year-old sister Vee find out who stole their gecko from the local pool.
Over the course of this book, and ultimately the series overall, Shirley and Jamila begin to forge a connection that will be transformative for both of them: in Shirley, Jamila finds adventure, and the intrigue of mystery; in Jamila, Shirley finds a conspirator, a voice of reason and an unexpected friend.