CLA Book of the Year for Children Award, 2004, Short-listed, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
IODE Violet Downey Book Award, 2004, Winner, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Mr. Christie's Book Award, 2004, Winner, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Hackmatack Award, 2005, Short-listed, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Governor General's Literary Awards: Text, 2003, Short-listed, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Chocolate Lily Award, 2004, Long-listed, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award, 2004, Long-listed, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, 2004, Long-listed, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
CCBC Our Choice (Starred Selection), 2004, Commended, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice, 2004, Commended, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack.
Told with the outsize zest of a tall tale, this vibrant, well-crafted novel starts strong and gets even better.
- Publishers Weekly, starred review
Ellis has created a small gem here, with messages about following your heart tucked into the sentences, phrases, thoughts, and ideas that she seamlessly weaves together.
- Booklist, starred review
This special book is filled with often humorous and extraordinarily rich descriptive prose that is always a pleasure to read and full of surprises.
- Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The playfulness of this picaresque short novel is utterly engaging. Words, words and more words, alliterative pairs of words like villains and volumes, scholars and scoundrels, toffee and tyrants, fall in torrents from the pages...
- Globe and Mail
...there is real strength in Ellis's turns of phrase, use of imagery, and alliteration, and in showing readers the power of words and ideas to liberate the imagination.
- School Library Journal
[An] agile tale about wanderlust and the power of words. Ellis demonstrates through her creative - and often surprising - use of metaphor that an active imagination and rich vocabulary are a healthy combination.
- Horn Book