Calvin
- Winner, Governor General Award of Canada
- Selected for Shelf Awareness Best YA Books of the Year 2015
- YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2016
- Selected for OLA Top Ten Best Bets 2016
- Selected for CCBC Best Books for Children and Teens 2016
- Short-listed for White Pine Award 2017
- Selected for the IBBY Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2017
- Winner, Whitney Award
Reviews for Calvin
Booklist
"A fresh, funny voice that never diminishes the seriousness of schizophrenia. . . . Leavitt delivers an imaginative exploration of mental illness, examining what's real and what's true in this magical world."
Kirkus
"Equal parts coming-of-age tale, survival adventure, and love story, this outstanding novel also sensitively deals with an uncommon but very real teen issue, making it far more than the sum of its parts."
Horn Book
"The first-person narrative eschews quotation marks and dialogue tags, further blurring the lines between real life and what's in Calvin's head. . . . Memorable."
Quill & Quire
"Leavitt's writing is virtually flawless . . . just the right amount of comic savvy and emotional intelligence."
School Library Journal
"This is a gentle and unique story about a boy struggling with schizophrenia; while Calvin is indeed having grandiose visions that include a beloved cartoon character, he is funny, charming, and smart."
Publisher's Weekly
"Funny, intellectual, and entertaining, it's a sensitive yet irreverent adventure about a serious subject."
The Compulsive Reader
"Calvin is a brilliant little book, bursting with beauty and life."
Drew Rowsome
"Thanks to his rich fantasy life and schizophrenia, Calvin is an utterly-reliable unreliable narrator. He shifts in and out of visions and reality. it is disorienting in the most intriguing way. Leavitt/Calvin writes about the thin line between artistic genius and madness, and by doing so manages to walk that tightrope. If Watterson has read the book, and he certainly should, he will be honoured and humbled. The rest of us just get to enjoy it and go on a journey that touched me far more than I ever expected: much in the manner of a humble but brilliant comic strip touching one's soul."
