Not to be missed! Ng excels at character-building and dialogue and he’s got style to burn. Add all that to a vision of a vanished Toronto – the seventies, when Yorkville was skid row and Chinatown began and ended at Dundas and Spadina. It’s all here along with a great plot about a pair of kids peddling pot.—MARGARET CANNON, The Globe and Mail

Johnny Delivers is a wild ride filled with memorable moments both poignant and hilarious. Wayne Ng delivers big time.—IAN COLFORD, The Miramichi Reader

Every page of Johnny Delivers was full of excitement. This coming-of-age story really has it all – a hero, a villain, a sidekick, and a moral battle to be fought. Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng gives an exciting, emotional, and sometimes hilarious account of what it means to grow up “different” while trying to fit in, make good choices and hold a family together. With memorable characters, an intense plot, and a history lesson all rolled into one, Johnny Delivers is a must-read and a story you will not soon forget.—LAURA PATTERSON, The Seaboard Review. 

Wayne Ng’s Johnny Delivers, hits it out of the park. This hilarious and enthralling account of a teenager’s quest to save his family restaurant and keep his parents together by becoming a purveyor of marijuana is a must-read…Ng’s cutting social critique is perfectly complemented by a sense of nostalgia and the aspiration for acceptance by one’s peers…Ng draws on decades of experience as a social worker for the Ottawa Catholic School Board, giving him a wealth of insights and contacts with young people that inform his characters and plots. —IAN THOMAS SHAW, The Ottawa Review of Books 

Johnny Delivers does just that!! It’s a funny, sweet, rollercoaster of a story that delivers more than just egg rolls with drugs. Wayne Ng is at his best as he skillfully weaves hilarious, edge-of-your-seat action with poignant teen angst. Lovably innocent Johnny Wong is obsessed with Bruce Lee, girls, writing, and keeping his family from falling apart, no matter what. I couldn’t put it down.—KATIE TALLO, International bestselling author of Dark August

Wayne Ng delivers in giving us an authentic glimpse into the struggles and racism faced by Chinese immigrants in Toronto in 1977 through the eyes of a spirited teenager whom you will root for.—JENNILEE AUSTRIA-BONIFACIO, CBC Reads longlisted for Reuniting with Strangers

Johnny Delivers is a story ripe for reading if you’re a reader who likes unique, sharply-written characters; coming-of-age adventures; sparks of history woven throughout; ingenuity, and lots of humour. This is a highly entertaining, brilliantly paced, fall-in-love story.—CARRIE STANTON, The Miramichi Reader

In Johnny Delivers, Wayne Ng crafts a poignant and heartbreaking saga of betrayal, hurt, human frailty amidst compassion, and undying love for one’s family. Ng is a highly accomplished storyteller whose affecting and humorous voice shines through his nuanced depiction of the Chinese immigrant experience in 1970s Toronto, while subverting Asian Canadian tropes of the model-minority myth. The real-world events that drive the plot, of a young man parenting his parents, taking on his mother’s debt with his self-sacrifice, and his eventual turning to crime as a means of survival, make this a deeply compelling novel. Within these pages, you will find sorrow, innocence, sympathy and coming-of-age, propelled by the deep yearnings of a complicated protagonist.—LINDSAY WONG, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality and CBC Reads finalist for The Woo-Woo

Gritty, funny, sad and uplifting. A great story about food, family and finding your way.—KEVIN SYLVESTER, bestselling author of the MiNRS Trilogy

Family secrets, cultural identity, racism, and crime collide in this coming of age story that is equal parts funny and vexing. I was charmed by Johnny’s compassion and good intentions, and I read with increasing anxiety as his ambition causes the walls to close in. A fascinating portrayal of an immigrant family’s experience of Toronto in the 70s, Johnny Delivers is thought-provoking, heartfelt, and highly entertaining.—KATE A BOORMAN, award-winning author of Winterkill

A number of catastrophes finally bring the different lives Johnny has built for himself colliding together such that he is forced to act: there’s a botched order, the restaurant’s debt, triads, his mother’s gambling and her intuition about his life, a kidnapping and, finally, a family revelation involving paper sons and paper daughters worthy of this Star Wars movie Johnny keeps hearing about. Johnny Delivers is a coming-of-age novel as a thriller, deftly weaving these strands together to build momentum as Johnny rushes headlong into adulthood.—ADAM MCPHEE, Event Magazine

A great trip to Toronto the Good when it was still illegal to shop on Sunday. This is a great book but it’s also a nice historical look. Great gift for any Toronto lover.—MARGARET CANNON, The Globe and Mail

In a much awaited sequel to his award-winning novel Letters from Johnny, Wayne Ng introduces us to an older Johnny balancing family debt and the drug underworld. The complexity of Asian family dynamics are revealed through concise dialogues. Much is left unsaid. Family secrets are tenaciously guarded or simply brushed off. Humour is used as a defence mechanism. As a Vietnamese-Canadian, I understand well this wall of silence permeating first generation immigrants. Ng writes with authenticity. He writes from the heart. To understand Johnny’s dilemma is to understand the immigrant experience. Johnny Delivers should be on all reading lists.—CAROLINE VU, author of Catinat Boulevard

Title: Johnny Delivers

Author: Wayne Ng
Publisher:  Guernica Editions
Publication Dates: Oct 31, 2024
Number of Pages: 283
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction-Coming of Age, Fiction-Humorous,  Crime, Mystery, Multicultural, Own Voices
ISBN 10: 1771838906
ISBN 13: 978-177183890