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Formats
Paperback Details
  • 10/2021
  • 978-1-7776840-0-6
  • 320 pages
  • $20.65
Curtis Carmichael
Author
Butterflies in the Trenches: The Hood, an Epic Bike Ride, and Finding Inspiration

Young Adult; Memoir; (Market)

“Society gave us a script to follow based on our postal code and skin colour, but we ripped that stuff up and made a script of our own.”

Curtis Carmichael is an award-winning STEM educator, Team Canada Duathlete, and the founder of Ride for Promise. He was three-quarters of the way through his cross-Canada charity bike ride when the realization struck him: he wanted to help the teens coming up in the hood now... but first, he needed to help himself.

Butterflies in the Trenches is the candid story of Curtis' life in the public housing projects in Scarborough, Ontario, where he grew up surrounded by trap houses, attending underfunded schools, and avoiding drive-by shootings. He shares raw and intimate stories from his childhood as a drug dealer and hustler and explores the effects of poverty, systemic racism, and police brutality on Black and low-income communities.

Curtis writes vividly and with powerful honesty about life in the hood, mental health challenges, and the education he received from the dealers, rappers, hood philosophers, inmates, self-taught entrepreneurs, and OGs who shared the street corner with him. The eye-opening stories in Butterflies in the Trenches are both an education for teens ready to become self-sufficient and support their communities, and an incredible story of a young man who breaks the cycle of poverty. Illustrated with more than 100 photographs and brought to life with an augmented reality mobile app, Butterflies in the Trenches is an inspiring testimony to the resilience, willpower, and purpose of a young Black man with a deep love for a community that refuses to give up.

Reviews
Kirkus Reviews

"Butterflies in the Trenches is an intellectually and emotionally satisfying work and a meaningful and entertaining remembrance. A thought-provoking coming-of-age story."—Kirkus Review

News
10/01/2021
CP24 Breakfast news debut of the World’s First Augmented Reality memoir

T.O author debut book about 'growing up in the hood'

10/01/2021
CTV live news debut for Butterflies in the Trenches

Toronto author from the east side of Scarborough debuts the first Augmented Reality Memoir in the world.

10/12/2021
Scarborough-born activist & educator Curtis Carmichael wants to help kids thrive

Curtis Carmichael hopes to steer kids right with his new augmented reality memoir “Butterflies in the Trenches,” which allows readers to interact with the book via a mobile app.

Formats
Paperback Details
  • 10/2021
  • 978-1-7776840-0-6
  • 320 pages
  • $20.65
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