I Love My City

Written by France Desmarais and Richard Adam

Illustrated by Yves Dumont

Translated by Nicholas Aumais

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-283-7

56 pp.

Ages 8-12

March 2023

From issues of transportation and land use, to balancing human needs with environmental stewardship and sustainability, urban studies are an important part of the school curricula from Grades 3 upwards. But focusing on cities in all their nuances, from their histories to their economies, politics, services, and cultures, is a tall order. Still, France Desmarais gives us that big picture because of Richard Adam's background in urban studies, architecture, and public administration. And so, the story of cities is told.

From I Love My City by France Desmarais and Richard Adam, illus. by Yves Dumont

In a well-organized and comprehensive story, France Desmarais and Richard Adam explain how and where cities were first established. They cover the different types of cities across the globe, from favelas to megacities. They also look within those cities for those who manage cities, from City Halls to urban planners and all the services needed to ensure functioning hubs. Water filtration, wastewater systems, renewable and non-renewable sources of energy, and transportation are all covered in some depth but never so expansive that the reader will bore or get lost. Beyond the information, which usefully includes bolded words for emphasis, including demonym, funicular and hydroelectricity, there are anecdotes from around the world to add interest and demonstrate relevance. From the Zabbaleen of Cairo and the invention of the traffic lights and the underground reservoirs of Montreal, young readers will visit cities of the world and look deep into their infrastructures and their efforts to balance populations with environment.

From I Love My City by France Desmarais and Richard Adam, illus. by Yves Dumont

Beyond the content, though, are Yves Dumont's illustrations that show the breadth of cities through time and space. Whether it's the plans of cities to integrate all housing, transport and services, or stylized depictions of power plants, or busy couriers on bikes and commuters on public transport, Montreal's Yves Dumont brings cities to life. He gives them colour and motion, purpose and serenity. He makes them everything to everyone, just as are the cities which have evolved in our world.

From I Love My City by France Desmarais and Richard Adam, illus. by Yves Dumont

Teachers don't need to wait until World Cities Day (October 31) to use I Love My City in their classrooms. With discussions from history and civics, architecture and energy, I Love My City will be a useful teaching tool and readable book of non-fiction for young readers every day of the year.

Echoes and Empires

 

Written by Morgan Rhodes

Razorbill

978-0-593351659

400 pp.

Ages 12-18

2022 

Reviewed from audiobook (978-0-593502839)

Josslyn Drake has always led a privileged life as the First Daughter of the Regarian prime minister. Of course, things changed drastically when her father was assassinated by the warlock Lord Zarek Banyon at last year's Queen's Gala. Still, Queen Isadora, a close family friend, has allowed her to stay in the PM's residence, now home to Prime Minister Ambrose and Celina, his daughter and Joss's best friend, as well as providing Joss with a generous allowance.

But a year after her father's murder at the annual Queen's Gala, Joss's life is again turned around. First, she learns that Celina is now betrothed to Joss's own crush Viktor, a commander in the Queensguard. Then, when she goes to view the stolen artifacts retrieved from Banyon's residence, she interrupts the theft of an ornate box from which a golden smoke is released and enters Joss. The next day, the young thief, Jericho Nox, finds her and reveals that memory magic is now in Joss and he must get it back for his employer, the witch Valery. Having been indoctrinated to believe that all magic is evil and uncontrollable, and the source of all illness, violence and cruelty, Joss wants the magic out of her as much as Jericho wants to get it back. This is especially true because the memories Joss sees as echoes are those of her father's killer, Lord Banyon.

 

Still, getting the magic out of her becomes even more complicated after they are betrayed and imprisoned in the walled prison known as the Queen's Keep. So now, not only do they need to get the magic out of her and quickly, as Valery is causing Jericho much pain through the marks by which she has bonded him to her, but they must find a way out of the Keep, which only seems possible by making a dangerous deal with the Overlord, Vander Lazos, once magical advisor to the Queen and a former friend of Banyon's. But that deal requires Jericho, who possesses death magic, to destroy a creature that torments the Keep, and even that does not ensure their escape from the walled community or the removal of the magic from Joss.

Morgan Rhodes has created another complex fantasy of magic in which an unlikely pair of brash young people must work to together–and maybe fall in love–to get what they both want. Unfortunately, they are both at the dictates of those who have and will deceive them before they offer any assistance, and the two must rely on each other rather than those who have always appeared to be in their corners. Some readers may find seventeen-year-old Joss unlikable as the privileged child of the empire, accustomed to wealth and recognition, and typically showing contempt for those less than herself but with whom she must ally herself. Jericho, on the other hand, is just a hard shell of a young man of nineteen, having suffered numerous tragedies from the deaths of his parents and now bondage to a treacherous but powerful witch who chooses to use him as a tool of lawlessness. They are very different but still connected through a bit of magic and a whole lot of misadventure. 

But, beyond her wealth of characters, and Joss and Jericho are but the main ones, Morgan Rhodes gives us a new world of fantasy, in which magic is manipulated and cursed, in which secrets are used to control and protect, and affection is a commodity of both innocence and might. With each step of their mission to remove the magic from Joss and deliver it to Valery, the two teens grow and become more than they had been and more than they'd expected to be. From objects of compliance with social norms and their manipulators, Joss and Jericho start to see beyond that which is presented to them. They're starting to see the world as it truly is.

Everything Morgan Rhodes (a.k.a. Michelle Rowen for adult readers) writes is gold. She weaves characters and stories together into rich fabrics, complex with the depth of the connections of their plights and natures. She makes us laugh with their foibles and sarcasm, and has us cheering for them when they endure and even conquer. And she makes us swoon when the unlikeliest of characters find soulmates. Echoes and Empires delivers all that and more, and there will be many a reader, including this one, anticipating the sequel, Legends and Liars, which comes out in June.

 

• • • • • •

When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left

Art by Peter H. Reynolds

Words by Marc Colagiovanni

Orchard Books

978-1-338-83118-4

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2023

 

Of course, things don't always go right. That's life. But how we handle it when things don't go right makes for a good story when we get back on track.

From When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left by Marc Colagiovanni, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds

In Rhode Island's Marc Colagiovanni's debut picture book, a child is burdened by a box of worries, a sack of doubts, a suitcase of fears and a knapsack of frustrations. He wants to try something that has frustrated him, worried him, scared him, and made him doubt himself. It's a pool with a diving board.

From When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left by Marc Colagiovanni, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds

He'd attempted a dive once and had been unsuccessful, and now considers another attempt. Ah, but there are those doubts and those fears and more. Worse yet, as he attempts to leave them behind, one encumbrance at a time, the annoying creatures shout back at him. Can he make them manageable or leave them behind to take control?

From When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left by Marc Colagiovanni, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds

The message that it's okay to put down your burdens is an important one for all of us who sometimes feel we need to power through everything and anything. Marc Colagiovanni obviously knows this and, by using an example of a child attempting something that both scares and frustrates him, he reminds us that not everything is going to go right or be easy. It could be trying a formidable dive or making a new friend or overlooking those pesky demons that cause us stress and worry. We all have them, and we all need to find coping strategies to get beyond them. The message is meaningful, but the medium is everything.

From When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left by Marc Colagiovanni, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds

The artwork from Peter H. Reynolds takes When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left from social emotional advice to a visualization for coping. Though some may see a child attempting a dive as trivial, to that child those burdens of worry and fear are great. They are heavy loads of disquiet and cannot be diminished because others might seem them as negligible. Peter H. Reynolds makes us feel the weight of those burdens in the child's face and body language and, most clearly, in the palette of the art. From the grey blues and purples of the child's troubled steps, through the times of lighter oranges and pinks, until his world is bright and sunny yellow, this child feels everything, and so do we. 

Peter H. Reynolds's books are always a treat of messaging and graphics, and his collaboration with Marc Colagiovanni reminds us again that we have the capacity to make things better for ourselves while inspiring all of us to do our best.

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When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left by Marc Colagiovanni and Peter H. Reynolds | BOOK TRAILER

Uploaded by Scholastic to YouTube on February 222, 2023.

World Water Day (March 22): A youngCanLit booklist

March 22 has been designed World Water Day. It's a day to celebrate water, from its role in our lives to our role in its sustainability and protection. From drinking water to rivers, and oceans to ponds, water plays a critical role in our lives and we in its. Some of these books celebrate our everyday relationships with water, from its life-sustaining role to our use of it for swimming, but some, especially those for older readers, emphasize the power of water during storms and floods. Others speak to the inequities of water availability and our role in water's conservation. Whether encouraging young children to recognize water as more than the stuff that comes out of the taps, or inspiring them to action, these picture books, novels and non-fiction books all remind us to consider the role water plays in our lives.

 

Anna Carries Water

Written by Olive Senior

Illustrated by Laura James

Tradewind Books 

40 pp.

Ages 3-6

2014

 

At the Pond

Written and illustrated by Werner Zimmermann
North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)
32 pp.
Ages 2-5

2018

Reviewed here

The Case of the Shrinking Friend (A Gumboot Kids Nature Mystery)
Written by Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford

Firefly Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2021

 

City of Water (ThinkCities)

Written by Andrea Curtis
Illustrated by Katy Dockrill

Groundwood Books
40 pp.
Ages 8-10

2021

 

Dive In! Exploring Our Connections with the Ocean (Orca Footprint)

Written by Ann Eriksson

Orca Book Publishers

75 pp.

Ages 9-12

2018

 

Eco Warrior (Submarine Outlaw)

Written by Philip Roy

Ronsdale Press

200 pp.

Ages 10+

2015

Reviewed here

 

Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home (Orca Footprint)

Written by Michelle Mulder 

Orca Book Publishers

48 pp.

Ages 8-12

2014

 

Fresh Air, Clean Water: Our Right to a Healthy Environment
Written by Megan Clendenan

Illustrated by Julie McLaughlin

Orca Book Publishers 

112 pp.

Ages 9-12

2022

A Good Trade

Written by Alma Fullerton
Illustrated by Karen Patkau
Pajama Press
32 pp.
Ages 5+

2012 

Reviewed here

Mermaid Warrior Squad

Written by Karin Adams
Illustrated by Janine Carrington
James Lorimer & Co.
150 pp.
Ages 7-11

2017

Reviewed here

My River: Cleaning Up the LaHave River

Written by Anne Laurel Carter
Formac
96 pp.
Ages 7-12

2018

Reviewed here

Nibi's Water Song

Written by Sunshine Tenasco
Illustrated by Chief Lady Bird
North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2019

Reviewed here

 

No More Plastic
Written and illustrated by Alma Fullerton
Pajama Press

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

2021

 

One Well: The Story of Water on Earth    

Rochelle Strauss

Illustrated by Rosemary Woods
Kids Can Press 

32 pp.
Ages 8-13

2007

 

Ryan and Jimmy and the Well in Africa that Brought Them Together (CitizenKid) 

Written by Herb Shoveller    

Kids Can Press

56 pp.
Ages 10-14

2006

 

Safe As Houses

Written by Eric Walters

Puffin Canada

176 pp.

Ages 10+

2007

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist

Written by Jess Keating
Illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
40 pp.
Ages 4+

2017

Reviewed here

 

Swimming, Swimming

Written and illustrated by Gary Clement
Groundwood Books
48 pp.
Ages 4-7
April 2015 

Reviewed here

 

Swimming with Seals

Written by Maggie de Vries
Illustrated by Janice Kun
Orca Book Publishers
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2018 

 

A Terrible Tide: A Story of the Newfoundland Tsunami of 1929
Written by Suzanne Meade

Second Story Press
177 pp.
Ages 9-12 

2021

 

The Town That Drowned

Written  by Riel Nason
Goose Lane Editions
273 pp.
Ages 12+
2011

Reviewed here

Treaty Words: For As Long As the Rivers Flow

Written by Aimée Craft
Illustrated by Luke Swinson
Annick Press
60 pp.
Ages 10+

2021

Reviewed here

 

Upstream, Downstream: Exploring Watershed Connections (Orca Footprint)
Written by Rowena Rae
Orca Book Publishers

48 pp.
Ages 9-12

2021

 

Walking for Water: How One Boy Stood Up for Gender Equality (CitizenKid)
Written by Susan Hughes
Illustrated by Nicole Miles

Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 7-10

2021

Water's Children: Celebrating the resource that unites us all

Written by Angèle Delaunois
Illustrated by Gérard Frischeteau
Translated by Erin Woods
Pajama Press
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2017

Reviewed here

 

The Water Walker

Written and illustrated by Joanne Robertson
Second Story Press
36 pp.
Ages 6-9

2017

Reviewed here

 

Water Water

Written and illustrated by Jessica Bromley Bartram
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 5+

2021 

Reviewed here

Water, Water
Written by Cary Fagan
Illustrated by Jon McNaught

Tundra Books
151 pp.
Ages 8-11

2022

 

Water Wow!: A Visual Exploration

Written by Paula Ayer and Antonia Banyard

Illustrated by Belle Wuthrich

Annick Presss

64 pp.

Ages 9-12

2016 

Wet

Written and illustrated by Carey Sookocheff
Henry Holt and Company
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2017

Reviewed here

Who Needs a Swamp? (A Wetland Ecosystem)

Written and illustrated by Karen Patkau

Tundra

32 pp.

Ages 7-10

20212

Whoosh! A Watery World of Wonderful Creatures 

Written by Marilyn Baillie

Illustrated by Susan Mitchell 

Owlkids Books

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

2014

Sometimes I Feel Like a River

Written by Danielle Daniel

Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-695-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

March 2023

 

In 2015, Danielle Daniel brought us Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox to help her own child identify with his First Nations roots and allow other children to see themselves in the strengths and behaviours of animals. Now, Danielle Daniel has teamed up with illustrator Josée Bisaillon to take children on another sensory experience, one in which her poems reflect feelings as landscape elements from rivers to oceans and even the moon.

From Sometimes I Feel Like a River by Danielle Daniel, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

In four-line free verses, Danielle Daniel compares children's moods to how they experiences different environmental attributes. When a child feels like the sun, there is brightness and joy inside of them. If one feels like a river, it's because there is bending and maneuvering around obstacles. Another feels strong like a mountain, another peaceful like the sky, and others feels like rain or rainbows. All moods are reflected and recognized.

From Sometimes I Feel Like a River by Danielle Daniel, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

Just as there are different moods, there are different children, ensuring that all young readers might see themselves within and know that they and their feelings are validated.

From Sometimes I Feel Like a River by Danielle Daniel, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

Sometimes I Feel Like a River is a lovely meditative reflection in sensory metaphors. Both in Danielle Daniel's verse and in Josée Bisaillon's art, the emotions that are reflected are true, emulating both the range of experiences within and as a part of our natural world. Danielle Daniel's words take us into the smile of a rainbow, the "boom, roar, bang" of thunder or the depths of an ocean. We feel through her words what the child feels. But the feelings are not just internal. They are also connecting with the outside world and that's what Danielle Daniel wants us to do. She completes her book with a text called "A Mindful Walk or Roll" to help children take an excursion into nature to see and feel, to hear and smell. She wants children to know that they reflect the world as the world is part of them.

 

Because Josée Bisaillon uses a variety of media, including soft and wax pastels, cut paper, coloured pencils, gouache, charcoal, and even digital art, she can depict a full range of emotions and textures of place and people. Whether a child is reaching mountain peaks into the clouds or swimming in the colourful underwater world of an ocean, Josée Bisaillon delivers us into the experience.

Even after feeling the full range of emotions portrayed through Danielle Daniel's words and Josée Bisaillon's illustrations, I was left subdued and in a contemplative mood, pondering my own natural world of snow and trees and sun. Sometimes I Feel Like a River made me feel part of something, something bigger and more important. It's a good feeling.

Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome

Written by Nancy Cooper

Illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

Owlkids Books

 978-1-77147-515-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2023

 

It may be a reunion of beavers, but Amik's little sister Nishiime is a little anxious. What should she expect from all these beavers coming from far and wide?

From Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome by Nancy Cooper, illus. by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

From the East and the far West, from the North and the South, Amik's cousins arrive and are welcomed. They bring gifts from their regions, whether a woven headband or berries in a basket, all generous and all received with gratitude. But Nishiime is nowhere to be found.

From Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome by Nancy Cooper, illus. by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

As the beavers go looking for Nishiime, Amik asks the deer, fish, fox, and otters if they've seen her. Though none have seen her, they all acknowledge the help that the beavers' activities have fortuitously provided them. Whether it's being able to reach the leaves of felled trees, or channels to swim in, a bridge to cross, or feeding in shallow waters created by dams, all the animals are appreciative.

From Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome by Nancy Cooper, illus. by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

It's not until the cousins are preparing to head home that Nishiime comes out of hiding, revealing the reason for her apprehension, and recognizing it as unfounded.

Using beavers to tell her tale, Nancy Cooper reminds us that, though we might come from different places and have different families, we are more alike than we might expect. Nishiime almost misses out on meeting her beaver cousins because of her fears; fortunately, she finally recognizes that though they might wear different markings, jewelry, and clothes, and all have different names–Amik is Anishinaabe, Amisk is Cree, Gopit is Mi'kmaq, Amicos is Algonquin, Kigiaq is Inuktitut, Qowut is Ayajuthum and Tsyennìto is Kanyen-kéha Mohawk–they are all beavers. Moreover, Amik and her family have been making everyone feel welcome, including the different species of animals. In a story about diversity and acceptance of differences, Nancy Cooper also reminds us of the interrelationship of living things. The message of connectedness and acceptance may be subtle and very organic, but it is convincing. 

 

The Woodland illustrations of Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, an Ojibwe artist, take us into that woodland to see these stylized animals in lush beaver habitats of land and water. From forests of birch and poplar, to dammed waters below striking sunsets of orange and turquoise, the artwork of Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, whose earlier book Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh/This is How I Know made an enormous splash with its Woodland style, brings an appreciation of the natural world of the beaver and other animals. Still, Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley always reminds us with small details like beaded bracelets, a Mi'kmaq peaked cap or a medicine pouch that this is a story based in Indigenous cultures and its teachings are even more profound because of its heritage.

 

Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome is a fresh picture book in language (a glossary of Anishinaabe and other words is included) and art, and its messages about acceptance and gratitude will make it a welcome addition to any bookshelf.