Kid Sterling

Written by Christine Welldon

Red Deer Press

978-0-889956162

432 pp.

Ages 10+

August 2020 

If Sterling Crawford had a soundtrack to his life, it would be ragtime and the blues. It would lift him up and mirror his lows, get him through the tough times and celebrate the highs. It would remind him of trains and rivers, work and family. And he would be known to the music world as Kid Sterling.

In the early 1900s, Sterling Crawford is just a ten-year-old boy living in New Orleans with his Momma and his seventeen-year-old brother Syl, shining shoes on Basin Street and dreaming of playing his horn for the King, Buddy Bolden.

...the notes from Buddy's cornet were cannonballs that shook Sterling's bones, the tone clear and pure, teasing and lusty, till he felt himself lifted up and away, a catfish on a hook. (pg. 19)

As much as Sterling wants to play music and learn how to write it, life is not as straightforward as he might wish. Even recognizing the threats and discriminatory limitations imposed on him by his black heritage, Sterling dreams of more, just as Syl does. But Syl who has instructed Sterling to never reveal them to be brothers, whether to pass himself off as white or to simply protect Sterling, goes beyond playing drums to make a better life. He works for a local gangster, gambles, and involves himself in other nefarious activities, even stealing money that Sterling had been saving for a new horn. With a strained relationship, Sterling and Syl head to Plaquemine for a cousin's birthday celebration and a musical gig for Syl. But everything shatters when Syl is forced to protect them from assault by a white man. The two separate and only Sterling returns to New Orleans where he is eventually arrested for assault.

Being sent to Captain Jones's Colored Waifs Home for Boys, Sterling feels like it's the end of the road for him.

A distant bugle sounded the end of the day. He figured his whole life was just like that bugle–out of tune. All his young life, his mother had sung to him, called him in to supper, to chores, to his bedtime. As he waited for sleep, he conjured the sound of her rich voice, humming those bluesy tunes to wrap him in safety and love. But memories brought him no comfort. Tonight, he had only loneliness and sour notes to call him to slumber. (pg. 233)

Still, Sterling learns more about himself and about music, even how to "...make some harmony out of the sour" (pg. 287). And there is a lot of sourness that pervades Sterling's life. Bad things, like notes on the wind, keep finding their way to him. He makes the best choices he can given the circumstances. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. And sometimes it doesn't matter. In the end, it's still his story, and Christine Welldon tells it with authenticity and compassion.

Because Christine Welldon's background is as a non-fiction writer (e.g., Everyone Can Be a Changemaker, Reporter in Disguise, The Children of Africville, and Lifelines: The Lanier Phillips Story), you can be assured that Kid Sterling is a carefully and thoroughly researched book. Though Sterling himself is a fictionalized character, Buddy Bolden, Clarence Williams, Captain Jones and Armand Piron as well as others (Christine Welldon provides background on them at the conclusion of her book) were very real men who shaped Sterling's life and undoubtedly those of real individuals. But by embedding a fictionalized young African American boy in a true representation of New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century, Christine Welldon can build her story on him and his world without limitation. She can tell of the horrific racial discrimination from Sterling and his peers' perspectives, seeing how justice was served up based on the colour of skin. She can weave in the music of the day and how it was played and learned and disseminated. She can reveal how fear could dry up the music for Sterling, and how fear for self, family and friends impacted living.

If his life were like a music book of stories, Sterling felt as strong as the spine that bound and divided it down the center. One part was finished, its pages full. The rest contained empty notation lines, waiting to be filled. (pg. 406)

If Kid Sterling was a piece of music, it would be a hymn of pain and promise, hope and struggle. But that hymn should portend better, for Sterling and others whose lives were never given full voice. Let that new song stay true now and forever.

Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano

Written by Marthe Jocelyn

with illustrations by Isabelle Follath

Tundra Books

978-0-73526-546-2

336 pp.

Ages 9-13

February 2020
Reviewed from advance reader's copy

At the time, I did not see that a sequence was unfolding. One never does. Afterward, it was clear how the moments piled up, each leading naturally to the next, quietly altering the course of things. (pg. 4 in arc)

The events to which twelve-year-old Agatha Morton is referring are those that have lead to the death of their neighbour, the cankerous Mrs. Irma Eversham, at the dance studio of her sister-in-law Miss Marianne Eversham.  It's 1903 Torquay, England and the murdered woman has been discovered by Aggie the morning after the "Befriend the Foreigners" recital aimed at collecting clothes for needy refugees and immigrants, many of whom have fled persecution, hunger and political turmoil. Among the recipients will be Agatha's new friend, Hector Perot, a Belgium boy with impeccable manners and a brain blistering with reasoning, who becomes her compatriot in sleuthing.

When it is discovered that Mrs. Eversham has been given rat poison, Agatha and Hector lead their own investigation, sometimes with the assistance of Aggie's Grannie Jane, to ascertain who had the opportunity and the motive to murder the prickly widow who'd tried to control her daughter Rose's social life and disapproved of her sister-in-law's efforts to help newcomers and get the vote for women. But what of Mr. Roddy Fusswell who was interested in Rose and whose hotel had provided food and dishes for the charity drive event? Or the reporter Mr. Augustus Fibbley who keeps popping up and getting Aggie to reveal what she has learned? There are so many potential suspects and players in this middle-grade mystery that it's helpful that Swiss artist Isabelle Follath provides illustrations of 16 characters, including Aggie's dog Tony.

From Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn, illus. by Isabelle Follath

If the reader is a fan of cozy mysteries, they will recognize the names of Agatha and Hector Perot and Grannie Jane as homage to writer Agatha Christie and her sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. But for our youngest readers for whom Agatha Christie is an unknown, author Marthe Jocelyn will snag them with an excellent murder puzzle and a host of rich characters in a unique historical context while introducing them to Christie through a detailed author's note and list of information sources. Aggie is a precocious child who is developing her investigative skills while she tries her hand at writing descriptions and scenarios that could become part of future books. She inserts herself into police investigations and processes what she sees and what she knows into a logical interpretation and ultimately a resolution that will amaze the professionals and dumbfound her family and others. As a reader, I am so pleased that Marthe Jocelyn chose to introduce us to her Aggie in the context of a soft whodunit–there is absolutely no violence to distract from the plot–and look forward, as we all should, to the series's second book, Peril at Owl Park, set for a fall 2020 release.

The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat: Guest blog review

Today's review has been submitted by Grade 6 student Bronte L.

Written by Caroline Adderson
Illustrated by Stacy Innerst
Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-964-5
128 pp.
Ages 8-11
April 2019

In The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat by Caroline Adderson, Pudding Tat is a blind cat who explores 1900s North America, travelling from Wellington County to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Atlantic City, the Titanic and the Western Front of World War I, with the help of a needy flea.

When Pudding Tat was a little kitten, living in a barn with his family, he decides he would explore the four corners of the world like his ancestors. Pudding Tat may have been blind but his hearing was exceptional. His family couldn’t hear the drunken conversations of the fleas, but he could. Before Pudding Tat leaves the barn to explore the four corners of the world, a flea decides to jump into his ear. This flea was different from the other crazy drunken fleas in that he had taste, though he was bossy, rude, and constantly complaining.  Yet Pudding Tat never gets rid of him because the flea provides him sight, and it’s nice to have some company while exploring the world. As Pudding Tat travels from location to location, he encounters lots of kind owners who care for him while he gives them joy.

The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventure Cat is great for grades 5 to 8. It’s full of adventure and fun as well as including “mostly true” accounts of famous North American events. The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat has 179 pages, making a great light read, with each chapter a new adventure for Pudding Tat and the flea.

I love the concept of the book and the idea that the same visually-impaired cat was a part of all these events and changed peoples' lives. I also found the way Pudding Tat was able to find his way around using his other senses and the flea was very creative. The descriptions were great while not being wordy and I was able to visualize what was going on clearly. I also loved how Caroline Adderson added songs into her writing. I would give Caroline Adderson’s The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat  9 out of 10.

~written by Bronte L.

The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat

Written by Caroline Adderson

Illustrated by Stacy Innerst

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-964-5

128 pp.

Ages 8-11

April 2019

Pudding Tat, so named for the special dessert Farmer Willoughby brought to his Wellington County barn cats on Christmas Day, was always a concern for his mother. White as snow and eyes as pink as his tongue, Pudding could not catch mice or avoid dangers as well as Mother Tat had taught her kittens. But, when his siblings are pushed to leave the barn, Pudding literally gets a flea in his ear that encourages him to do the same. That flea, tired of the loud partying of the others, steers Pudding to water, hopeful of drowning his fellow parasites, while keeping the cat safe as a host. 

From The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat by Caroline Adderson, illus. by Stacy Innerst

With each new chapter, Pudding and his flea evolve, developing their relationship from one based in parasitism to one of mutualism. Their first major adventure starts in 1901 when they join Annie Edson Taylor for her barrel ride over Niagara Falls. Next, Pudding and his flea travel to Buffalo, New York, and the site of the Pan-American Exposition. En route, they see the discrimination levelled against the African American railway porters and the indentured child street musicians. They are present when President McKinley is shot and when Vincent Bryan and Gus Edwards compose “In My Merry Oldsmobile” – a tribute to Gus’s new car. In 1910, they’re on-board as Walter Wellman and his crew attempt their first cross-Atlantic airship flight. They even survive the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and a crossing into No Man’s Land at the beginning of the famous Christmas Truce during World War I. While they experience long periods of confinement and hunger, there are moments of opulence, filled with comfort and food. And there is always music to which Pudding Tat is drawn. Relying so much on his hearing, he is lured by songs sung and instruments played, taking him into new circumstances, sometimes comfortable, sometimes perilous. In the end, cat and flea make their way home, having defied all expectations had for and by the visually-impaired feline.

Caroline Adderson, author of award-winning books for adults and children – including Middle of Nowhere (Groundwood, 2012) – blends the right mix of history and fictional narrative to create a story of cooperation, resiliency and risk-taking. She gives Pudding Tat the voice of a modest but heartfelt hero, albeit an accidental one, who experiences big adventures but is surprised by his exploits. He really is a feline Forrest Gump. His poor eyesight and lack of camouflage may make him vulnerable but it doesn’t stop him from living beyond them. With Stacy Innerst’s multi-panelled graphics detailing the breadth of Pudding Tat’s adventures in each chapter, it’s clear that, like the period of innovation in which he lived, the white feline reached beyond his potential and achieved more than expected.

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

(A version of this review was originally written and paid for by Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)

Kubiw, H. (2019, May 7). Review of the book The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat. Quill & Quire. https://quillandquire.com/review/the-mostly-true-story-of-pudding-tat-adventuring-cat/