Gnome is Where Your Heart Is

Written by Casey Lyall

Greenwillow Books (Imprint of HarperCollins)

978-0-06-323982-1

304 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2023

You believe in aliens, right? Lemon Peabody certainly does, and she's determined to prove that her Grandpa Walt was telling the truth when he claimed he'd met one named Gnemo over thirty years ago. In fact, she's so sure that she's making Project Validation her summer project, even if she must hide it from her father Patrick, a true non-believer, who was humiliated by his father's claims, especially when everyone in the town started putting out green-faced, red-capped garden gnomes. Now, Lemon's parents are insisting that she partake in a normal activity for the summer. So, she and her best friend Marlo join the Junior Forest Rangers because it offers her the opportunity to investigate the very woods where Grandpa famously met Gnemo and chatted with her.

Unbeknownst to Lemon, the Gnar Five, a ship of the Interplanetary Natural Archives Alliance is out on a mission when forced to land on the Isolated Community of IC 525-1 a.k.a. Earth, a planet with restricted access. As Chief Gneelix tries to repair their ship, Captain Gnemo, Commander Gnilsson, Doc Gnog, and Ensign Gnedley attempt to stay under cover of their shields and follow protocols. But the Captain can't inform HQ of their situation because their external comms are down. And though Ensign Gnedley knows he's supposed to follow the emergency measures handbook, he'd joined the Alliance to see the universe. After all, Commander Gnilsson was able to go out and investigate, even returning with a miniature gnome statue that he is convinced speaks to an encounter with the locals, strictly against protocols.  

As Lemon and Marlo and their new friend Rachel, a science fan, pursue the clues to find evidence of the aliens and maybe even meet one, thus vindicating Walt, Lemon knows time is running out. Her grandfather's Alzheimer's is slowing making him more forgetful and agitated, and Lemon would do anything to help him. But Gnedley has his own problems, knowing that he's been seen by the Humans and worried that Captain Gnemo may be hiding a secret. Can both alien and human help each other?

 

Casey Lyall has always given us a good mystery in her Howard Wallace P. I. middle-grade novels and humour in her picture books Inky's Great Escape and A Spoonful of Frogs but in Gnome is Where Your Heart Is she blends that humour with some sci-fi and a solid intergenerational relationship that warms the heart. Gnome is Where Your Heart Is feels like E.T. meets Cocoon meets Star Trek. There's a crew of interplanetary travellers, with a clever captain, a right-hand commander, an acerbic engineer, and an inexperienced ensign. There's a child trying to help their grandparent against their parents' wishes. And there's a trio of friends investigating alien activity. There's fun and wit and angst and resolution. Best of all, there's humour. From the cheeky Gneelix–who, when asked for more power, suggests "Should I get out and push?"–or the irritated Marlo–"Tell me why you broke into my room at rude o'clock in the morning"–there is honest but saucy humour. But could we expect anything less in a story with gnome-looking aliens, magic mushrooms, and scrummy marshmallows? I think not.

For middle-graders who enjoy speculative fiction firmly based in the reality of family and friends, albeit with a cloud of Alzheimer's, and told with humour, distinct characters–both human and not–and the buzz that comes with the unknown, Gnome is Where Your Heart Is checks all the boxes for a lively summer read.

Just Lucky

Written by Melanie Florence
Second Story Press
978-77260-104-6
248 pp.
Ages 13-18
September 2019

Though the beginning of her life was less than stable, born of a gambling-addicted mother (hence Lucky’s unusual first name) with a crack habit, much of Lucky Robinson’s fifteen years were spent in a loving home with her grandparents. But, when her grandmother’s dementia advances rapidly after Grandpa’s death, Lucky’s life takes a staggering turn that disconnects her from the support and security she's always known.

Though Lucky is aware that Grandma’s forgetfulness is becoming serious, she is unprepared for the fire Grandma accidentally starts. But at the hospital, the Children’s Aid Society is called to take responsibility for the underage Lucky as Grandma receives care. Sadly even a phone call to her ghost of a mother brings nothing except clarity that Lucky is well rid of a woman more concerned about her boyfriend and the proceeds from the potential sale of Lucky's grandparents' house. As such, Lucky begins the complex journey into the foster care system.

Her first foster placement is with the hyper-religious Mary and Robert Wilson and their teen son Bobby. Lucky tries to be accommodating, submitting to Mary’s requirements for chaste dress, the saying of grace before meals and homeschooling. But a threat within requires Lucky defend herself both with a knife and with the truth to those who refuse to acknowledge inappropriate behaviours by those entrusted with her care. The consequence is that child care worker Cynthia drags victimized Lucky to a second home.

With her new living accommodations with foster parents Sarah and Edward and teens Jake and Charlie, Lucky begins to feel a little luckier. Though home is more stable and welcoming, Lucky must contend with racism and bullying at school at the hands of Elyse who has her sights on Jake and sees his interest in Lucky as competition. Victimized again for being Indigenous, and for defending Charlie, a boy from the Dominican, Lucky is expelled, steering her to yet another foster family but also to the school she attended with best friend Ryan.

Though Lucky continues to hold onto the hope that she will be reunited with her grandmother who has both good and bad days, when Grandma is moved to a care facility, Lucky starts to wonder whether she has any luck at all and may ever again have a place of home where she will feel safe.

Melanie Florence who touched us with her award-winning picture books Stolen Words (Second Story Press, 2017) and Missing Nimâmâ (Clockwise Press, 2015) takes a simple germ of an idea–that of a child in foster care–and makes it in bigger story, as it should be. Entering foster care is a life-altering experience from which some children may or may not recover.  As in her earlier picture books about residential schools and missing and murdered Indigenous women, the story is simple but the message monumental. Not all lives are easy and picture perfect and Lucky's certainly is not. Not all foster homes are great or horrible.  Not all foster families are caring, though that is their mandate. Lucky's story evolves from a tragedy that snowballs into overwhelming disaster. Though I’m sure, as the saying goes, it could have been far worse, Lucky's story, which is one of trial and hardship, does end with some semblance of good fortune and contentedness, perhaps even hope for a happy ending.

Nathan

Written by Susan Ouriou

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-547-9

152 pp.

Ages 7-12

October 2016

Bullies come in all sizes and ages.  Some are in the past and some in the present but their impact is as damaging as any trauma that can make you feel like you don’t belong or that you are not safe.  In her first middle grade book, Susan Ouriou, best known for her translations (including Pieces of Me; Jane, the Fox and Me; This Side of the Sky), tackles the heavy issue of bullying from different perspectives: a  school bully tormenting young Nathan, the historical trauma of residential schools as experienced by Nathan’s grandfather’s mother, and even the assault of Altzheimer’s on the human spirit.  All are brutal and relentless but there is reconciliation.

It’s summer, and the family is starting to move Grampa from his own home to live with them, and it’s making everyone tense.  Mom acts annoyed and can be downright rude to her father.  Dad just thinks Grampa should go straight into a nursing home.  Grampa isn’t always sure what’s going on but seems resigned to accept it.  And Nathan would do anything to keep his Grampa  as the impressive giant of a man he always was.  Grampa is especially sympathetic when Nathan, who is being bullied by a boy named Adam, is repeatedly accosted by the boy while enjoying outdoors play with a new friend Max.

“…no good could come of digging up the past.  All that counted was remembering we come from survivors.  We’re tough.” (pg. 25)

Grampa takes Nathan and Max (and Nathan’s Mom, who knows Grampa should not be driving) to  the museum at the Tsuut´ina Nation to meet Elder Estella who teaches about the impact of European settlement on First Nations.  Nathan learns his great-Gramma had been First Nations and had had to survive living at a residential school, where kids were bullied by adults and didn’t have their parents around to protect them.  

The school year begins and a vicious assault by Adam on Nathan and Max leaves Nathan psychologically impacted and unable to walk and Max moving to another school.  As constant companions, Grampa, whose Alzheimer’s is worsening, and Nathan become the supports they need to survive their personal ordeals and grow stronger because of them.

Though the title suggests a book all about Nathan, it goes far beyond the young boy’s story, being a middle-grade novel dense with emotion and conflict and drama, of family and trauma and First Nations and bullies and history. Susan Ouriou whose interpretation experiences include Edmonton’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission as well as The Banff Centre’s Indigenous Writers Program weaves the past, in terms of the residential schools and the Holocaust of WWII, with the present, and family with community.  Through her characters and the story, she shows us that there were and are many who are “some kind of strong and some kind of brave” (pg. 83) and that includes Nathan whose compassion lets him see Adam beyond a tormentor and Grampa who must live through his own torment while still looking to help others.  Nathan is a story of resilience and courage that bridges generations and offers understanding and even some degree of assurance.

Crush. Candy. Corpse.

Written by Sylvia McNicoll
Lorimer
978-1-4594-00627
219 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Community service hours are a chore for many high school students. These hours, usually about 40, are spent volunteering in hospitals, seniors' homes, schools, food banks, etc., learning compassion and building a sense of community while developing the volunteerism we generally accept as civilized. Even those kids who are determined that it will be a miserable experience must complete, even begrudgingly, those forty hours if they intend to graduate from high school.

Sonja Ehret, sixteen, endearingly nicknamed Sunny by her grandmother, is assigned to help out at Paradise Manor, with those long-term care residents suffering with Alzheimer's. Sunny is a pretty good kid. She may look a little wild with her pink streaked hair, and she does sneak around behind her parents' backs with Donovan, 19, for whom shoplifting seems to be a vocation. And she sometimes blurts things out without thinking, like on her first day at Paradise Manor, when she is already late because her bus takes a detour because of a busted sewer line. When she mentions a smell at Paradise Manor, she makes a justifiable connection that it must be the result of a sewer line break too. Unfortunately, the bitter receptionist, Mrs. Johnson, never forgets Sunny's offensive faux pas regarding the smell which is actually the result of a resident soiling himself. After that, Mrs. Johnson sees all Sunny's actions as mistakes or flaws, even those which Sunny chooses to do because of her compassion for the residents.

In Sunny's journal, a requirement for her volunteering credit, she may sound whiny in her earlier entries about her time and activities at Paradise Manor. But soon enough, Sunny is speaking a little German (picked up from her grandmother before she passed) to encourage a lonely resident, Johann, to eat. Of course, those who already scorn Sunny see her feeding Johann too quickly or too much at a time or putting him in jeopardy of choking. This is especially unfortunate for Sunny when Helen Demers, the grandmother of fellow teen volunteer Cole, dies from choking on hard candies that she isn't supposed to eat because she is a diabetic. And Sunny is charged with manslaughter because of her death.

Mrs. Johnson insists that Sunny's Crush on Cole, who always gives his grandmother an unauthorized caramel Candy at the end of his visit, compelled her to help Helen Demers (i.e., the story's Corpse) in an effort to help Cole discharge his promise to end his grandmother's life when the Alzheimer's has progressed too far. Since Sunny returns to help out at Paradise Manor after she has completed her 40 hours of service, the fact that she is even implicated in Helen's death seems far-fetched, except when her actions, short journal entries and stray comments (out of context) are brought into evidence.

My banal synopsis of Crush. Candy. Corpse. does not do justice to Sylvia McNicoll's captivating story of Sunny's transforming relationships with Cole and the residents at Paradise Manor. I was lured into Sunny' story as she, the narrator, presents her actions and recollections in an honest manner. But it is most disheartening to realize that her story also demonstrates how snapshots of our actions can be used to represent unfairly the totality of our behaviour. For example, regardless of Sunny's motivations and the encouragement she receives from Cole, his mother goes ballistic after Sunny gives Helen Demers pink highlights. Instead of acknowledging her mother-in-law's wish for the highlights or Cole's suggestion that Sunny get the money from his grandmother, Cole's mom focuses on the humiliation she believes Sunny intended rather than the pleasure Sunny aspired to provide by honouring Helen's request.

Sylvia McNicoll gets Sunny's voice perfect, introducing the narrator as a teen who can make questionable decisions (as we all do when inexperienced) but who has the capacity to see beyond her initial assessments and amend her own actions and beliefs accordingly. I would be proud to have Crush. Candy. Corpse.'s Sunny as my granddaughter or caregiver to a family member knowing that she would bring the foibles of youth with the insight and compassion of a humanitarian and I would cheer for her throughout her trial and beyond. Sunshine like Sunny should not be eclipsed.