Taking the Reins: Guest Review

by Dayle Campbell Gaetz

Coteau Books

978-1-550-505528

232 pp.

Ages 10-14

2013

Taking the Reins was a great, enjoyable book that had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the whole book. As an avid historical fiction reader, this book surpassed my expectations, and gave me more of a knowledge about the difficulties and hardships girls living in these times had to face. 

Another favourite of mine is horses, so the blend of historical fiction and horses was a perfect fit for me. Not many books have this unique feature, so it has become one of my favourite books I have ever read!

I loved this book because I could clearly connect to Emma’s reluctance to keep Nugget’s name the same because I am very stubborn, but normally, like Emma, I can be persuaded. The only feedback I would give you is that if I had a horse that I loved, like Katherine and Nugget, I would not have sold him as quickly as Katherine did. I know that Katherine's family needed the money, but if I were in her shoes, I would have gotten a job so that I would be able to keep my horse and still help my family.

Thank you so much for writing this amazing book and I am crossing my fingers that there will be more awesome books like this one! 

Grace D., Age 12

The Unmaking: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book Two

Written by Catherine Egan

Coteau Books

978-1-55050-559-7

248 pp.

Ages 9+

September, 2013

Epic. That's what The Unmaking, Catherine Egan's sequel to Shade and Sorceress, the first book in her The Last Days of Tian Di series, is.  Epic. When I reviewed Shade and Sorceress (here) over a year ago, I knew that I was reading something special.  I compared it to Harry Potter.  The Unmaking is even stronger: in its writing, its plotting, its ability to snatch the reader away from reality and deliver him or her to a land of magic, curses, faeries, dragons, sorceresses, wizards, shape-shifters, and ordinary humans.  Hold on for a fantasy ride like no other.

When Shade and Sorceress ended, Eliza was still being schooled as the next Shang Sorceress by her grandfather Kyreth and the other Mancers at the Citadel.  Her mother, Rea, the former Shang Sorceress, has returned, without any memory, and lives with Eliza's father, Rok, with his people, the Sorma. And although Nia, the evil Xia Sorceress, got her hands on the Book of Barriers, she is still trapped in her Arctic prison. Or she was. Now she's out for revenge.

Not surprising that Nia seeks out the Triumvira, consisting of the Oracle of the Ancients, the King of Faeries and Swarn, the Warrior Witch, who had banished Nia to her prison. But her revenge also includes Kyreth, revealing her previously unknown relationship to the Supreme Mancer. (You'll need to read the book for that detail!)  Having been visiting first Swarn to learn of potions, forging weapons and deflecting barrier, and then the Oracle, Eliza returns to the Citadel to find the Mancers turned to stone and Nia releasing a hideous creature of her own Making (an Ancient power).  Nia's monster, created from the finger she sliced from Rea's hand, is a formidable foe, and Eliza must find a way of neutralizing it before it goes after her mother.

Sadly, Charlie, Eliza's Shade companion, is seriously injured and Nell, Eliza's human friend, enlists the help of the helicopter-flying police constable, Ander, to deliver him to the Cave of Healing.  In Tian Xia, they find the evidence of Nia's revenge: Swarn's house burning, slaughtered dragons, and the ruins of the temples of the Faithful.  They also make the acquaintance of a Faery, Jalo, who has been sent by the King of Faeries to retrieve the Oracle and Swarn to protect them from the Xia Sorceress.

But, Nia is already moving onto the Realm of the Faeries, intent on destroying Malferio, their King and her former consort. Because of the King's purges of his subjects and his dastardly deeds against others, including his current Queen, Nia is able to convince others to assist in overthrowing him.

It must be a faery illusion that Catherine Egan manages to squeeze a tale of such epic proportions into a mere 268 pages. My bare bones synopsis here doesn't even mention Eliza working with a wizard who is cursed to forget everything he knows every 29 minutes; the baby dragon that Nell is relentless about saving; Jalo's manipulative mother who worries about her son's interest in Nell; and Swarn's battle with Nia in the Hall of the Ancients.

The battle of good vs. evil may be the foundation of The Unmaking but there are so many layers of skirmishes and antagonisms as well as alliances and allegiances that enrich that theme, not the least of which is the question of who is bad or good.  As the story develops, beyond even those few layers, so too do the motives of the characters, transformed with new experiences and revelations.

There are not enough words to provide a complete review of Catherine Egan's The Unmaking.  When you enjoy it, you'll understand my failing here.  Epic is still the best descriptor.

Brovko's Amazing Journey: Book Launch (Saskatoon)

Coteau Books

and

 Larry Warwaruk

author  
of  
Andrei and the Snow Walker (Coteau, 2002)

invite you to the book launch 
of 

Brovko's Amazing Journey

Brovko's Amazing Journey
by Larry Warwaruk
Coteau Books
9781550505542
168 pp.
Ages 7+
April 2013

The story of 12-year-old Andrei's companion Brovko, who is left behind when the family leaves Ukraine to start their new life in Canada.  But Brovko finds a way to get himself reunited with his best friend. 


on

Thursday, May 16, 2013

at

7:30 p.m. (CST)

at 

McNally Robinson Booksellers
8th Street East
Saskatoon, SK

For more information on Brovko's Amazing Journey, go to Coteau Books here http://ow.ly/kSghg

********************************

This is a book launch that I wish I could attend.  While my father came to Canada from Ukraine when he was in his twenties, he still had a photo of his dog, Marko, that he had left behind.  Looking at Larry Warwaruk, I see a Ukrainian grandfather, one I never knew, and know that Brovko's Amazing Journey will be an amazing story imbued with the richness of Ukrainian traditions.

Taking the Reins: Book Launch (Campbell River)

Coteau Books

proudly announces

the launch of

Taking the Reins
 by Dayle Campbell Gaetz
 

Saturday, May 4th 

at 1:30 pm

Campbell River Library
Campbell River, BC

Join

Coteau author Dayle Campbell Gaetz  

and 

Dundurn author Kristin Butcher 

as they launch their new novels for teens.
 

• Refreshments
• Prizes
• Books for sale

Everyone is welcome!

Breakaway

by Maureen Ulrich
Coteau Books
978-1-550-505122
394 pp.
Ages 13+
2012

As hard as it is to believe, there are some people who have never embraced hockey as a Canadian life focus.  I am one such person.  My family never watched hockey when I was young.  I had no brothers or cousins nearby whose hockey passions I could follow.  And although I had friends who watched hockey, girls were not playing hockey when I was growing up.  I never even went to my first hockey game until I was in my 20's.  So reading and reviewing a book called Breakaway with a cover predicting a story suffused with hockey would not be a compelling read for me.  Or so I thought.

Breakaway is far more than the hockey story suggested in the title and cover art.  Breakaway tells the story of seventeen-year-old Jessie McIntyre of Estevan, Saskatchewan.  Jessie and some of her former teammates have recreated themselves into a new Triple A team called the Estevan McGillicky Oilers.  Being part of a new league and being a senior preparing for university, hopeful of being scouted for the university hockey team and getting a scholarship, Jessie finds herself at the crossroads of many new pathways.

She's still trying to get over a very short relationship from two years ago with Mark Taylor, now a University of Calgary hockey player, headed for the World Juniors.  And she needs to decide what she wants of her friendly relationship with Evan Gedak who plays basketball at U. of C. But there's Liam McCarthur, also a senior, who is obviously taking an interest in Jessie who doesn't know how to deal with him except with animosity and embarrassment.

Her Oilers team is having to turn away some former teammates and recruit new players and coaches, and Jessie, as elected captain, has to help everyone come together as a team, even when some players make poor decisions that threaten the team's very existence.  Moreover, as Jessie attempts to go forward in her new team, her circle of friends and acquaintances seems to be in more flux, with enemies becoming friends and friends becoming strangers or worse.

And at home, Jessie's eleven-year-old sister, Courtney, has decided to give up on figure skating and go out for hockey, latching onto new friends and trying on the uniform of a rebellious and temperamental teen and dragging Jessie into the midst of her drama.

Breakaway by Maureen Ulrich is the third novel in her Jessie Mac series which opened with Power Plays (Coteau, 2007) and Face Off (Coteau, 2010), and I'm sure that readers of these earlier volumes and those that know anything about hockey would find nothing untoward about the vernacular hockey-speak.  On the other hand, I had great difficulties navigating the colloquial terms for leagues and hockey plays.  As silly a suggestion as this is, a glossary would have helped me a great deal.  Luckily, Maureen Ulrich's dialogue is a useful tool for deciphering many terms and propelling the story from the arena to a world in which I am more familiar with its language.

Fortunately Breakaway is more than a hockey story.  It's a story of growing up and making decisions about staying in your comfort zone or challenging yourself with new opportunities.  It's about listening to the little voice that tries to help you recognize the reality of situations and the extent of your fears and desires.  Breakaway demonstrates that, if you go beyond playing the game of life and instead direct it to work for you (not letting fate be a scapegoat), you're more likely to be happy with the outcome, even if you don't always win.

Shade and Sorceress: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book I

Written by Catherine Egan
Coteau Books
978-1550-505146
279 pp.
Ages 10+
September, 2012

It's wonderful getting into a new book and, as you're reading, you realize that it's captivating you the way the Harry Potter series did: anticipating the next turn in the plot or another unknown fantastical creature with crafty powers, or delivery to a world where the laws of nature need not hold true.  Shade and Sorceress continued to surprise me with unexpected plotting, ultimately leaving me waiting for next book in The Last Days of Tian Di series and hopefully answers to a few surprise questions at the book's conclusion.

Tian Di, the One World, was the fantastical world in which humans were slaves to the Faeries; that is, until the Mancers, scholars of that world, used magic to begin its ongoing separation into Di Shang, the land of humans and beasts, and Tian Xia, the home of the beings of power.  Not surprising that the arrival of five emissary Mancers to Holburg, the island home of twelve-year-old Eliza Tok, would cause such a stir, especially when they arrive on dragons.  On behalf of the Supreme Mancer, Kyreth, these emissaries have come to take Eliza back to their Citadel to begin her studies for her position as Shang Sorceress, the role her mother Rea held until she eloped with a human, Eliza's father, Rom Tok.  Determined to protect her daughter, Rea had used Magic to hide Eliza, although Rea was killed in assisting the Mancers and their allies to entrap the Xia Sorceress in the Arctic.

Although she enjoys learning, Eliza demonstrates no magical powers, except when Kyreth puts her in the life-threatening position of guarding the Crossing between the two worlds.  Eliza learns that her father has been taken by the Cra, the bird-like creatures of the Xia Sorceress, to the Arctic and will only be released if Eliza brings the Sorceress the Mancers' Book of Barriers.  With Charlie, who Eliza sees as a thirteen-year-old boy, though he is a shape-shifting Shade, and Nell, her human friend from Holburg, Eliza sets out to save her father by heading to Tian Xia to seek out the Triumvira, the 3 beings who banished the Sorceress to the Arctic.

Much illusion is used in Shade and Sorceress to hide that which is real and construct that which is imagined but the relationships upon which all plot lines rely are quite genuine.  There are parents protecting their children, lovers who betray, friends who offer unconditional support, prejudice based on power, new allies from nebulous connections, and deception by so many.  The wealth of characters and the nature of their gifts, against a backdrop of caves, carved, black cliffs, ravening forests, hanging gardens, a dead marsh, arctic tundra, temples, a crystal city and all landscapes and structures in between, make an auspicious introduction to The Last Days of Tian Di series.  Fortunately, Catherine Egan, Canadian-born author currently living in New Jersey, neither leaves the reader frustrated with an incomplete ending or a neatly resolved storyline.  With Shade and Sorceress, young readers, not just young adults, are promised a refreshingly new fantasy series that is otherworldy but devoid of vampires.

The Piper of Shadonia

Written by Linda Smith

Coteau Books

978-1-550-505160

232 pp.

Ages 11-15

2012

With author Linda Smith's passing in 2007, The Piper of Shadonia has been published posthumously so the reader will need to look at Linda Smith's previously published books to enjoy the full extent of her award-winning fantasy writing.  If her other books are similar to The Piper of Shadonia, then they will show that the traditional fantasy novel, relying on an imaginary realm where magic can exist, is just as engrossing and fulfilling as contemporary paranormal fantasies.

Master Hamish Morgenstar, the father of fourteen-year-old Tobin, has just been installed as the mayor of Cradoc in the nation of Shadonia, one of the nations under Forenzian rule and Emperor Ferdinand.  Though he is schooled in the Forenzian ways i.e., those of the wealthier ruling class, and physically looks Forenzian because of his light hair, Tobin is proud of his Shadonian heritage, as supported by his father's mother, Gran, who continues to speak to him in Shadonian and tell him the stories of their people.  Even with his mixed background (his mother's father had been Forenzian but had converted to Shadonian), Tobin finds it tricky to balance his Forenzian advantages with his Shadonian background, especially when taunted by two Shadonian boys, Kasper and Graff, that his father was the "biggest boot-licking toady to the Forenzian emperor in all Cradoc." (pg. 8)  That assertion continues to plague and direct Tobin's actions throughout The Piper of Shadonia as he attempts to defend his father and his Shadonian heritage.

The appearance of a troupe of puppeteers in Cradoc heralds new conflict after Major Gurtin, a Forenzian officer, accuses them of inciting the Shadonians to rebel against the Emperor, and convinces the Mayor to have them arrested.  Tobin rushes to warn the puppeteers and ends up accompanying them on their travels.  So begins Tobin's adventure with the Ellabalm Puppeteers i.e., Balm, Ella and their daughter Gaby, along with the Shadonian bully Kasper.  It is during this time, while evading detection and watching behind the scenes, that Tobin develops his gift of becoming part of the landscape and calling forth the spirit of the river. 

The story in The Piper of Shadonia is essentially one of divided loyalties and reconciling the evil vs. good designation of people, both conflicts typical of all worlds, imaginary and real.  Tobin sways between defending his parents and their actions while supporting his Gran and other proud Shadonians who need to claim their heritage.  But which is the right side to support?  Are the Forenzians all evil?  Major Gurtin certainly is but what of the mayor who is threatened to follow orders?  And are all Shadonians innocent and good?  Even those willing to kill anyone who stands in the way, perhaps unknowingly?  With a pretty girl, an antagonistic troupe-mate and misinterpretations of all he hears, Tobin even has difficulties deciding who he is and where he belongs.

Coming-of-age stories tend not to be set in imaginary worlds of magical talents but Linda Smith has shown that the combination works.  What better way to depict the anger and confusion of the teen years than with a teen who has a gift for making himself unseen and for beckoning natural spirits?  Place that teen in the midst of a national conflict, seemingly pitting parents against friends, oppressor vs. the oppressed, emotions over reasoning, and Tobin must make some tough choices.  And isn't that what a coming-of-age story is all about:  making tough choices and some mistakes for the purpose of learning and maturing? In The Piper of Shadonia, Linda Smith has managed to balance Tobin's angst and subsequent development within the story of an oppressed people finding the means to stand up for themselves, all in a satisfying fantasy for young readers. 

2012 Saskatchewan Book Award winners announced!

Last night the winners of the Saskatchewan Book Awards were announced in Regina.  The news of the award winners comes to us courtesy of Saskatchewan writer, Shelley Banks, at her blog, Latitude Drifts.  

The winner of the Children's Literature Award is . . .

Adele Dueck   

for her book Racing Home 

published by Coteau Books

 Racing Home

by Adele Dueck

Coteau Books

978-1-55050-450-7

186 pp.

Ages 9-13

2011

Racing Home tells the story of making a new home in Saskatchewan by Norwegian immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century.  This story of historical fiction is told from the perspective of twelve-year-old Erik who is working to connect with his new step-father, Rolf, to make a sod-house and a new home for the family, while enduring the hardships experienced by all immigrants and settlers.