Fifteen Point Nine

Written by Holly Dobbie
DCB
978-1-77086-523-5
240 pp.
Ages 13+
June 2018

The bullying that fifteen-year-old Agatha Murphy and others endure at the hands of “Those Girls” and the “Idiot Boys” who follow them around is physical, degrading and unconscionable.  They only see that Susan is overweight, that Carson is very small, that Travis is highly intelligent, and that Nicole has sweat issues. But it’s Aggie’s countless issues that are at the heart of Fifteen Point Nine. Aggie’s mother Jane is a paranoid alcoholic who scavenges and hoards and is oblivious to her daughter’s needs for food, clean clothes, and even a functional washroom. The bullies may ridicule Aggie for being dirty and smelling, as well as rummaging for food, but they and everyone else, including the school, doesn’t know about her mother and Aggie’s need to self-harm to relieve her anxiety and despair. Aggie may lighten that despair with barbed monikers including “The Torture Chamber” for school and “The Dump” for home, by ranking potential moments on her Official Romantic Scale, and by imagining outrageous scenarios that would whisk her away, but Aggie knows her situation is becoming intolerable.

I’m going to try to be more of a human being and less of a rodent, although it’s obviously something that I’m not very good at. (pg. 14)

In an attempt to take some control, Aggie decides to use an old camcorder to document the bullying in all its visual and audio horror. Unexpectedly, Susan becomes an ally in Aggie’s video endeavour, as do Carson, Travis and Nicole. These teens, deemed misfits by their cruel peers, become the Warriors Video Club and resolve to expose the bullies.

While Aggie continues to suffer at the hands of her horrid mother and the bullies, there are unexpected glimmers of something better, including  kindness from a school janitor and several moms, some Johnny Cash-infused wisdom from Jane’s newest suitor,

"Pain ain’t no good thing. Aint’t nobody out there gonna hand you a prize for storin’ shit in your heart.” (pg. 185)

and, most importantly, notes from an anonymous boy who wants her to attend the Winter Solstice Carnival dance. But, when a classmate commits suicide, Aggie’s perspective on survival and taking charge is put to the test.

Fifteen Point Nine may be Holly Dobbie’s debut novel but her teaching experiences with teens have served her well in telling the story convincingly. For those living through bullying, parental neglect, suicide of a peer and dejection, the authenticity of Fifteen Point Nine will hit hard, particularly in its harshness and near hopelessness. Still, Holly Dobbie makes it clear that, for those who do suffer at the hands of others, every day of survival is a victory and making it past fifteen point nine (just less than sixteen years of age) is a triumph.


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

Kubiw, H. (2018, September). [Review of the book Fifteen Point Nine, by Holly Dobbie]. Quill & Quire, 84 (7): 37.

The Marrow Thieves

Written by Cherie Dimaline

Dancing Cat Books/Cormorant

978-1-77086-486-3

231 pp.

Ages 14+

2017

Poisoning your own drinking water, changing the air so much the earth shook and melted and crumbled, harvesting a race for medicine. (pg. 47)

This is the world in which Frenchie is trying to survive.  After his father had gone with the Council to the Southern Metropolitan City, hopeful of enacting some change, and their mom passed, it was just Frenchie and his older brother Mitch evading the Recruiters, truancy officers seeking Indigenous people to place in their new version of residential schools.  Seems that, though all were highly impacted by the stresses of water shortages, climatic shifts and conflict, non-Indigenous people lost the ability to dream and sought out Indigenous Peoples for their bone marrow as a source for that ability.  What actually happened in the schools, though, was the stuff of rumours and nightmares.

When Mitch sacrifices himself to the Recruiters to save Frenchie, the teen heads north and joins a  group headed by a man named Miigwans and the Elder Minerva, along with teens Chi-Boy and Wab, twelve-year-old twins Tree and Zheegwon, and a young boy Slopper and seven-year-old RiRi.  Along with a new arrival, Rose, the mixed group of Cree, Métis and more, from the east coast and the west lands and everywhere in between, work to stay safe, learn "old-timey" skills like hunting and homesteading but also language which has been lost.  Each comes with their own creation story, framing their lives with the scars of their histories and the jewels of their heritage.  How they will outrun their pasts and those who seek to harm them while making some future in a world gone terribly wrong can only be told by those telling the story and dreaming.

While the environmental degradation alone could result in the dystopia of The Marrow Thieves, it is but a fraction of the agony of the world Cherie Dimaline has created.  It is a world that has gone beyond decline and into catastrophic collapse.  The heinous racism against Aboriginal Peoples coupled with the carnage perpetrated against them is terrifying but not unfamiliar.  By telling this story in a dystopian world set decades into the future, Cherie Dimaline tells much more about the past.  Still, within that horror, there is a wisdom of self and others, a pocket of compassion and understanding that might be the only hope.

"...running only works of you're moving towards something, not away. Otherwise, you'll never get anywhere." (pg. 217)

Moreover, Cherie Dimaline tells it with such depth of feeling and imagery that The Marrow Thieves becomes a lyrical epic.

Out here stars were perforations revealing the bleached skeleton of the universe through a collection of tiny holes. And surrounded by these silent trees, beside a calming fire, I watched the bones dance.  This was our medicine, these bones, and I opened up and took it all in. And dreamed of north. (pg. 9)

The accolades for The Marrow Thieves have been robust and far-reaching.  They include winning the 2017 Governor General for Young People's Literature and the 2017 Kirkus Prize; a nomination for the Forest of Reading's White Pine Award; selection as The Globe and Mail Best Book; and most recently selection for CBC's 2018 Canada Reads battle of the books. The Marrow Thieves deserves each honour and more as does its creator Cherie Dimaline for weaving a cautionary story of sorrow and history with a future that still has a sliver of reverie.

Tangled Planet

Written Kate Blair
Dancing Cat Books
978-1-77086-504-4
260 pp.
Ages 13+
October 2017

Four hundred years of ancestors have travelled on the ship Venture leaving behind Alpha Earth in search of a Beta Earth to colonize.  For seventeen-year-old Ursa, the ship has always been home.  As a junior engineer and daughter of a former captain, Ursa knows every control, vent and tech that keeps the Venture working, now in orbit above the planet being readied for full colonization. But there is silent dissension between those who want to embrace life on Beta fully and those who appreciate the safety and known entity that is the ship.

It smells right, here.  Not like the empty scent of Beta.
     It’s the smell of hundreds of years of skin cells, waste reclamation pipes, and generations of people stuffed in a cramped space. I never noticed it until we went to the planet, where the air is so clod and clear I choked on my first breath.  Here it’s rich and musky.  The smell of home. The Venture is cozy, human-sized, lived-in, unlike the muddy mess of the planet below. (pg. 23)

It’s astonishing, Ursa.  Just being here.  Humanity, stretching out into the stars.  We’re the dream Alpha Earth had so many hundreds of years ago. (pg. 65)

When Ursa  discovers the murdered body of Orion, the husband of her sister Celeste and of former friend Vega, planet-side, Ursa becomes a suspect, though she had observed a wolf-like creature hiding in the forest.  Because of her reluctance to spend much time on Beta and because no animals matching that description or DNA had been created or released onto the planet by the genelab, few believe her.  But then a second murder leaves the crew reeling and Ursa begins to investigate in earnest to clear herself and keep her family and those for whom she cares safe.

Much like Kate Blair’s debut YA novel Transferral (DCB, 2015), Tangled Planet is speculative fiction, asking a “What if?” question, here about inhabiting new worlds of space or on new planets.  It’s about choosing that which is familiar but limited over that which is unknown but holds much potential.  Kate Blair makes it clear that in this sci-fi setting, even with the development of astounding tech, genetic manipulation and more, people are still human, enduring grief and resentment, loss and jealousy, and making decisions that are both selfish and selfless, resulting in the murder mystery at the book’s heart.  In this well-plotted and suspenseful novel, belied by its unremarkable cover, it’s clear that for all its newness, Beta Earth is nevertheless being colonized by those driven by old hurts and fears and the future may still be determined by what has happened in the past.

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

Kubiw, H. (2018, January/February). [Review of the book Tangled Planet, by Kate Blair]. Quill & Quire, 84 (1): 48.

Lightning Lou: Book launch (Point-Claire, QB)

Just in time for hockey season!

Join author 

Lori Weber

for the launching 

of her newest 

middle grade historical fiction

Lightning Lou

by Lori Weber

Dancing Cat Books

9781770864627

206 pp.

Ages 9-12

May 2016

on

Sunday, October 2, 2016

2-4 p.m.

at

Livres Babar Books

46 Ave Sainte-Anne # 2

Pointe-Claire, Quebec 

Publisher Dancing Cat Books provides this blurb about the book:

When a team in an all-girls’ hockey league comes to recruit players, twelve-year-old Lou’s dreams seem to be coming true. But the dreams hinge on one thing: never letting on that Lou is a boy. But the road to stardom is not easy, as Lou discovers that the competition is fierce, and that he’s got a lot of work to do to match the skills of the league’s star player and his chief rival, Albertine Lepensée. All the while, he has to keep his secret, and wrestle with the moral dilemma of taking a place on the team away from a deserving girl. 

Loosely based on a true story, Lightning Lou is a riveting and thought-provoking story for middle-grade readers.

Retrieved from http://www.dancingcatbooks.com/9781770864627/ onSeptember 13, 2016.

Delicate

by C. K. Kelly Martin
Dancing Cat Books
978-1-77086-452-8
230 pp.
Ages 14+
November 2015


Who wants to be called “delicate”? Porcelain dolls, maybe.  But the teens in C. K. Kelly Martin’s Delicate would be loathe to be called delicate, regardless of the challenges, physical and emotional, they have to endure.

Delicate is told in the alternate voices of second cousins, Ivy and Lucan, who haven’t seen each other in seven years since Lucan’s mother Sheri told her cousin Lisette, Ivy’s mom, about seeing Ivy’s dad with another woman at a hotel.  The two teens will become reacquainted at a 75th brithday party for a relative, but first they are involved in their own dramas.  Life is drama after all, isn't it?  Ivy is devastated by her boyfriend Jeremy’s break-up with her after 18 months together and learning that he’s hooked up with her best friend Betina.  And Lucan is dealing with his divorced mother’s embarrassingly physical relationship with Julian, a man much younger than her, as well as trying to negotiate his best friend Des’s volatile relationship with girlfriend McKenna.  After the family get-together, Sheri helps Ivy get a summer job at her merchandising firm which is just around the corner from the Mill Street Café where Lucan gets a job,  and soon the two teens are comparing and sharing their lives with each other and declaring themselves absurdly delicate, though they both have tremendous strengths that they still have not recognized.

Fortunately, they enjoy each other’s company (how much is surprising) and the fresh perspectives on their respective issues.  Ivy vacillates between longing, anger and vengeance with regards to Betina and Jeremy, by whom she has been infected with an STI, even getting Lucan involved in a dog-napping scheme, while Lucan begins to see the abusive nature of Des and McKenna’s relationship, enlisting Ivy’s help to defuse its volatility.

The tenuous nature of relationships is made very clear from the plethora within Delicate: Des and McKenna, Ivy and Jeremy, Ivy and Betina, cousins Sheri and Lisette, Lucan and Des, and so many others.  The relationships between boyfriend and girlfriend, friends, husband and wife, parents and children and other relatives are all so delicate in that any incident or series of circumstances could destroy or alter them, shattering them to shards that may or may not be reconfigured.  I spent most of the book worried that Lucan’s peanut allergy–which I incorrectly assessed as his delicacy–would be his downfall but I was mistaken.  That would’ve been too obvious and C. K. Kelly Martin is never obvious.  Her other books (My Beating Teenage Heart, 2011; Yesterday, 2012; Tomorrow, 2013; The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing, 2014) have always fascinated me by her analysis of the complexity of the human condition and Delicate takes that one step further by examining both the obvious and the unseen and showing the immensity of both in affecting our lives and the way we see ourselves.  More importantly, C. K. Kelly Martin exposes the ways we hurt each other, sometimes deliberately, some accidentally, and some through negligence, and provides an upfront perspective on dealing.  Maybe that's all you can hope for.  Thankfully C. K. Kelly Martin does reassure the readers that being Delicate is not an indictment, just human.

Transferral

Written by Kate Blair

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-770864542

194 pp.

Ages 13+

October 2015

Most of us are maddened when a good person becomes ill with a life-threatening disease. It just doesn’t seem fair.  And, even though we know that illness is not a reflection of goodness or badness, it’s hard not to lament an illness with “What did I do to deserve this?”, seeing it as a possible punishment for poor life choices.  But, in Transferral, illness is a punishment, one doled out to convicted criminals, the illness reflective of the severity of the crime.

That’s how Tranferral opens, with sixteen-year-old Talia Hale, daughter of the U.K.’s prime ministerial candidate Malcolm Hale, going to St. Bart’s hospital for a Transfer i.e., to get rid of the cold she was getting, knowing that on the other side of the hospital a criminal would be going through the painful process of being infected with that same cold.  But when leaving the hospital,  Talia witnesses a large black man wielding a meat cleaver at a young girl and Talia clubs him with a chair to protect the girl.  Though Talia’s actions are hailed as heroic and her father’s campaign manager, Piers, spins it to her father’s advantage, as leader of the National Law Party whose mandate is being tough on criminals and supporting the National Transfer Service, Talia begins to realize that the girl’s fear hadn’t been for the man hurting her but for Talia hurting the man.  Recognizing that the loss of her own sister, the same age as the young girl, and their mother to a criminal who broke into their house probably affected her take on the situation, Talia goes in search of girl she rescued.

Forging her dad’s signature, Talia goes to Holloway Quarantine, essentially a prison, to speak to Jack Benson, the man with the cleaver.  His confusion leads Talia to recognize he wasn’t fully cognizant of his actions, and she promises to find a way to look after his daughter, the little girl, Tig.  With that, Talia makes her first foray into the Barbican, the criminal-rich but poverty-stricken estate, where she meets Tig and Galen, a young man who is caring for Benson's daughter.  Sure that she’s doing the right thing, Talia gets Tig taken by social services to a children’s home.  Too late, Talia realizes that she’s been making everything worse, even getting herself convicted for the forgery, though Piers thinks he can spin that too.

We’ll leak the story to the media, along with your apology, and we might be able to get you off with a stomach bug or strep throat. (pg. 105)

Slowly, Talia begins to see that wealth and privilege affect everything, and that because of her perspective, as a rich and advantaged young woman, albeit a victim of a man who murdered her mother and sister, she has not taken the time to learn Tig and Galen’s stories.  Once she does, though, she has to find the means, criminal or not, to make things right.

There’s a lot of edge-of-your-seat storytelling with Talia’s search for Tig and her ventures into the subculture of the Barbican, amidst dealing with her role in her father’s election campaign.  Kate Blair gets the right balance of trepidation and righteousness, with Talia starting to break free from what she has always known and what she is just now learning about the world.  Talia makes a lot of mistakes but her heart is in the right place and she is determined to be part of the solution.

Tranferral is a strongly plotted story that builds on the surreal premise of linking justice with illness and comes through it all with a healthy ending that is neither sappy nor all wrapped up but a convincing remedy for a disturbing basis for dealing with criminality. 

Transferral: Book Launch (Toronto)

DCB /

Dancing Cat Books

 is pleased to launch its newest young adult science fiction book

Transferral

by Kate Blair

978-1-770864542

Dancing Cat Books

240 pp.

Ages 13+

October, 2015

on

OCTOBER 3, 2015

at

3 p.m.

at

BAKKA-PHOENIX BOOKS
84 Harbord Street

Toronto, ON
 

Transferral takes place in an alternate version London, England, where a miraculous medical treatment - one which allows the sick to be completely cured by transferring their illnesses into the bodies of the healthy - has been turned into a form of criminal punishment.

Into this world is born Talia Hale, who upon befriending two children from a "diseased" neighbourhood, finds herself at odds with her politician father, whose campaign to be elected prime minister includes a promise to crack down on her new friends' community. 

Attack of the Toga Gang

by George Bowering
Dancing Cat Books
978-1-777086-442-9
170 pp.
Ages 10-13
May 2015

Thank you, George Bowering, for bringing laughter and humour and wordplay into my life at this time.  I needed a good laugh and Attack of the Toga Gang provided it aptly.  And for teachers who want to bring poetry, courtesy of officiando George Bowering, former Poet Laureate of Canada, into a humourous plot perfect for middle-graders that includes a variety of hats, peculiar foods, Ancient Rome, a mysterious ring, and lessons on individualism, Attack of the Toga Gang has it all.  It is a complete hoot: funny, clever, poetic, and mysterious.

It all starts when a group of Grade 7 students from Major Douglas Middle School start a poetry club.  In addition to our narrator, Harry Fieldstone, lover of miscellaneous hats and really weird drinks, there is Neville Neatby, leader and innovator; Viv Lemieux, she of the booming voice and copious red hair; Feet Corbishley, lover of bpNichol and sandles-wearing daughter of hippies; and new kid Norm Nakamura-McNamara, who is still to be determined.  The kids meet up at various cafés and diners around town to share the poetry that they’re writing and discuss the nuances of it.

I can’t remember much about Viv’s poem except it was short and to the point and had a zebra in it.  Any time you put a zebra in a poem, you are going to have people remembering it. That’s my advice to all you young poets out there.  Put a zebra in your poem.  Or a kangaroo. (pg. 6)

In between their poetry sessions, going to an odd assortment of  B+ movies and school, Harry likes to play at archaeologist, digging at sites slated for construction.  At one site, he discovers a old ring enscribed with the letters SPQR and, taking it to their wizened university astronomer friend, Professor Purzelbaum, Harry learns that its origin is Ancient Rome.  More importantly, it was the Kauderwelsch ring, that had been imbued with special powers for the wearer who manipulated it a certain way.  The ring had been destined to be used for promoting human progress and well-being.  But then it was taken by the Toga Gang, and they would be determined to possess it again.

Now the kids have to find the means to evade those of the Toga Gang, who seem to manifest in different groupings, while Harry learns of the ring’s mighty powers: invisibility, speed, jumping prowess, mind-reading, etc., each on its own day of the week.  Be prepared for regular eruptions of chuckles as the distinctive group of kids rhyme and reason their way through the muddled subplots of their lives.

For those middle-grade readers who aren’t into the budding romances of YA and enjoy a good laugh at no one’s expense, Attack of the Toga Gang will entrall.  George Bowering’s light-hearted storytelling will delight readers, even old ones like myself, with his play on words, his poetry and prose, and comical take on kids’ being themselves.  Within his droll perspective, George Bowering has a lot to say about poetry, and young people, and life in general.

Then he read from a piece of foolscap paper, and I have to admit that it was pretty good.  I can’t remember the poem off by heart, but it had a goldfish in a blender in it.  And I especially liked the part about the human heart bouncing down a long flight of stone steps.  For centuries poems have had hearts in them, but I had never imagined one so clearly. (pg. 23)

But don’t look for deep insight in Attack of the Toga Gang because that’s not it’s purpose, though a wise teacher would find a valuable read-aloud resource within.  Attack of the Toga Gang is amusing entertainment of the written word and a joy to read.

Twisted

by Lisa Harrington

Dancing Cat Books
978-1-77086-413-9
240 pp.
Ages 13+
September 2014

On the day Lyssa Thomson, 18, buries her mother, she's on a bus, leaving her drunken, step-father Vince–who used to lock her in her room–in River John and heading to Halifax to move in with her boyfriend, Kyle, hopeful of starting at Dalhousie in the new year.  Finding Kyle with another girl, Lyssa wanders in the rain until she finds some shelter at a coffee shop where an employee, university student Liam Stewart, helps her contact Vince's son–Lyssa's step-brother–Aidan with whom she'd always been close before he left without telling her two years earlier.

Though still hurt about Aidan's departure, Lyssa accepts his offer to stay at his house, which is near campus and the coffee shop where she gets a part-time job.  Aidan is still not forthcoming about anything though she learns through his girlfriend, Marla, that he manages a bar and they'd met in a psych ward when Marla had attempted suicide. Not knowing that Marla and Lyssa had already met, Aidan continues to tell his step-sister half-truths about Vince accusing him of trying to kill him and having him sent to Halifax for a psych evaluation.  

But, Lyssa is starting to see discrepancies in what Aidan says and does, and turns to Liam for some advice and perspective.  Liam, a pre-med student, does all he can to help Lyssa out, though his own relationship with his girlfriend, Lynnie, is becoming complicated.  Everything must seem complicated to Lyssa: her much-adored step-brother is thinking about returning home and wants her to go too; the boy she's crushing on seems into her but still has a girlfriend; Kyle is coming around asking for a second chance; and Vince is looking to track Lyssa down. But Lyssa has a good head on her shoulders and, with her helpfulness and work ethic, she establishes a good support system at work, something she's going to need if she is to endure (survive?) some harrowing situations.

Mental illness can be debilitating but imagine if you are teen who has never been privy to discussions about a family member's illness.  While being unaware of triggers or symptoms, you may also feel that others are being unfair to that family member when labeling him as insane or crazy or irrational. Lyssa shows incredible fortitude in the face of extraordinary circumstances like her mother's death and boyfriend's unfaithfulness.  But, with Aidan being the only one she still considers family, she is reluctant to castigate him for his reactions, until she accepts that his thinking is twisting his perceptions, the truth and their lives.  Lisa Harrington brings the issue of mental illness out of the closet and into the danger zone, where secretive discussions and ignorance are preventing effective treatment and establishment of a supportive family.  By not speaking about it, everything goes from bad to worse.  And Lisa Harrington's writing is oppressive with the tension of Lyssa's tenuous relationship with Aidan. If Twisted is anything beyond a young adult story of finding love and support under difficult circumstances, it's a cautionary tale of the dangers of refusing to talk about mental illness and shaming those dealing with it.

The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing

by C. K. Kelly Martin

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-770864115

256 pp.

Ages 13+

September, 2014

The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing, as a title, suggests the lightness of song and joy. But those moments are few and far between in the actual story. That's because The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing is a story of secrets, confusion, anger, and grief, with only a few bars of a sweet song that may be heard in the background, leaving you hoping the song will make its way to the forefront and be sung loud and clear and passionately.

When Serena LeBlanc's older brother, Devin, trades a life of Mensa brilliance at university for drugs and life on the street, she could never have foreseen the impact it would have on her and her family.  Having endured Devin's plunge into drugs, theft and erratic behaviour, culminating with his disappearance, Serena's parents seem to have disassociated themselves from any life without Devin.  Mom is constantly on eBay purchasing new Swarovski figurines and Dad just seems to go through the motions of life. Her eldest brother Morgan, a celebrity VJ at MuchMusic, lives with his partner Jimmy in Toronto, but still tries to offer the support they all need to remain an intact family.  Serena, not yet sixteen, loses almost thirty pounds and begins dating Jacob Westermark, leaving behind her old friendships, and enjoying a new popularity.

But recognizing an incident at a party as an attempt at sexual exploitation, Serena swears off Jacob and guys in general, finding new friends in girls Nicole and Genevieve who have been humiliated by their boyfriends too.  Bonding with the girls over their disappointment in boys provides Serena some refuge from her parents' detachment, as does a part-time job as a cashier at Total Drug Mart.  But two events change everything for Serena.

A young man who regularly drops into Total Drug Mart begins to show an interest in Serena.  But Serena is torn between being loyal to her friends and their boyfriend-less status and becoming involved with a really nice guy, Gage Cochrane.  Worse still, Serena doesn't know how to be herself around Gage.  She still sees herself as the chubby girl who would need to throw herself at a guy to keep him interested.  Gage, on the other hand, seems fairly well-adjusted and is not impressed with Serena's sexual antics.

Then, while attending one of Jimmy's art shows in Toronto, Serena spots Devin on the street.  But when he flees from her, catching a streetcar, Serena is left with more questions about who her brother has become and whether he wants to come home ever.

It's painful to read Serena's attempts to understand and find her brother, especially as she examines her relationship with him and how she sees herself.

...I can see with absolute clarity how the tangled mess of my former blubber, personal insecurities, and stupid need for some kind of male appraisal have shaped me into a person I don't want to be. (pg. 114) 

As she did in My Beating Teenage Heart, Yesterday and Tomorrow, C. K. Kelly Martin expertly weaves a story based on the typical confusion of the teen years but with an atypical, devastating situation that impacts that confusion all the more.  In The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing, she imbues the story with a grittiness and harshness about young relationships, especially in the shadow of social media exploitation, and a young man's severance from his family, and creates a series of scenarios you hope you'll never have to experience.  You won't necessarily like Serena (or at least I didn't, at the beginning) but you'll understand how she has become the person she has.  Her life is messy but it's not until she takes some responsibility for that mess and faces that she can't force things to turn out the way she wants that life begins to feel better.  She can't make Devin come home.  She can't make her parents change.  She can't make Gage act like she thinks he should.  Serena cannot make her life all sweet and lovely but she can control herself and her choices and that makes things all the sweeter.  C. K. Kelly Martin gets that very right and, without making Serena's life a Broadway musical, she allows her to find a song that is sure to become sweeter. 

Bye-Bye, Evil Eye

by Deborah Kerbel

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-770863941

168 pp.

Ages 9-12

May, 2014

How could summer be anything but blissful for thirteen-year-old Dani Price when she's taking her first plane ride to spend a three-week summer holiday with her friend Kat Papadakis in Greece at Kat's aunt and uncle's resort?  Even with Kat's superstitious mom as their chaperone, Dani is sure that it was

"going to be a summer to remember. I can feel it on my skin and in my bones–like that whispery tickle up your spine when something big's about to happen." (pg. 9)

Because Dani knows that she's fortunate to be popular and pretty, she is determined to help Kat get a little romance in her life, not just through the countless romance novels she reads and hides from her disapproving mother.  While her first steps included getting Kat into contact lenses and trendier clothes, she's now determined to help find the boy that will be Kat's first kiss.

Problem arises when Dani continues to be the one to draw boys' attention, starting with Costa, a young man who works at the resort, and then Nick Barbas, a fourteen-year-old friend of Kat's family who also arrives from Toronto.  Crushing on Nick, Dani makes sure that Kat is not feeling the same for Nick, though Kat doesn't seem to be interested in any of the boys Dani suggests for that first kiss.  Soon, Nick and Dani become inseparable, enjoying hanging out on the beach with Kat, chatting, swimming and even sneaking out for a real date.

But that bliss is tempered after days suffering with food poisoning, a fall that puts her on crutches, a bee sting, and finally the loss of her passport, preventing Dani from returning to Canada with Nick and Kat.  Though Mrs. Papadakis is generous with her mothering of Dani during her times of need, she is sure that the bad luck Dani is experiencing may be due to a terrible curse, the Evil Eye.  And even though Dani is not superstitious, her bad luck continues once she is back in Toronto.  While she doesn't want to admit to Nick that she believes in the curse, Dani consults with Kat and her mother on reversing the effects of the Evil Eye.

Deborah Kerbel enjoys flavouring the sweetness of young love and the exoticism of a Mediterranean holiday with much humour. Take Dani's descriptions of her holiday activities to which she offers some semblance of education, all to appease her mother.

"Dear Mom, yesterday I learned all about traditional Greek food and beverages and fishing techniques.  Today Kat and I plan on studying local beach life in its natural habitat..." (pg. 31)

Hard to believe that Dani's actually writing about enjoying a huge Greek meal, tasting the aperitif ouzo, learning that Costa lost several fingers when his dad used dynamite to fish, and then going out for the day at the beach for suntanning, swimming and boy-watching! And, when Dani is convinced she's cursed and needs a surefire remedy, her attempts, here with garlic, lean towards the hilarious!

"If three cloves are good, six will be even better. As per Kat’s instructions, I peel them and stick them all over my clothes. One in each pocket, one tucked into my underwear, two in my T-shirt pocket. I have one left over, so I put it in my mouth and swallow it" (pg. 135)

Even with a plot based on superstitions, Bye-Bye, Evil Eye is a totally believable story.  Young teens trying to navigate relationships with friends, mothers, boys, and new situations are liable to grasp onto any explanation they choose if it fits their way of thinking at that moment.  Given some time, perspectives will undoubtedly change, explaining why the spontaneous and lively Dani changes her mind about curses, and why the more traditional Kat is less than open about sharing details that could be relevant to their situation. As middle grade fiction, Bye-Bye, Evil Eye will give young readers a bit of escapism (holiday in Greece!), a bit of boy-girl crushing, a little girl drama, and some mother issues.  Reality and fancy all wrapped in a delightful tale in which not everything is as it seems.

Live to Tell

by Lisa Harrington
Dancing Cat Books
978-1-77086-217-3
170 pp.
Ages 13+
2012

Just having been awarded the White Pine Fiction Award in the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading program last week, I willed myself to go back to 2012 to review Live to Tell.  I suspect that many readers, including author Lisa Harrington, were surprised by the book's selection by high school students as their favourite book but, as I always say, if a book wins an award, it deserves to win it.

Teen Libby Thorne wakes up after twelves days of unconsciousness in a hospital, trying to piece together how she got there from the bits and pieces her parents, nurses and friends are able to share.  They can't tell her much because the police are involved now and she needs to provide her account, not one pieced together from others' information.  Two visitors are especially critical in helping bring back Libby's memories.  First, her best friend Kasey, whom Libby's mom has always thought of as a bad influence on Libby, sneaks in to visit and update her on what happened and how the outside world is reacting to the car accident and Libby's role in it.  Second is Cal McInnis whose good looks and devotion to Libby while at the hospital has everyone cooing about him being her boyfriend.  Thing is, the boyfriend she remembers is Nate, though slivers of memory do start to poke into her consciousness and she recalls a rather crude break-up and subsequent drinking.

I know that my students dislike the use of a character's amnesia to develop a plot, but in Live to Tell Lisa Harrington does not use it as a device to keep the whole truth hidden.  The loss of memory is used to reveal Libby's thinking as she tries to make sense of what she is told, what she feels, and what is the truth.  Because her future depends on her remembering–she has been arrested for manslaughter–Libby wants to learn the truth quickly but she isn't always making sure how reliable the information is.  Fortunately, with some friendly direction and because human nature eventually leads us to show our true selves, the twisted plot and surprise revelations bring a swift resolution to Live to Tell.  

Lisa Harrington has penned a young adult mystery with hints of romance and teen angst that obviously reached many teen readers, garnishing a major Canadian book award for young people.  Though Libby's story does jump back and forth between her memories and her present, the plot is essentially a linear one: girl awakens with amnesia and tries to fill those gaps in her memory.  I think Live to Tell could have benefited from some additional subplots to enrich the story but I tend to enjoy more complicated story-telling and those that provide me with the context for considering larger social issues than, say, drinking.  But the readers clearly appreciated the tight storyline and its convolutions, and that's good enough for me.

Congratulations on your White Pine Fiction award,  

Lisa Harrington,

for Live to Tell!

Nothing Man and the Purple Zero: Book Launch (Toronto)

Join

Richard Scarsbrook

award-winning author of young adult books,

Cheeseburger Subversive (Thistledown, 2003)

Featherless Bipeds (Thistledown, 2006)

The Monkeyface Chronicles (Thistledown, 2010)

for the launch of his newest book

 

Nothing Man and the Purple Zero

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-770863118 

240 pp.

Ages 12+

on

Monday, September 16, 2013

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

at

The Melody Room

in 

The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West (at Gladstone)
Toronto, Ontario


Richard notes that, in addition to his reading of an excerpt from the book, "there will be a LIVE DRAMATIC PRESENTATION of a scene from the book, featuring LIVE PROFESSIONAL DRAMATIC ACTORS!"

(I'm so glad they're not DEAD professional dramatic actors. Whew!)

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Having not read the book yet, I can't say too much. But, the brief synopsis at the Dancing Cat Books website suggests a hilarious book about two teens who foil a robbery and then deal with the video of their feat going viral.

Read the synopsis at Dancing Cat Books website for all the reasons you'll want to get this book!

"Under the Moon" Contest: What Keeps You Up at Night?

Under the Moon

by Deborah Kerbel
Dancing Cat Books (Cormorant Books)
978-1-77086-090-2
194 pp.
Ages 12-15
2012

 

In April, I enjoyed reviewing Deborah Kerbel's Under the Moon, currently nominated for the 2012 Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature (Text).  Now, Dancing Cat Books, its publisher, has launched a writing contest based on a key theme of Under the Moon.  Here are the contest details:

TASK:  In 500 words, answer the question, "What keeps you up at night?"

 

PARTICIPANTS:  For students in grades 7, 8 and 9

 

DEADLINE: December 14, 2012

 

PRIZES:  There are prizes for the three top entries (including a Kobo Touch for the 1st place entry) as well as a selection of Cormorant/Dancing Cat books for the school libraries of all three winners.

 

CONTACT:  Teachers and librarians can get details and entry forms at underthemoon@dancingcatbooks.com  and see the official contest information site at http://www.cormorantbooks.com/blog/?p=951

    *   *   *   *   

Under the Moon

Written by Deborah Kerbel
Dancing Cat Books (Cormorant Books)
978-1-77086-090-2
194 pp.
Ages 12-15
2012

Contemplating under the moon seems an appropriate activity on a dark night when you are burdened with the worries of daily life.  Even if you're not looking for answers, the darkness seems to absorb the uncertainties while the moonshine offers a glimmer of hope.  But what if that contemplation is not a singular event but a nightly ritual because the burden is the night, a time of sleeplessness?

Teen Lily MacArthur has never been a great sleeper, managing barely a few hours a night.  But, when her dear Aunt Su, an eccentric romance novelist and Lily's nighttime interlocutor, dies unexpectedly, Lily's minimal sleep becomes nonexistent.

Under similar circumstances, most people would seek out the support of friends or family.  With no friends, which Lily attributes to her introversion, and with her parents divorced and incapable of providing support during her wakefulness, Lily finds some relief in sneaking out at night, often chatting with the moon as if a friend.  On one such outing, she walks through the drive-thru at McCool's Fries and makes the acquaintance of the boy she calls Rude Dude whom she later learns is Ben Matthews, a new classmate.  While Lily is attracted to Ben, their occasional encounters, whether at school or at night when she's awake and he's working, are perplexing, occasionally honest and companionable, often undermining and ambiguous.

Coupled with her puzzling relationship with Ben, Lily is shaken by a post-funeral revelation from her aunt, and she begins to tally her sleepless nights believing they will lead to her death.  As she tries to respond to shifting circumstances, with Ben, a new friend Emma, a classmate Todd, and others, Lily begins to delve into the veracity of her own perceptions, and becomes worthy of the magnanimity Aunt Su suggests she has.

Though Under the Moon's title and cover suggest a more innocuous story, Deborah Kerbel's potent writing maintains the shadows of the night and the tangled thinking of the sleepless.  Lily's desperation to stymie her sleeplessness while yielding to new feelings contrasts with Ben's need to balance his unexpected attraction to her while avoiding pity.  In Under the Moon, Deborah Kerbel effectively portrays the turmoil of the teen heart and mind: apprehensive of the unknown, like the obscurity of the dark night, while still hopeful for possibilities that glimmer in the moon.

The Circle Game

Text by Joni Mitchell

Illustrations by Brian Deines

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-77086-042-1

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

2011

Turning song lyrics into children's books is not unusual, especially for those tunes that were originally written for children such as nursery rhymes and camp-fire songs.  There are wonderful children's performers like Eddie Douglas who take poetry (e.g., Dennis Lee's poems from Alligator Pie (Macmillan, 1974), Garbage Delight (Macmillan, 1977),  Jelly Belly (Macmillan, 1983) and The Ice Cream Store (HarperCollins, 1991) and adapt it for children's music.  But, in Canada, we don't have a long history of taking the poetry in song or hymn lyrics and adding graphics to produce children's books. Until now, I can only think of two such songs:

• The Huron Carol by Father Jean de Brebeuf, illustrated by Frances Tyrrell (Key Porter, 2003) 
• The Huron Carol by Father Jean de Brebeuf, illustrated by Ian Wallace (Groundwood, 2006)
• Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot, illustrated by Ian Wallace (Groundwood, 2010)

Now we can add Joni Mitchell's song, The Circle Game, to that list. 

The lyrics of Canadian-born Mitchell's song describe growing up and looking forward to new experiences, apparently in response to Neil Young's lament of lost youth in "Sugar Mountain". (1) The honest but hopeful words are beautifully embodied by Deines' paintings in complementary colours of purples and oranges.  Although impossible to tell whether Deines' medium is oil or pastel on canvas, the softness of his illustrations, whether the warm joys of capturing a dragonfly or the dark tremors of thunder and falling stars, always with uniquely dotted backgrounds, capably expresses the joys with the uneasiness of new experiences.  Moreover, just as our perspective of these experiences change as we grow up (dare I say it, age), so does the view of and from the carousel, never allowing one to return but accessible in our memories.

(1) Joni Mitchell interview notes

The Tiffin

by Mahtab Narsimhan

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-77086-039-1

190 pp.

Ages 9-12

2011

Twelve-year-old Kunal cannot remember a time when he didn’t live with Sethji and Mrs. Seth and work tirelessly as a waiter and delivery boy for their dhaba (roadside restaurant) in Mumbai. Reminded constantly by the abusive Sethji that Kunal is an orphan and should be thankful for the life they have given him, Kunal can find little support to help him deal with the menacing, new cook, Badri, abusive customers, frightening beggars or thieving gangs. When Kunal’s attempt at stealing money for his escape is thwarted and his sale to the Beggar King, Abdullah, is imminent, Mrs. Seth provides him with some money and information about his mother before he escapes with Vinayak, the kindly old dabbawalla (deliverer of the boxed lunches known as tiffins).

From the introductory chapter to the story, the reader learns that thirteen years earlier, a young woman named Anahita had sent a message hidden in a tiffin to her lover, Anurag. That tiffin had the auspicious distinction of being the one in six million tiffins that does not reach its destination. The reader will recognize soon enough that this is the cause of Kunal's fate. From what Mrs. Seth shares with Kunal just before his escape, it is a fate that Kunal is determined to correct by locating his mother. And his relationship with the dabbawallas is critical to his search.

Mahtab Narsimhan’s story reads as a junior version of any Rohinton Mistry book set in India: the colours and textures, as well as the smells, both fragrant and pongy, are fundamental to scaffolding the characters and their stories. Narsimhan chooses her palettes carefully: for Sethji’s fetid dhaba, for the cacophony at Andheri Station (from which trains are used to deliver the tiffins), and for the drenching monsoon rains. Narsimhan’s powerful writing bares the despair of Kunal and others, and is sure to have emotional impact; fortunately, the reader will intuit a kernel of hope in Kunal’s story which will at least ease the overriding bleakness.