Dark Company: Book Launch (Toronto)

Award-winning Author

Natale Ghent

whose children's and YA books include

Against All Odds (HarperCollins, 2011)

The Odds Get Even (HarperCollins, 2010)

Gravity Brings Me Down (Doubleday Canada, 2009)

The Book of Living and Dying (HarperCollins, 2006)

will be launching 

her newest young adult book

Dark Company

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385667333

304 pp.

Ages 12+

on

Saturday March 28, 2015

8 p.m. - 12 a.m.

at

Junction Craft Brewing

90 Cawthra Avenue

Suite 101

(Keele-St.Clair area)

Toronto

See details here

Having not yet read Dark Company (though I have it on my to-be-read pile as I type this), I thought I'd share the synopsis from Penguin RandomHouse's website.  Tell me if this doesn't get you uncomfortably curious:

Natale Ghent brings us an engrossing fantasy set in the near-future about the war between two worlds and a girl pitted in the battle of good and evil. 

     Seventeen-year old Caddy is haunted by visions of global destruction. They come on like seizures, taking her to a desolate place where dispossessed souls struggle to be heard. It is one possible future--one she feels she must prevent. But in a world where food and money are scarce, and the struggle over resources between the continents is escalating toward war, Caddy has little hope. 

    When her father goes missing, she searches for him and is abducted into a cabalistic society called The Dreamers--visionaries who "dream" to sustain the light against the dark energies that threaten to take over the planet. Caddy is shepherded into the society by a high school classmate called Poe, and through him, uncovers long-hidden truths about herself and her father. 

    The situation darkens when Caddy learns that the dreamers are hunted and killed by an ancient order known as the Grey Men--a cult dedicated to eradicating the light to assist a demonic entity they call The Speaker. By killing the dreamers, the Grey Men open rifts in the light that allow The Speaker to seed evil and darkness on the earth plane with the ultimate goal of destroying the planet. Things become more complicated when Meg, a girl from Caddy's high school, who has been ushered into this other reality, clashes with Caddy to supress the forces of light and to try to win back Poe's heart.

    As she falls deeper and deeper into the world of the dreamers, Caddy discovers layers of deceit and treachery realizes it's up to her to find a way to overcome the dark and prevent the light from being extinguished forever. . .

Retrieved from Penguin Random House on March 9, 2015.

Hexed

by Michelle Krys

Doubleday Canada

978-0385680509

384 pp.

Ages 14+

2014

Other than her best friend, Bianca, acting like a tyrannical cheer captain, and her Wicca-practising mom always droning on about protecting the Witch Hunter's Bible, and geeky neighbour Paige Abernathy constantly trying to re-establish their former friendship, Indigo Blackwood could be any sixteen-year-old teen.  That is, until a guy in leather–unusual in the heat of L.A.–starts showing up around her, laughing at her, making odd comments, and starting to cause her some concern.

When the Witch Hunter's Bible is stolen, Indie seeks out this handsome young man, who calls himself Bishop, sure that he is responsible for its disappearance.  With a twist of fate that has her reconnecting with trustworthy Paige, Indie learns that she may be a witch, that a group of sorcerers called the Priory are after the Bible in order to wield power over witches, and that Bishop has been sent by the Family–the governing body of witches–to help Indigo.

That hardly covers the breadth of supernatural goings-on: Bishop's warlock nature and ability to fly; the cruelty of the sorcerers; the twistedness of their mind-erasing; and Indie's own dabblings with her new powers.  Of course, there are also the normal teen issues of striving for popularity; balancing new friends, old friends, non-friends and exes; following school rules and parent rules; and worrying about making good decisions or not worrying about poor decisions.

Hexed is high school drama with witches and magic.  The high school scenes are generally banal, focusing on cheer-leading, football and lunchroom antics, all immersed in malicious gossip and spiteful stunts.  And Indie is shallow and oblivious to her own rudeness, undeserving of those whom she attracts.  But when the horrific Priory gets involved and start having an impact on her life and those around her, and Bishop and his ex Jezebel throw themselves into the fray, Hexed takes on a new dimension or two.  Michelle Krys is able to rescue a typical mean girls storyline and boy-meets-girl romance with the addition of surprisingly imaginative scenarios and magical powers, and the Bishop-Indie relationship becomes more than just predictable.  There are still some unknowns to be revealed, particularly about Bishop, about a frightening new character presented at the conclusion of Hexed, and about the elusive Witch Hunter's Bible, and these will serve to draw young adult readers to the next book in The Witch Hunter series.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charmed, The Witch Hunter Book 2 (978-0-385743396), is due out in May, 2015.

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B

Written by Teresa Toten

Doubleday Canada/Random House of Canada

978-0-385678346

255 pp.

Ages 14+

For release August 27, 2013

When 16-year-old Robyn Plummer joins Dr. Chuck Mutinda's young adult OCD group, fifteen-year-old Adam Ross finds his motivation to get better and even grow taller. He still has deal with his compulsion to clear those triggers that bother him, like thresholds and even numbers, but when the group members are encouraged to take on superhero alter egos, he links himself to her by choosing Batman to her Robin.  

In fact, Adam becomes Robyn's unofficial mentor in all things Catholic after following her to the cemetery where she visits her mom's grave.  Seems Robyn is interested in pursuing the ingrained rituals such as crossing oneself and kneeling, hoping it will help her deal with her mother's death and her own OCD.  But Adam and Robyn's relationship starts to include the other members of their OCD group when a field trip to his parish is undertaken.  Although Chuck is clear that religion is not a panacea for OCD, the other group members, including the intense Thor, accompany them and learn about the font, the lighting of candles and kneeling in prayer, even if they all fall to their knees when Father Rick introduces himself.

While he continues to do all he can to help Robyn, obviously falling in love with her, Adam is very reluctant to speak in group or even in his one-on-one sessions with Chuck of those issues which are overwhelming him.  His father had left to marry another woman, Brenda, with whom he now has another son, Wendell (affectionately known as Sweetie), a four-year-old whom Adam adores.  Likewise, Sweetie has a strong attachment to Adam who is regularly summoned to calm or reassure or put his little brother to sleep.  In fact, Adam wonders if he is making Sweetie crazy, although his mother claims that he is not.  A highly-competent nursing supervisor, Carmella Ross, has her own issues, particularly hoarding and, more recently, receiving nasty letters that call her vile names and instruct her to kill herself for Adam's sake. But his mom has declared that if he tells anyone that it will be a betrayal to her.

So he lies to Chuck and others about the letters and even the growing severity of his issues with thresholds. But, as Chuck tells him and he later tells Robyn, when she reveals her own secrets, "Everybody lies."(pg. 146)  However, as he and Robyn become closer, he confides in her about his mom and the letters, which lightens his burden, until he gets home again.

Bouncing back and forth between trying to get better and following Chuck's program and feeling that Robyn is getting better and he is not, Adam begins to feel like an impostor, hardly a superhero of Room 13B. But, revealing what he needs, exposing some lies, and accepting that leaving is a difficult but necessary step in growing up, Adam can finally see himself as the reluctant hero that his family, his friends and Robyn know him to be.

If you forget the OCD, temporarily, you see that Teresa Toten has created a good kid in Adam.  He tries to see the best in everyone and help where he can. He may vascillate between whether it is or isn't or whether he should or shouldn't, but don't we all when trying to make the best of decisions?  With his OCD, Adam would be justified in having great difficulty in determining the correct course of action.  But, he still goes when Sweetie needs him, even in the middle of the night or during the school day.  He respects his mother's wishes.  He even suggests that climbing the stairs to their meeting room in Room 13B would be excellent exercise when he realizes that one group member with claustrophobia was unable to enter the elevator.

While Adam tells himself and others that everybody lies, the lies are used to add layering to The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B.  Everyone has fears, issues, anxieties and sensitivities that sometimes need to be hidden.  But what transforms the lies into a story is the choices of from whom these lies are hidden–yourself or others–and for what purpose.  Teresa Toten uses her characters' lies to provide greater depth and unexpected twists to her storyline, as well as demonstrate that heroics are everyday occurrences, not the domain of superheroes.  Some days it's speaking aloud in a group, or taking a chance and going for it, or breaking your heart to do what's right that requires courage.  By that explanation, Adam Ross, 15, is truly The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B.

    ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~    

Teresa Toten will be a guest author at First Calgary Financial Book Rapport, part of Calgary's WordFest in October, and will be presenting at the Banff Centre on Saturday October 19. 

Seraphina

Written by Rachel Hartman

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385-66839-2

480 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Having seen the book trailer for Seraphina last year, I hadn't been convinced that it wasn't just another fantasy involving just another supernatural creature i.e., dragons.  But when Seraphina won the 2013 William C. Morris Award for a debut author; was selected as a 2013 Best YALSA Fiction and a 2013 ALA Notable Children's Book for Older Readers; and nominated for the 2012 Governor General's Children's Literature Award, the 2013 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, and the 2013 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Book Award, I knew I'd missed something. And that is why I revisited, thankfully, Rachel Hartman's debut novel, Seraphina.

Seraphina Dombegh is a young woman who is the music mistress at Castle Orison, the residence of the royal family of Goredd: Queen Lavonda, her son Prince Rufus, her daughter Princess Dionne and granddaughter Princess Glisselda, and Glisselda's cousin and fiancé Prince Lucian Kiggs, Captain of the Queen's Guard.  On the threshold of celebrations commemorating the 40th anniversary of the treaty between Goredd and dragonkind, Prince Rufus is murdered and his head removed, a trait of a dragon kill.  And, while the treaty may have been agreed upon by Queen Lavonda and Ardmagar Comonot, there are many including Glisselda's governess Lady Corongi who still hold animosity towards the dragons, and others like the Sons of St. Ogdo who torment the saarantrai (dragons in human form) and quig (a dragon subspecies that cannot transform).

Although Seraphina is held in high esteem by her student Princess Glisselda and consequently Kiggs, she knows she must never reveal her true heritage and nature.  Seraphina's mother Linn had been a saarantras who'd fallen in love with a human, Claude Dombegh, and had died giving birth to her daughter.  But, as a dragon, Linn left her daughter with a mind-pearl, memories by which Seraphina would know of her mother's life.  Luckily, Linn had a brother, Orma, who is dedicated to helping Seraphina with her half-dragon nature, her physically-debilitating memories and visions, and musical training.

So, while Seraphina spends much effort hiding the silver scales on her wrist and waist, and tending a virtual garden of grotesques that infuse her visions, she becomes integral in helping her uncle Orma deal with the suspected appearance of his father Imlann (who may be leading a coup against the Ardmagar), and in liaising with Kiggs in his investigations.  As both royalty and Captain of the Queen's guard, Kiggs is investigating Prince Rufus' murder and a sighting of a rogue dragon (i.e., in flying form) and dealing with escalating conflicts between saars and humans, undoubtedly associated with Treaty Day.  Oh, and did I mention that Seraphina falls in love with Kiggs?

Surprisingly, I haven't gone into details about the multiple subplots and characters in town, in the castle, in Seraphina's head, in a dragon-fighting knights' camp, and in the legends and saintly beliefs.  Seraphina, the book, is a hearty tale of secrets, fears and emotions and the consequences of the conflicts between them. It may be a story with dragons, princesses and princes, knights and earls, but Seraphina is no fairy tale.  The realms of Seraphina go beyond any medieval settings, both real and imagined, and appropriately Rachel Hartman has created a vernacular to accompany them.  The glossary of new vocabulary, as well as the five pages listing the characters, is necessitated by the complexity of the story and appreciated by the reader.  With a sequel, Dracomachia, due out in February 2014, I will certainly be refreshing my memory of the Porphyrian language and philosophers and Goreddi saints, as war draws near and Kiggs and Seraphina continue to support Glisselda, albeit with unspoken love.

Yesterday

by C. K. Kelly Martin
Doubleday Canada
978-0-385-66845-3
355 pp.
Ages 13+
2012


Sixteen-year-old Freya just wants "living to feel the way it should." (pg. 78) Not like her sister Olivia (10) isn't really her sister. Not like Freya has all the details about her life but can't recall what she likes or feels or can do well. Not like she can only remember the facts of the memories but not the memories themselves. What she does know is that it is 1985 and that she, her mom and Olivia have recently come to Canada after the death of Freya's father, a diplomat, in an explosion in New Zealand.  And she gets lots of headaches and can almost tell what's going to happen before it does.

While at the museum with her class, Freya sees a handsome, green-eyed boy on the street and she is convinced that she knows him.  Following the young man, she learns where he lives, and returns another day to confront him.  Through questioning the boy, Freya learns that Garren's dad was also a diplomat who was killed in an accident in Switzerland but Garren does not recognize Freya at all.  In fact, he is infuriated with her insistence that he should know her.  It isn't until Freya returns with family photos and newspaper clippings that the two realize they share the same grandfather, Henry Newland, and both were seen by Dr. Byrne when they were stricken with the flu when they arrived in Canada.  But confronting their grandfather just sets them on the run when Freya "sees" him contacting men in dark suits with guns to come after her and Garren.

To avoid putting their families at risk, Freya and Garren hide out while they try to find some answers.  In fact, Freya convinces Garren to let her visit a hypnotherapist to help clarify her memories.  What Freya learns is that her memories are actually 78 years into the future, in the year 2063, and that Garren was a part of her life then.  Unfortunately, Garren's trust in Freya's memories is waning, realizing that he is giving up everything to follow her and help her while he himself has no memories of a life in the future.

So Freya's Yesterday is actually taking place in the future, or has taken place in the future, or will take place in the future.  I'm not really sure what verb tense is appropriate here.  But, while I may be confused with the timeline of Freya's life, those shortcomings are my own; C. K. Kelly Martin has no difficulty conveying those details to the reader.  Freya's anxiety about feeling out of place, actually out of time, is expertly handled by C.K. Kelly Martin whose book My Beating Teenage Heart (Random House, 2011), reviewed here, similarly takes the reader back and forth between times and experiences.  As a teacher-librarian, I know that this play between the past (future?) and the present can be a difficult concept for younger readers to follow and appreciate for its complexity and the richness it lends to storytelling; young adult readers of Yesterday should have no difficulties grasping and relishing this approach. 


I've just learned that C.K. Kelly Martin has her own YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ckwriter where you can see a book trailer and teaser for Yesterday, as well as trailers for several of her other books.  For those readers who enjoy video overtures for books, I'd recommend checking the author's channel out. I will include her book trailer for Yesterday here, though.

Yesterday Book Trailer

Published on June 24, 2012 by ckwriter to YouTube.

Rebel Heart (Dust Lands: 2)

Written by Moira Young

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385-67186-6

424 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

When I reviewed Moira Young's debut novel, Blood Red Road, last December (Blood Red Road review), I had no idea the accolades and attention it would garner.  It won the U.K.'s 2011 Costa Children's Book Award, the 2012 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, Honour Book for the 2012 White Pine Fiction Award, the Simply the Book Coventry Inspiration Book Award and the Rib Valley Book Award, as well as being shortlisted for the 2012 Independent Booksellers' Week Book Award, the 2012 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award and the 2013 MYRCA.  Seems a dystopian world ruled by a despot and his security force where pockets of civilization attempt to survive amidst anarchy is a popular theme nowadays.

After parting ways with Saba at the end of Blood Red Road, Jack has headed to the Lost Cause, the hooch and whores joint run by Molly Pratt.  Jack finds the Lost Cause a shell of itself, courtesy of the vicious Tontons and their new leader who have been actively involved in land grabs and resettlement.  Meanwhile Saba, travelling with her twin brother Lugh, little sister Emmi and the deaf Tommo, seems to be haunted by the dead, particularly Epona, who would've fallen into the Tontons' hands if not for Saba, and all the girls Saba fought and killed in the cage at Hopetown.  Though he openly criticizes Saba and Jack, not wanting to be grateful to them for saving his life, Lugh vacillates between fear of Saba and contempt for her every action, emotion, decision.  And then when Maev, a former ally, tells them that Jack has joined the Tonton, Lugh is convinced that he's been right about Jack all along.  But Saba still believes otherwise, assured that Jack had encrypted a message in his words to Maev for Saba to meet up with him at the Lost Cause. 

After setting off on her own to find Jack, Saba realizes how stifling it has been with Lugh.

He smothers me.  Chokes me.  Pens me in.  Tethers me to him with his worry an sorrow an anger an fear. (pg. 166)

Unfortunately, Lugh, Maev, Emmi and Tommo follow, creating more hardship and opportunities for misunderstanding and criticism.  Entering into New Eden, Tonton territory, in which the new leader, the Pathfinder, has his lair Resurrection, the group meets up with Slim, Travellatin Physician an Surgeon in his Cosmic Compendalorium, a cart pulled by his camel, Moses. Though their intention had been to hijack Slim for his animal and cart, Saba and the others soon realize that Slim has more to offer them, including guidance in navigating discretely through New Eden and ultimately the protection and assistance of those in the Resistance to the new order.  

Just as Auriel, the shaman from the small community on the Snake River, had divined, Lugh dreams of settling land and raising a family whereas Saba wants to be free to soar, destined to have the "courage to act in the service of somethin greater" (pg. 110). With both Saba and Lugh dealing with their own versions of post-traumatic stress disorder, embedded in anger and self-recrimination, their bond is unravelling.  And Moira Young seems loathe to let Saba or Lugh see things straight.  Everything they do is painted with the pain of their experiences and inability to express themselves or ask for help.  Although I became frustrated with Lugh's self-righteousness and Saba's constant second-guessing, I know it was because I was looking for a glimmer of happiness in a wasteland of humanity.  I so wanted Saba to reunite with her brother and accept his appreciation for all she'd endured to save him.  I wanted Saba to reunite with Jack and re-establish their relationship on a foundation of respect and love, not desperation and chance.

Fortunately, Moira Young did not disappoint, even if she didn't take the path of least resistance.  Rebel Heart has storylines converging and diverging, leaving the reader anticipating the best or the worst at different times but never able to guess appropriately.  Over three hundred pages in and I was convinced it was all over.  Within fifty pages of the end, I thought I couldn't bear to go on.  Only thirty pages left and I despaired for the ending I was sure was coming.  My heart lurched with every obstacle and unkindness and poor choice and bad luck, still looking for that resolution that would ease my recurring anguish.  If I thought the grammar and spelling in Blood Red Road was a hardship, I was mistaken.  The torment of Rebel Heart is far more disconcerting.  Even the relief of a long-awaited moment, tender and promising, is fleeting with the realization that a threat is simmering.  How perfectly apropos.

The Calling

by Kelley Armstrong
Doubleday Canada
978-0385668545
336 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Maya Delaney, the protagonist from Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering (Doubleday Canada, 2011), first book in the Darkness Rising trilogy, thought she knew all there was to know about herself: she'd been adopted; she had some Native blood in her; she lived in Salmon Creek, a town built around the St. Cloud Corporation's research facility on Vancouver Island; she had a gift for healing injured animals; and she had a paw-print birthmark.  But as The Gathering unraveled, so did Maya's perceptions of herself and her community.  She was still dealing with the suspicious death of her best friend, Serena, while Serena's boyfriend, Daniel, who had always been there for Maya, was acting antagonistically to newcomer, Rafe, whose "bad boy" facade had turned many people against him.  Unfortunately, Maya was strangely attracted to Rafe, who revealed to her that she was a shape-shifter, like he and his older sister, Annie.  But, after a forest fire is set by armed men, one of whom looks like Maya and who attempts to capture her, everyone is evacuated from Salmon Creek and Maya has more questions than ever.

The Calling begins with Maya and Daniel, and teens Nicole, Samantha, Corey and Hayley, with Maya's dog Kenji, Nicole's dad the mayor, and an unconscious Rafe, being whisked away from the fire by helicopter.  But, too soon, Maya and Daniel realize that things are not as they appear.  In the ensuing chaos, the Mayor dies, the pilot is knocked out by the force of Daniel's words, the now-conscious Rafe falls out of the chopper, and Sam must take the controls and crash land it.  The teens and Kenji survive the crash but are left looking for safety while evading those sent to capture them.

While searching for safety, the teens' efforts are complicated by a series of circumstances that reveal more about their own supernatural attributes and motives.  Maya is almost drowned like Serena, Nicole is shot and captured, Daniel begins to recognize that he is able to sway others' thinking and to intuit danger, and Maya shape-shifts into a cougar for the first time, all while being pursued by the Nasts, a corporate rival of the St. Clouds, claiming to want to help them.  From snatches of information, Maya and Daniel learn that the kids are part of the St. Clouds' Project Phoenix, and that another project by the Edison Group, Project Genesis, has gone awry and those kids are on the run too.  Ultimately, a subset of the Salmon Creek kids must head out in search of these young people to get answers to their own growing bank of questions.

Readers are advised to read The Gathering first as it clarifies many circumstances in The Calling.  Although Kelley Armstrong attempts to cover details from the first book in the teens' recollections or statements made by their pursuers, I still had to reread portions of The Gathering to ensure that I had synthesized the details correctly.  Of course, this may just be my own weakness.

With the plot revealing possible answers to Serena's death and the biochemical manipulation by the St. Clouds on the teens, Maya and her friends carry their troubles with them now, anticipating physical changes and emotional revelations with which they are unfamiliar to deal.  Of course, their pursuers are still a concern, thwarting the kids' attempts to learn more about themselves, but the secrets that their bodies carry within may be the most devastating and dangerous of all.  I hope that when more details are revealed, however, that much of it is not just announced by their pursuers or in found memos but through the thoughtful reasoning already demonstrated by Maya and Daniel.

Surprisingly, Kelley Armstrong's characters become ever more real to the reader.  Their attempts to understand and deal with the strangeness of their situation are very reasonable, even if a character such as Sam is seen as more caustic. I found myself more sympathetic to Corey and Hayley than after reading the first book as they became multidimensional characters who expose their fears and weaknesses, as well as strengths, knowing the importance of revealing their true selves.  For that reason, I am delighted to anticipate the next book in the series, knowing who will be leading the journey, and the inevitability of the Darkness Rising series connecting with Kelley Armstrong's other trilogy, Darkest Powers.


The book trailer for The Calling, uploaded by harperteen to YouTube on March 9, 2012, can be viewed at my Book Trailers page here.

The Taming

by Eric Walters and Teresa Toten

Doubleday Canada
978-0-385-67658-8
229 pp.
Ages 13-17
2012

If all the world's a stage, then high school provides the acting classes for life. Few teens have the confidence or wherewithal to be themselves; most take on roles they believe will make them popular or celebrated or conspicuous.  Not Katie.  She's happy being relatively invisible, enjoying the company of her two friends: brilliant, rich and nonconformist Lisa, and emo-boy, goth-looking Travis.  But everything changes when Katie gets the lead role in her drama class' production of  The Taming of the Shrew.  Not only does Katie enjoy the acting, but guys are starting to notice an attractive spark in her when on-stage. In fact, a dashing new student, Evan, whose familiarity with the play earns him the role of Petruchio, sees something captivating in Katie, asking her out.

The Taming's chapters alternate between Katie's voice and that of Evan, sharing different perspectives of their relationship. Living in subsidized housing with a single mother whose goal it is to capture a man, Katie has enjoyed anonymity, only sharing herself with Lisa and Travis.  But now, enjoying Evan's avid attention and her first dating experience, Katie has difficulties balancing her former life and friends with Evan's wishes.  It is evident, from Evan's entries, that he left his last school under negative circumstances, that he abhors his father, a jet-setting businessman, and that he carefully calculates every move involving Katie.  How their two lives intertwine is neither unexpected nor universal.

In a twisted contemporary version of The Taming of the Shrew, Katie is neither a shrew nor in need of being tamed.  However, Evan's knowledge of relationships is highly influenced by his parents' and his father's words and actions, whether he consciously chooses to follow them or not.  As such, although he seems to truly care for Katie, Evan's actions are focused on manipulating her to think and act according to his wishes, ultimately forcing her to make dangerous choices that threaten her sense of self.

Those readers who choose to read this book solely for its romance will not see the subtext that exists for most relationships.  Eric Walters and Teresa Toten meld their writing to bring the personal nature of any liaison with the challenges of understanding and relating to others.  Juxtaposing Shakespeare's tale of a strong woman subjugated by a suitor with Katie and Evan's contemporary dating situation, Eric Walters and Teresa Toten demonstrate that relationships through the ages may differ in context but the bases are essentially the same.  Relationships can be grounded in respect, trust and caring, or in false impressions, abuse and inequality.  The hope is that those who find themselves in superficial romances with private abuses find the strength and support to choose different roles as Katie is fortunate to do.

Blood Red Road wins Costa Children's Book Award

Congratulations to Moira Young and her book Blood Red Road (Doubleday Canada, 2011) reviewed here on December 27, 2011 which has been awarded the 2011 Costa Children's Book Award.  Although a native Canadian, Young currently lives in the United Kingdom, making her eligible for the Costa Awards for popular books by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The Costa Awards, which have been bestowed for 40 years, cover 5 categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book, with the winner of each receiving £5,000.  The winners of the five 2011 awards were announced January 4, 2011,  Announcement

Now, the winners of the 5 different awards are pitted against one another for the Costa Book of the Year with the winner receiving an additional £30,000.  This award will be selected and announced on January 24, 2012.

By the way, you may want to check out the different covers for Blood Red Road as available in Canada and the UK. Personally, the subtle colours and dusty appearance with Saba walking off the cover are my preference.  Must be the understated Canadian nature at play.

Doubleday Canada, 2011 

Marion Lloyd Books, 2011

The Gathering

Written by Kelley Armstrong

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385-66851-4

359 pp.

Ages 12+

2011

When Kelley Armstrong's first book in her Darkest Powers trilogy, The Summoning (HarperCollins Canada, 2008) first came out, I was convinced that our YA readers would have a superior and Canadian alternative to Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series.  I was so right.  The Summoning's plot went beyond a romance with supernatural elements. It added layers and layers of storylines with youthful protagonists (with various supernatural abilities) and adults with questionable intentions, and left the reader desperate to read the next in the series (i.e., The Awakening, 2009; The Reckoning, 2010).  Her newest trilogy, Darkness Rising, will similarly find avid readers of fantastical fiction awaiting the sequel to the first book in this series, The Gathering, a current Ontario Library Association White Pine Award nominee.

As important as the characters in The Gathering is the setting of this book: the tiny town of Salmon Creek on Vancouver Island, a remote, wilderness-surrounded community created by the St. Cloud Corporation for its top-secret research facility and its employees' families.  Unlike the majority of the youth in Salmon Creek, Maya Delaney (16, shortly after the book begins), adopted daughter of the park warden (Dad) and architect (Mom), was born outside of the community.  Much mystery surrounds Maya, primarily because of her genesis (definitely Aboriginal, but tribe unknown), a paw-print birthmark, and her strong attachment to the forest and its creatures.

Throw in a few friends (best-friend, Daniel; mayor's daughter, Nicole; Nicole's unusual cousin, Samantha; antagonistic Hayley; newcomer and love-interest, Rafe), a couple of animals (pets Kenji, a German shepherd, and Fitz, a three-legged bobcat; old-timer cougar, Marv; a marten and others being rehabilitated by Maya); and a few parents and concerned adults, and Maya's story could be that of a "regular" teen. (But where would the story be?)  Alas, I didn't mention the bizarre drowning of swim team captain and friend, Serena, the year before.  Or Maya and Rafe finding the cougar-chomped body of visitor reporter, Mina Lee.  Or Rafe's flip-flop persona (bad boy vs. honest, affectionate boy), particularly with regards to Maya. Or the increase in cougar attacks.  Or Rafe's elusive, guardian and sister, Annie.  And what about the older Aboriginal woman at the tattoo parlour treating Maya as a pariah, first telling her she is a witch and then a skin-walker?  Not so normal anymore.

But in the deft writing of Kelley Armstrong, Maya's story seems so plausibly intricate that the reader is compelled to read on, as if to help support Maya through her journey.  Without giving away the ending, I can say that, even as Maya moves on to a new set of circumstances and setting, she still carries her need to know herself fully, heritage and all.

By the way, Book 2 in the series, The Calling, is due out in April, 2012, and the final installment, The Rising, is scheduled for publication in 2013.  Hope you can wait.

Check out the book trailer for The Gathering on my Book Trailers page

End of Days

by Eric Walters

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385-67006-7

316 pp.

Ages 10-15

2011

Science fiction is a genre that most readers either love completely or dislike vehemently.  I am generally in the latter group, reading the odd sci-fi novel or short story as required, never by choice.  So when presented with a tome in which the end of the world is forecast due to an asteroid speeding towards Earth, I was reluctant to even begin my read.  Fortunately, the author is Eric Walters who is well-known for spinning a great tale, whether its theme is Perry's journey to the pole (The Pole, Penguin, 2008); school uniforms (Branded, Orca, 2010); post-traumatic stress experienced by soldiers during various conflicts (Shattered, Penguin, 2006; Wounded, Penguin, 2009); the 9/11 terrorist attacks (We All Fall Down, Doubleday, 2006; United We Stand, Doubleday, 2009); or the healing power of art for street youth (Sketches, Penguin, 2007).  His versatility in crafting a complex, action-packed plot from any germ of an idea is epic.  Science fiction writing for Walters would undoubtedly be riveting.  It is.

Daniel Sheppard and other scientists have their deaths faked by the International Aerospace Research Institute in Switzerland so that they may work discretely on finding a solution to an impending global disaster: a massive asteroid (over 200 km in diameter) expected to impact Earth in 24 years.

Seven years later, their mission is revealed by brilliant and extremely wealthy innovator, Joshua Fitchett, whose alleged death the next day is attributed to the Judgement Day group who believe that scientists are working against God's will to purify the world. Apparently ridding the world of scientists and their research facilities is also God's will.  Meanwhile, panic ensues and society crumbles with shortages (food, water, fuel), violence and desperation.

Fitchett, who staged his own death, is finding his own solution to the looming disaster, recruiting hundreds of bright children, with 16-year-old Billy the Kid (gang leader known for his kindness and compassion) as their leader.  In the last year before the asteroid is expected to hit, while Sheppard and his staff at the Institute undertake their plans to destroy the asteroid, Fitchett, in their underground facility in Idaho, reveals full details of his work to Billy, and ultimately to Sheppard.

Walters' plot and subplots are so well constructed that the reader is emotionally engaged throughout, anticipating a disaster, despairing over a world headed for anarchy, and finally gratified with an ending sure to satisfy.

Fanatics

by William Bell

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385-67027-2

289 pp.

Ages 12+

2011

Garnet Havelock and Raphaella Skye from Bell's award-winning book, Stones (Doubleday Canada, 2001) are still together, having graduated from high school in Orillia and pursuing careers in furniture-making and stage management, respectively.  For a nominal lease on the coach house (for his workshop) at the estate of the recently-deceased Professor Corbizzi, Garnet reaches an agreement with Mrs. Stoppini, the professor's housekeeper and companion, to make repairs to the fire-damaged library and to catalogue the scholar's book collection. After stumbling across a hidden cupboard with a manuscript titled "Fanatics", a medal and an ornate cross, and enduring nightmares of a tortured man, Garnet enlists Raphaella's psychic tendencies to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the late professor's demise.

As in Stones, a parallel but contemporary storyline reinforces the theme, here of religious intolerance.  In his attempt to return a found GPS, Garnet discovers a covert camp of men in camouflage gear (including firearms) and speaking an unfamiliar language.  He parlays this information to deter his mother, the investigative journalist, from pursuing another dangerous assignment, one in Afghanistan.  As Garnet and Raphaella learn of the fanaticism and fate of the 15th c. Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, they must also discover the means by which to exorcise his spectre from the library.

I've read reviews by those who declare parallel plot lines, in the past and the present, to be contrived and unimaginative.  But, as the selection committee for the Canadian Library Association's Young Adult Canadian Book Award undoubtedly recognized in its 2001 choice, Stones, the folding of one story into another does not compromise either, but rather enhances the texture (not unlike folding egg whites into batter - as Mrs. Stoppini would know from making her zuccotto).

Just as Garnet crafts a piece of furniture or Mrs. Stoppini creates an Italian dessert, William Bell builds his plots from the commonplace through meticulous detail to a riveting and satisfying resolution.  No detail, such as Garnet and Raphaella's relationship, is misplaced or extraneous. The read is enriching and satiating.