That Inevitable Victorian Thing: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

I know it's a little late notice but, if you can, you really must go!

E. K. Johnston

YA author 

of

extraordinary fantasy, sci fi and more

is launching her newest book

That Inevitable Victorian Thing

Written by E. K. Johnston

Dutton Books for Young Readers

978-1101994979

336 pp.

Ages 12+

October, 2017

today

October 13, 2017

at

6:30-9:00 p.m.

at

 Bakka-Phoenix Books

84 Harbord Street

Toronto, ON

From Penguin Random House website:

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendent of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history. The imperial tradition of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage. But before she does her duty, she’ll have one summer of freedom and privacy in a far corner of empire. Posing as a commoner in Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire’s greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an extraordinary bond and maybe a one-in-a-million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process.

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved not by the cost of blood and theft but by the effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a surprising, romantic, and thought-provoking story of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.

Retrieved from 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/532329/

that-inevitable-victorian-thing-by-ek-johnston/9781101994979/ 

on October 13, 2017.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

by E. K. Johnston

Dutton Books for Young Readers

978-1-101994580

256 pp.

Ages 12-18

March 2016

It's not unusual for me to add graphic elements to my image of a book cover to enhance it and perhaps provide the reader with a little hint about the book. I could not do that disservice to Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston as the book's emotional story deserves to have its superb cover unadorned by my trivial efforts.  Exit, Pursued by a Bear needs to be left with a starkness that attests to the nature of the story within because

Everything about this is unfair. (pg. 131)

Teen Hermione Winters is off to cheerleading Camp Manitouwabing with best friend and co-captain Polly, boyfriend Leo and the rest of the Fighting Golden Bears, Palermo Heights high school’s squad, along with their coach, Alexandra Caledon.  As she will be entering her senior year after camp, Hermione whose positive attitude is as bright as her future intends to make this, her last cheer camp, the best for all involved. At the first bonfire, when squad captains share what their teams need to overcome, Hermione talks of two curses the school has: that each graduating class, since the death of Clara Abbey in 2006, will lose one person to a drunk driver, and that every year one girl at school gets pregnant.

“…I do think it’s life’s way of reminding us that nothing should be taken for granted, that things might take a turn in ways that aren’t fair or don’t make sense.” (pg. 23)

It’s an amazing camp of hard work, meeting new people and fun, though Leo is in a perpetual cranky mood for the lack of time he gets with Hermione.  Then, at a dance, Hermione is drugged and raped and left in the lake.  Awakening in the hospital, she has to be told what has happened to her because she has no memory of the attack.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear is Hermione’s journey of emotions and waiting and introspection and compassion.  Hermione may be a flyer on the cheerleading team but she is fully grounded in herself and her caring of others and what she believes.  As much as she is convinced that she is a changed person when she returns from camp, she truly isn’t.  The rape, and subsequent pregnancy and abortion, and search for the rapist do not change the force that makes Hermione a leader and a flyer.  Even through her sessions with the indomitable Dr. Hutt, Hermione does not come across as traumatized or broken.

That’s the first time I’ve thought of myself as broken.  Polly won’t let me, I don’t think, but everyone else seems to expect it.  And maybe I am.  Maybe this would be easier if I acted like I am broken.  Then they’ll be able to fix me.  You can’t fix something that doesn’t know it’s broken. (pg. 81)

She is hardly self-absorbed–though she should be allowed to be–often worrying about how her trauma is affecting her best friend, her teammates, her parents, her psychiatrist, even the OPP officer that is handling the criminal investigation.

Take a deep breath before you read E. K. Johnston’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear.  It’s strenuously moving, both dispiriting and uplifting, as Hermione and her team of family, friends and strangers as well as the reader are taken from the trauma of a rape through the healing process, including an unlikely return to the scene of the crime, before tumbling to a finish that is fair and astonishing.

Teen Bash: Author Event with E.K. Johnston, Morgan Rhodes and Teresa Toten

A Teen Bash extraordinaire!

Authors, books, trivia, prizes and more!

Tomorrow

Thursday, June 30, 2016

7-8 p.m.

at

Indigo

Sherway Gardens

Toronto, ON

Join award-winning young adult authors

E. K. Johnston

Morgan Rhodes

and 

Teresa Toten

for book fun and signings!

More details here

The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

by E. K. Johnston
CarolrhodaLab
978-1-4677-105504
306 pp.
Ages 12+
2014

Once upon a time there was a sixteen-year-old boy named Owen Thorskard, who was the son of two dragon slayers and nephew of one of the most famous dragon slayers of the late 1980s, Lottie Thorskard.  Though this is Owen's story, it could not have happened if: 1) his parents, who had experienced horrific experiences fighting dragons in the oil-rich Middle East, had not separated, his mom returning to Venezuela; 2) his aunt Lottie and her wife Hannah, a smith who forges all their swords and weaponry, hadn't offered to help raise Owen; and 3) Lottie hadn't been badly injured fighting a dragon off the Burlington Skyway, cutting short her urban career and compelling her to choose to live in the rural community of Trondheim, bringing Owen's dad Aodhan, Hannah and Owen with her.  Oh, of course, also if Owen hadn't met Siobhan McQuaid, musician and composer extraordinaire and his math tutor, and asked her to become his bard.  Without teen Siobhan to tell his story, there would never be The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim.

Pg. 303 The Story of Owen Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

While Siobhan becomes acquainted with Owen and his family and is introduced to the mechanics of dragon fighting, she tells of her experiences, both honestly to the reader and in true story-teller fashion to the media, elevating the cause for the need for dragon slayers in less urban communities. (Most dragon slayers, after they complete their mandatory service for the Oil Watch, end up getting lucrative contracts with large corporations or join the Royal Canadian Mounted Dragon Slayers rather than serving small centres without big budgets.)  When Siobhan and Owen are approached by a conspiracy theorist named Archie Carmichael in adjacent Saltrock, the two start to look into the possibility of a dragon hatching ground on Manitoulin Island which would explain the increase of attacks. With the help of Archie's daughter, Emily, and Owen's family, they establish a Guard at school to train teens in dragon fighting/slaying (though dragon slayers are typically legacy positions) to assist the few dragon slayers around and to devise a plan to locate and destroy this potential source of dragons.

The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim is a history of dragons and dragon slayers wrapped up in the story of a boy who would follow in his father's, mother's and aunt's footsteps and become a dragon slayer extraordinaire.  But it’s also the story of Siobhan finding her musical voice to compose a symphonic story for Owen’s actions.

This was it, I realized.  This was what I had to make other people feel, even if they didn’t get to see it like I had.  I could already hear the first whispers, the line of brass and the faltering drums of the dragon’s dying hearts. This was something I could do. (pg. 144)

Through Siobhan’s eyes and ultimately through her music–I wonder if E. K. Johnston has any plans for sharing the music composed to accompany Owen’s story–readers will be taken into an alternate history and a world in which dragons must be slain and carbon, fire and smoke draw the creatures to attack.   There is so much in The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim that it defies my inclusion of all in this simple review.  But all readers, particularly those participating in the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine reading program in which The Story of Owen is a nominee, will be grabbed by the completely unique premise for the book, E. K. Johnston’s exceptional characters, and an ending that is hardly formulaic and definitely startling.  And I’m sure that they will be as primed to read E. K. Johnston’s follow-up book, Prairie Fire, released earlier this year, as I am.