Puffin and Penguin

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0654-9

80 pp.

Ages 6-9

October 2024

 

Who knew that Puffin's life would change so much when his mom got a new job at the United Avian Nations in New Stork City?! But a move from Iceland to their new home in Brookloon must also include the making of new friends, so there is that. 

From Puffin and Penguin, written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

At his new school, Puffin is introduced to a diverse group of students, from Eaglet the nervous Nellie; King Penguin, the cool kid; Screech Owl,the coding whiz; and Canada Goose, the fashionista. When his teacher, Ms. Grey, buddies Puffin up with Penguin, it's not a perfect match. Penguin already has so many responsibilities and activities that taking on one more, especially the enthusiastic Puffin for whom he has little time, is just too much.

From Puffin and Penguin, written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

 Initially Puffin is annoyed about being abandoned and with everyone calling him a "funny-looking lil' penguin" (p. 27) but his father advises him that there's no need "to get so hot under the feathers" (p. 29) and to give his new classmates a bit of "puffin pedagogy." (p. 31)

 

So Puffin hatches a plan–lots of fun word play in Puffin and Penguin–to inform his classmates about himself and puffins and to make some new friends by joining the Drama Club. But his efforts come across as bragging and he realizes he often comes on too strong and appears to be trying too hard. Still when there's a glitch with the lighting during the performance of "King Midas and the Golden Pinkie," it's Puffin's fluorescent beak that saves the day. 

From Puffin and Penguin, written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

Puffin and Penguin has this amazing blend of science–who knew puffins' beaks fluoresced?–and word play and humour and plain old fun. Helaine Becker's story of two birds who are unlikely buddies shows young readers ways to make friends and to accept differences. And by telling her story with a plethora of puns, Helaine Becker actually makes you laugh while demonstrating ways to be a friend and make a friend while being true to yourself. (Puffin makes it clear, for example, how much he dislikes being called Puffy.)

 

And then there's Kevin Sylvester's artwork that adds even more humour. From making Penguin truly look overextended and weary to Puffin ranting about Penguin's neglect and Puffin's "Too Cool for School" backpack–highly relevant for a bird coming from Iceland–Kevin Sylvester's cartoon illustrations tell more about the story, intensifying the fun and revealing more about the characters than words alone could. 

From Puffin and Penguin, written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

Because it's an early reader graphic novel, Puffin and Penguin has to work for younger readers in the 6 to 9-years-old audience, giving them more than a picture book but less than a middle grade novel. But Helaine Becker and Kevin Sylvester have found a perfect combo of message and medium, giving readers a relatable story of moving to a new place and making friends with the chuckles and brightness of an illustrated book. Puffin and Penguin is a perfect bundle of everything to entertain and even inform. They don't need more Penguin and Puffin to complete their story but I think young readers would be delighted if Helaine Becker and Kevin Sylvester would take us on a few more adventures with our new avian friends. Do I see a cultural exchange in their future perhaps?

So Long, Stress!

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Joanna Sevilla

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-8770-1

152 pp.

Ages 9-13

August 2023

 

Self-help sections of bookstores are laden with books to help adults cope with everyday stress and debilitating anxiety. But, too often, we expect children to just manage with the same strategies that we might utilize. Just as there is no single solution for coping for us, applying adult strategies to children is problematic. By helping children understand stress and providing them with an array of strategies, they have an opportunity to say, "So Long, Stress!"

From So Long, Stress!, written by Helaine Becker, illus. by Joanna Sevilla

So Long, Stress! is so well-organized, and I wouldn't expect anything less from Helaine Becker who excels at non-fiction texts, making it easy for young readers to follow advice while giving them choices to help them help themselves. The book is divided into 5 parts with an additional section on resources as well as an extensive index. Part 1 deals with the physiology of stress, its purpose in aiding in survival, its symptoms, and how to identify one's own triggers.

From So Long, Stress!, written by Helaine Becker, illus. by Joanna Sevilla

Part 2, the largest section, focuses onto how to prevent and manage stress, from getting organized, developing a mindset to see challenges differently, relaxing through breathing, mindfulness, and exercise, and developing healthy habits for food and sleep.

Emotions are at the heart of Part 3 of So Long, Stress!, and since most of us associate stress with emotional distress, this section is key to helping young readers become familiar with their feelings. Becoming familiar includes acknowledging those emotions, expressing them, and reacting to them, as well as learning how to make meaningful connections with others, and finding creative outlets to help with self-care.

From So Long, Stress!, written by Helaine Becker, illus. by Joanna Sevilla

Inevitably, life will be filled with stresses and Part 4 considers how to deal with overwhelming challenges, including managing conflict.

Finally, Helaine Becker ends her comprehensive book with finding and asking for help, and provides resources that include websites, apps, and more.

So Long, Stress! includes everything, absolutely everything, a young person might use to help them find healthy habits to prevent stress, the means to face those inevitable challenges, and direction when those strategies might need extra support. Helaine Becker keeps her tone upbeat and hopeful that young people can manage, and she's given them a variety of angles from which to approach life's challenges. As an adult, I've had my share of stress and anxiety, and even I gleaned new tactics to help manage and endure. With her light but informative approach, coupled with Joanna Sevilla's colourful illustrations, Helaine Becker gets to the heart of stress and makes sure that young people have the means to deal with it successfully.

Alice & Gert: An Ant and Grasshopper Story

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Dena Seiferling

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-358-3

24 pp.

Ages 3-7

August 2020 

There’s a reason that fables and parables are so timeless as literary vehicles: their messages are enduring. It doesn’t matter whether the fable is from Aesop’s time, as is the basis for Alice & Gert, or of a contemporary setting. The messages are strikingly worthwhile and sadly still needing to be reinforced.

 

From Alice & Gert by Helaine Becker, illus. by Dena Seiferling

Alice is an ant and Gert, a grasshopper. It’s summer, with the lily of the valley out, and Alice is “ferrying bits of grain and seeds to her nest.” Gert, on the other hand, just thinks they should be enjoying the fine weather because “Winter is YEARS away.” In fact, Gert serenades Alice as she toils, recommending  through song that the ant should rest, laugh, play and sip tea. Even as Alice tells Gert that she’ll relax in January and continues to work, she finds herself humming Gert’s tune. Though she persists in her endeavours, she is charmed by Gert’s playing at pirate and a decorative pathway of flowers and leaves Gert makes for her. 

From Alice & Gert by Helaine Becker, illus. by Dena Seiferling

But when fall arrives and Alice panics for Gert about the ever-nearing winter, Gert dances a sarabande for her. Of course, winter does come and Gert finally becomes unnerved realizing that there are no stores of seeds in her own nest. Although Alice does take a moment to remind Gert that she should have planned better, her compassion helps her acknowledge how Gert’s work of singing and dancing lightened her own efforts and the ant is pleased to repay the grasshopper’s kindness by sharing her own stores of food.

 

From Alice & Gert by Helaine Becker, illus. by Dena Seiferling

Messages in books may sometimes become preachy if told in a heavy-handed way. Those is Alice & Gert are not. Written by award-winning author Helaine Becker, Alice & Gert is in no way moralizing or sanctimonious. Helaine Becker could have written Alice to be self-righteous, knowing that her hard work would allow her to survive the winter and Gert as flighty and irresponsible but she does neither. While Helaine Becker’s retelling of "The Ant and the Grasshopper" recognizes that hard work is beneficial to all and that responsibility is virtuous, she still acknowledges the worth of creativity.

Calgary’s Dena Seiferling, whose illustrations helped earn her first picture book nominations for the Marilyn Baillie and Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver awards, carries the two characters through the seasons with only slight changes in her palette, from the greens of summer to the browns and golds of fall to the greys, browns and white of winter. Her illustrations are as classic as the fable, having used her pencil to create profound scenes that are steeped in atmosphere and characters evocative with feeling. From the dramatic Gert who never looks silly as she enjoys her creative pursuits to the tireless Alice who takes the time, amidst her work, to feel, Dena Seiferling makes us appreciate the depth of the story through her characters and the setting.

Hard work may drive survival but creativity makes it endurable. Besides, with a dose of kindness, hard work and creativity can be balanced, as Alice and Gert learn.

Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Liz Wong

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-124-5

36 pp.

Ages 6-10

March 2020

The Pirate Queen was a woman whose impact was strong but whose details are vague, if not non-existent, and so Helaine Becker has created her story. Whether the Pirate Queen started in poverty and was captured by pirates to become a captain's wife or not, the story that Helaine Becker envisions for this extraordinary woman, born in Imperial China in the late 1700s, is one of making something from nothing, rewriting her story to one of possibilities and taking control. 

In Canton, girls like us were like ink: used and used until we were all used up.

But Fortune had shaken my bones and spun the wheel of my fate.

I had been given something rare: an opportunity.

I was ink, but I could also be the brush. 

From Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker, illus. by Liz Wong

According to Helaine Becker's illustrated creative biography of the Pirate Queen, the girl refused to marry the pirate captain Zheng Yi unless he gave her an equal share in his enterprise. So, when he died six years later, she took command over more than 1800 ships and 70,000 men, never allowing any of the pirates to challenge her. Working with other squadron leaders as a council, she came to dominate the South China's seas and its economy.

From Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker, illus. by Liz Wong

But the Pirate Queen did not restrict herself to the water. She also conquered poorer coastal towns until the emperor deemed it necessary to go after her. Attacks and attempts to starve her and her Red Flag Fleet were unsuccessful, as were attacks by British, Dutch and Portuguese ships.  When she finally decided to retire from the sea, she finds a way to leave free and rich while still thinking of those beneath her.

In the end, I had written my own scroll, using brine and blood as my ink.
I had never dreamed of the sea, but the sea, it seemed, had dreamed of me.

From Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker, illus. by Liz Wong

Though Helaine Becker is a versatile writer of picture books, early readers, middle grade fiction, and non-fiction, I think she has outdone herself in this story of the Pirate Queen. Her author's note makes it clear that little is known about the Pirate Queen, whose name Zheng Yi Sao refers to her simply as "Wife of Zheng Yi" but Helaine Becker writes her a life story of smarts and cunning, seeing chances where others might see despair. But Helaine Becker doesn't just make up a story about Zheng Yi Sao; she gives it life with words and voice–the story is narrated by the Pirate Queen– that make the Pirate Queen real and even eloquent. I can just imagine this young woman with her meagre existence deciding to make something of her atrocious circumstances, believing she had nothing to lose. In the end, she gained much and made a life for herself and others.

If you've been reading CanLit for LittleCanadians, you'll know what a big fan I am of illustrated biographies and Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao will become an auspicious addition to that genre especially with American illustrator Liz Wong's pencil on bristol board (digitally coloured) art giving the richness of colour and form to the story. It's the telling of a little known historical figure whose impact was extraordinary but seldom discussed. That's about to change. Because of Helaine Becker, the Pirate Queen has had her story told and her fierceness acknowledged for the ages.

The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Claudia Dávila

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4845-0

175 pp.

Ages 6-13

May 2019

Canada Day has come and gone so summer holidays for kids are truly here in Canada.  While some kids may be off to organized camps and activities, there are many who will be filling their days with caregivers, some at cottages and at travel, and everyone wondering how they will occupy their days.  Helaine Becker's The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun will have you covered for the whole summer.

The book is divided into four main sections: Get Out There!, Make a Splash!, Time to Play! and Around the Campfire.  Get Out There! is all about kids getting outside to discover nature or travel to new locations. It includes everything from creating a kids-only clubhouse and developing secret languages and handshakes and codes to outdoor games like Capture the Flag and Amoeba Tag. There are activities to observe insects, press flowers, hike –I loved the Colour Swatch Scavenger Hunt–and make face-paint. And, of course, there are travel activities for car rides.

From The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun by Helaine Becker, illus. by Claudia Dávila

Make a Splash! includes water sports such as canoeing and fishing, and water-based games such as Sharks and Minnows. There are also water-based activities like making your own bubble solution and blowers, and water balloons. For anyone wary about water-based activities for kids, Helaine Becker rounds things out with a detailed discussion about water safety.

From The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun by Helaine Becker, illus. by Claudia Dávila

Time to Play! covers all manner of games from card games to pen and paper games, and activities such as weaving bracelets, writing a newsletter, taking photos, performing improv or a theatrical play, and studying weather.

Finally, Around the Campfire gets into how campfires are built safely and effectively, how to tell stories, sing songs, make s'mores, roast marshmallows and appreciate the moon and stars above.

From The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun by Helaine Becker, illus. by Claudia Dávila

As a compendium of activities and summertime fun, The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun is complete and comprehensive. There is something for all the kids, from those who want to play alone and read how to do things for themselves, to those who crave full group games and fun with others. There are activities for families and for kids alone. There are those that require nothing but imagination or observational skills and those with recipes to construct a rain stick or bake a chocolate mug cake. With Claudia Dávila's illustrations to enhance delivery of Helaine Becker's messages and directions, The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun provides all children with a slew of distractions to try, helping to entertain them the whole summer, regardless of weather, interests, companions and resources.

Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-570-1

36 pp.

Ages 6-9

April 2017

I love a good picture book biography!  It's an amazing format for telling a person's story without getting bogged down in the minutiae of historical details and trivia.  These books are great introductions and always provide relevant details and references in the appendices for those readers who want to dig a little deeper.  Helaine Becker, who has tackled all genres for young people, is especially well-versed in non-fiction writing including science books, math books and activity books like her award-winning Secret Agent Y.O.U. and Boredom Blasters, and she is no less skilled in telling the story of William Playfair.

From Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Marie-Ève Tremblay

William Playfair, born in 1759 Scotland, liked to dream and play pranks but, after his father died and his older brother John took over his schooling, William was brought up on the scientific method and become an excellent mathematician.  At age 14, he accepted employment with the inventor Andrew Meikle where he learned to draw plans and make different machines.  But Will still sought the big dreams of riches, fame and glory and became the assistant to another inventor and engineer, James Watt.  If Will wanted to be somewhere where he could think outside the box and create and problem-solve, he found it in the workshop of James Watt.  Problem was that Will was too much in his own head to do the work his employer required of him and decided it was best to go out on his own.

Though he developed an effective silversmithing machine, Will's business acumen was negligible and this and multiple, subsequent businesses failed. So he wrote books about history, politics and economics to earn money.  When he didn't have sufficient information to complete a chart, he created a visual representation of the data so that he might extrapolate it from that available, and the first line graph, showing changes in export and imports over time, was born. He was so pleased by its efficacy he took it a step further and grouped information into chunks, thereby developing a bar graph based on countries importing and exporting goods.

Though awarded a French royal permit from King Louise XVI, the French Revolution had him scurrying home and exploring new ways to represent numbers in picture form, leading to the design of the pie chart.  Unfortunately because of his poor track record, Will's ideas were never accepted in his life time (he died in 1823) as valuable.  Thankfully, acceptance did come in time, allowing his ideas for graphs to convey numerical data in a bold and innovative way to be used throughout the world.

From Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Helaine Becker tells William Playfair's story with the upbeat air necessary for innovation and discovery, though she doesn't leave out the weaknesses in his life's drama.  It must have been difficult to decide what to share from his biography, but Helaine Becker has chosen wisely to share with readers that information which supports the basis for William Playfair's inventiveness and its value without dragging in tedious details of his life.  There's a playful tone to her text and Marie-Ève Tremblay's lively illustrations respect that.  Readers will enjoy seeing a larger-than-life William Playfair stepping out of the roof of his home, heading out to follow his dreams. And cooking up a pie chart while wearing an apron and oven mitt.  Even King Louis XVI losing his head is depicted lightheartedly!

From Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Though Lines, Bars and Graphs is the story of William Playfair and the development of graphs, Helaine Becker and Marie-Ève Tremblay make it into a whimsical story of thinking outside the box and persevering, even when failure seems to be the norm and dreams appear to be dashed, providing good life lessons for William Playfair and everyone.

Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol

by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Werner Zimmermann

North Winds Press, an imprint of Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4836-8

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

October, 2016

Deck the Halls is Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann’s third picture book in their A Canadian Christmas Carol collection in which classic Christmas carols become quintessential Canadian Christmas stories.  The award-winning A Porcupine in a Pine Tree (Scholastic, 2010) was a reworked version of the carol “Twelve Days of Christmas,” and Dashing Through the Snow  (Scholastic, 2014) was based on “Jingle Bells.”  By adding “Deck the Halls” to that repertoire, Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann are firmly establishing themselves as the duo that’s making Christmas music Canadian and relevant to Canadian children today.

From Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Werner Zimmerman

Some of the animals characteristic of Canada who first made their appearance in A Porcupine in a Pine Tree have gathered to decorate the house for the holidays and celebrate.  There’s the famous porcupine leading the endeavour with a wreath, the beavers appropriately getting the tree set up, and loons, muskoxen, caribou, bears, raccoons, sled dogs, otters, moose, puffins, squirrels and hockey-playing grey wolves getting up to all kinds of Christmas shenanigans.  There’s the bounty of food, and the warmth of Christmas sweaters, the burning of yule logs, the wrapping of presents and the singing of carols, along with some high-spirited young ones racing around.  With each page and verse, the scene becomes more chaotic and lively and animated.  It’s a Canadian Christmas through and through, with the carol “Deck the Hall” now more Canadian than any version we’ve ever known!

So deck the halls

with boughs of holly,

Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la.

Make your True North

Christmas jolly!

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! 

From Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Werner Zimmerman

Helaine Becker has created another Canadian classic from a favourite Christmas carol and, with the music appended to her story, I can already hear little ones having Christmas singing fun.  The Australians have their “Six White Boomers” and now we have three of our own Canadian takes on classic carols.  Of course, Werner Zimmermann’s entertaining illustrations bring life to the carol, adding detail and joie de vivre to the fresh lyrics.  There is so much to discover in his illustrations that young readers will be rereading the text–more like singing it over and over again–just to pick out the Sasquatch cradling baby raccoons, or puffins with their Christmas crackers, or the hard-hatted beavers constructing the tree, or the curious otter peering at the napping polar bear. Every page is a delight and will charm small eyes who’ll want to pick out all the Christmas fun being had.  

From Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Werner Zimmerman

Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol is the first new release of the season that has Christmas singing in my head and lightening my heart with joy.   Thank you, Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann.

Beyond Vampire Boyfriends: a YA literary salon (Toronto)

Here's a great event for fans of young adult novels!

A trio of young adult authors 

Deborah Kerbel

C. K. Kelly Martin

Helaine Becker

will discuss 

their newest books, 

writing challenges 

and 

writing for young adults

as well as 

answer questions and sign books

on

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

6:30 p.m.

at

Toronto Public Library - Northern Branch

40 Orchard View Boulevard

Toronto, ON

All courtesy of sponsors

Mabel's Fables, Dancing Cat Books and Toronto Public Library

How to Survive Absolutely Anything

by Helaine Becker

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-188-0

200 pp.

Ages 8-12

2012

Bonnie and Jen, two 14-year-olds in Grade 9, have the right idea.  Having "lived through" the middle grades (a.k.a. junior high or intermediate grades), they are willing to share what they've learned with any young person who writes to them at their blog, "How to Survive Absolutely Anything, with Bonnie and Jen".

The girls have a wealth of experiences, as their profiles acknowledge.  With a father who left and remarried and now is raising a second young family, and with a mother who remarried a man with older children of his own, Bonnie knows all about blended families.  In fact, she's having a hard time dealing with her step-brother, Carter, who seems to always be in her business.  Jen, on the other hand, only has her baby sister, Julia, who was born just after the accidental death of their father.  Mom Colette (who wants to be known as Tina) works as a nurse and has had (does have?) a drinking problem and recklessly puts Jen in a position of responsibility far too often.

Through their blog postings, profiles, Bonnie's journal and chapter heading survival skills, the reader learns how very different the girls' takes are on situations, and the fusion of their opinions and advice generally leads to some wise and heartfelt responses to their readers' queries.

If you're not going to like waking up with yourself after you've done something, you better not do it.  Because whatever good feeling you get out of doing the bad thing (staying longer at the fun party, getting to be with that girl, bringing home the A on the test you cheated on) doesn't last as long as the rotten feeling that comes along with it.  (pg. 80)

But, when Bonnie goes online alone (something the girls had promised not to do), she responses to Crushed's concern about having strong feelings for his step-sister, negating his feelings when she believes that he is her own step-brother Carter.  Eventually Bonnie realizes how many "gynormous errors" she has made in so many aspects of her life, from the blog to boys, to her family and her friends, and that she can still use a little (a lot?) of advice about the choices she makes.

Helaine Becker thanks fellow youngCanLit author Marsha Skrypuch for encouraging her to write this book, just as I would like to thank Helaine Becker.  Writing an appropriate yet meaningful middle-grade fiction is not always easy, but How to Survive Absolutely Anything fills that need beautifully.  Without treating the readers as young children or as young adults, Helaine Becker gives them a voice that explores their concerns and foibles, without pushing them into the realm of true young adult fiction.  There are many young people in the middle grades who just aren't ready to embrace the edgier fiction of YA, with its more mature subjects such as sexuality.  They may be in their early teens but they're only starting to notice the opposite sex.  While some of their peers may be living the lives of mature teens, comfortable in their own skins, making decisions and choices akin to adults (though not always well, just like us), there are middle grade readers who want to read about how others begin navigating into their teen years before they take their own first steps.  How to Survive Absolutely Anything provides a light but credible account of young girls who think they have experienced and survived all the predicaments of the middle-graders only to find that a whole new set of annoyances and dilemmas lurk on the horizon.

"You can trust me on this one --or find out the hard way.  It's your call" (pg. 80)