Unity Club & Push Back: Double book launch (Edmonton, AB)

Join author

Karen Spafford-Fitz

for the launch of two new hi-lo books 

for middle grade and young adults:

Unity Club

Written by Karen Spafford-Fitz

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-1724-1

131 pp.

Ages 10-14

August 2018

Brett is president of her school's Unity Club. When a new group home for at-risk youth opens in the neighborhood, Brett becomes friends with Jude, one of the boys who lives at the home.

After a series of acts of vandalism, the community starts demanding that the group home be shut down. Brett doesn't believe that Jude, or any of the other teens, is responsible, but when an elderly woman is seriously injured, Brett begins to have doubts. 

Retrieved from Orca website at https://www.orcabook.com/Unity-Club-P1778.aspx

and

Push Back

Written by Karen Spafford-Fitz

Lorimer

978-1-459413757

184 pp.

Ages 13-18

September 2018

Sixteen-year-old Zaine Wyatt has a lot to be angry about. His mother walked out of his life when he was 12, and he was kicked out of his Aunt Sarah's place by his uncle. After living on the streets and getting badly beaten up, he is back at Aunt Sarah's, but Zaine is still angry, afraid, and uncertain that he has a permanent place to live. When his mother breaks yet another promise to take him back, he flees to an empty art studio he has taken refuge in before. But now it is just a storage shed, and he vents his rage by trashing the place and injures the new owner as he flees.

Facing charges and a possible criminal record, Zaine agrees to participate in a restorative-justice program to keep from being kicked out again by his aunt. Zaine works to fix the damage he has caused and helps the owner's disabled grandson Lucas get to and from school, but his attempts to stay on the right side of the law are challenged by a group of teens who want to recruit him into a gang. Can Zaine complete the restorative-justice program and prove himself worthy of a home, whether with his mother or not?

Retrieved from Lorimer at http://www.lorimer.ca/childrens/Book/3060/Push-Back.html

Both books 

are set to launch on

Sunday, September 16, 2018

at

 2 p.m.

at

Audrey's Books

107092 Jasper Avenue

Edmonton, AB

Saving Grad

Written by Karen Spafford-Fitz

James Lorimer & Co., Ltd.

978-1-4594-1252-1

160 pp.

Ages 13+

RL 5.0

August 2017

Mandy is right about one thing.  I have no idea how to be fun.  I had it beat out of me a long time ago. (pg. 97)

It's been beat out of her by her alcoholic, cocaine-abusing step-dad, Duncan, who has made her life and that of her mother Sophie a misery for two years.  Her mother is reluctant to leave, accustomed to the fine home and life style of wealth, but Vienna sees beyond the facade of a good life, apprehensive what could eventually happen if they stay.  When Duncan has a fall that lands him in hospital, Vienna is determined to pack themselves up and flee.  They head to Edmonton where, with the help of an outreach worker, they get a basement apartment and begin to make a new life, slowly.

Though initially happy to drown her sorrows, Sophie gets a job at a Starbucks and insists that Vienna get registered for her final year of high school.  To make it more difficult for Duncan to find them, Vienna decides to go by Vienna Fleury, using the last name of her Métis grandmother, Mémère.  Sophie and her mother may not have spoken for years–since they'd argued about her marriage to Duncan–but Vienna misses Mémère and calls her occasionally to keep her from worrying, though she never reveals where they are.

At her new high school, Vienna tries to stay under the radar but a friendly classmate named Mandy draws her into the school's social scene, enlisting Vienna's help on the grad party committee. Although Vienna begins to enjoy school and her mother is establishing a support system and relishing her independence, regardless of how financially strapped they are, you know things have to go awry.  Saving grad may be the least of Vienna's worries.

As part of Lorimer's SideStreets series of hi-lo (high interest-low vocabulary) books, Saving Grad is a fast read in plotting and word count.  But don't mistake a hi-lo read for a lesser story.  Author Karen Spafford-Fitz capably creates an intense plot of relationships between family and friends which can be positive and negative, supportive or destructive, and she makes sure to take us along on that bus ride.  Like Vienna and Sophie ending up in Edmonton in the middle of winter, the destination may not be an easy one at first but it is a fulfilling one in the end.  Saving Grad is bigger than the indisputable distress of physical abuse.  It's a story of resilience and strength and making something good out of something bad.  Karen Spafford-Fitz makes Saving Grad into saving Vienna and Sophie and others too.

Saving Grad & Miriam's Secret: Double book launch (Edmonton, AB)

It's a double book launch!!

--------------------------------------------

Join authors

Debby Waldman

and 

Karen Spafford-Fitz

for the launch of their newest books for readers

--------------------------------------------

For the middle-grade set, there's

Miriams's Secret

 Written by Debby Waldman
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598142457
208 pp.
Ages 8-12
September 2017

In 1930 nine-year-old Miriam travels by train from Brooklyn to her grandparents' farm in upstate New York. Her grandparents are kind, generous people, but they aren't exactly ideal playmates for a lonely girl. When Miriam is not doing homework in the kitchen with Bubby or helping prepare meals for the migrant workers that Zayde hires to help out on the farm, she plays with the barn kittens born just before she arrived. Those kittens are her only friends, until the day Miriam discovers a young girl hiding in the barn. Cissy and her brother, Joe, who's one of Zayde's farm hands, are on the run from an abusive uncle back in Mississippi. Miriam and Cissy hit it off immediately. But their friendship is tested when Miriam is forced to choose between keeping a promise and doing the right thing.

Retrieved from 

http://www.orcabook.com/Miriams-Secret-P1319.aspx 

on August 28, 2017.

--------------------------------------------

For young adults, there's

Saving Grad

Written by Karen Spafford-Fitz

Lorimer
978-1-459412521
184 pp.
Ages 13-18
August 2017

Vienna is a mixed-Métis teen whose mother has moved in with a man who turns out to be racist and violent. Vienna and her mother decide to end the situation by moving to a new city. In Edmonton, where she knows no one, Vienna goes to high school for her final year. Gradually, her school and home life feel more normal and she starts making friends. She joins the committee planning the school's graduation, where her determination and decisiveness show through. When her step-father unexpectedly shows up at Vienna's grad party, threatening Vienna and two of her schoolmates, Vienna finds the strength to keep herself, her friends and her mother out of harm's way.

Retrieved from 

http://www.lorimer.ca/childrens-us/Book/2997/Saving-Grad.html 

on August 28, 2017.

--------------------------------------------

Both books launch on

October 1, 2017

at

2 p.m.

at

Audrey's Books

1002 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, AB

Albertan YoungCanLit Author Trio: Author Event (Edmonton)

Mark February 8th on your calendar

if you live in the Edmonton area 

because

you're fortunate to have

not one,

not two,

but

three youngCanLit authors

 

Karen Bass, Marty Chan, and Karen Spafford-Fitz

visiting

Chapters at West Edmonton Mall

from 12 p. m. to 4 p. m.

Check out some of their books below, including their latest (always far left book cover).

 
Karen Bass

• Graffiti Knight (Pajama Press)
• Drummer Girl (Coteau)
  
• Summer of Fire (Coteau)

Marty Chan

• The Ehrich Weisz Chronicles: Demon Gate (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• Barnabas Bigfoot: Bone Eater (Thistledown Press)
• The Mystery of the Cyber Bully (Thistledown Press)
  

Karen Spafford-Fitz

 

• Vanish (Orca Book Publishers)
• Dog Walker (Orca Book Publishers)

Further details about the event can be found here.

Vanish: Book Launch Invitation (Edmonton)

Join

author Karen Spafford-Fitz

with Orca Book Publishers

on

Sunday, April 14, 2013

at

2:00 pm 

Audrey's Books

10702 Jasper Ave NW, Edmonton, Alberta

for the launch of her newest middle-grade novel, 

part of the Orca Currents series

Vanish

written by Karen Spafford-Fitz

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-45980-349-7 (pbk)

131 pp.

Ages 10-14

March, 2013

A story about an important friendship between a teen at a new high school and a kindergartener with secrets in her background.

 

ENJOY

• a brief author discussion
• readings from Vanish
• a book signing, and 
• refreshments

The official invitation (below) is posted on Karen Spafford-Fitz's FaceBook page.