When You Get the Chance

Written by Tom Ryan and Robin Stevenson

Running Press Teens

978-0-7624-9500-9

272 pp.

Ages 12+

May 2021
(n.b. The original release date was May 2020 but I have been informed by author Robin Stevenson that the date has been changed to May 2021)

Teens Talia and Mark may think that their destiny is to attend Toronto Pride when they and their families visit Ontario for a funeral but, though they get there, their stories in When You Get the Chance are all about the journey.

When Talia and her dad Gary come from Victoria and meet up with his sister Janet and two kids, Mark and 10-year-old Paige, who live in Halifax, the atmosphere is cool. Though Gary and Janet are attending their father's funeral and trying to help their mother through the loss, their long-term estrangement causes great friction, especially about the family cottage in Muskoka which Gary thinks should be sold and Janet hopes to visit with her kids. Grandma insists they all go up there together and spend a week before a decision will be made.

But, when Grandma has a fall and the adults rush back to Toronto, leaving the kids to fend for themselves–grant you, Talia and Mark are in their late teens–the summer becomes a whole lot more interesting. Paige is determined to discover what lead to her mom's estrangement from her brother so, while she and Talia clean and sort, she speculates and puts clues together. Mark, on the other hand, is smitten with local boy Darren who has come around to help fix a 1970 Ford Mustang discovered in a shed. Mark, unfortunately, is all about Mark and, after he learns what Darren is really like, he decides to head to Toronto for Pride. Talia, whose partner Erin had recently moved to Toronto, is desperate to see them (Erin is non-binary and uses they/them/their pronouns), insists Mark take his cousin and, of course, Paige must come along too.

However, when the old Mustang breaks down, their trip looks like it's ended early. But, after meeting diner owner Shirley Jr. and her mechanic partner Babs who offer to take the kids to Toronto themselves, it's a new journey for Mark and Talia in resolving past relationships, meeting new people, experiencing their first Toronto Pride, and discovering who they are and what they need.

For anyone who doesn't know where they fit in, When You Get the Chance provides the promise that somewhere there is such a place for all. While Mark is confident in being out as gay, Talia has come from a small community where she and partner Erin depended on each other for support. But when Erin leaves for the big city and finds a new community, Talia has to balance what she needed then with what she wants now. Fortunately, with much soul-searching and some heartbreak, Talia finds her way.

These are my people, this is my community. I may not know how I identify or whatever, but I'm pretty sure that whatever I am, there's a place for me under this great big queer rainbow. (pg. 177)

Writers Tom Ryan and Robin Stevenson have given us a road trip story with a twist in When You Get the Chance. By writing in the alternate voices of Mark and Talia who are from different coasts and have different experiences with their sexuality, Tom Ryan and Robin Stevenson present distinct and valid perspectives on being gay or queer or however a young person may identify. By including a myriad of communities from young and old, to gay, straight, non-binary and even polyamorous, they have demonstrated that everyone belongs and sometimes all it takes is one chance and a trip in a vintage yellow Mustang to find one's self, one's voice and community.

The Stone Rainbow

Written by Liane Shaw

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-108-4

272 pp.

Ages 13-18

September 2019

Liane Shaw introduced her characters Ryan and Jack to YA audiences in her novel Caterpillars Can't Swim (Second Story Press, 2017), telling the origin story of their accidental friendship and Jack's acceptance of his sexuality. Though only a handful of others in his life, including his mom, Ryan's mom. Ryan's friend Cody and Jack's counselor Matthew, know that Jack is gay, he has capitulated that expressing that sexuality in the small town of Thompson Mills is unlikely.

This town is so small that being different usually means you're flying solo. (pg. 61)

In The Stone Rainbow, Jack meets the new guy at school, Benjamin Lee, and Jack is smitten. The new vice-principal's son is beautiful and kind and Jack doesn't know what to do. He's used to hiding in his "caterpillar camouflage" (pg. 8) and now the idea of putting himself out there, expressing his interest in anyone, especially a young man who may or may not reciprocate that interest, is terrifying.  Staying a caterpillar, on the other hand, is familiar, even if stifling.

Benjamin, on the other hand, is not willing to stay in the closet. When they are assigned an art project that reflects something of social and personal significance, he creates a massive rainbow of coloured stones on plywood. He honours and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community with the myriad of messages on the stones that reflect the rainbow's symbolism. Though Benjamin is pretty much out, his art project rouses all the nastiness that Jack had already witnessed in his town. But when Benjamin is attacked, Jack decides to focus on something positive that might help Benjamin as well: a Pride parade. Fortunately, Jack discovers that there's a whole lot more support for him and Benjamin and a Pride event than he could ever have imagined.

Though The Stone Rainbow is a story of acceptance of self and others, it is also a tragic story that depicts the reality for those who may be perceived as different. There is violence and hate and masks. Jack knows what it is to come out–as he did to his mother in Caterpillars Can't Swim–so he still feels compelled to hide his sexuality from his peers and others, fearing their reactions, and shielding his true self and expression of that self. Even with supports from Ryan and others, it's not until Jack meets Benjamin that he is able to shed that chrysalis to reveal the butterfly he was meant to be. It is both "terrifying and wonderful" (pg. 239) and Jack recognizes he "could be as beautiful as I want to be because no one cares if a butterfly is a boy or a girl. It's just a pretty part of nature that everyone accepts." (pg. 242)

With her diverse cast of characters, Liane Shaw demonstrates that differences make a community richer, though there are the unenlightened who still need to learn this lesson in compassion and tolerance. If The Stone Rainbow teaches us anything it's that it's the blending of all into a spectacular prism of life that makes our world complete and beautiful.

If everyone just decides to treat everyone else with kindness, it all goes away. Intolerance, disrespect, racism, homophobia, misogyny, bullying, and all the other horrible words we've had to invent to find a way to label the endless crap people seem to feel the need to throw at each other...all wiped out by one simple command. Be kind. (pg. 214)

Operatic

Written by Kyo Maclear

Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-972-0

159 pp.

Ages 10-14

April 2019

We each have a soundtrack for our lives. It may be seem like a temporary playlist of current favourites or be multiple long-playing albums of the tragedies and joys experienced. Charlie's favourite teacher, her music teacher Mr. K, obviously recognizes this, giving his students an assignment for each to select a song for that moment in their lives. While he introduces them to numerous genres of music, from jazz to reggae, 1980s rap and blue grass, and Charlie contemplates her song, she spends some time crushing on Emile, a nice guy with a passion for entomology, and worrying about Luka, a beautiful boy now absent from school who performed at the winter concert, not caring about the reactions he got.

From Operatic by Kyo Maclear, illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

But when Mr. K introduces them to opera, Charlie finally discovers her passion. Researching the life of opera singer Maria Callas (1923-1977), she learns how an unloved child used her voice to dream and become someone deemed worthy of affection, regardless of the  detractors who ridiculed some elements of her voice.

From Operatic by Kyo Maclear, illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

As Charlie selects her song and Luka's and Emile's stories are revealed, the three classmates and Charlie's friend Addie find a way to connect in a meaningful and supportive way, creating the beginnings of a new soundtrack as the Freaks of Feeling.

The show goes on. It always does. And somehow hearts don't stop.

Instead they beat out new rhythms. (pg. 147)

These middle school kids, on the cusp of graduating Grade 8, are trying to figure out who they are and what they want and need. Is it to be the centre of attention or remain comfortably in the background? Is it to be laid back and mellow or loud and brash? Like the music they are trying on for size and comfort, there will be missteps and surprises, quieter moments and deafening junctures. And as Maria Callas herself experienced, there will be critics and fans.

From Operatic by Kyo Maclear, illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

But, there should be none but admirers for Kyo Maclear and Byron Eggenschwiler's Operatic. It's a full opera in stories and pictures. There are duets and solos and choruses that support the leads. There's the ordinary of parlando and the arias that take the plot to greater heights. And fools and villains, lovers and friends. There is the extraordinary and the ordinary, all reflected in Byron Eggenschwiler's artwork. The mostly black with gold and yellow illustrations may emulate the caution and optimism of a coming of age story, as the blues of Luka's story and the reds of Maria Callas's story focus on the nature of their lives, but the art is hardly ordinary. It is effusive with emotion for the angst of finding one's life songs, whether they be for Charlie, Luka, Emile or Maria Callas, and singing them privately or publicly. Fortunately, Kyo Maclear does not end Operatic on a tragedy or comedic note but one of hope, recognizing that wobbles happen but don't define life. 

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali

Written by Sabina Khan

Scholastic

978-1-338-22701-7

336 pp.

Ages 14+

January 2019

Rukhsana Ali's parents have three rules by which she, a Muslim Bengali, must abide: No parties, no shorts, no boys. The hardest rule to keep is the parties one because she's seventeen, living in Seattle and set to graduate in a couple of months and she's in love with Ariana. Rukhsana is hopeful that once she turns 18 and heads to Caltech, where she has a full scholarship, she'll be able to come out to her parents and live and love as she chooses.

But her parents have a different idea for her life.

It is our job is to make all the important decisions. That way we can make sure there is nothing for anyone to gossip about. (pg. 17)

And one of those ideas is that she must learn how to be a good wife and marry a Bengali man. In fact, there is talk of potential matches, even with the handsome Irfan who admits his love for Sara, a white girl, of whom his parents would definitely not approve. Learning that Rukhsana is gay, the two are determined to support each other in their love choices. But then Rukhsana's mom catches her daughter and Ariana kissing. Soon Rukhsana and her parents are leaving for Bangladesh, ostensibly because her beloved grandmother is at death's door. Of course, Nani is far healthier than announced and Rukhsana's parents delay their return and begin to welcome potential suitors and their families. When the teen realizes what they are doing, going so far as to lock her in a room and get a jinn-catcher to relieve her of the demons that inhabit her body, Rukhsana is determined to find a way to escape. With the support of Nani, who offers courage via her own diary of pain within a loveless marriage, as well as that of her cousin Shaila and a potential groom Sohail, Rukhsana makes a plan to return to Ariana. But will she have a girlfriend waiting for her when both of their parents have been discouraging their relationship? Can their love survive the distance, the families and the cultural divide?

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali is packed with the teen angst of intense love, parental expectations and choosing what is best for oneself. But author Sabina Khan goes beyond that common YA theme and embeds it in a culture and religion that seem to pose obstacles rather than support development. The teen's parents only see her successes as matrimonial currency, continuing to favour her brother Aamir. The community talks of LGBTQ individuals as abnormal and disgusting, even inspiring violence against them. How is Rukhsana to balance being herself with that of being an obedient daughter of Muslim parents? But Sabina Khan has Rukhsana maneuvering her way through, advancing herself to a life with love and without lies. Like the front and back book covers of The Love and and Lives of Rukhsana Ali demonstrates, Rukhsana can be both but she must and does decide who she will be and accept both the burdens and blessings of each.

Shout Out

Written by Joamette Gil, CJ Walker, Day Irwin, Kieron Gillen, Marie Anello, Andrew Wheeler, Elodie Chen, Nichole Robinson, Sunny Ôchumuk, Nicholai Farber, Anthony Oliveira, Angela Cole, Crystal Frasier, Derrick Chow, H. Pueyo, B.C. Holmes, Lindsay Smith and Ashley Gallagher

Illustrated by Kelly & Nichole Matthews, CJ Walker, Vivian Ng, V. Gagnon, Liz Parlett, Michelle Dix, Elodie Chen, Anika Granillo, Shaina Lu, Nicholai Farber, Josh McKenzie, Cheryl Young, Molly James, Derrick Chow, Dante Luiz, Alex Moore, Adrienne Valdes, Helen Robinson, Amara Sherm, Hien Pham, Maia Kobabe, Pez Moreno and Kristina Luu

Colors and Letters by Joamette Gil and Nichole Matthews

Edited by Andrew Wheeler

TO Comix Press

978-0-994937476

198 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2019

I love a good anthology.  It offers an opportunity to provide a medley of stories with different settings and characters and plots. Shout Out may be founded on a theme of diverse queer stories, but it roars beyond that, telling stories of Vikings, fairies, virtual reality, superheroes and humans whose stories need to be shared. They are fantasy and legend, reality and historical. And, with a diverse list of contributors, from Canada to the US, Chile to Northern Island, Shout Out becomes a global compilation of stories, providing readers with a little something for everyone.

From Sunlight (in Shout Out), written by Anthony Oliveira, illus. by Josh McKenzie, color by Nichole Matthews

Many of the eighteen graphic short stories in Shout Out include an element of the supernatural.  Some include spirits or fair folk like Amaranthine which tells of a fairy protecting a garden of flowers that can restore life. The Name of the Forest by Toronto-based Day Irwin and Vivian Ng has a character seeking their heart's desire from a forest spirit only to be impeded by not know their own true name.

I guess I don't know who I am either, though. Sorry, I only know who I'm not. (pg. 23)

In Curio by Andrew Wheeler and Michelle Dix, a young man picking gooseberries makes the acquaintance of Curio, the warden of the beasts, with whom he shares a kiss that is both surprising and scary.

From Love in the Cloud (in Shout Out) by Derrick Chow

Technology comes into play in several stories including Glitches Get it Done, a sci-fi story in which a space traveller learns from a hologram of a sociologist about past supports to help those in transition, and Love in the Cloud, the story by Torontonian Derrick Chow, in which two different teens in the virtual world of Polyberg become separated on the cusp of its dissolution.

Warriors, both historical and supernatural, stay true to themselves in three different stories. In Ergi, Aric is desperate to reunite with his love Eldan who has reached Valhalla, whereas there is a secret crush happening between Louis and superhero Vigil who is adept at rescuing everyone from evil villains in Sunlight written by Anthony Oliveira.  Sidekicks and Allies written by Toronto's B. C. Holmes reveals the quandary for Liv who identifies as female but for whom entry through a portal prohibited to males could thwart her plans to enter the Under Realm to stop the destruction of the world.

I'm feeling..like the universe keeps finding new ways to ask me to prove my gender, and the stakes are completely over the top. (pg. 164)

From Sidekicks and Allies (in Shout Out) written by B.C. Holmes, illus. by Alex Moore

There are so many stories, including of finding love at a speakeasy (Shine So Bright), a young man learning How to Summon a Demon to see if he really likes boys, and two Indigenous girls who are drawn to each other in The Fisher and the Jeweler.

From Torontovka (in Shout Out) by Nicholai Farber

In addition to the eighteen stories, there are five single-page illustrations that support Shout Out's mandate of inviting young readers to see themselves–gay, trans, non-binary, asexual and more–as individuals with their own stories.  Even with supernatural elements, these characters are real. They have questions, show integrity, and feel anger, compassion, and love. Their connections with others make them heroes, as they should be, battling conventions, discrimination, villains and ignorance.

We Contain Multitudes

Written by Sarah Henstra

Penguin Teen

978-0-735264212

384 pp.

Ages 14+

May 2019

We might as well take advantage of the fact that we don't owe each other anything, that no one else is ever going to read what we're writing, that it's just me and you and whatever we feel like saying. (pg. 19)

When Adam Kurlansky and Jonathan Hopkirk begin their correspondence, it's as an assignment for Ms. Khang's English classes. Kurl, as he is widely known from excelling at football and basketball, is repeating his senior year while Jo is a Grade 10 Walt Whitman aficionado. Though their first letters follow their teacher's directives to introduce themselves and discuss topics like their heroes, Jonathan really gets into the writing, sharing about his father Lyle and sister Shayna, his passion for poetry and folk and bluegrass music, and what is happening around school, including the bullying he endures at the hands of a group of students he calls the "butcherboys." His narratives are generally observational, always poetic and often psychologically astute, though it takes some time for Kurl to begin to share his secrets including of physical abuse and his take on his own life and the people in it, as well as what he sees happening to "Little Jo."

I mean weird kids do have this aura to them.  It's like a smell almost. They're stuck somewhere in their heads, in some kind of a bubble. People can't really help themselves: They see a bubble, they want to pop it. (pg. 12)

But as they continue to correspond, now beyond the assignment's scope, Jo and Kurl develop a relationship on paper and in person, and one that brings emotional and physical support and finally love.  We Contain Multitudes may be an examination of how we present a multitude of selves to ourselves, our families, our peers and strangers but We Contain Multitudes is a love story. It's about finding love through words and sharing those multitudes of ourselves and developing new selves with others.  Jonathan is a son of a single dad and a dead mother with a fuzzy history, a brother, a poetry lover, a musician, a victim, and an aesthete while Kurl is a brother, a punching bag, an athlete, a thinker, a cook, a hard worker, and a secret-keeper. But with others, they are more because we are all combinations and permutations of our selves, depending on others in or not in our lives and on the events that change us. Our identities are sweeping and dynamic, and we all contain multitudes. And isn't it wonderful when two become even more because of love?

I am completely, one hundred percent of the time filled up with you. (pg. 189)

Sarah Henstra may have won last year's Governor General Literature Award for her adult novel The Red Word (ECW, 2018) but I'm gratified that she has returned to her YA roots. (I reviewed her first book Mad Miss Mimic (Razorbill, 2015) and interviewed Sarah Henstra too.) The writing is exquisite, the voices of Jonathan and Adam deep and sorrowful and passionate, and the convergence of their stories creates something bigger than the parts.

As I finished this novel of letters, a book I didn't want to leave, hopeful of the many multitudes of Jonathan and Kurl still to come, I'm overwhelmed with the infinitude of these young men and of Sarah Henstra's story. They and it know to  "Be real and be true" (pg. 9) and are, and I want more.

Fire Song

Written by Adam Garnet Jones

Annick Press

978-1-55451-977-4

232 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2018

Maybe the game is rigged and the only way to win is by giving up. (pg. 115)

So much about Shane's life hurts that it's hard to find the faith he needs to help endure it.  It should be full of hope and promise. He's finishing his final year of school and anticipating a move to Toronto for post-secondary. He's smart, given the nickname of "College".  He has a pretty girlfriend, Tara, who adores him. But much is a facade because underneath it all, Shane is a mess of grief, confusion and guilt.

Fire Song begins the day of the memorial for Shane's younger sister Destiny who took her own life six weeks earlier. His mother Jackie is despondent, unwilling to leave Destiny's room, even with the constant ministrations of elder Evie. Fortunately, his Anishinaabe reserve community, the only home he's every known, is tight and supportive.

His heart beats under this ground and the roots of the trees spread through his lungs. (pg. 14)

But Shane has secrets and burdens that are disturbing his potentially bright future. He has just learned that his funding for school isn't available from his reserve because he is registered with his father's reserve, though his father is long passed and Shane never lived there. School wants a hefty deposit but Jackie hasn't worked since Destiny's death. Moreover, the roof on their house is disintegrating and, though the materials are in at the store to repair it, his family does not have the money for both the roof and his schooling. But Shane's most emotional struggle comes with balancing his growing sexual relationship with David, Evie's grandson, and his public romantic involvement with Tara, a teen eager to find a new life away from an abusive father and a private writer of introspective prose and poetry.

How can it be
That the smell of home and
the smell of lonely are the same? (pg. 70) 

As Shane tries to keep a roof over their heads and prompt his mother into action, hide his relationship with David while craving it desperately, make some money in a community with few opportunities, and grieve the loss of his sister, his life continues to fray and threaten his future. It's all about choices and not one of them is easy.

Adam Garnet Jones tells Shane's painful story in such expressive prose and poetry, the latter courtesy of Tara's writing, that the reader is carried on a wave from anguish to heartbreak to misery. Shane's story is a tragedy on so many levels: family, school, community, love. But, in each of those circumstances, there are still slivers of buoyancy: a mother who loves him but has abandoned him in her grief; acceptance to school in Toronto, though the money is not at hand; a community of friends who support Shane but would not accept his being a two-spirited person; and a boy and a girl who love him but confound his life's plan.  Adam Garnet Jones may not pretty up Shane's story but he does bring a fitting conclusion to it. I won't tell you if the roof gets fixed or if Shane goes to school in Toronto or if he chooses David or Tara, but I can tell you that things get worse before they get better but better they do. With acceptance of his choices and the life he needs, Shane survives another day to love and be loved.

•••••••••••••••••••••

Fire Song is based on a film by the same name, written and directed by Adam Garnet Jones and produced by Fire Song Films Inc. and Big Soul Productions Inc. I encourage readers to check out the trailer for Fire Song which premiered at TIFF in 2015.

Retrieved from YouTube at https://youtu.be/1HyRNI9kKkA on August 6, 2018. 

Uploaded by TIFF Trailers on August 13, 2015.

Past Tense

Written by Star Spider

HarperCollins

978-1-443452113

304 pp.

Ages 13+

April 2018 

When you're fifteen years old (Julie) and you think you're in love with your best friend (Lorelei) and dreaming of that first kiss while your mother (Olive) is acting weird, telling you her heart is gone, and your best friend's ex (Henry) whom you never liked is hanging around and Dad (Max) is always working and your baby brother is only six months old, everything is a worry.  Your world is beyond tense, it's almost unendurable.

This is Julie's present. Her friendship with Lorelei has always been solid, though probably more so because Julie usually accommodates her popular and assertive friend, more so now that she is crushing on her.  But Lorelei is keeping secrets and making choices that Julie is questioning, at least to herself, so Julie doesn't confide in her best friend when her mother starts acting really, really weird.  Julie has discovered her mom, a former firefighter, is barely eating, thinks she no longer has a heart, and driving out to the cemetery at night with the baby. Stranger yet, when Julie insists on going with her on these excursions, her mom wants her to play out a game called Rest in Peace where Julie eulogizes her mother.  Does she tell her father? No. He's too busy and just contends that her mom is tired.

And into the mix comes Henry, Lorelei's ex. At first, Julie is convinced Henry just wants to reconnect with Lorelei, but it soon becomes obvious to all that Henry likes Julie. Julie doesn't know what to think. Maybe she just likes girls. Maybe she likes both boys and girls. Still, Henry who has his own worries is the one person she can talk to about everything. But can she reveal everything to her new ally when Mom is trying out caskets and Lorelei may be hiding a secret about their teacher Mr. Gomez?

Though a writer of some acclaim, Past Tense is Star Spider's first novel, and it's a doozy. Having a young teen questioning her sexuality is not unusual, though the path Star Spider takes her on to help understanding it–watching others, listening to her heart, and pondering what her head is telling her–is fresh. But when mixed in with her mother's mental illness, later diagnosed as Cotard's delusion, and a family on the edge, along with friend who is both secretive and affectionate, Julie's story is far more angsty. Fortunately, by looking back through the past–each chapter begins with a memory of Julie and her mother–the reader will realize the past shapes our relationships and our future but does not determine it.  Julie's friendship with Lorelei does not have to remain as it was when they were younger, just as her relationship with Henry can be something different than it was when he dated Lorelei.  And her strong and capable mother is no less because of her illness or status as a stay-at-home parent.  Living in the past is futile. Moving forward is a necessity.

Caterpillars Can't Swim

Written by Liane Shaw
Second Story Press
978-1-77260-053-7
256 pp.
Ages 13-18
September 2017

Though sixteen-year-old Ryan Malloy is often treated differently in his small town due to his use of a wheelchair, everything is right with the world when he is swimming.  Because he’s up early even on days when he hasn’t got swim team practice, Ryan witnesses someone disappearing beneath the surface of their local river.  Throwing himself off the bridge, ultimately injuring his shoulder, Ryan saves a school mate, Jack Pedersen, from drowning.  But did Ryan really help Jack out?  When small-town gossip and rumours about Jack’s sexuality and the bullying he endures because of it brings Ryan to Jack’s defense and side repeatedly, the two develop a tenuous friendship.

Not that I'm saying everyone here is like that.  They aren't.  It's just that it seems like this town is frozen in time and a lot of attitudes around here are stuck in the ice.  My mother says she spends a lot of her time at school working on thawing out the attitudes of the kids so that someday things will be different.
   I don't think it's working yet. (pg. 10)

Although Ryan’s best friend Cody is somewhat awkward about Jack and about Ryan’s new relationship with him, the three boys’ embark on a summer trip to a local ComicCon.  During those two days, much is revealed about the teens’ fears, attitudes and confusion about each other but also exposed are the hurts, judgments and burdens they all carry, regardless of the limitations or strengths others perceive them to have.  Whether their relationships, new and old, are enough to make a positive difference in their lives is only evident after a stunning climax of rejection, desperation, and intervention.

Liane Shaw, a former educator including special education resource teacher, has never shied away from tough topics like foster care (Fostergirls, Second Story, 2011), physical or emotional limitations (The Color of Silence, Second Story, 2013) and ASD (Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, Second Story, 2016). As in her earlier young adult books, she tackles the prejudices people assert on those who are different, whether perceived or real, and turns them into understanding and acceptance for those differences.  Whether caterpillars can or can’t swim is irrelevant.  What’s important is knowing that metamorphosis is foreseeable and all butterflies and moths are to be appreciated.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

Kubiw, H. (2017, September). [Review of the book Caterpillars Can't Swim, by Liane Shaw]. Quill & Quire, 83 (7): 39.

Honouring all gender identities and sexualities: Cultural competence with diverse youngCanLit

Today's post, the forth in seven, continues the series of booklists I compiled and presented at the Ontario Library Association's Superconference in Toronto recently to help individuals, schools and other institutions become culturally competent.

Today's post will focus on...

(You) set me on fire
by Mariko Tamaki
Razorbill, 2012
304 pp.
Ages 14+
2012
Popularity, sexuality, same-sex relationship, coming of age

Asha’s Mums
by Rosamund Elwin and Michele Paulse
Illus. by Dawn Lee
Women’s Literary Press
24 pp.
Ages 5-9
1990
Same-sex parents

Chance to Dance for You
by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Great Plains Teen Fiction
172 pp.
Ages 14+
2011
Homophobia, sexuality, same-sex relationships
Review here

Crush
by Carrie Mac
Orca Book Publishers
136 pp.
Ages 14-17
2006
Sexuality, same-sex relationship

Homophobia: Deal with it and turn prejudice into pride
by Steven Solomon
Illus. by Nick Johnson
Lorimer
32 pp.
Ages 12-14
2013
Nonfiction, LGBTQ, prejudice, acceptance

Money Boy
by Paul Yee
Groundwood Books
192 pp.
Ages 13+
2011
Chinese immigrants, sexuality,  homelessness

Moon at Nine
by Deborah Ellis
Pajama Press
224 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Iran, Islam, sexuality, same-sex relationship
Review here

One in Every Crowd
by Ivan Coyote
Arsenal Pulp Press
238 pp.
Ages 14-17
2012
Short stories, identity, sexuality, LGBTQ

Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community
by Robin Stevenson
Orca Book Publishers
120 pp.
Ages 9-13
2016
Nonfiction, LGBTQ

Skim
by Mariko Tamaki
Illus. by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books
144 pp.
Ages 14+
2008
Coming of age, sexuality, fitting in

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
by Shyam Selvadurai
Tundra Books
280 pp.
Ages 16+
2007
Coming of age, same-sex relationships, sexuality, Sri Lanka

Switch
by Douglas Davey
Red Deer Press
 252 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Coming of age, fitting in, bisexuality
Review here

This One Summer
by Mariko Tamaki
Illus. by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Biooks
141 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Coming of age, sexuality, fitting in
Review here

Transphobia:  Deal with it and Be a Gender Transcender
by J. Wallace Skelton
Illus. by Nick Johnson
Lorimer
32 pp.
Ages 11-14
2016
Nonfiction, transgender, acceptance, diversity

Way to Go
by Tom Ryan
Orca Book Publishers
224 pp.
Ages 12+
2012
Sexuality, coming of age, Cape Breton, post-secondary
Review here

What We Hide
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
275 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
1960s, England, sexuality, coming of age
Review here

When Everything Feels Like the Movies
by Raziel Reid
Arsenal Pulp Press
176 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Popularity, same-sex relationships, high school, film


I would love to add an upcoming YA novel, A Boy Like Her by Carrie Mac (Knopf) coming out in 2019, because I think it'll be a ground-breaking novel but, with few publication details, I think we'll have to wait on that one. But make sure to tuck that nugget away on your list, somewhere.

Downloadable book list here

Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community: Book launches (Victoria, BC & Toronto, ON)

Join 

Robin Stevenson

award-winning author of over 20 books

for the launch of her first nonfiction book for young readers

Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community

Orca Book Publishers

9781459809932

120 pp.

Ages 9-13

For release April, 2016

on Monday, April 18th, 2016

from 7-9 p.m.

at

Cornerstone Café

1301 Gladstone Avenue

Victoria, BC

A portion of book sales will be donated to the Victoria LGBTQ Refugee Sponsorship Group


AND


on  Sunday, May 1, 2016

at 1 p.m.

at

Glad Day Bookshop
598 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON

Books will be available for sale. 

Check out the book trailer for details about Robin Stevenson's newest title:

Uploaded by Orca Book Publishers to YouTube 

on January 14, 2016.

LGBTQ in youngCanLit

I honestly believe that every young person should see themselves somewhere in literature.  Sure, no one will see themselves in every piece of youngCanLit but, in this age and with the wide variety of writing out there, there is a plethora of picture books, fiction and non-fiction that includes members of the LGBTQ communities, as there should be.

And in the month of June, when Toronto will be celebrating gay pride from June 19-27 (Vancouver will be celebrating from July 25-August 2, Montreal from August 10-16 and Calgary from August 28-September 7), I can't think of a better time to prepare a booklist that includes titles with LGBTQ characters or deal with related issues.

So, if you'd like to enlighten, to share, to appreciate and to understand LGBTQ issues, check out these youngCanLit books.

Picture Books

Asha's Mums

by Rosamund Elwin and Michelle Paulse
Illustrated by Dawn Lee
Women's Literary Press
24 pp.
Ages 5-9
1990

Fiction

Big Guy
by Robin Stevenson
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 12+
2008

Chance to Dance for You
by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Great Plains Teen Fiction
172 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Reviewed here

Crush
by Carrie Mac
Orca Book Publishers
136 pp.
Ages 14-17
2006

Drummer Girl
by Karen Bass
Coteau
192 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Forward Pass

by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Lorimer

144 pp.

Ages 13+

2013

Girl from Mars
by Tamara Bach
Translated by Shelley Tanaka
Groundwood Books
176 pp.
Ages 14+
2008

Hello, Groin
by Beth Goobie
Orca
292 pp.
Ages 14-17
2006

Homo

by Michael Harris
Lorimer
144 pp.
Ages 14-17
2012

In the Garage
by Alma Fullerton
Red Deer Press
181 pp.
Ages 13+
2006

Money Boy
by Paul Yee
Groundwood Books
184 pp.
Ages 12+
2011

Moon at Nine
by Deborah Ellis
Pajama Press
224 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Reviewed here

Not With a Bang
by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Magpie Books
118 pp.
Ages 14+
2012

Reviewed here

One in Every Crowd
by Ivan E. Coyote
Arsenal Pulp Press
238 pp.
Ages 12-17
2012

Parallel Visions
by Cheryl Rainfield
Rain and Sun Press
146 pp.
Ages 13+
2012

Reviewed here

Scars
by Cheryl Rainfield
Westside Books
248 pp.
Ages 14+
2010

Skim
by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books
141 pp.
Ages 14 +
2008

Stained
by Cheryl Rainfield
HMH Books for Young Readers
304 pp.
Ages 14+
2013

Reviewed here

Straight Punch

by Monique Polak
Orca Book Publishers
256 pp.
Ages 13-16
2014

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
by Shyam Selvadurai
Tundra
280 pp.
Ages 16+
2007

Switch
by Douglas Davey
Red Deer Press
252 pp.
Ages 15+
2014

Reviewed here

This High School has Closets
by Robert Joseph Greene
Icon Empire Press
96 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

This One Summer
by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books
320 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Reviewed here

Way to Go
by Tom Ryan
Orca Book Publishers
224 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Reviewed here

What We Hide
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
275 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Reviewed here

When Everything Feels Like the Movies
by Raziel Reid
Arsenal Pulp Press
176 pp.
Ages 15+
2014

Would You Mind?

by Robert Joseph Greene
Icon Empire Press
121 pp.
Ages 14+
2013

(You) Set Me on Fire
by Mariko Tamiki
Razorbill
304 pp.
Ages 14+
2012

Non-fiction

Branded by the Pink Triangle

by Ken Setterington
Second Story Press
196 pp.
Ages 13-18
2013

Homophobia: Deal with It and Turn Prejudice into Pride

by Steven Solomon
Illustrated by Nick Johnson
Lorimer
32 pp.
Ages 12-14

2013

n.b. Please let me know about any titles I may have missed that belong here.  I would love to make this a more complete booklist, and not limit it to only those books with which I'm familiar.