Denial

Written by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Lorimer

978-1-4594-1671-0

176 pp.

Ages 14-18

RL 2.7

February 2022

 

When September started, seventeen-year-old Nova's senior year was looking pretty good. She was excelling at her school work and already had early acceptance to U of T for science, as a precursor to med school. She was part of their high school's power couple, having dated star swimmer Leo for the past 5 months. She had a regular gig tutoring students and she was on the swim team too. But Denial begins the following May with Nova covered in blood and worried about what she'd done. Evidently, life wasn't as perfect as Nova had thought.

Though he's not pressuring her to have sex, Leo makes it clear that's what he's interested in. Fortunately, Nova wants her first time to be perfect and to ensure she gets on the pill first, having heeded her mother's own experiences with a teen pregnancy that resulted in Nova's half-brother Brad, currently living in Thailand after dropping out of university. But, while she's anxious and excited at the prospect of losing her virginity to the guy she loves, Nova is also considering it in the context of quitting the swim team–she's probably the weakest on it–and of leaving Leo exposed to the machinations of the star female swimmer, Jada, who seems to be trying to drive a wedge between Nova and Leo.

But that perfect senior year with the love of her life slowly seems to become something else. Battling tension within the family, between her parents who've had to restructure their lives after Dad lost his job and between her parents and Brad after he ditched university, and with her jealousy of Jada and Leo's increasing unavailability as he tries out for the national team, Nova is finding it hard to cope. And, with Lorna Schultz Nicholson peppering the chapters that document the school year with the glimpses into the May fiasco that may result in a death, Denial becomes a heavy but relatable story of first loves and school stresses with a touch of family drama.

Being in denial is an easy attitude. It's sticking with the status quo, the familiar, even if the familiar is unhealthy, suspicious, or jeopardous. And there's a lot of denial in Denial. (Duh.) But, as easy as denial can be, it is also a powerful force. It makes you see things you don't and ignore things that are evident to everyone. So when you're a teen and don't have decades of life experience to inform you, denial is really easy and Lorna Schultz Nicholson gets that. While she is well-known for her stories rich in sports (e.g., rowing in When You Least Expect It and hockey in Taking the Ice), it's her finesse in addressing issues important to teens that has always impressed me. Whether it's trauma or disabilities, peer pressure or teen sex, Lorna Schultz Nicholson knows how to write about the angst of being a teen and balancing friends, family, school and love. She allows teens to be human and make mistakes, even huge mistakes based in denial, but also to recover from them and move forward. And when you're a teen and everything is monumental and seems life-ending, Lorna Schultz Nicholson gives you hope that life-changing is the norm and can be transformative rather than ruinous.

The Player

Written by Paul Coccia

Lorimer

978-1-4594-1576-8

181 pp.

Ages 14+ (RL 2.0)

March 2021

Cooper knows he's gay. He was out to his old hockey team and even had a boyfriend on the team but, since it folded and his boyfriend moved away, Cooper is now back to keeping  this sexual orientation a secret to his new team, the Great Blues. So when his teammate Pesh makes a move on Cooper in their hotel room at an away game, he's pleased. But Pesh is an enigma to Cooper. The teen, the son of British Sri Lankan parents who aren't behind his hockey dreams of becoming the team's centre and captain on his path to going pro, is also going out with Bobbi, a girl who wants to go into sports PR and handles Pesh's social media and brand. 

 

Pesh likes flirting with Cooper and making out with him on away games but also starts wanting to fool around before games, convinced it improves their game. But, regardless of this "secret pre-game action" (pg. 110), Pesh is always one of the guys, leading the locker room chatter about girls, while driving his team with practices and high-handedness to ensure he'll look good to the scouts. Meanwhile Cooper can't resolve Pesh's egotism and expectations with the excitement of being in a relationship, albeit a secret one.

While Bobbi takes on helping Cooper with his image, having figured out that he is gay and determined to help him come out in a sport with little practice in being inclusive, Cooper works to keep his relationship with Pesh a secret from her, not wanting to hurt his new friend or jeopardize his position on the team or with Pesh.  But secrets are a dangerous currency and Cooper has to balance what he wants, what he feels and what he knows is right if he's to survive the evolving hockey drama.

 

Because The Player is part of Lorimer's SideStreets hi-lo series, addressing mature teen issues and written with text to engage the reluctant or less experienced reader, Paul Coccia helps all teens hear the voices of young men who are gay, or bicurious, or something else. As he did in his earlier book Cub (2019) and now in The Player, Paul Coccia makes sure that we see relationships like between Cooper and Pesh for what they are: young love, intoxicating and fulfilling, born of attraction and common interests. But as in any relationship, things can go wrong when the individuals have different expectations about exclusivity, openness and needs. The fact that Cooper is gay and Pesh bicurious or perhaps bi is irrelevant. What is important is what Cooper thinks and feels, because The Player is told in his voice. It's through him that we experience Pesh's actions and his own discomfort with Pesh's less-than-straightforward approach to their relationship and that with Bobbi. But, as in any relationship, it's being yourself first and foremost that gives you the strength to be able to give to another. By standing up for himself and what he needs, not only trying to be something for someone else, Cooper opens himself up to greater things in hockey and love.

Tough Call (Lorimer Sports Stories): Guest blog post

Occasionally I invite young readers to review books 
for CanLit for LittleCanadians. 
I'm very pleased to present this review 
by eleven-year-old Bronte L., a Grade 5 student.

Written by Kelsey Blair

Lorimer

978-1-45941-368-9

128 pp.

Ages 10-13

September 2018

In Tough Call by Kelsey Blair, Malia King signs up to be a basketball referee to help her family with the basketball fees for her and her sister, Flo. She is assigned her first basketball game to referee. Malia is excited to find out that she is the referee for Flo’s first game. During the game, she makes a call favouring the rival team, Boundary. Her sister Flo gets furious with her because she feels that it was a close call and it cost them the game. Shouldn’t Malia have made the call in her sister’s favour? After that call she finds out how difficult reffing truly is.

When Malia gets her full reffing schedule, to her disappointment she is one of the referees for Flo’s games during the playoffs. People were still coming up to her in the halls and giving her a hard time about not making calls to help her own school win. How will refereeing more of the games make things for Malia in school? This new schedule is putting pressure on her to choose between favouring her school or making fair calls.

I thought Tough Call was a great book with lots of dialogue and detail. Kelsey Blair did a marvellous job describing the basketball games. Her play by play description of the action made it like I was there watching Malia and Flo! Kelsey Blair created a very believable main character. Her vivid descriptions of Malia’s emotions were so strong, you could feel them yourself.

Tough Call is a great light read for grades 4-8. At only 127 pages, it is easy and enjoyable for students to read. Her plot line is very relatable for students of this age group and the events in the book are family friendly. I encourage all basketball fans to read Tough Call.  True fans of the sport will appreciate the finer details and understand the pressure in these situations. Readers who are not fans of basketball will still enjoy Malia King’s story, as everyone can relate to being under pressure at school. I would give this book an 8 out of 10 as it has a great plot line, an inspiring story, and genuine characters.

Written by Bronte L. (11)

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

Mermaid Warrior Squad

Written by Karin Adams

Illustrated by Janine Carrington

James Lorimer & Co.

978-1-4594-1146-3

150 pp.

Ages 7-11

August 2017

When Dylan meets the friendly Coral at art camp, the two eleven-year-old girls seem destined to become partners.  They both love oceans and know a lot about the sea animals, perfect for an art camp themed as "Art Under the Sea." Even better, they come into the camp with different strengths:  Coral loves to draw and Dylan likes to write.  In fact, both had already created mermaid characters: Coral's is a tough-looking mermaid she calls Crash, the Mighty Mermaid Warrior, and Dylan's is a mermaid renegade named Driftwood whose mission it is to protect the oceans.  The two decide to merge their ideas and collaborate on a comic book in which the two mermaids become the Mermaid Warrior Squad.

From Mermaid Warrior Squad 

by Karin Adams

 illus. by Janine Carrington

While the two girls work on their project, as depicted in illustrator Janine Carrington's graphic insets of the two mermaids, they are also dealing with getting to know each other and their fellow campers.  Dylan loves having a friend–she's obviously a bit of an introvert–but she's having difficulties dealing with Coral's exuberance and tendency to get carried away with her efforts, silliness and volume.  The other campers include Lynn, another quiet girl; Ben, the annoying prankster; Jade and Sarina, the trendy girls; and decent guys Ryan and Lamar.  From this crew, Dylan and Coral contrive new characters like a dolphin-mermaid hybrid, the villain Captain Fishhead, the evil Seaweed Sisters, and Shark Dudes.  Their story is evolving but so is their friendship as Coral decides unilaterally on their skit for the camp's culminating performance and Dylan is compelled to stand up for herself. Ultimately, though, their friendship means more to Dylan than sitting back and watching Coral be humiliated, and she's there to rescue her friend, even if it need happen on stage.

Karin Adams's story approaches multiple themes of oceans and creating art as well as clashing personalities with humour and much insight.  It's obvious that, as much as they have common interests, Dylan and Coral have very different personalities.  Overcoming these differences so that they might work together and be supportive of each other is a key element of Mermaid Warrior Squad.  Just like their mermaid characters, the two girls' efforts are more impactful when they work together than when they are at odds with one another.  This is an important lesson for children who are often forced to work together in school and extracurricular activities.  Not every child is a Coral who wants to be at the heart of the action.  Some need to quietly work at the side in order to reach their full potential.  Though most people, including teachers, are extroverts who don't see the harm done by expecting all children to love group activities or being part of the rah-rah crowd, Mermaid Warrior Squad recognizes that children will find their own ways to be true to themselves, taking risks as they choose, and still make friends with those unlike themselves.  Strength comes from both being yourself and working with others, whether you have a mermaid tail or not.

Whether a child is heading to camp, dealing with making and keeping friends, understanding their own personality or one who loves oceans or comic books, Mermaid Warrior Squad is an entertaining light read that will engage those who are beyond early readers but might find much middle-grade fiction more daunting.  It's a nice little package of humour and lessons for middle-graders.

Morgan the Brave

Written by Ted Staunton and Will Staunton

Illustrated by Bill Slavin

Formac Lorimer

978-1-459504974

96 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2017

Being scared is normal.  Still, being seen as being scared and labelled a chicken or a scaredy-cat is something all children and many adults would avoid at all costs.  That's Morgan's dilemma.  He and everyone from his class have been invited to new kid Curtis's birthday party at which the boy plans to show the horror movie Brain Eater.  Worse, the rumours about the movie elevate the scariness factor.

From Morgan the Brave 

by Ted Staunton and Will Staunton 

illus. by Bill Slavin

"I heard they use real earwax," whispers Charlie.
"My brother watched it," says Matt, "and he passed out!"
Melissa hisses, "Did you hear what they make the spaghetti out of?" (pg. 11)

Worse, his frenemy Aldeen (she's the tall one with the witchy hair in Bill Slavin's illustration above) says that scary movies are boring and she's seen a million of them.  So he gives one a try. He watches The Wizard of Oz in the safety of his home with his parents and he still freaks out, closing his eyes.  Is there a way to go to Curtis's party and watch that movie and not lose face?

Somehow father and son authors Ted Staunton and Will Staunton get into the head of the freakishly normal Morgan, knowing how natural fears can escalate to horrific proportions with the right inputs from peers and an active imagination.  Because the scenario in which Morgan the Brave finds himself is so commonplace, the story becomes familiar and funny and clever.  Though cautionary tales are generally more folkloric, Morgan the Brave is still a lesson-learning story that worries can exacerbate fears and that the anticipation is usually far worse than the reality.

Parents, you can reassure your children with a reading of Morgan the Brave while teachers can do the same with their early readers who would probably be more accepting of the premise that they shouldn't give into their fears if they read it for themselves.  At a Reading Level of 2.2. (i.e., that of a child in the second month of Grade 2) and accompanied by Bill Slavin's comical art, it's not an intimidating read at all.

😱😱😱

Like Ted Staunton's original Morgan series, Morgan the Brave would be a great addition to the listing of #CanLitChoices for Grade 2 novel studies that I prepared almost exactly two years ago. Check out those titles here.

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

Tagged Out: Book event (Toronto)

The Toronto Blue Jays may have played their last game of the season today

but

if you baseball,

live in or around Toronto

and  

want to support youth baseball

Then come out to the book event featuring 

author Joyce Grant's

new middle grade sports novel

Tagged Out

(Sports Stories series)

by Joyce Grant

Lorimer

978-1-4594-1075-6

123 pp.

Ages 12-14

2016

on Sunday, October 23, 2016

at 12 noon

at Christie Pits

(corner of Christie St. and Bloor St.)

Toronto, ON

On the Lorimer website, the book is described as follows:

The inner-city Toronto Blues baseball team is having a lousy year. Shortstop Nash and the Blues can't seem to win. They especially hate losing to their archrivals, the rich kids of the Parkhill Pirates. When all-star player Jock joins the team, it looks like the Blues might be able to turn the season around. The only problem? When the Pirates find out that Jock is gay, they ambush Nash and Jock, and Nash has to decide if he wants to stand by his teammate.

(Retrieved from http://www.formaclorimerbooks.ca/childrens-and-teens/Book/S/22/2895/Tagged-Out.html on October 19, 2016)

Get a signed copy of Tagged Out for $10

and

participate in the  Toronto Playgrounds Baseball

Derby for Distance

You can help fundraise 

for new equipment for 

the Toronto Playgrounds kids' baseball program

by participating in 

the batting competition 

at pitching machines of different speeds 

for different ages

There will be prizes, a raffle, refreshments, book sales and fun!

Details here

28 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6: Book Launch (Aylmer, QC)

Are you a young reader or young writer, maybe even in Grade 6 or not, and would like some advise about conquering your fears of school or sharing your writing?  Do you live in or will be visiting the Gatineau area this coming weekend?

Join
Catherine Austen

author of
Walking Backward (Orca, 2009)
All Good Children (Orca, 2011)
  My Cat Isis (Kids Can Press, 2011)
and
26 Tips for Surviving Grade 6 (Lorimer, 2011)

for the book launch 

of her newest middle grade fiction 

28 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6

Lorimer

978-1459406186

192 pp.

Ages 8-12

Released March 2014

on

Sunday, March 30, 2014

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

at 

Lucy Faris Library

115 rue Principale

Aylmer (Gatineau), QC

Catherine Austen invites you to come out for a reading, 
live music, crafts, refreshments, 
and 
an open mic session for fearless young writers.

Touch

Written by Kim Firmston
James Lorimer & Co. Ltd.
978-1-4594-0371-0 (epub)
978-1-4594-0369-7 (pb)
101 pp.
Ages 13-18
2013

Most people would see having the magic touch -- finesse -- as a positive attribute, especially if used for charitable or beneficial needs.  If used to manipulate and sway others to your preferences, that same touch can be undesirable or shameful.

But sixteen-year-old Ethan is honestly impressed by his dad's talent to persuade everyone, whether at his IT security workplace or at home.  In fact, Ethan is eager to impress his father with his own skills in hacking, tech and engineering, hoping to emulate his father's success at age 19 winning a robotic competition.  He even tries to manipulate his girlfriend Maddie into cozying up to their competition, Antoine, to get a look at his plans.  Needless to say, Ethan soon learns he doesn't always demonstrate his dad's proficiency at enticing others to his will.

Though close to his father, Ethan is comfortable with his father's new wife and younger step-sister, Haley, and considers them his family.  But when Haley's attention-grabbing antics (e.g., cutting her long hair and dying it black with red tips; going Goth; having meltdowns) eclipse his successes and accolade-grabbing stunts, Ethan is less than compassionate about what may be troubling Haley.  Not surprising that when Haley tells her mother that Ethan's dad has been touching her inappropriately, Ethan does not believe her.

After his dad moves out without letting Ethan know, Ethan's confusion is exacerbated, having him wondering about his own place in the family and where his loyalty and trust should lie.  With his dad continuing to manipulate him to keep tabs on Haley and Mom, Ethan begins to see how control is not everything, especially when compassion, cooperation and compromise can achieve so much more.

Part of Lorimer's SideStreets series, Touch offers a contemporary story line, based on the issue of sexual abuse, in a hi-lo format i.e., high interest, low vocabulary.  While it is too predictable from the title and opening scenes that Haley is being sexually abused, Ethan's responses offer the perplexity needed to deepen the story.  While dealing with his own disbelief and conviction of his father's innocence, Ethan comes to see his father's manipulative techniques as selfish and detached, not admirable or effective.  With that change in perspective, Ethan is able to redirect the skills he was using to impress his father to expose him instead.  That twist in his purpose saves Ethan from his own narcissistic path and unexpectedly has him becoming a real big brother to Haley, protecting her as much as he can.

While the hi-lo format can restrict the story development and expression of characters, a good writer can augment the base story elements with enough details, secrets and innuendo to take a story from ordinary.  Personally I would have appreciated more evidence that Ethan could develop a change of heart, but Kim Firmston has a good solid plot here in Touch, adding Ethan's finesse with technology, to provide readers with greater substance on which to focus our story demands. 

Crush. Candy. Corpse.

Written by Sylvia McNicoll
Lorimer
978-1-4594-00627
219 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Community service hours are a chore for many high school students. These hours, usually about 40, are spent volunteering in hospitals, seniors' homes, schools, food banks, etc., learning compassion and building a sense of community while developing the volunteerism we generally accept as civilized. Even those kids who are determined that it will be a miserable experience must complete, even begrudgingly, those forty hours if they intend to graduate from high school.

Sonja Ehret, sixteen, endearingly nicknamed Sunny by her grandmother, is assigned to help out at Paradise Manor, with those long-term care residents suffering with Alzheimer's. Sunny is a pretty good kid. She may look a little wild with her pink streaked hair, and she does sneak around behind her parents' backs with Donovan, 19, for whom shoplifting seems to be a vocation. And she sometimes blurts things out without thinking, like on her first day at Paradise Manor, when she is already late because her bus takes a detour because of a busted sewer line. When she mentions a smell at Paradise Manor, she makes a justifiable connection that it must be the result of a sewer line break too. Unfortunately, the bitter receptionist, Mrs. Johnson, never forgets Sunny's offensive faux pas regarding the smell which is actually the result of a resident soiling himself. After that, Mrs. Johnson sees all Sunny's actions as mistakes or flaws, even those which Sunny chooses to do because of her compassion for the residents.

In Sunny's journal, a requirement for her volunteering credit, she may sound whiny in her earlier entries about her time and activities at Paradise Manor. But soon enough, Sunny is speaking a little German (picked up from her grandmother before she passed) to encourage a lonely resident, Johann, to eat. Of course, those who already scorn Sunny see her feeding Johann too quickly or too much at a time or putting him in jeopardy of choking. This is especially unfortunate for Sunny when Helen Demers, the grandmother of fellow teen volunteer Cole, dies from choking on hard candies that she isn't supposed to eat because she is a diabetic. And Sunny is charged with manslaughter because of her death.

Mrs. Johnson insists that Sunny's Crush on Cole, who always gives his grandmother an unauthorized caramel Candy at the end of his visit, compelled her to help Helen Demers (i.e., the story's Corpse) in an effort to help Cole discharge his promise to end his grandmother's life when the Alzheimer's has progressed too far. Since Sunny returns to help out at Paradise Manor after she has completed her 40 hours of service, the fact that she is even implicated in Helen's death seems far-fetched, except when her actions, short journal entries and stray comments (out of context) are brought into evidence.

My banal synopsis of Crush. Candy. Corpse. does not do justice to Sylvia McNicoll's captivating story of Sunny's transforming relationships with Cole and the residents at Paradise Manor. I was lured into Sunny' story as she, the narrator, presents her actions and recollections in an honest manner. But it is most disheartening to realize that her story also demonstrates how snapshots of our actions can be used to represent unfairly the totality of our behaviour. For example, regardless of Sunny's motivations and the encouragement she receives from Cole, his mother goes ballistic after Sunny gives Helen Demers pink highlights. Instead of acknowledging her mother-in-law's wish for the highlights or Cole's suggestion that Sunny get the money from his grandmother, Cole's mom focuses on the humiliation she believes Sunny intended rather than the pleasure Sunny aspired to provide by honouring Helen's request.

Sylvia McNicoll gets Sunny's voice perfect, introducing the narrator as a teen who can make questionable decisions (as we all do when inexperienced) but who has the capacity to see beyond her initial assessments and amend her own actions and beliefs accordingly. I would be proud to have Crush. Candy. Corpse.'s Sunny as my granddaughter or caregiver to a family member knowing that she would bring the foibles of youth with the insight and compassion of a humanitarian and I would cheer for her throughout her trial and beyond. Sunshine like Sunny should not be eclipsed.