Seeking Draven

Written by Michael F. Stewart

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-738-1

204 pp.

Ages 9–12

April 2024

 

The cover of Michael F. Stewart's latest novel, and his first in free verse, is subtle and deceivingly simple. It's not unlike the fungi that ten-year-old Teagan loves to study and draw. But, like the mushrooms and other fungi, what you see is just a fraction of what is there, most hidden and complex. Seeking Draven is a story of such depth of feeling and craft, masquerading as a short novel about a little girl who likes mushrooms and playing with her phone.

 

Teagan's 18-year-old brother Draven has always been there to support her: to find her when she gets lost in the woods, to defend her to their dad, to play basketball bump with her, and more. But when their dad accuses Draven of theft in front of his friends, Draven takes off and everything changes.

But when the smoke clears Dad falls silent,

Draven leaves us in his exhaust and everyone else goes

Home. (p. 13)

Devastated by Draven's absence and Dad's reluctance to tell her anything or to search for her brother, Teagan decides to look for him herself. It's almost impossible–though she breaks into Draven's bedroom to look for clues–until her dad gives her his old cell phone, hoping that it will make her less sad and quiet. (He doesn't realize that she's angry.) Now with a cell phone, which she calls Tab, Teagan goes on the hunt for Draven and tries to reconnect.

 

But that cell phone becomes something more for Teagan as she tries to find Draven, looking for him on social media. Now she sees herself through others' comments and she feels the pressure to share, and to be liked, and even laugh at others' misfortunes. She's taking selfies and listening to the comments. Like the zombie fungus which will alter the behaviour of ants which ingest it, Teagan's cell phone is taking over her life. As her father recognizes her addiction to it, Teagan has a revelation about Draven, piecing together clues from his computer searches and expensive stuff she found in his room, and suspects a gambling addiction.

Addictions make us lie.

     They make us falsify.

     If addiction made Draven a thief

     What is it doing to me? (p. 108)

So begins a new leg of Teagan's search for Draven, and a mission for understanding.

Michael F. Stewart has given us some compelling young adult novels, from his Assured Destruction tech trilogy or Counting Wolves and Heart Sister in which characters deal with mental health issues but, with Seeking Draven, he steps into a whole new genre of writing. The power of the writing is still there but, in its novel in verse form, Michael F. Stewart gives a story of addictions, both gambling and tech, a weightiness to which they are entitled. These are significant issues of chronic mental health, stealing relationships and lives from those afflicted. If they are fortunate enough to acknowledge their addictions, and accept help, and seek treatment, they may be able to break that dependence. The issue is important, and Michael F. Stewart treats it as such but, by juxtaposing Teagan's obsession with her cell and Draven's gambling, and enveloping it all in their close brother-sister relationship, he also manifests it as a family issue. Teagan's insight into what both she and her brother are experiencing is profound, especially for a ten-year-old child. But, if it shows us anything, there is no age limit on compassion and a willingness to help.

I've always been a huge fan of novels in verse and know that those who endeavour to write in this form are challenged with choices that limit text to words and phrases that have impact. Michael F. Stewart has just demonstrated his proficiency with this form, distilling important ideas into fewer words and phrasing that has intensity. 

If anyone's a thief, it's Dad,

Stealing

Hope. (p. 16)

I wish I could tell you how Teagan's story and that of Draven resolve but that will be the story you will need to read for yourselves. Fortunately, good or bad, Michael F. Stewart has the skill and heart to tell their stories from multiple perspectives and with sensitivity to their difficulties and to tell them with an eloquence of verse that makes us understand and empathize.

Group Book Launch: May 26, 2024 (Toronto, ON)

If you read my January 1st post about upcoming books, you'll know that there are hundreds of books of kidCanLit released in a 6 month period. While it's hard to get to all the launches that are set, it is far easier when multiple authors get together to launch their new books. In the spirit of cooperation, and under the umbrella of Authors' Booking Service, eight authors of picture books, and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction will be launching their new books in a special Group Book Launch.  

 

Creators who will be present are Dana L. Church, Caroline Fernandez, Deborah Kerbel, Amanda West Lewis, Monique Polak, Sade Smith, Michael F. Stewart, and Farida Zaman. These are their books:

 

Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory (Orca Think)

Written by Monique Polak

Illustrated by Valéry Goulet

Orca Book Publishers

96 pp.

Ages 8-13

March 2024

Iggy Included

Written by Deborah Kerbel 

Scholastic Canada

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2024

 

Seeking Draven

Written by Michael F. Stewart

Red Deer Press

200 pp.

Ages 9-12

April 2024

 

 

 

 

A Planet is a Poem

Written by Amanda West Lewis

Illustrated by Oliver Averill

Kids Can Press

40 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2024

 

Asha and Baz Meet Katia Krafft

Written by Caroline Fernandez

Illustrated by Dharmali Patel

Common Deer Press

114 pp.

Ages 6-9

February 2024

 

 

 

Plague Thieves

Written by Caroline Fernandez

DCB Young Readers

208 pp.

Ages 9-12

May 2024

 

 

The Monarch Effect: Surviving Poison, Predators, and People

Written by Dana L. Church 

Scholastic Focus

320 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 2024

 

 

 

Meena Can't Wait 

Written and illustrated by Farida Zaman

Orca Book Publishers

32 pp.

Ages 6-8

March 2024

 

 

 

And the launch?  Here are its details:

Sunday, May 26th, 2024

2-3 PM (EST)

at

Toronto Public Library

Northern District Branch

Gwen Liu Meeting Room

40 Orchard View Blvd.

Toronto, ON

Get this free, family-friendly event into your calendar now. It's a great opportunity to chat with creators of kidCanLit and get autographed books for all your young readers.

The Momentous Expiration of Tremmy Sinclair

Written by Michael F. Stewart

The Publishing House

978-1-989133-05-7

259 pp.

Ages 13+

June 2021

 I can do anything at all, but now there's not time. How do you live a lifetime in four months? (pg. 4)

Tremendous Sinclair, talented and privileged son of wealthy parents, has been dealing with brain cancer over the summer before his senior year, keeping his diagnosis, treatments and prognosis from his best friend Jenkins and everyone at Amborough Private School. His parents, desperate to give him anything, including a miracle, are taking him on a first-class trip around the world. That is, until Tremmy decides that what he really wants is to return to school, and live out what little time he has being the head boy, a drone war general, captain of the swim team and his best self. Unfortunately, Tremmy soon realizes that...

Nothing can be truly fantastic anymore. Now fantastic is coated in a prickly sweat of impending doom. (pg. 42)

Still he returns to school. What he had hoped would be a stellar few months of accomplishments and camaraderie soon becomes something different. His symptoms slowly begin to affect his daily life, though he tries to cover it up. But when his medical circumstances are leaked to all, the school's administration does whatever it can to get him out, not wanting a student's death at school on their hands. And his friends? Audra wants to run a social experiment and record photographs of his dying. Girlfriends Jodie and Mona come out of the woodwork and make him think about his relationships. Margot, scholarship student and head girl prefect, supports him and makes him consider how he needs to fight. As for Jenkins? He may be pompous, privileged, self-absorbed, and perhaps criminal–Tremmy has to get him out of at least one bad situation–but Tremmy may need him because his attempts to procure medical or parental assistance in dying is not happening.

With each day, and those days are counted down in chapter headings that record "days to demise," Tremmy tries to enlighten his classmates about death and dying, knowing it will help him as much as them. 

Silence is when I am most alone. That's when the shadows of death's in the room. (pg. 235)

But how do you convince anyone to listen when you're stripped of your achievements, squirreled away in an unused room, growing weaker and less able, and your best friend is either not talking to you or doing things you're starting to see as questionable? Tremmy has more than one fight on his hands, and whether he wins any of them may not be up to him.

Michael F. Stewart’s latest young adult novel–earlier ones include Heart Sister, Counting Wolves and Assured Destruction–may ask readers to think about what a good death is but more importantly it reminds us that it only comes with living a life that is of value. And that value does not comes from wealth or bountiful experiences, both of which Tremmy has available to him.  It’s value that comes from meaning.

 ...it's at the point of discomfort where life gets important. (pg. 149)

From the onset of The Momentous Expiration of Tremmy Sinclair, it's clear that Tremmy's circle of friends and family are highly advantaged, wealthy beyond imagination. 24K gold-trimmed double-screened cell phones with firefly companion drones. Caviar served in the cafeteria. Selling of transcripts of one teacher's lectures for $10,000. These kids and their families have gobs of money. But it won't save Tremmy from death or others from poor decisions and bad behaviour. Michael F. Stewart may take us into their world but he doesn't leave us there. We're like the drones the kids fight with, watching Tremmy and his classmates, the school's administration and his parents, and others who flit into their lives. We see the calamities and the injustices, the insights and the fears. And we see the resolution, for Tremmy, at least. Surprisingly, that resolution brings both tears and cheers. Tremmy couldn't change the life he'd lived prior to his diagnosis but he sure added value to it with his death. In that way, Tremendous Sinclair's expiration is truly momentous, as is Michael F. Stewart's telling of it.

Counting Wolves

Written by Michael F. Stewart

978-0-993757945

217 pp.

Ages 12+

August 2017

"For the last three years I've been hunted by the wolf–wait."  I hold a hand up.  "I  know it sounds crazy–but I've been holding it back with my count.  It works like a magic spell, and it keeps others safe too, everyone.  I've felt the wolf.  I've seen it." (pg. 140)

We all have wolves at our doors.  Some just howl louder or claw more violently.  They may be the wolves of past events come to haunt us, or bad thoughts that want to become actions, or the ones that portend disaster.  But how do you survive the wolves when they're always, always waiting to get you?

Fifteen-year-old Milly Malone is convinced that she has found the magic spell to banish the wolf to the Dark Wood and survive: she counts.  She counts to 100 each time she passes through doorways or eats a single bite or speaks.  Perpetuating the predator theme, Milly will only cross a door's threshold by hopping.  Needless to say, she's often late for class, eats very little in the time allotted, and people get frustrated waiting for her to express herself verbally.  Her boyfriend Billy is her rock, defending her to those who might ridicule her, but even he can't help her when she hears the smacking of jaws, sees the welts of claw marks on her back and collapses, "Lost in the blackest of fairy tales." (pg. 6)

After a visit to Emerg with her step-mother Adriana who believes Milly's issue is an eating disorder–Milly's mother passed away three years earlier and her father is away on business–Milly is admitted to the Pediatric Psychiatry ward where she meets an assortment of characters.  There's Peter, a large boy who is convinced he's a fairy (a leg cast is indicative of a recent flying attempt off the building); the manic Vanet who "is like some stoned fairy godmother who's as liable to kill you as help you"; pg. 81); Red, a girl who dresses in red and is plagued by nightmares; Eleanor a.k.a. Pig, the aggressive homeless girl who likes to burn stuff; Wesley whom she calls Rottengoth whose parents hate him; and Sleeping Beauty, a girl who is on IV constantly and rarely awakens. And then there's Wolfgang, the scary dude with the dead eyes in an acute care room.  Through meals, group therapy, recreational activities and interviews with Doctor Balder all the young people reveal their own wolves, sparring in words and actions and ultimately forming a community of support to keep the wolves away.

Counting Wolves is an intense read about young people dealing with mental illness and how those around them, medical professionals and family, deal with them.  The stories in which these young people embed themselves are tragic, not unlike the fairy tales that Milly reads or was told as a child.  Like many of the original Grimm fairy tales, whose stories are not always obvious at first read, they are frightening.  There may be lessons within but they are devastating to body and soul, with fear often the prevalent emotion. Michael F. Stewart, whose earlier Assured Destruction series (Assured Destruction, Script Kiddie, and Assured Destruction with Zombies) revealed clever plotting and great characterizations, is able to get into Milly's head and give her a voice that is legitimate though perplexing.  Granted, he's the one who has created that head with its confusing thoughts and beliefs but Michel F. Stewart melds her mental illness with grim fairy tales so flawlessly that it's a wonder all issues can't be viewed better in terms of fables. Even as she works through her anxiety, independently–including with the use of a 1960s workbook–and with her established and new support systems, she is challenging the wolf. There is a surprise revelation when Milly recognizes that her wolf is not whom she believes it to be but that's a secret the readers will need to discover for themselves.

Counting Wolves illuminates the treachery of mental illness, including the distorted thinking that can override all and twist stories even more.  Keeping the wolves at bay under these circumstances can be even more challenging.  Still Michael F. Stewart provides some indication, maybe even hope, that help and protection is available, even where least expected.

Assured Destruction with Zombies

by Michael F. Stewart

978-0-981269993

225 pp.

Ages 13+

2014

If you haven't read Michael F. Stewart's Assured Destruction (2013), reviewed here, and Script Kiddie (2013), its sequel (reviewed here), then don't read this review.  Get Books 1 and 2 in the Assured Destruction series first.  You won't be disappointed and you'll enjoy Book 3 all the more.

When Script Kiddie ended, tech savvy Janus had saved her classmate and friend Hannah from attempting to kill an online predator, and sustained enough injuries–including a broken ankle and bruised ribs–to slow her down a bit. But only a bit because she's still got a lot to do.  If she doesn't want to lose her semester, she must attend school every day and on time.  With mom hospitalized and undergoing electric shock therapy, Janus feels like she must take on more of the business responsibilities.  The mortgage on the business, Assured Destruction, is still in jeopardy and Janus is working on ways to make more money, including billeting ten international students (though she's got nothing ready for them, only space in their industrial park business/home).  She also has a plan to make the company more profitable by seeking out some of the clients that had worked with her dad before he disappeared several years earlier, although her mom's boyfriend, Peter, thinks she shouldn't be doing this.  

Her visits to these clients, including AAA Ltd. and A ZaZa Pizza, leave her more confused.  They don't have the number of computers that would make them customers of Assured Destruction; in fact, she's even warned away by a pony-tailed man she sees at several locations.  Janus is quick to recognize that these clients may not provide the business they need but she's sure they may be helpful in finding her father. But her investigations hit too close to home, and her determination to learn the truth ends up putting her life and the business in jeopardy.

While pursuing the mystery of her father's disappearance and his dealings with these special "customers", Janus again gets involved with the hackers online at Darkslinger to find a solution to something the media is calling the Zombie Worm, a malware program that is affecting the school server, her home computers, and businesses, traffic lights, etc.  But Janus doesn't realize that, as they say, when you play with fire, sometimes you get burned. And when she's trying to do everything-school, business, heal, friends, boyfriend, community service, investigate her father, liaise with the police-she gets burned really badly, metaphorically, though almost physically too.  

Michael F. Stewart has developed Janus into a character who can see beyond the moment and beyond the computer, although this is something that is difficult for her.  She is used to taking care of everything, not relying on anyone or anything. Her physical injuries at the end of Script Kiddie have required her to get help, whether she wants it or not. (Driving the van with hand controls is an especially funny scene.)  Too soon her mental health is in jeopardy as well. Janus needed to know, really know, that she didn't have to take on the world by herself.  Many of us don't like asking for help, assuming that it shows weakness.  Wrong.  The weakness is in not asking, especially when we know many hands make light work.  Between her friends and others watching out for her, Janus has a lot of support.  By continually going after things herself, she negates what they mean to her.  Not deliberately, but she still does. Not until she is able to accept help do things start to turn around for her and Assured Destruction. 

Assured Destruction with Zombies may have an edge-of-your-seat adventure with several mysteries to solve and a whodunit that will surprise you but it's Janus' character that took centre stage for me, finally becoming a person with whom I could empathize.  Her computer smarts are far beyond any that I will ever know, though I'm sure a few young readers will know exactly what she's doing always, but those are her skills and strengths.  Showing her weaknesses and working with them, rather than through them, has made Janus stronger and a more likeable character. And I'm reassured, after reading Assured Destruction with Zombies, that nothing can destroy her. Janus may become damaged but she's an invincible protagonist who could take on the world, cyberspace and all.

Script Kiddie: Assured Destruction, Book 2

by Michael F. Stewart
Non Sequitur Press
978-0981269962
212 pp.
Ages 12+
August 29, 2013

When I reviewed Michael F. Stewart's Assured Destruction on March 21, 2013, I knew that this computer thriller heralded a great new series for young adults.  The second book in the Assured Destruction series, Script Kiddie, has proven me right.

The 2000 hours of community service that 16-year-old Janus Rose was given (as a consequence of her indirect involvement in cyber-attacks on those whose hard-drives she'd not destroyed) in Assured Destruction has the teen helping Detective Williams and snarky Constable Ethan Chow of the Ottawa Police Department in the High Tech Crime Unit.  Janus' computer skills, honed at her multiple computers (and Shadownet personalities), are exceptional and her problem-solving, while sometimes impetuous, lets her think outside the box readily.

Janus' first police case involves discovering how credit card information is being stolen from the very bank that has tried to foreclose on their home and company! Unfortunately, her quirky ideas about undercover work and her sincere interest in warning potential victims gets her off that case officially (though Janus doesn't always follow the rules) and instead profiling a killer from his laptop.

At school, Janus is drawn in to helping her classmate/friend Hannah who's been lured by an older man to submit nude photos of herself and needs help in getting away online from the man who continues to harrass and even threaten her.  Soon after, though, Hannah wants Janus to back off, and Janus doesn't know how she can truly help the teen.

To help in her investigations, Janus looks to the internet for a community of hackers with skills beyond her own.  But, after trying to ingratiate herself into Darkslinger.net, she is expunged for being a Skiddie a.k.a. a Script Kiddie, a naive wannabee hacker. It's only when she gets a bit of assistance from her mother's boyfriend, Peter, a retired computer security consultant, that she finds a way to be accepted at Darkslinger and get some much-needed help.

I haven't even mentioned the turmoil going on at home as Janus' mother's multiple sclerosis progresses, leaving her weaker and going blind, and Janus looks into the state of their finances.  Sadly, it's evident that the business, Assured Destruction, is not making enough money to pay the bills and upcoming mortgage payments.

For a sixteen-year-old, Janus does incredibly and credibly well.  Michael F. Stewart has not created an unbelievable superhero-esque teen.  She gets people angry at her, she makes poor choices (though usually with the best of intentions), she doesn't know who to trust, she tries to make things right, she skips school occasionally, she worries about her ailing mother, she wonders about her father who left, she likes to make out with her boyfriend Jonny (though her time with him is limited), she's tech savy and willing to learn what she doesn't know, and she does her homework (usually).  She's a teen with a lot on her plate and sometimes it slips off and then she gets more loaded on, but Janus just keeps on trying.  Not surprising that one of her Shadownet alter-egos, Gumps advises that,

"If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.  H. G. Wells" (pg. 156)

There is no time for the Script Kiddie reader to wallow in Janus' turmoil either, as the plot is fast-paced and relentless in its subplotting. While some readers may relate to the circumstances of Janus' life and the situations into which she stumbles so easily and innocently, Janus is like no one else.  Janus and Michael F. Stewart's other characters, many who are virtual or unidentifiable, are still surprisingly real and distinct. I don't know whether Michael F. Stewart has based these characters on real persons or not but that's quite a feat when there's only voice to give them substance. Having learned that Michael F. Stewart is also Mike Stewart, author of a number of graphic novels for Oxford University Press' Boldprint Graphic Novels series, I suspect his creativity spans different media, beyond text alone. That would explain the depth and texture of his writing and its ability to extend beyond dimensions rarely experienced in novels. Younger readers will not need to worry but I hope that as a "mature" teacher-librarian I can continue to navigate the digital and virtual dimensions with ease as I am already anticipating Books 3 and 4 in the Assured Destruction series.

Assured Destruction

Written by Michael F. Stewart
978-0-981269948
183 pp.
Ages 13+
March 22, 2013

Tomorrow Michael F. Stewart's first book Assured Destruction hits the market and, with its savvy plotting and tech focus, it's sure to be the start of a successful series.  And there's even a little romance going on.

Assured Destruction may normally refer to a principle of military strategy but here it refers to the Ottawa service that Janus, 16, and her mother run with the mandate of destroying and recycling hard drives and other electronics.  Except for Fenwick, their forklift operator and general works employee, Janus does a lot to keep the business running, as her mother has multiple sclerosis and generally works on the administrative needs of Assured Destruction. But Janus has a little secret cache of hard-drives that she keeps back from destruction by their metal shredder, affectionately known as Chop-Chop, so that she can poke around for secrets.

Secrets are power. (pg.7)

In fact, the story begins with Janus taking the hard drive of a classmate of her's, Jonny Shaftsbury, after being dropped off by his mother. Though it is slated to be destroyed, Janus is intrigued because Jonny has seemed interested in her. So, along with her other Shadownet terminals, for which she has created different personas and Twitter accounts, Janus adds Jonny's which becomes Paradise57. 

When Janus realizes that two individuals from whom she held back HDs have been targeted, one by robbery and the other with allegedly posting pornography, and the police come by about leaked names from other computers dropped off at Assured Destruction, Janus knows something wicked is unfolding but she can't admit her involvement for fear of making the business liable.  But things go from bad to worse when Janus sets up a trojan to learn who has set up a site where she appears to be the administrator.  Instead, all of Janus' networked computers and server go down, and she is suspended from school, grounded at home and questioned by the police.

Soon Janus realizes that her Shadownet of virtual people does not provide the solace it once had.

...I'm not sure I care as much about these people anymore, they don't seem as real as they once had. (pg.120)

In fact, Janus is finding herself attracted to Jonny and another classmate, Karl, who both show an interest in her, but her precarious status has her questioning everyone's trustworthiness, including her mom's new boyfriend, Peter.  While Janus is very tech savvy, she had never anticipated someone hacking her and putting the life that she and her mom have in jeopardy.

While I would consider myself familiar with the use of technology, the programming and hacking exploits of Janus and others would have left me confused if not for Michael F. Stewart's ability to explain without explaining.  Janus' reactions and valiant efforts to stay the consequences of the cyber attacks provide clarity enough to know when something is working or not working. Keeping the hard drives may seem reprehensible but for a girl who is working hours upon hours at the family business (since her dad took off), her Shadownet people are her friends.  She has no time for others.  Maybe she shouldn't have saved them from Assured Destruction but what has been done to her and those whose hard drives she has "borrowed" is far beyond justifiable.  The hacker's actions are not there to incite better behaviour; they are completely selfish.  And Michael F. Stewart has no problem convincing the reader that the world of the Shadownet and hacking is a dark and dangerous one, not a strategy game for all ages.  While there were a few instances where I felt that the writing could have been tighter to ensure clarity and impact, Assured Destruction's fast pace, intricate plotting and atmosphere of unease has me looking forward to Michael F. Stewart's next instalment. 


Just as I was preparing this review, I learned of this trailer for the book and thought readers might be interested.

ASSURED DESTRUCTION: Trailer

Uploaded by Michael Stewart on March 20, 2013 to YouTube.