Nothing But Life

Written by Brent van Staalduinen

Dundurn 

978-1-45974-618-3

304 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2021

Fifteen-year-old Wendell (Dills) Sims's story in Nothing But Life begins with his juvenile sentencing after attacking a classmate, Patrick (Pat) Schultz, with box cutters. But this isn't the real start of his story because it's his backstory, about what happened before he and his mother moved back to Hamilton from Windsor, that overwhelms his present.

Now tracked with an ankle monitor by his probation officer Sean, Dills begins his community service picking up garbage at Churchill Park and environs. Under the casual direction of the park manager Gal, a scarred man who smells of pot, Dills toils away in the heat, trying to keep his head down and avoid trouble, even when his bully Pat comes around to provoke him. But Dills constantly hears his stepdad Jesse's voice in his head, remembering the advice he often shared, especially from his time in the military, to help Dills understand and make good choices.

"Own your own shit, kid," Jesse says. "One, no one can shoulder it for you. Two, it feels good to be responsible." (pg. 167)

Now, though, Jesse is also beckoning him to visit him. "I'm here. Come see me." Over and over again, Dills hears Jesse begging him to visit him in the hospital where he lies in a vegetative state, neither dead nor living. But Dills is torn between his love for the only father he has ever known and the horrors of a shooting at his school for which Jesse was responsible. Troubled by his confusion of feelings and tethered by his probation, with neither the money nor the physical means to get to Windsor, Dills is stymied. When he becomes acquainted through Gal with Mia Al-Ansour, a classmate and competitive wrestler, things take a different turn, and Dills make a decision to make the impossible possible, albeit with much deception, some hacking, and a lot of support from Mia, Gal and his Aunt Viv.

Though Nothing But Life is based on how Dills has coped in the aftermath of a school shooting by his stepdad, it's not about a school shooting. In fact, Hamilton author Brent van Staalduinen provides very few details of what actually happened at Wendell's school. What's more, though Dills finds a way to visit Jesse in Windsor, it's less about reconnecting and more about finding closure so that there is nothing but life ahead for Dills. Still, by writing with much seriousness, Brent van Staalduinen makes the reader realize that a story about a young man reclaiming his life rather than living it as the legacy of his stepdad's military PTSD or his own trauma associated with the shooting is sombre and requires thoughtfulness and compassion. The dying happened and that would never change. But Dills finds a way to ultimately end things with Jesse so that he might go beyond the kid whose stepfather perpetrated a school shooting and become the kid who is taking responsibility for his actions, and, even better, being open to friendships and more. It's nothing but life and, as Jesse would say, "Clear as mud."

Firefly

 

Written by Philippa Dowding
DCB
978-1-77086-598-3
200 pp.
Ages 9-12
February 2021

While wearing a costume may give you an opportunity to be someone else, it also frees you from being the person everyone expects you to be. But when you're a child and don't know anything but the worst, who would you become? Something outrageous or something normal?

Living with a mother (whom she calls "Joanne-the-mother") who has addiction issues, thirteen-year-old Fifi has had to learn strategies to keep herself and her mother safe. Since she was very young, Fifi has had to deal with the trauma of negligent parenting, taking on what she could.

I've been Joanne-the-mother's guiding light, flashing her toward safety since I was six. (pg. 96)

Still a child, Fifi took to living rough in the park across the street from the house where her mother lived, hanging out with Moss Cart and sharing his food and advice, and then finding some help at Jennie's, a women's center where she got clothes and food and counselling. And she begins to call herself Firefly. But when her mother gets taken into custody–something for which Firefly blames herself–and social services becomes involved, Firefly is taken to live with her Aunt Gayle, a woman who'd lost touch with them after Joanne-the-mother's constant changing of locations and phone numbers.

 

Aunt Gayle, who owns The Corseted Lady, one of Canada's oldest costume shops, gives Firefly the normalcy of food and baths, clean clothes and television, and Firefly is overwhelmed. Even with the ordinariness of attending school again and helping out at the shop, Firefly is still plagued by nightmares and memories of the trauma of her mother being drunk or high and living with the vulnerability of that situation.

 

But The Corseted Lady gives Firefly opportunities to be something else, from a medieval warrior to a fly boy or a monk from the 1500s, and to honour those whose clothes pepper the shop. (Some are created but others are refurbished clothes from auctions, etc.) Better yet, no one thinks she's weird. 

These clothes are memories, shadows of all the people who lived in them. (pg. 64)

But author Philippa Dowding isn't telling us Firefly's story as dress-up play, as a little girl pretending to be someone else. Though the shop and its costumes are fascinating, colourful and rich in history and entertainment, as are the employees and customers, Firefly is about a child who has had to become an adult, who has endured trauma and negligence, and had to find ways to cope. She found ways to care for her mother who may have once had a job and provided for her daughter, even gifting her with a magazine subscription–funny what you remember–but became someone else, Joanne-the-mother, who made empty promises and poor choices. Firefly had to find her own way to getting food and clothes and a safe place to sleep. And when given the opportunity to become someone else, whether through costumes or actions, she accepts that she needs to resolve her own memories if she is to have a life for herself. That includes sharing her truths with others.

I know Philippa Dowding is better known for her speculative fiction like Oculum, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and Everton Miles is Stranger than Me but I think her first foray into realistic fiction has demonstrated that she has important messages to share and she doesn't need to dress them up in the fantastical. Reality can be just as powerful and colourful, even if stitched with anguish.

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.

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.

I'll Be Home Soon

by Luanne Armstrong
Ronsdale Press
978-1-55380-180-1
200 pp.
Ages 10+
Available September, 2012

Gritty girls have become the new heroes of popular fiction and movies, ready to take on any foe, physically, strategically or emotionally.  Though their challenges may be contrived in the lines of speculative fiction filled with vampires, game-makers, werewolves, and other contenders, these protagonists compel the readers to cheer for them, regardless of the horrific circumstances, countless deaths and violent outcomes.  But, these heroes have nothing on thirteen-year-old Regan of Luanne Armstrong's I'll Be Home Soon.

Regan's less-than-comfortable life has become even grittier since the disappearance of her mother, Joanie Anderson, who goes out on an evening job to make a few extra dollars and does not return.  For the first few weeks, Regan uses the money her mother left for food and continues going to school and even her kung fu classes, though unable to pay.  But things get more desperate when she's scrounging for food out of garbage bins, when there's no money for laundry and when she spends most of her time watching for her mom, staying under the radar of her teachers, the local street youth worker and the police.  While she finds solace in the discipline of kung fu at the dojo and the caring of the kung fu master, Sifu, Regan's sole friend is Mike, a sixteen-year-old homeless busker, who encourages her to go to the police, still keeping her updated on anything that he hears on the street.

Though Mike seems a casual acquaintance, someone who Regan seeks out when she needs help, he becomes instrumental in helping track her mother, as well as keep Regan safe.  After visiting Clayton, the man whose poker party Regan's mom worked, Regan unwisely checks out the player, George Miller, with whom her mother has apparently gone off.  But, George Miller is less than gracious, alleging that Regan's mom stole money from him, and tries to grab Regan, even sending men to pursue her.   After brief stays at the tent city of Ramona and other homeless people, at a group home, and at the home of a grandmother she hadn't seen for years,  Regan is being threatened by George and his goons to reveal where her mother, who has apparently stolen millions, is hiding.

While there is no evidence of a romance between Regan and Mike, they seem to be forging a strong bond founded in their mutual admiration for the resilience and caring each demonstrates.  He shares his squat, sleeping bag and family history with her, even putting himself in danger, although he claims, "I'm good at staying uninvolved" (pg. 98) because becoming part of a "we" causes hurt.  Thankfully, Mike's repeated efforts to discover more about Regan's mother, plus the attentions of Sifu, Reg McDermid, a researcher on street youth, and a female cop, help resolve the mystery of Regan's mom's disappearance and reestablish Regan's and her mom's lives, even improving upon them.

Regan is not a character, because Luanne Armstrong has not written I'll Be Home Soon as a piece of fiction; it reads like a retelling of a few months in a young girl's life.  Regan is a young girl who, by nature of unprecedented circumstances, must make some hard choices that test her fortitude and survival skills, including knowing who to trust and not to trust.  Luanne Armstrong does an incredible job of leading the reader from subplot to subplot, looking for resolution, never setting up simple answers, whether it be the rescue of Regan's mom or a perfect happy ending for Mike and Regan.  For example, Luanne Armstrong could have wrapped up I'll Be Home Soon with all the homeless becoming homed, bad guys caught and jailed, and every less-than-sympathetic person redeeming themselves.  She does not.  What she does do is far more satisfying, demonstrating that coming home may be everyone's aspiration but where that home is or the nature of that home is not always so easily defined or even recognized.

Mental Health Book List: Part III

In support of Partners for Mental Health's Not Myself Today campaign across Canada, I've compiled several lists of literature with characters, both main and secondary, dealing with issues typically identified as related to mental health i.e., those that impair judgement, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities.  This third book list indicates how pervasive issues dealing with mental health are in our fictional world, as well as our corporeal one.  In this list, I've included Canadian picture books, fiction and young adult titles, as well as any movies that include characters dealing with or plot-lines embedded with mental health issues.  Additional resources can be found in the earlier two lists: Mental Health Book List I (April 2, 2012) and Mental Health Book List II (April 12, 2012).

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Picture Books

Edward the "Crazy Man"
Written and illustrated by Marie Day
Annick Press
32 pp.
Ages 6-8

2002 
The "crazy man" dressed in wild costumes makes an impression on young Charlie when he spots him on the way to school.  But the "crazy man", who suffers from schizophrenia and lives on the street, comes to Charlie's assistance more than once.

EveryBody's Different on EveryBody Street
Written by Sheree Fitch

Illustrated by Laura Jolicoeur
Nova Scotia Hospital Foundation
25 pp.
Ages 5-8
2001

Sheree Fitch's lively poetry reveals how everyone is different and similar, with weakness and strengths. This book was published to support the Nova Scotia Hospital and raise awareness of mental illness and addiction.

Grumpy Bird
Written and illustrated by Jeremy Tankard
Scholastic
32 pp.
Ages 3-5
2007
When Bird wakes up snarly and unhappy, his friends try to change his mood and cheer him up.

Scaredy Squirrel
Written and illustrated by Mélanie Watt
Kids Can Press
40 pp. 
Ages 3-7
2006
Scaredy Squirrel's fears of everything from tarantulas to killer bees have left him with a life of seclusion and schedules.

What elephant?

Written and illustrated by Geneviève Côté

Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
2006
When George comes home one day to find an elephant watching TV and eating cookies in his living room, no one believes him.  When the elephant returns the next day, George begins to wonder whether he is just dreaming or crazy.

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Fiction 

After the Fire

Written by Becky Citra
Orca Books 

186 pp.

Ages 8-11

2010 

While her mom and boyfriend are passed out drunk, a fire breaks out and Melissa is left scarred.  Two years later, Melissa, her brother and mom are spending the summer at a friend's cottage. There Melissa meets Alice and, although she is embarrassed about her less-than-perfect family, Melissa learns that Alice is not what she seems and her family is dealing with grief in a variety of unhealthy ways.

Breakdown
Written by Budge Wilson

Scholastic

152 pp.

Ages 11-13

1988

If you can still find this book, you'll be treated to a compassionate account of a father's depression and breakdown and his family's reactions to his illness and the roles they play in his recovery.

Drowning in Secrets

Written by Brenda Bellingham
Scholastic Canada
180 pp.
Ages 11-14
1998

Chloe, 16, travels to Shuswap Lake, B.C. to reconcile both her lack of memories about her mother's death by drowning eleven years earlier and the recurring dreams she has of a drowning woman.

Mercy's Birds

Written by Linda Holeman

Tundra Books
198 pp.

Ages 11+

1998

The women in Mercy's family suffer from depression and alcoholism and dysfunctional relationships including Mercy whose fears, such as of her aunt's boyfriend's inappropriate attention, can be overwhelming.  But, courage and selflessness help rescue them all from the point of no return.

No Cafes in Narnia

Written by Nikki Tate
Sono Nis Press
173 pp.
Ages 9-12
2000

Part of The Tarragon Island series, No Cafes in Narnia tells the story of a thirteen-year-old girl's need to manage her feelings with regards to a move to Tarragon Island, off the B.C. coast, the death of her grandfather, and her mother's subsequent depression.

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Young Adult

Before Wings
Written by Beth Goobie
Orca
203 pp.
Ages 14 and up
2000
After a near-death from an aneurysm, 15-year-old Adrien is more volatile and anxious, so her Aunt Erin offers her a job at the camp she manages.  While her Aunt Erin battles depression, Adrien tries to make sense of the spirits she now sees, even more plentiful at Camp Lakeshore.

Blink and Caution
Written by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick Press
342 pp.
Ages 14+
2011
Blink left his mother and abusive stepfather for a life on the streets, and Caution took to the streets after the accidental shooting death of her cherished older brother. When Caution decides take off on her drug-dealer boyfriend, Blink and Caution's lives collide in less than conventional circumstances. 

Carving My Name
Written by Mary-Kate McDonald
Thistledown Press
137 pp.
Ages 12 and up
1998
Nine short stories tell of how young people find ways to deal with grief, schizophrenia and other issues.

Ceiling Stars

Written by Sandra Diersch

James Lorimer

141 pp.

Ages 12-17

2004

Although Danielle is more adventurous than her friend Chris, her increasingly risky behaviours lead Chris to believe something is not right. 

The Cupid War
Written by Timothy Carter
Flux
234 pp.
Ages 12-16
2011

In this fantastical and humourous satire, Ricky Fallon becomes a Cupid (after his accidental suicide) and finds himself immersed in others' struggles with depression and suicide.

Mistik Lake
Written by Martha Brooks
Groundwood Books
208 pp.
Ages 13-17
2007
In the Manitoba community of Mistik Lake, Odella, the eldest of three daughters, finds herself coping with and helping her sisters cope with their parents' divorce and her mother's unhappiness and death.  Luckily, her mother's aunt Gloria is also there to offer support.

Night Runner

Written by Max Turner

HarperCollins

261 pp.

Age 14-16 

2008

Orphaned and dealing with a multitude of health issues, both physical and mental, Zack is sent to live in a mental health ward of a hospital.  Things get weirder when a strange man tells Zack that he is a vampire and needs to flee the hospital.

Northward to the Moon
Written by Polly Horvath
Groundwood Books
244 pp.
Ages 12-16
2010
Jane and her family from My One Hundred Adventures (Groundwood, 2008) begin a series of journeys from Saskatchewan to Nevada, Massachusetts, and British Columbia. While they deal with a mysterious duffel bag of money, Jane observes her siblings to attempt to identify their respective fathers based on mental health histories. 

Outback

Written by Robin Stevenson

Orca

131 pp.

Ages 12 and up

2011

When teen angst leaves Jayden suffering with depression, his crazy Uncle Mel invites him to Australia but Mel's paranoia soon becomes a greater impediment to Jayden's welfare.

Schizo

Written by Kim Firmston

James Lorimer

150 pp.

Ages 12-17

2011

This volume of Lorimer's Side Streets series revolves around Dan's need to be a typical teen while juggling the repercussions of his mother' schizophrenia, particularly after she stops taking her medication.

Shadow Boxing

Written by Sherie Posesorski

Coteau Books

262 pp.

Ages 12-15

2009

The death of her mother has left Alice grief-stricken, though her father seems ready to move on.  Unfortunately, Alice's choosing to cut herself and create shadow boxes of her mother's trinkets, while failing to "improve" with the help of countless psychiatrists, has her father planning on moving her to either a boarding school or a mental institution.

Somewhere in Blue

Written by Gillian Cummings

Lobster Press 

336 pp.

Ages 14 and up

2010

The dysfunctional relationship between a mother and daughter is brought to the foreground when the father dies, leaving Sandy suffering from depression and her mother dealing with single parenthood.

Voiceless

Written by Caroline Wissing

Thistledown Press

241 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

After the murder of her grandmother, Annabel becomes mute.  Now in foster care and known as Ghost, Annabel finds some companionship and solace on a farm.  But, Ghost's yearning for love has her running away with a new foster boy, Graydon, and making some poor choices expose her to sexual abuse and life alone on the streets.

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Non-Fiction

Can I Catch It Like a Cold? Coping With a Parent’s Depression
Written by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Illustrated by Joe Weissmann
Tundra Books
2009
A boy's questions about his father's depression are answered with regards to what depression is and how it is treated, reassuring children that there is help and support and that they are not alone.
 

Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees
Written by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood/House of Anansi
128 pp.
Ages 10 and up
2009 
These narratives of young Iraqi refugees tell of the traumatic outcomes of experiencing war.

My Kind of Sad: What It's Like to be Young and Depressed
Written by Kate Scowen
Illustrated by Jeff Szuc
Annick Press
168 pp.
Ages 13-17
2006
Appropriate for teens, My Kind of Sad describes what depression is, how it can manifest itself, how it can be treated, and what resources are available to those seeking help.

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Movies

First Break
Directed by Adrienne Amato and Derek Rogers 
Produced by Silva Basmajian
National Film Board of Canada
50 min. 55 sec.
Order Number: C9197 116
Ages 15 and up
1997
This movie looks at several young adults and how they cope with the onset of mental illness, either schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or psychosis.

This Beggar’s Description
Directed by Pierre Tétrault
Produced by Gerry Flahive
National Film Board of Canada
65 min.
Order Number: 9105 214
Ages 16+
2005

Pierre Tétrault directs this story of his brother Phil's attempts to deal with his schizophrenia and continue to create poetry.

Flight From Darkness
Directed by Trevor Grant
Produced by Don Copeland and Lynne Beck Copeman
Produced for NFB by Joe MacDonald
National Film Board of Canada
52 min.
Order Number: 153C 9107 052
Ages 13+
2007

Percy Paul from a Dene community in Saskatchewan becomes a brilliant mathematician at Princeton before a suicide attempt leads to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

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