Family of Spies: Blog Tour

Today I'm reviewing Jodi Carmichael's newest middle grade novel Family of Spies as part of the book's blog tour.  Please check out the others stops on the tour as listed at Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours and Promotions and enter to win a free copy of Family of Spies here.

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog (an imprint of Great Plains Publications)

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 24, 2018

Most people who delve into their family histories are hoping for the unusual like connections to royalty, a hint of scandal or extraordinary accomplishment.  But for most, the exercise of discovering family history details is more likely to be a slog and end in disappointment, since  most people in the past lived lives of work and family with few opportunities for the exotic or the mysterious.  Not so for the great-grandfather of thirteen-year-old cousins Ford MacKenzie and Ellie Whitaker and Ford’s older brother Gavin.  Great-Granddad’s story would be the stuff of legends, if it didn’t have to be sealed.

The MacKenzie and Whitaker families, from Canada and the US respectively, are meeting in Paris for a European vacation. Soon after their arrival, Ford begins to experience moments of déjà vu that seem to time-slip him into Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II.  These episodes are especially emphatic when he touches any of the personal effects–letters, photos, postcards, bookmarks, etc.– in his great-grandfather’s briefcase. A visit to a psychic confirms Ford to be a clairvoyant who is able to connect to the past. 

Using a letter his mother received denying them access to Edward Crawford’s service records,  Ford connects to that military office and sees his great-grandfather’s file identifying him as part of  Special Operations Executive, a top-secret spy agency in operation during the war. But the three teens’ search at the military library alerts other forces to their interest in E. H. Crawford and soon Ford’s “visions” are not the only worries they have.

Assessing the various materials in his great-grandfather’s briefcase, Ford determines that he can connect with Great-Granddad and would be able to envision what he was doing during the war by (re)visiting a café/restaurant, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and several more stops.  With each visit, Ford reveals more about his great-grandfather’s covert activities, as well as his fears and guilt for a mission gone awry.

The story is very loosely based on Jodi Carmichael’s own grandfather whose military records remain sealed.  By weaving family history with Ford’s supernatural ability to divine the past, Jodi Carmichael has created a multi-layered mystery that honours her family and entertains readers with intrigue, adventure, a bit of the fantastic and a history lesson like no other. Family of Spies also reveals much about family dynamics and reminds us that, like Great-Granddad’s records of spy activity, nothing is ever final, even in relationships modified by guilt or jealousy because forgiveness can unravel much.

For young readers who enjoy an action-adventure story with a bit of history and the supernatural, Family of Spies will completely captivate and satisfy, and leave them anticipating Ford, Gavin and Ellie’s next adventures (fingers crossed) as the family continues their travels to London and Cairo.

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Jodi Carmichael’s dreams of becoming an author began to come true when she attended her first SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in 2007 and was nominated for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award. A champion for the underdog and kids who think differently, she wrote Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food (and Other Life Lessons) (2013) which won numerous awards including a Gold Mom’s Choice and a Silver Moonbeam in 2013. In 2016 her novel about relationship abuse, Forever Julia (2016), won the Manitoba Book Award, the McNally Robinson Books for Young People Award - Older Category and received a Bronze Moonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Mature Issues.

When not channeling characters from her books, she can be found strolling Manitoba beaches with her husband, two daughters, and exceedingly scruffy Border Terrier named Zoe. 

Family of Spies: Book launch (Winnipeg, MB)

Join author

Jodi Carmichael

for the launch of

her new middle-grade novel

Family of Spies

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 2018

on 

Sunday, April 29, 2018

2 p.m.

at

 McNally Robinson Booksellers

Grant Park Shopping Centre

1120 Grant Avenue

Winnipeg, MB

I'm pleased to share that I'll be participating in the blog tour for Family of Spies on May 10, 2018 with my review of this action-adventure with a touch of the fantastic inspired by the author's own grandfather's rumoured espionage activities during World War 2.  But, until then, here is the blurb from publisher Great Plains.

When cousins Ford, Ellie and Gavin, discover their great-grandfather was a rogue World War 2 spymaster, they must outrun MI6 and the CIA through the streets of Paris, relying on their wits and Ford’s newfound clairvoyant skills to unlock Great-Granddad’s spy secrets buried in the past. Great-Granddad hid something important to the war effort and these agencies want it back! 

Retrieved from 

https://www.greatplains.mb.ca/product/family-of-spies/ 

on April 25, 2018.

On the Spectrum

Written by Jennifer Gold

Second Story Press

978-1-177260-042-1

336 pp. 

Ages 13-18

September 2017

The push for books that reflect diversity has been extending more recently to include those with characters on the spectrum or with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as does On the Spectrum.  But, unlike the recently reviewed Slug Days by Sara Leach (Pajama Press, 2017), On the Spectrum takes a different approach, placing the character on the spectrum in a secondary role, as a step-brother to the teen protagonist, thereby providing a different perspective to life on the spectrum. 

In On the Spectrum, the protagonist Clara is a sixteen-year-old whose issue is orthorexia i.e., an unhealthy preoccupation with how much and what she eats.  After a social media faux pas and the intervention of social workers disturbed by her ballerina mother’s own extreme healthy lifestyle fixation, Clara heads to Paris to spend the summer with her Dad, his new wife Mag and her half-brother Alastair, a six-year-old child on the spectrum.  While visiting Parisian tourist attractions and adhering to Alastair’s routines, Clara begins to learn about her little brother’s behaviours and needs, like his weighted vest and use of noise-cancelling headphones to help him calm, and starts to really care about him.  Conversely, Alastair is learning about his sister, putting together the pieces of what he overhears from his parents’ discussions and interpreting her words and actions, convinced that, though Clara denies it, she must be on a spectrum herself, on an eating disorder spectrum.  Complicating matters for Clara is Alastair’s friendship with Michel, the son of a local baker, who whips up amazing pastries and meals with Alastair and is convinced he can help Clara enjoy food once again.  

Young adult author Jennifer Gold, whose previous books Soldier Doll (Second Story Press, 2014) and Undiscovered Country (Second Story Press, 2017) have been reviewed on CanLit for LittleCanadians, gives Alastair voice through Clara’s narration; only through his sister’s interpretations do we hear what Alastair says and does.  It’s still a valid voice but it reads very differently from the first-person narrative of Slug Days or Spaghetti is Not a Finger Food (Jodi Carmichael, Little Pickle Press, 2013), both of which are written for younger audiences.  But then again, On the Spectrum is Clara’s story and Alastair is akin to her sidekick who is there to help steer and illuminate her thinking, which he does so effortlessly both about his autism and her issues.  He may be on the titular spectrum but apparently Clara is on one as well.  The spectrum, whatever it may be based upon, is broad, indicating that there is no one way of being autistic or having eating issues.  Even being different is different for everyone, and Jennifer Gold's Clara and Alastair and all those in-between make that abundantly clear.

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(A version of this review was originally written for and paid for by Quill & Quire but space limitations prevented its inclusion in the recent October issue.)



Under the Umbrella

Written by Catherine Buquet

Illustrated by Marion Arbona

Translated by Erin Wood

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-016-1

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2017

If Under the Umbrella proves anything, it's that there's always a little sunshine associated with the gloominess of rain if you just open your eyes to see beyond the umbrellas.

From Under the Umbrella 

by Catherine Buquet 

illus. by Marion Arbona

A grumbling man dashes through the streets of the town, bracing himself and his umbrella against the sleeting rain.  The man’s suit and umbrella seem as colourless as he is, the only colour the pink of his  raw hands.  He is wet, he is cold and he is late.  It’s not surprising that the older man does not see the young boy mesmerized by the edible treats glowing from within a bright and warm inviting shop.  But when the wind hurls the man’s umbrella away, the rosy-cheeked little boy retrieves it for the man who shows his gratitude with a red rhubarb-raspberry tart. That delightful treat brings the two into a shared experience that takes the chill off the weather for the two unlikely friends.  

From Under the Umbrella

by Catherine Buquet 

illus. by Marion Arbona

Under the Umbrella was first published in French as Sous le parapluie (Les 400 coups, 2016) and garnered much attention for its simple but restorative story told with the pencil and gouache illustrations of Marion Arbona, the artist behind numerous French-language books like Arachnéa and English-language picture books The Good Little Book and Sam’s Pet Temper.  Catherine Buquet’s text suggests a darkness to the man’s trek in the rain, using words like "grumbled", "growled", "muttered", "attacked", "forced", and “With striding feet and stormy heart” (pg. 15), making it evident that the man’s mood is as foul as the weather.  Yet when she introduces the boy who is “entranced” “at a warm and glowing window” and uses words like “gazes”, “the wonders”, “delight”, “shimmered” and “treat”, the atmosphere changes completely, though the rain continues to fall.  What a great lesson in word choice for older readers and writers to witness the impact vocabulary has on atmosphere.  Marion Arbona’s artwork conforms to that climate, using dusky greys and sharp angles for the dreary scenes  while shining bright yellows and reds and pinks within the patisserie and then upon the two as they savour a shared treat.  The interaction between the balding older man in the pin-striped suit and the little boy in cap and short pants is fleeting but colossal in its momentary importance.  I’m glad the boy was taking the time to enjoy the visual display and that the man took the time to acknowledge the boy.  It’s a small thing, but it’s a good thing.

The Night Has Teeth (The Magdeburg Trilogy Book One)

Written by Kat Kruger
Fierce Ink Press
978-0-988-10671-0
294 pp.
Ages14+
2012


The Night Has Teeth, and it has sharp edges and secrets and anger and judgement.  As the City of Light, Paris harbours enlightenment but sometimes in dark corners and in underlying worlds that extend beyond its catacombs.  Surprisingly, seventeen-year-old American Connor Lewis has chosen to spend his senior year here at the Victor Hugo International School.  Perhaps he might reinvent himself, becoming someone other than the boy who lost control of himself and bit a kid in kindergarten. 

Connor's host family is only one young woman, Amara Liang, a tattoo artist with a large dog named Lou.  Their paths rarely cross until Connor makes the acquaintance of two other students, Josh and Madison, and suddenly Amara and her boyfriend Arden seem to be everywhere.  Although Madison reveals that she and Josh no longer date after an incident at a campground in which Madison was almost killed, Josh is obviously still attracted to the cherry-redheaded girl and jealous of the attention that she gives Connor.  But the three friends continue to spend time together, going for sushi, playing Truth or Dare and clubbing, often encountering Amara and Arden.

After Arden defends them from a wolf attack, and Connor, Amara and Arden return to the apartment, Connor sees Amara in bed with Lou who is bandaged just as Arden had been.  Seems Lou (actually Loup i.e., French for wolf) is Arden in wolf-form and both he and Amara are werewolves, determined to protect Connor from a beautiful young woman, Boadicea Faelen, who is showing an interest in him.  Connor can't comprehend Boadicea's interest in a geeky gamer until Amara explains that they all sense something "different" about Connor related to lycanthropy.  Boadicea wants Connor for her dangerous boss, Henri Boguet, who 400 years ago led the people in attacks against the wolves before being bitten by Arden.  Now Boguet, one of the damned as neither werewolf or human, heads a biotech company intent on eradicating the werewolf genome and saving humanity from their disease and terror.

What follows is a dance of secrets and manipulation as Connor is pulled towards and away from three groups who all have some interest in him:  Madison and Josh; Amara, Arden and pack leader Roul; and Boadicea, Boguet and his men Trajan and Attila.  As he tries to sort through the information, often selective, that each shares with him, never knowing whom to trust, Connor replays the kindergarten biting incident and his reaction to it, wondering about his own nature and link to lycanthropy.

Although The Night Has Teeth has all the elements of other paranormal young adult books, it is unmatched to any I have read to date.  While the protagonists are teens dealing with issues of independence and self-recognition, there is none of the lightness of tone that is more typical of YA novels.  Yes, there is the awkwardness of teen romance, making new friends, making good decisions and relating to parents, guardians and other adults.  But there is a greater sense of gravitas, not seriousness really, but rather a sense of substance, that the story could be true.  Okay, I know that werewolves don't really exist (don't I?) but Kat Kruger has you believing that The Night Has Teeth provides an accurate account of Connor's experiences, even if somewhat surreal.  All I know is that when I finished The Night Has Teeth, (on two final sentences that will go down in my journal of best endings), I knew I would have to wait until Connor and Arden and the others resolve some issues before Kat Kruger could commit them to paper again. 

I'm wholly prepared for what lies ahead in this journey, because the wolf in the night has teeth.  It has claws, and it's me. (pg. 290)

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As an aside, the texture and colours of the cover make for a spectacular book jacket, particularly with the torn (clawed?) openings revealing the startling red with succinctly ominous text. Kudos to Fierce Ink Press' jacket designer for nailing this.  I would love to see Quill & Quire feature the development of The Night Has Teeth's cover on its Cover to Cover feature page.  Don't you agree?