Miss Match (Orca Currents)

Written by Susan Hughes

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-459842069

144 pp.

Ages 9–12

RL 2.8 

April 2025 

With Grade 8 almost finished and summer just weeks away, thirteen-year-old Polly, along with her friends Dev, Zoey, Roger and Matt, starts thinking about how to make a little money for summertime fun like going to the movies and baseball games, enjoying fast food, and shopping. Polly, ever the entrepreneur, comes up with the idea of a matchmaking service for all the Grade 7 and 8 students attending the end-of-year dance.

When they advertise their service and get students to submit applications with a $20 fee–money-back guarantee–they are overwhelmed with responses. They pull in over $2000 and Polly is tasked with setting up a dedicated bank account for the money. When she is unable to do so, Polly lies. It becomes the first of several lies she makes to her friends and her mother to cover up her embarrassment and fears of how they will judge her. Readers will wonder what her classmates would think about the accuracy of the nickname they've given her, i.e., Miss Match, if they knew the discrepancy between what she promises and what she actually does.

Susan Hughes has dazzled this reader with the breadth of her writing. I have reviewed her picture books (e.g., What Happens Next), her middle-grade novels (e.g., Four Seasons of Patrick), her YA (e.g., Virginia), and her non-fiction (e.g., Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World). Each time, Susan Hughes writes with sensitivity and understanding. In Miss Match, she reminds us that everyone comes up with ideas some time, and some of them will be fantastic and some will be ludicrous. How we deal with our successes or our failures will speak more to our natures and strengths than the accolades or the judgements. Susan Hughes knows this and ensures that Polly comes across as a real person, who actually has a great idea but can't always deliver on it because she is shy, she is nervous about being judged, and she is young. Fortunately, she hangs around with a great bunch of people whose understanding of what it's like to be 13 is evident. They don't just forgive, they empathize.

 

While Miss Match is part of the Orca Currents series of high-interest novels for middle-grade students reading below grade level (reading level here is 2.8), Susan Hughes does not take short-cuts by giving readers a simple plot with little substance. She packs in issues of dishonesty, first crushes, inclusion–her friends are diverse in their abilities and disabilities, in their nationalities, and even in their gender-loving nature—and more. She tells the story with sensitivity and understanding but gives readers an ending that is satisfying without being contrived. Perhaps after celebrating a few more birthdays and with a little more experience, Miss Match could see herself in business again, providing a valuable service and growing her entrepreneur skills, one match at a time.

Lights Day and Night: The Science of How Light Works

Written by Susan Hughes

Illustrated by Ellen Rooney

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0319-7

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2021 

If you're a regular reader of CanLit for LittleCanadians, you'll know that while I do review some non-fiction books, I do so infrequently. It's not that there aren't great non-fiction books out there–there most definitely are–but I tend to find many dry and text-heavy in their efforts to provide quality content for young readers. While many books are organized well and enhanced with colourful illustrations and typical features of non-fiction texts like maps, glossaries and  info boxes, I find that the content can bog down the book. This is not the case with Susan Hughes and Ellen Rooney's Lights Day and Night: The Science of How Light Works. It's informative but text-light and captivating in its organization and storytelling.

From Lights Day and Night by Susan Hughes, illus. by Ellen Rooney

A child and her tuxedo cat enjoy the darkness of a summer evening before witnessing the light that comes from a firefly and the stars. Natural light sources like the sun, volcanoes, lightning and the northern lights are all noted, as is artificial light and the need for some source like electricity or the burning of wood.

From Lights Day and Night by Susan Hughes, illus. by Ellen Rooney

Discussions of the uses of light leads to a focus on the sun and energy, the water cycle, absorption, reflection and refraction, and the eyes, all while the girl and her cat enjoy the outdoors, playing and making observations at their cottage on a lake.

From Lights Day and Night by Susan Hughes, illus. by Ellen Rooney

Susan Hughes gives young readers the basics about light: where it comes from, what it does and how it works, all within the context of a child playing with her feline companion. Readers will learn important words like translucent and retina and artificial, which are bolded and reinforced in a glossary called "Words to Know." But while learning about light, information which is never cumbersome, kids can enjoy natural landscapes, a cute cat, people in activities supported with light such as walking at a crosswalk or hockey game results on a scoreboard, and know that light is part of their lives too. That same mix of science information and story is blended by BC's Ellen Rooney in her artwork, using cut paper, paint, pencil crayons and a computer to create these collages of light and dark and life.

I know teachers and parents will enjoy using Lights Day and Night as a solid introduction to light and its role in our lives but kids will get more out of the educational messages because of Susan Hughes's text and Ellen Rooney's artwork. After all, an idea is more easily absorbed when presented as in a captivating manner–did I mention the instructions for a shadow puppet show are provided?–and with transparency and brightness.  Lights Day and Night does just that.

Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built

Written by Susan Hughes

Illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-392-7

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2021

Antoni Gaudí was a Catalan architect whose unique style marks a number of buildings in Spain and most notably in Barcelona. Just as alluring is Susan Hughes's fictionalized story, illustrated by the formidable Marianne Ferrer, of the development of Gaudí's idea for the home of the Batlló family, known worldwide as Casa Batlló.

From Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built by Susan Hughes, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

While her family anticipates a move from the country to a city home in Barcelona, young Carmen despairs at leaving the wilds of the countryside and her imaginary salamander, Dragon.

   In the woods, hollows cradled them
close and hills tumbled them about.
   Water sparkled and the light showed
them colors everywhere.
   Trees swayed, gently, fiercely.
   Could Carmen ever feel at home in
the gray, straight, stiff city? Impossible!

But when Señor Gaudí visits, he spends time outside, with Carmen trailing. "We do not create," he said later. "We discover."

From Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built by Susan Hughes, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

Carmen soon realizes that his visits, time outdoors and walks in nature feed his creativity, driving him to incorporate the organic into the structural, even seeing what Carmen sees, including her imaginary friend.

From Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built by Susan Hughes, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

Her own visits to their unfolding city home reveal water lily tiling, curved embracing walls, blues of water, sunbursts and more. After two years of development, and saying goodbye to Dragon (prematurely), the family moves into Casa Batlló, and Carmen discovers that "This house–this city–could be a home for her after all."

From Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built by Susan Hughes, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

Our world is peppered with extraordinary achievements from science to art and the stories of those achievements can be just as extraordinary or not. Susan Hughes could've just told the history of this jewel of architecture but she's a much better writer than that. By creating a back story for the house that Gaudí built which includes Carmen and her salamander, the building is a celebration of the natural world in a man-made structure, and becomes the home in which Carmen could rejoice as she had in the country. It becomes a story of imagination and creativity and creating by imagining. The outdoors becomes the indoors but only through observation, attention to detail and tribute. 

Just as glorious as Casa Batlló are Montreal artist Marianne Ferrer's illustrations. Blending a variety of media, including gouache and watercolour, Marianne Ferrer creates magic both in the outdoors of Carmen's natural world and in the evolving new house. Though her palette is relatively limited, she uses colour to emphasize the resplendent nature of the new house, jewelled as only a "better" version of nature could be. Moreover with characteristic boldness in her curved lines and shapes, Marianne Ferrer applauds what is natural, just as Gaudí did.

From Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built by Susan Hughes, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

This may not be how Gaudí came to develop Case Batlló–though Carmen Batlló certainly did exist, as Susan Hughes's "Author's Note" tells us–but I hope it is. It reminds us that the two worlds, indoors and out, should not be separate, and that magic happens when the two meet.

Walking in the City with Jane: A Story of Jane Jacobs

Written by Susan Hughes
Illustrated by Valérie Boivin
Kids Can Press
978-1-77138-653-1
36 pp.
Ages 6-9
April 2018

Jane Jacobs is an icon of urban activism both in her birth country of the United States and her adopted home of Canada. In both places, her support of cities as communities for the people pitted her against traditional urban planners and developers but won her the support of her neighbours near and far.

Susan Hughes, author of numerous fiction (e.g., What Happens Next, The Four Seasons of Patrick, Virginia) and non-fiction (e.g., Off to Class, Case Closed?, Coming to Canada) books for young readers, takes Jane's story from humble but passionate beginnings–an anecdote about Jane being sent home from school when she wouldn't promise to brush her teeth everyday and trying to incite her classmates to follow is especially telling–to a move to New York City where she saw her city through "eyes on the street" and recognizing life in the city as a "ballet of the sidewalk."

From Walking in the City with Jane by Susan Hughes, illus. by Valérie Boivin

She knew that animals, plants, river, sunshine and rain all worked together as part of a healthy ecosystem. "But a city is also an ecosystem," she realized. "It is made of different parts – sidewalks, parks, stores, neighborhoods, City Hall ... and people, of course. When they all work together, the city is healthy. (pg. 14)

After her marriage to architect Bob Jacobs, Jane continued to work as a journalist. She used her writing to criticize city planning that supported businesses and transportation and thought seldom of the people upon which communities were built. She initiated protests that stopped the razing of her own neighbourhood for construction of a highway. It took years of protests and activism, including an arrest for interrupting a city meeting, before Jane and her fellow activists were able to stop the development of the expressway and even save a local park from traffic.  Her family's move to Toronto did not suppress her love of cities or the need to advocate for neighbourhoods.

She inspired communities to take a stand for their neighborhoods. She also encouraged everyone living in cities to look around them while they walked and to listen, linger and think about what they saw. (pg. 34)

From Walking in the City with Jane by Susan Hughes, illus. by Valérie Boivin

By highlighting key events in Jane Jacobs's life–school, the move to New York City, marriage and family, the protests against Robert Moses's plans for development, the move to Canada and continued advocacy for cities for people–Susan Hughes distills Jane's story to one of action. Of course, there is much more to her long-life story (she was 89 when she passed) but these milestones shaped the trajectory of her influence about the way we think about cities.

Illustration by Valérie Boivin used in Walking in the City with Jane by Susan Hughes retrieved from https://valerieboivin.carbonmade.com/projects/6410126

Quebec artist Valérie Boivin, already well-known for illustrating French-language books including 752 lapins, Le livre où la poule meurt à la fin, as well as her own Un après-midi chez Jules, brings structure and dynamics to Jane Jacobs's story. Just like the cities Jane Jacobs supported with her action, Valérie Boivin blends work and play and landmarks with conventional buildings to create landscapes that are familiar and still noteworthy.

Walking in the City with Jane honours Jane Jacobs's urban activism and reminds us to be functional players on the stages of our cities, not merely bit players with walk-on roles, and the best way to do that is to open our eyes and engage.

What Happens Next

Written by Susan Hughes

Illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-165-7

40 pp.

Ages 4+

March 2018

Carey Sookocheff's understated illustrations may give the impression of a simple story but Susan Hughes' What Happens Next is nothing less than a compelling revelation about the secretive and debilitating nature of bullying and the sharing of an inspired strategy for resolution which begins with empathy.

From What Happens Next by Susan Hughes, illus. by Carey Sookocheff

The story of What Happens Next follows a child who is bullied by another child at school with name-calling ("Weirdo") and hurtful comments and physical acts like blocking their way and shoving at their books.  Sadly, there are children who are bystanders who either laugh or ignore the bullying.  Even though the child who is bullied has many positives at home like a playful and loving dog and a caring parent, this child carries the burden of the bullying which affects their sleep and behaviour. 

From What Happens Next by Susan Hughes, illus. by Carey Sookocheff

Finally the child, encouraged by their love of books and science, feels strong enough to share with Mom what has been going on with Bully B.

What I Say about Bully B. When Mom Comes to Kiss Me Good Night:
Everything.

What Mom Says:
That I'm brave for telling her.
That she's sorry I feel scared and hurt.
That she'll help.

But it's the mother's intensity of empathetic insight that should be included in every handbook on dealing with bullies.

What Mom Says Next:
That everyone has their own way of looking at things and people.  That each person's way of looking is made up of where they're standing and how they got there.  It's made up of what's in their mind, what's in their heart, and what's in their imagination.

From What Happens Next by Susan Hughes, illus. by Carey Sookocheff

And with that, Mom shows her child that, by sharing things they like with Bully B., they may be able to help change Bully B.'s way of looking. With courage and some trepidation, and ignoring Bully B.'s habitual meanness, the child tells Bully B. about genomes, water on the Earth's surface and Earth in the orbit around the Sun.

What's Different Now:
Not everything. But enough.

In fact, I'll let you read What Happens Next for yourself to see that enough is pretty darn good.

You'll notice that Susan Hughes' text takes on a form similar to a script with bolded directives and plain-text responses that gives an organic texture to the story.  In fact, when the child is being bullied or worried about the bullying, the text is very terse, like punches.  When involved with their books and the science within, as well as when Mom shares her insight into bullying, the text is softer, like blankets.  Illustrator Carey Sookocheff's artwork reflects this imbalance through her choice of colours and simple lines and shapes.  Everything is understated from her limited palette of pale grey and yellow with white, against grey-blue, green and red-orange to her simple scenes at home and playground.  But simple here is meaningful, as substantial as a careless case of  bullying.

What Happens Next is like nothing I've ever read for opening up discussions about bullying with our youngest readers to those in middle grades. To that end, Owlkids Books has created discussion guides for using the book with children. There is one for Grades 1-3 and one for Grades 4-6 and both are available at the Owlkids Books website. I encourage everyone, from educators and school administrators to parents and child and youth care workers to make What Happens Next a part of their programming to encourage meaningful lessons and dialogue about this perennial issue.

🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎

Copies of the illustrations from within What Happens Next were retrieved from Carey Sookocheff's website, specifically at http://careysookocheff.com/what-happens-next/ on April 9, 2018, as they afford clarity of image that my own scans of the book could not.

What Happens Next: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

Join 

author Susan Hughes 

and

 illustrator Carey Sookocheff 

for the launch of their first book together

What Happens Next

Written by Susan Hughes

Illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

Owlkids Books

9781771471657

40 pp.

Ages 4+

March 2018

on

  Saturday, March 3, 2018

2-4 p.m.

at

Queen Books

914 Queen Street East

Toronto, ON

It is a book about the bullied, the bully, the bystander and family.

This will be an important book

 for children to read, 

with which educators can teach and 

which can help parents relate to the emotions of one who is being bullied.

This trailer from Owlkids Books captures a glimpse of the book's message.

What Happens Next book trailer

 Uploaded by Owlkids to YouTube on December 22, 2017.

Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones

Written by Susan Hughes

Illustrated by Ashley Barron

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-176-3

24 pp.

Ages 2-5

April 2017

Susan Hughes is a prolific and award-winning writer of all genres of children’s books, having written picture books (e.g., Earth to Audrey and Maggie McGillicuddy’s Eye for Trouble), early chapter books (e.g., Four Seasons of Patrick, and numerous books in The Puppy Collection), young adult fiction (Virginia) and non-fiction (e.g., Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World and Case Closed: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science).  But where Susan Hughes excels is in those books which focus on global perspectives and social justice issues, bringing the world a little closer to Canadian children, as she does in Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones.  It’s a warm-hearted but candid look at the common practice of carrying babies in urban and rural settings around the world with cuddly images rendered by paper-collage artist Ashley Barron.

From the onset, Susan Hughes lists which countries will be visited in our global tour of baby transport:

From West Africa to Peru, from
Egypt to Canada’s Far North, from
Korea to India, from Poland to China
and Afghanistan and the place you call
home, all around the world, families
carry their babies in many different
ways.  Come join us and see…

And, with an “Upsy-daisy, baby” our tour begins, taking young readers to familiar and exotic locales, to see a diversity of babies–all adorable!–being bundled in arms, shawls, parkas, carriers, packs, slings, baskets, and carried on hips and shoulders, cradled as the precious cargo they are.  Their caregivers are as diverse as the children including parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives of all shapes, ages and colours.  It’s a wonderful collection of familial vignettes from around the world.

From Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones

by Susan Hughes 

illus. by Ashley Barron

The affection for the babies by the caregivers is obvious and Ashley Barron’s cut-paper collages give texture and shape to those expressions of care and adoration.  As in Kyle Goes Alone, the first book I reviewed illustrated by Ashley Barron, the artist is astoundingly adept at cutting the shape of a chubby leg or beard-clasping fingers and depicting angelic and joyous faces of babies who know they are safe and much-loved.  Her details, from the playground in Poland to the twisted turban of the Afghan grandfather and the Indian fruit and textile market, bring the settings of Susan Hughes' text to life, creating a travelogue and personalized context for each baby’s home.

From Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones 

by Susan Hughes 

illus. by Ashley Barron

Susan Hughes and Ashley Barron have created a global story of life and love in Up! and they’ll have you shamelessly oohing and ahhing over these little ones and the care they are given as they are raised Up! into loving arms and hearts.

From Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones 

by Susan Hughes 

illus. by Ashley Barron

Four Seasons of Patrick

by Susan Hughes
Red Deer Press
978-0-88995-505-9
80 pp.
Ages 7-10
October, 2013

Hard to believe that, in a spare 80 pages, author Susan Hughes efficiently and thoroughly takes the reader through a significant year of growth and tumbles in the life of Patrick McAllister, a young boy whose life revolves around his best friend Harry and his family, Dad and older brother Trevor.

Four Seasons of Patrick begins in winter with Patrick enjoying the familiar routines of first snow days with Harry and late night walks with his family to pick out "Mom's star" in the dark sky.  While Patrick cherishes the comfort of these traditions, he notes that his dad's new "friend" Linda and her pesky seven-year-old daughter may change things.  Sure enough, spring brings Dad's announcement that he and Linda are getting married and that Linda and Claire would be moving in at the end of August.  Patrick is overwhelmed by this, thinking of little else, including his friend, as he tries to find a way to cope.  After some drastic notions, Patrick comes up with the idea of a tree house for himself and Harry.

So, with the start of summer, Dad begins renovations on the house and Patrick and Harry start looking for the perfect tree for their hideaway.  The search seems futile until their neighbour Mr. Mutter points them in the right direction, and Patrick realizes that,

"...perfect doesn't always end up matching the picture in your mind." (pg. 48)

But the joy of building their tree house is tempered by Patrick's dad's delays in visiting it, though he does insist the boys take a somewhat-withdrawn Claire to see it. And, with the beginning of autumn and the school year, Patrick is asked to take on even more responsibilities for Claire who has become further withdrawn. 

Readers will empathize with Patrick's situation, as the youngest boy whose discomfort is discounted by Trevor's eager acceptance and by Claire's trumping them all as the youngest and the only girl.  Four Seasons of Patrick indicates that Patrick spends much time on introspection and consideration of his new family situation, and is able to finds the means to accept it and ultimately support Claire as she needs.  Without making him into a self-deprecating victim of family turmoil, Susan Hughes creates Patrick as any child in such a situation: he works at figuring out what's happening and how he can find a place to fit in, because there certainly is at least one.  He plays neither the victim nor the aggressor, and consequently will be that character to whom many children of blended families will relate.

It seems to me that when blending families, all participants must be on their toes, paying attention to any awkwardness, hesitancy, or aggression that may reveal itself.  And while I don't expect that children be allowed to direct the family dynamics or be mean and nasty, I would expect that their feelings not be negated or relegated to less-important status because of their age or gender.  Yes, Patrick is having issues with Linda and Claire coming into their family, but Dad certainly doesn't give Patrick more than lip-service.  Regardless, Patrick is able to find the supports he needs and ascend to an even better version of himself.  Isn't that what growing up is all about?

Virginia

Written by Susan Hughes
Kids Can Press
978-1-55453-306-0
287 pp.
Ages 14+
2010

Having just reviewed Susan Hughes' most recent book, Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World (Owlkids, 2012), one of the few non-fiction books I've reviewed, I thought I'd include a review of a young adult novel by this same author from a few years back. If you think Susan Hughes is limited to only non-fiction, you'll have to read her novel, Virginia (Kids Can Press, 2010) which I feel is an overlooked gem.

While Ivy deals with her alcoholic mother and ineffective father, the fourteen-year-old girl tries to help her childhood friend Virginia who is convinced she has been visited by an angel and that she has been selected to carry God's child. Though Ivy and Virginia have not been close for awhile, Ivy feels she must help Virginia, especially as she seems to be kept secluded by her sisters and charismatic brother, Paul. After their father's death, Paul has started his own church, one that emphasizes the inevitable end of the world. When Ivy overhears Paul suggesting the need to hasten that end with violence, Ivy gets help from another brother of Virginia's, Joe, to keep the innocent safe.

Once Susan Hughes takes the time to introduce Ivy and Virginia and their former relationship, Virginia becomes a highly suspenseful, plot-driven story that kept me engrossed until the end. Paul's zealous sect, Virginia's angel visit and Ivy's detective work, within the context of family interrelationships, were uniquely juxtaposed against each other. Reality and fantasy seemed to meander into the other's realm. With Ivy 's attraction to Joe and her worries about Virginia getting pregnant, as well as Paul's violent agenda, this novel is more appropriate for an older audience than for the recently reviewed Off to Class but it is equally effective in telling its story. Susan Hughes' writing handles both, the fiction and the non-fiction, beautifully and appropriately, putting her in the company of the few authors who can do this well.

Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World

by Susan Hughes

Owlkids Books

978-1-926-8-18863

64 pp.

Ages 8-13

2011

I don't often review non-fiction. It's not that I don't enjoy it but I find that it's very hard to find non-fiction that is fresh in its topic, presentation, organization and writing. Sometimes I wonder if a publisher (none of the ones I list on this blog) just dashes something off on a topic they know is on the curriculum and could get a few school sales. Having been on non-fiction selection committees in the past, I know the dearth of exceptional children's non-fiction that is published annually. That said, several Canadian publishers, Owlkids, Kids Can Press and Annick most notably, have an extensive line of exemplary non-fiction for younger readers. And one of the authors who is making a name for herself via her non-fiction is Susan Hughes.

Two of her most highly lauded books are Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked By Modern Science (Kids Can Press, 2010) which won the 2011 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-fiction and No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure (Kids Can Press, 2008). Currently nominated for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction, the Diamond Willow Award, the Red Cedar Information Book Award and the Hackmatack English Non-fiction Book Award, Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World also seems destined to garner worthwhile attention and prizes.

The empowering message of Off to Class is that, though every child has a right to an education, not everyone has access or opportunity to go to school, and there are people working doggedly to ensure that all children, no matter their circumstances, are given that chance. So, no matter how remote or harsh the environment, or how poor the family or how small the community, or what prejudices and circumstances exclude some from an education, there is someone willing to help provide a school. It may not be a traditional North American school, but it is a place of learning and it works for these children.

Brimming with colourful photographs of children, classrooms, schools and the environs, Off to Class provides a comprehensive look at learning places in three chapters: Working with the Environment, No School? No Way! and One Size Doesn't Fit All. Classrooms from Bangladesh, India, Cambodia and Nepal, to Brazil, Haiti, and Uganda, Burkina Faso and Kenya are featured, and those integral in making these schools come into being are featured. For me, the most compelling of stories relate to schools that grew from only a vision and a lot of heart. By working with the communities and their needs and circumstances, rather than imposing their own attitudes and ideas, people have performed miracles, creating schools where only rubble or emptiness may have been.

Susan Hughes' writing is inviting and forthcoming, the information never lost in cumbersome text. With features of non-fiction text like indices, fact boxes (e.g., More than 20 million children worldwide have lost their parents to AIDS. Almost a million of these kids live in Uganda. pg. 35), captioned photographs, bios and photos of key people, and a map with schools' locations, Off to Class is a fascinating look at the different configurations schools have taken, offering hope to children, communities and the environment that might never have been imagined.

I've posted a very sweet book trailer of Off to Class as told by young people on CanLit for LittleCanadians Book Trailers page here.