The Good Fight

Written by Ted Staunton

Illustrated by Josh Rosen

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-6383-5

224 pp.

Ages 10-13

June 2021 

The 1930s were a difficult time. It was the Great Depression, Nazism was growing in Germany and elsewhere, and people were looking to blame others for their hardships. With antisemitism on the rise and prejudice against immigrants a perennial vocation for many, the city of Toronto was primed for a fiasco in the heat of the summer of 1933. It got one.

From The Good Fight by Ted Staunton, illus. by Josh Rosen

Sid Klein and his friend Plug Venditelli have been recruited by Tommy Ryan to be part of his whiz mob, a pickpocket gang. Tommy, who'd been taught by his uncle, would chose their mark and steal from him while Plug, as the stall man, distracted him, before Tommy passed the money on to Sid, the duke man. Though he was full of bravado about his Irish heritage, Tommy was actually Tadeusz Lepofsky and scoffed at Sid and Plug whose heritages–Jewish and Italian– might mark them on the streets of Toronto. Still, with the desperate times, the boys are willing to do what they could to provide extra coins for their families, including selling newspapers, running errands, collecting cockroaches, or stealing.

From The Good Fight by Ted Staunton, illus. by Josh Rosen

But when Sid pockets a swastika pin and learns more about efforts by the Swastika Club and local Nazi sympathizers to stop Jews from using the boardwalk on Balmy Beach, Sid is warned to watch himself. Still Christie Pits, a popular place to watch the city's ball teams play, including the championship games between the Harbord Playground and St. Peter's Church teams, is too inviting to avoid as a location to pick a pocket or two. When the trio of boys is picked up and threatened with jail unless they help the Red Squad–police tasked with putting away union agitators, anarchists and communists whom they believe are all immigrants and Jews–Sid and Plug find themselves caught up in trying to save themselves and protect their families on the night of the infamous Christie Pits riot of August 16, 1933.

From The Good Fight by Ted Staunton, illus. by Josh Rosen

Ted Staunton has penned a number of picture books, early readers, and middle grade and young adult novels including those as part of The Almost Epic Squad and Seven series, but I believe this is his first venture into historical fiction. Still, with his familial connection–his grandfather was the mayor of Toronto at the time of the Christie Pits riot–he ably links a story of the past to issues of prejudice and discrimination and helps us see how those injustices have been perpetrated. From the vile name-calling, violent skirmishes and exclusionary tactics, Toronto was not unconditionally welcoming to all its communities and not the mosaic it was purported to be. And during the Depression, desperation fuelled those prejudices, sparking abominable behaviour and attitudes throughout. But communities like Sid and Plug's overcame and even thrived, making opportunities for themselves, as the epilogue to the main story shares. 

 

By focusing on Sid's story with Plug and their families, Ted Staunton gives us multiple perspectives: that of children, those of immigrant families, and those struggling financially. And, of course, those targeted by hatred. The Good Fight tells us how they felt, how they managed, how they fought. Illustrated by Toronto's Josh Rosen, the story is gritty and distressing, and I suspect young readers will be hopeful that Sid and Plug don't go to jail, that their families aren't thrown out on the streets, that their Jewish and Italian friends will not be attacked, and that those responsible for the Christie Pits riot are brought to justice. From newspaper stories, accurate depictions of the clothing and speech of the day, and social conditions, The Good Fight gives parents and teachers a wonderful opportunity to talk about the past and the need to ensure atrocities such as the Christie Pits riot aren't repeated.

For a time, Toronto was known as Toronto the Good but, like anything, Toronto is neither all good nor all bad. It has moments in history of which is should be immensely proud and others, like the Christie Pits riot, which are a stain on the city's reputation. Making it right begins with telling those stories so that learning might happen and social justice prevail.

The Almost Epic Squad: What Blows Up

Written by Ted Staunton

Illustrated by Britt Wilson

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-5782-7

163 pp.

Ages 8013

January 2019

Thirteen years ago, four babies in the Dimly, Manitoba hospital were irradiated (or should that be irreidiated?) with reidium from the dust of its Dimly light bulbs when the electrical system overloaded during a storm. Since that time, the four children have been tracked by Dr. Fassbinder who is currently at the Institut de l'ennui/Boredom Institute. Now that the four are reaching puberty and their almost-epic superpowers are kicking in, everyone wants a piece of the action, whether to study them or abuse their powers.

Readers met Jessica Flem, the first of Dimly, Manitoba's almost superheroes in Kevin Sylvester's Mucus Mayhem (Scholastic Canada, 2018) and in What Blows Up, Ted Staunton introduces us to another, Gary Lundborg. Gary is a tall and clumsy kid–his nickname is Clumsborg–who is forgetful and has difficulties concentrating, though he does get "feelings" to which he pays attention. He seems pretty average, even if intuitive. But during testing, Dr. Fassbinder and his mouse research technicians realize that Gary is telekinetic, moving objects by simply imagining doing so. Strangely, his power cycle is between 3 and 6 a.m. only but it can be boosted by eating garlic.

From What Blows Up (The Almost Epic Squad) by Ted Staunton, illus. by Britt Wilson

When Gary gets the call from Bernard Cheeper of Department C, the boy is whisked away, first to training camp and then to the Balkan country of Pianvia, one of the few sources of reidium along with garlic, in order to help thwart the criminal plan of the elusive Boss. Seems the Boss, aided by teen evil genius Malevia Spleene and her Green Bay Packer bots, along with a work force of moles, has a plan of her own when it comes to the almost epic superheroes of Dimly.

But now, a quick perfume spritz and back to work. There was still Greep and Bafflegab to scream at and the Cat-A-Tonic gas dispenser to top up. So little time, so much evil: a villain’s work was never done. (pg. 107)

In a plot rife with minions, villains, superheroes (sort of), yaks, and double-crossing and humour, Ted Staunton continues The Almost Epic Squad as the very funny middle-grade series it is. (Kudos to Scholastic Canada for choosing such exceptionally humourous writers for the series.) Though What Blows Up, and you'll have to read the book to find out what that is, touches on Jess Flem's story and hints at the remaining squad members in the next two books, it is a solid stand-alone that will draw chuckles and sympathy for the awkward Gary and boos and jeers against the weirdly-costumed Boss and an assortment of freelance masterminds. The plot is complex with its multi-layers, and hilariously entertaining with its voice and unique story elements like a polo game on yaks, a mouse looking to cut a reality TV deal and an assortment of mishaps by poor Gary.

Machines beeped and hummed as he guided balloons (tricky), printed on a whiteboard (very tricky), and threw darts (don't ask) using mind power. Then came a couple of accidental don't-asks involving a tennis racquet and a Bunsen burner. (pg. 27)

Add some graphic novel-like illustrations from Britt Wilson and Ted Staunton's What Blows Up truly feels like a superhero story, albeit one in which the superhero doesn't always know what he's doing but he tries. With the last two kids of The Almost Epic Squad having their stories told in Lesley Livingston's Super Sketchy and in Richard Scrimger's Irresistible, these unlikely champions look like they're heading to make the world a safer place from villains while entertaining readers with their quirkiness and almost epic efforts.

There are loads of extras including videos, etc. at the Scholastic Canada website http://www.scholastic.ca/books/series/almost-epic/ so do check it out for more fun.

Morgan the Brave

Written by Ted Staunton and Will Staunton

Illustrated by Bill Slavin

Formac Lorimer

978-1-459504974

96 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2017

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

From Morgan the Brave 

by Ted Staunton and Will Staunton 

illus. by Bill Slavin

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

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

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

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

😱😱😱

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

The Seven Prequels: coming September!

Once upon a time, 

seven outstanding authors of youngCanLit 

Eric Walters

Sigmund Brouwer

Norah McClintock

Shane Peacock

Richard Scrimger

Ted Staunton

John Wilson

came together and formulated a series like no other. 

It is called Seven (the series) 

from Orca Book Publishers, 

and all seven books were simultaneously published in October, 2012.

The seven linked books, which can be read in any order, 

focus on the 7 grandsons of David McLean 

and the 7 journeys his death sends them on.

Between Heaven and Earth by Eric Walters

Close to the Heel by Norah McClintock

Devil's Pass by Sigmund Brouwer

Ink Me by Richard Scrimger

Jump Cut by Ted Staunton

Last Message by Shane Peacock

Lost Cause by John Wilson

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Two years later, the Seven Sequels were born.

The seven cousins from Seven 

come together at their grandfather's cottage 

and discover evidence of David McLean's mysterious past, 

sending the seven out on a new set of adventures.

Broken Arrow by John Wilson

Coda by Ted Staunton

Double You by Shane Peacock

From the Dead by Norah McClintock

Sleeper by Eric Walters

Tin Soldier by Sigmund Brouwer

The Wolf and Me by Richard Scrimger

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Next month the Seven Prequels arrive!

This time the seven books emphasize the origin stories of the seven grandsons and their relationships with their grandfather and tell...

How It All Began

Weerdest Day Ever 

by Richard Scrimger

Barracuda 

by Sigmund Brouwer

Separated 

by Shane Peacock

Jungle Land 

by Eric Walters

The Missing Skull 

by John Wilson

Slide 

by Norah McClintock

Speed 

by Ted Staunton

Look for the books on September 20 2016 

and 

enjoy more news and extras (including the Seven teachers' guide) 

at Orca Book Publishers at

www.thesevenprequels.com

The Seven Sequels: They're coming!

The Countdown Begins!

On October 1, 2014, The Seven Sequels, the seven sequels to The Seven Series, will be launching officially.  

When The Seven Series hit the shelves in October of 2012, no one could have anticipated its popularity with young readers.  I saw boys at school who rarely pick up a library book waiting for the return of a particular volume.  I had an intermediate teacher reading an advanced reading copy I had of Ink Me (Richard Scrimger, 2012) and then students relentlessly pestering me about the ETA of the books.  And last year, three of the ten nominees for the Red Maple award of the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading were volumes in The Seven Series!

The Seven Sequels will bring seven new titles from the same seven authors who brought us The Seven Series, with the seven grandsons of adventurer David McLean, newly passed, undertaking new adventures that will take them from Cambridge to Uruguay.

The books are:

• Sleeper by Eric Walters
• Broken Arrow by John Wilson
• Coda by Ted Staunton
• The Wolf and Me by Richard Scrimger
• From the Dead by Norah McClintock
• Tin Soldier by Sigmund Brouwer
• Double You by Shane Peacock

For more about The Seven Sequels, visit www.thesevensequels.com

But listen to this!

Here's something else for readers to get excited about: not only will there be digital editions with the classic paper copies, Orca Book Publishers is offering the unabridged audiobooks (i.e., the entire book is read) of the series! (In fact, it's possible to pre-order the complete Seven Series or Seven Sequels as an audiobook collection.) For audiovisual learners, audiobooks are an amazing way for students who learn best by listening to get into books. Personally, I prefer audiobooks as an alternative to the radio while I drive.

Freebies!

To help promote the upcoming series and the audiobooks, Orca Book Publishers is giving away free audio samples from The Seven Sequels--one each week until October 1, 2014. The first audio sample is Chapter 1 of Eric Walters' Sleeper and can be downloaded here.  New samples can be downloaded at http://www.thesevensequels.com/audio.php each week until the books are out.

Let the anticipation begin!

Look for reviews of the books in The Seven Sequels in the upcoming weeks here at CanLit for LittleCanadians.

Jump Cut: Seven the Series

by Ted Staunton

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-55469-947-6

220 pp.

Ages 9-12

Release date October 10, 2012

While his 15-year-old brother Bunny is getting tattooed to fulfill his grandfather's last wishes (Ink Me by Richard Scrimger), Spencer O'Toole (17) is off to Buffalo with his dad, Jer, to film his kiss from the aging film star, Gloria Lorraine.  While his dad waits outside her retirement home, the tiny elderly woman, still platinum blonde and with heavy make-up, sunglasses, red fingernails and posing with a cigarette, insists that Spencer work for that kiss by helping her run "a few errands." With that, somewhere a director would be shouting, "Action!"

Starting in the fall, Spencer would be starting film studies at Humber College and he sees everything in terms of a script or lighting or scenery or direction.  And with her seemingly simple demand, Miss Lorraine, or GL to her friends, takes Spencer on an adventure that even he can't believe is real.

Stealing a white Cadillac convertible at the retirement home and picking up GL's granddaughter, AmberLea, GL has them heading to Canada.  Of course, there is the complication of the large man and chihuahua they find bound in the trunk of the car, with clear packages of white powder.  He's Al Capoli, a baker known as the King of Cannoli, and his dog, Mister Bones, and Al claims that another resident at the retirement home, Rocco Wings, wants to kill him for allegedly double-crossing him on a deal.  So, with Rocco and his sons in pursuit, the unlikely cast of characters heads for Torrance, Ontario so that GL can share a few secrets with AmberLea before it's too late and Spencer can just fulfill what seemed like a simple request from his grandfather, David McLean.  Unbeknownst to Spencer, though, his grandfather has an important role in GL's secrets, and their telling will help explain all.

Spencer realizes that GL is treating the adventure as if it were a movie in the making and, in fact, is trying to make her life into a movie.  After all, Miss Lorraine claims,

"Life is a movie with no jump cuts.  It's the cutting that makes the movie." (pg. 82)

 If Jump Cut were a movie, and it would make a fantastic film, it would an action thriller with a quirky cast and many surprises, and the audience would be relentlessly sitting on the edge of their seats and falling back with belly laughs.  Ted Staunton's sense of humour is divine, especially when verbalized by the indomitable Gloria Lorraine.  From continually getting Spencer's name wrong (is it Spanky, Spritzer, Skinner or Spunky?) and running into Tim Horton's and other places to change her Dependables (adult diapers) and shooting off a gun she believes is fake, GL is is larger than life.  Ted Staunton has enriched her with the voice of age, experience, compassion and life.  She has it all.  Luckily, Spencer, in a perennial state of disbelief, sees her and their story as a great epic, needing to be told.

Like Kill Bill, the movie Spencer is watching for the fifteenth time at the beginning of the book, Jump Cut has the eccentric elements of a cult classic.  But, I suspect, that Jump Cut and all the other books in Orca's Seven The Series will definitely stay in the mainstream for a long time with their popularity ensuring their status as classics.

SEVEN: Orca's upcoming series

Today's release of the following book trailer launches the hype for Orca's upcoming series, Seven. Watch the trailer to discover why the books of Seven will be much anticipated.

Uploaded by OrcaBookPublishers on Feb 7, 2012

As obvious as it may seem, the number seven is the key to the whole series.  In his will, adventurer and grandfather David McLean leaves seven letters for his seven teen-aged grandsons: D.J., Steve, Spencer, Bunny (a.k.a. Bernard), Rennie, Jim (a.k.a. Webb) and Adam.  In the letters, each boy is asked to undertake a specific task that will lead him on an adventure to Iceland, Spain, France, Tanzania or somewhere in Canada. Each book will tell the adventure of one grandson.

The series will be authored by seven of Canada's exceptional writers for young people.  As of today, the Seven website lists the following titles and authors as the books in the series:

• Between Heaven and Earth by Eric Walters;
• Lost Cause by John Wilson;
• Jump Cut by Ted Staunton;
• Ink Me by Richard Scrimger;
• Close to the Heel by Norah McClintock;
• Devil's Pass by Sigmund Brouwer;
• The Last Message by Shane Peacock.

Seven, unlike any other series, will have all seven books released on the same day: October 10, 2012.  Judging by the quality of these authors' writing, this is definitely a date to mark on your calendar.  I anticipate much thrilling action, vibrant settings and convincing characters, with each author bringing their own strengths to the books.  Readers can undoubtedly look forward to Richard Scrimger's sense of humour, Norah McClintock's sense of mystery, John Wilson's take on history, Shane Peacock's dark plotting, Eric Walters' character-building challenges, Ted Staunton's musicality, and Sigmund Brouwer's problem-solving strategies to enrich the tales. Definitely a series for all readers.

Details about the books (plus a countdown widget) are available at the Seven website.