My Language Is a Garden

Written by E.G. Alaraj

Illustrated by Rachel Wada

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-4065-2

32 pp.

Ages 6–8

February 2026 

 

How a child begins to learn a language is a complex process of exposure and comprehension. It involves being introduced to it from those who speak it and who cherish it. And when it's taught with love and reverence, it almost sacred. For this father sharing his language with his child, it's everything.

From My Language Is a Garden, written by E.G. Alaraj, illustrated by Rachel Wada

In evocative rhyming verse, E.G. Alaraj gives a father voice to embody his language with memories and meaning as he shares it with his daughter. It's obvious how much his language means to him, reminiscent of people and places, and tastes, smells, and sounds. E.G. Alaraj gives weight to this parent's words, both tender and passionate.  

My language roams the desert

And fills its pails with sand.

Builds castles, forts, and shelters

That stretch across the land. (pg. 12) 

From My Language Is a Garden, written by E.G. Alaraj, illustrated by Rachel Wada

This father is determined, but not vehement, drawing on images of cities and mountains, shores and markets, to convey what language can bring and conjure. There is magic in language, and he is earnest about sharing this with his child.

Our language, it will bloom—

Add sweetness to the air,

And tie my heart to yours,

 

So I'm with you everywhere. (pg. 27–29)

E.G. Alaraj's poem is emotional, as is the premise upon which it is based. Her author's note explains her husband's efforts to help their children learn and then retain their Arabic language. But My Language Is a Garden could speak to any parent or educator teaching a heritage language, hopeful of children holding that connection with culture and ancestry, as they balance contemporary influences outside of that language. But instead of drilling that language and forcing communication by using it, this father invites and illustrates with much affection and safety, coaxing his child to see and feel the language, just as the reader does with E.G. Alaraj's expressive words. The rhyming verses soothe and transport, as well as entice inwards and open worlds beyond. 

From My Language Is a Garden, written by E.G. Alaraj, illustrated by Rachel Wada

As dramatic as E.G. Alaraj's words are, Rachel Wada's illustrations give them artistic substance. Her art was created digitally and feels like watercolours, suspending people and places in different times and spaces. Rachel Wada, whose art has honoured books like I Am Wind: An Autobiography (Rachel Poliquin, 2024) and Shizue's Path (Mark Sakamoto, 2023), expresses strength and sensitivity with her use of line and shape. Whether in her gloriously lush gardens of poppies, in the rolling dunes of sand, or in the branches and stems of trees, Rachel Wada makes big locales seem personal and intimate, and the people within them connected.

 

As teachers and parents in Canada, we often use English language acquisition and learning as milestones for children, but learning a heritage language should be similarly appreciated. Beyond its purpose in communication, those languages help connect children with their families, their cultures, and their ancestors. It gives their lives colour and history, heart and identity. This father's language, depicted as a living entity that grows and feels, nurtures and responds, already enriches his life, connecting him with so much, and E.G. Alaraj makes us hopeful that he is able to cultivate that same abundance for his child.

Songs for Ghosts

Written by Clara Kumagai

Penguin Teen Canada

978-1-774882825

399 pp.

Ages 14+

August 2025 

 

Reviewed from audiobook

Penguin Random House Canada Audio 

Narrated by Kenichiro Thomson and Susan Momoko-Hingley  

 

Each story from the past is one for the future. (p. 368)

There are two stories in Song for Ghosts. From different times and different places, these two stories run parallel until they converge. How they converge and why comes from the blending of music with family and the supernatural and Japanese culture. And in the end, a Japanese-American teen learns more about himself from a young Japanese woman from a century earlier. 

 

The story of seventeen-year-old Adam is a contemporary one. He hangs with friends—though he did just have a bad breakup with his boyfriend Evan—plays the cello, goes to Japanese school on Saturdays, and spends time with his family: stepmom Kate, baby half-brother Benny, and Dad when he's not away on military business which is often lately. The second story comes into play when Adam discovers an old book of letters in a wooden box with Japanese writing on it. Thinking it might be connected to his Japanese mom who passed when he was a baby, Adam begins to read the dated letters from a young woman who writes to her recently deceased Obasama (grandmother). And when a ghost begins to appear in his house, Adam is both terrified and intrigued. He wants answers, so he looks to the diary.

 

In this diary of letters, the young woman, who lives in Nagasaki, plays the biwa, a Japanese lute important in storytelling, and begins to take lessons from a blind biwa hōshi. Soon the diary writer is playing for ghosts in order to appease them. Meanwhile, her uncle decides it is time for her to marry, and, though not a man he has selected, she is courted by an American lieutenant. The connection she makes with him, and with his associate Mr. S–, changes the trajectory of her life. And when Adam is approved for a homestay in Nagasaki, he expands his search for information on the diary writer and her story. 

 

Songs for Ghosts, recently nominated for the White Pine award of the Forest of Reading, is a far more involved story than I can possibly recount here. First, Clara Kumagai immerses the reader, through both the diary writer's letters and Adam's visit to Japan, in the richness of Japanese stories and music, and of Japanese history, and of its culture from food to festivals. There is also romance, both for the diary writer and for Adam, though their relationships are complicated. Third, there is much to learn about Adam and his family, both in the U.S. and in Japan, and the bonds he has with them. Needing to learn more about his mother's family takes him to learn more about himself. Finally, I haven't even mentioned the correspondence of Adam's story and that of the diary writer to Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Even with all these distinct storylines and plot elements, Clara Kumagai is subtle and elegant in wrapping them together across time and place, and bringing Adam and the diary writer as well as other characters to merge in a satisfying and redemptive way. As such, readers as well as the ghosts who want to be remembered are appeased.

Black Boy, Black Boy

Written by Angela Bowden

Illustrated by Ibe Ananaba

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77471-401-0

36 pp.

Ages 4-9

January 2025

Black Boy, Black Boy may be presented as a picture book, powerfully illustrated with the art of Ibeabuchi (Ibe) Ananaba, but it reads like spoken-word poem. I could hear the voice of "Aunty Angela"–this is how Angela Bowden signs off her appended note "To the Black Boys reading this"–ringing loud and clear and emphatic as she speaks and urges all black boys to see themselves and to see the legacy from which they came and the one to which they will create for themselves. It's inspiring, encouraging and enlightening.

From Black Boy, Black Boy, written by Angela Bowden, illustrated by Ibe Ananaba

Angela Bowden begins Black Boy, Black Boy with a series of questions. At first the questions are about the boys' heritage and identity.

Do you know where you come from? 

Do you know what you're made of? 

Do you know who your people be?

She provides context for where they came from, whether it be Africans, or Loyalists, Maroons, refugees or others but always speaks to the "pride and wisdom, courage and bravery" embedded in their heritage. She speaks of the past and the now, and what can still be. Angela Bowden conveys messages about spirit and freedom, rhythm and harmony, and purpose. Whether they be men like Frederick Douglass and Robert Shephard, or contemporaries like Barack Obama, Angela Bowden urges the boys to keep reaching because,

Black Boy, you are a gift

Of the past and the present

I wish I could share the power and rhythm of Angela Bowden's words. They jump from the page into the reader's ears and heart reminding us of the potential to elevate and move young people with words. Her poetry, sometimes rhyming and sometimes free verse, will raise spirits to see beyond a moment of self and look back and forward to understand how that moment is but a flash. I can't speak to how a black boy may respond or interpret this poetry but I can share with you how moved I was as Angela Bowden speaks to them and reminds them of who they truly are and will be.

From Black Boy, Black Boy, written by Angela Bowden, illustrated by Ibe Ananaba

Her words are more than sufficient to inspire but with Ibe Ananaba's artwork, Black Boy, Black Boy becomes an anthem to self-realization. With the shapes, the lines, and the colours, Ibe Ananaba thrusts forward the message of legacy and self-fulfillment. Whether they are boys playing or being loved, feeling fear or shining bright, Ibe Ananaba sees these boys and strengthens them with his art.

From Black Boy, Black Boy, written by Angela Bowden, illustrated by Ibe Ananaba

I know a lot of educators will use Black Boy, Black Boy as a teaching tool during Black History Month with its recognition of Canadian and international icons from music to medicine, activism to politics. (The last page recounts the famous individuals depicted in Ibe Ananaba's artwork, including Nelson Mandela, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Francis Dorrington.) But it behoves all readers, teachers, and parents to see Black Boy, Black Boy as more than this. It is a poem of recognition and resilience, of reassurance and faith, that black boys should stand tall and go forward knowing the past and their futures are secured through their ancestry and the black boys that came before them and those who will follow.

The Not-So-Simple Question (A Holly-Mei Book, #3)

Written by Christina Matula

Inkyard Press

978-1-335-00999-9

272 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 2024 

 

Isn't it lovely that we get to visit with Holly-Mei and her friends and family once again? The twelve-year-old who Christina Matula introduced us to in The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly-Mei and allowed us to join in her new life in Hong Kong is a little older, well-situated at Tai Tam Prep, and becoming familiar with her new home. But with all those important changes, Holly-Mei is now becoming a teen, and The Not-So-Simple Question is her coming-of-age story.

 

Holly-Mei and her family have now been in Hong Kong for nine months and she is in the last few months of her Grade 7 year. There are lots of important events still to come like Experience Week during which Upper Grade students travel to other Asian locations for a week of learning. It's a great opportunity for Holly-Mei to discover more about her Taiwanese heritage–her mother and Ah-ma, grandmother, are Taiwanese while her father is British–by visiting Taiwan. She's also hoping that it will help her clarify who she is, feeling less than others because of her mixed heritage. And then there's the problem with boys. Her friend Gemma is determined to have an end-of-year prom to which the girls must bring dates. Holly-Mei is obviously well liked by her friends, including Dev and Theo, but, unlike her younger sister Millie who is all about popularity and acting grown-up, Holly-Mei isn't ready for dating, and she doesn't know how to reconcile her feelings with the demands of her friends.

Holly-Mei has a lot on her plate but that is what it often feels like when you are entering your teen years. It's a balance of moving from childhood to adulthood and navigating when and how much you're wanting to change. But coupled with that is Holly-Mei's confusion about her heritage and feeling that others judge her by how she speaks Chinese, who her parents are, and if half of anything is enough for her to be her true self. It's no wonder the girl is feeling on edge and confused. And with Holly-Mei, that uncertainty often leads her to misunderstanding or saying the wrong thing. Thankfully, Holly-Mei's story is in Christina Matula's capable hands, and she ends it with understanding, acceptance, and accord. (And we get to take a wonderful trip to Taiwan to see the sights, the culture, and the food. Always the food!)

The first Holly-Mei book was just recommended by young readers of the Red Maple Forest Kid Committee for their summer reading list and it's nice to know that there are two more books in the series to reach for after you've enjoyed The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly-Mei. With The Not-So-Simple Question, we get to see how Holly-Mei has ended her Grade 7 year, after a full year of learning to deal with new friends, with sports competition, with sibling interactions, with misunderstandings, and more. With that learning has come an appreciation for who she is and the kind of person she wants to be. She's still learning to be the best version of herself but she's on the right path, and Christina Matula lets us tag along on Holly-Mei's journey of self-realization and growing up, while enjoying the sights and cultures of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

From The Not-So-Simple Question, written by Christina Matula

• • • • • • •

Holly-Mei Books

The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly-Mei (2022)

The Not-So-Perfect Plan (2023)

The Not-So-Simple Question (2024)

• • • • • • •

The Club

Written by Eric Walters

DCB

978-1-77086-734-5

264 pp

Ages 9–12

March 2, 2024

 

It's the start of their Grade 8 year, and Jaxson and best friend Logan are looking forward to making their final year in middle school an epic one. While Logan is all about basketball, Jaxson is driven by playing his trumpet. But then a new girl, Liv Parker, joins their school. Though Jaxson sort of kind of has a girlfriend, Samantha, Liv is an extraordinary trumpet player, and she and Jax are thrown together, in a good way.

When the music teacher, Ms. Hooper, auditions the students for the senior band, she knows that Liv and Jax are going to be the stars of the band and hopefully take them to the city championship, finally. In fact, she wants them to play a duet for the first school assembly just days away. To prepare, the two have to meet after hours at each other's homes. Though their households are very different, with Liv and her mom Jenn, a cybersecurity expert, living in an immaculate big house with a grand piano, Jax and his mom Ali, an artist and art history prof, live in a cluttered house filled with colour and stuff. Still, the two teens find they have a lot in common, including their music, love of sushi, and ways of thinking. Moreover, when asked about their dads, they both acknowledge that subject as "complicated." 

But soon things get even more complicated for both of them. When Samantha learns how much time Jax is spending with the new girl, she feels threatened and he can't convince her that they're only friends. Still, with all their rehearsing for assemblies and solos, Jax and Liv are spending more time at each other's houses, and by chance, their moms are becoming friends. But with that friendship, personal details are shared, and Jenn and Ali begin to wonder whether the kids share more than just a virtuosity with the trumpet.

 

The theme of family is a common one in contemporary stories, with families that were once deemed traditional now being seen as just one of a myriad of forms that families can take. Whether a family has a mom and dad like Logan's, or is a single-parent household like Jax's or Liv's, or like those reconfigured through divorce or loss, a family is a family is a family, and Eric Walters recognizes that families come in all shapes and sizes and are all natural. What makes them families is the love and respect that is given and received within that construct. And regardless of how that family was created, whether through sperm donation, a heterosexual marriage, adoption, or one of countless other ways people enter others' lives, it is valid and valuable if family members choose for it to be so. (Thankfully the kids' moms give them some choice about whether to explore their paternal heritage and never compel them to embrace DNA as the ultimate basis for family.) 

Blood makes you related but it doesn't make you family. (p. 176)

Fortunately for Jax and Liv they would probably always have become family, regardless of their DNA. Just as Logan and Jax always considered themselves brothers, Liv and Jax were already simpatico because of their love of the trumpet and music. The DNA just made their relationship official and genetically solid.

 

Eric Walters's Afterword tells the reader that the story of The Club was inspired by a true story of half-siblings discovering each other through their DNA. Their story, like that of Jax and Liv, was one of positive connection. For the kids in The Club, there is no conflict or expectation that they must embrace strangers as family. For those two kids, it happens organically. But without the support of their core family, related or not, neither teen would've been secure enough to welcome others in and put themselves out as they become part of a larger club.

The story of The Club could be happening anywhere in the world. The circumstances are not uncommon, and with access to DNA and ancestral records, it's becoming more frequent that genetic relatives are being linked. But Eric Walters makes this less about the process and more about the outcomes and what they mean for these kids. Their worlds have changed and in a good way. I do wonder about those circumstances for which "new" family connections may not be positive or welcome but that would be another story. In The Club, Eric Walters gives us a story of being a family, discovering family, and making family. For Jax and Liv, they are able to strengthen what is already there with those who were previously unrecognized and make for a new type of familial association.

Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake

Written and illustrated by Rob Justus

Chronicle Books

978-1-7972-0638-7

316 pp.

Ages 10–4

November 2023

 

When Death first met Sparkles, the last unicorn and media sweetheart, in Death & Sparkles (2021), it was a difficult relationship. Death had never had a friend–how could he when whomever he touched would die?–and Sparkles was all about his celebrity. But they found a way to work together and give support as needed. But in their newest adventure, their friendship will be challenged by a quartet of moles who may know a little more about unicorns–or 'corns as they call them–and are accordingly less than impressed by Sparkles and his ancestors.

From Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake, written and illustrated by Rob Justus

Rob Justus, who apparently rendered the illustrations "in magical cupcakes with a sprinkle of digital art" develops his story along two parallel subplots. In the first, four moles, identified by their colours of Purple, Brown, Pink, and Blue, are obligated to tend the unicorns' sacred garden resplendent in golden colossal statues. When the  moles turn sixteen, they are sure that they will be invited to the ceremonial coming-of-age party held for uni-colts becoming unicorns. Instead, they are unceremoniously excluded by the unicorns. To exact their revenge, the moles intend to steal the sacred golden cupcake. Instead, they are discovered and banished to the darkness of the underground.

From Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake, written and illustrated by Rob Justus

The second subplot revolves around our two titular protagonists. Sparkles is not feeling quite right. His horn is glowing and his body is tingling. When Death suggests a growth spurt, Sparkles opens a suitcase left to him by his late parents and discovers a letter about the journey he must go on as well as a golden cupcake on a chain that compels him to dance. Regardless of what Death wants, Sparkles drags his friend to club after club, looking for the right one. When they are transported to an underground cavern and a golden-gated garden, and they must make choices as to where they should go, there is a clash of personalities, as the egocentric Sparkles plows on ahead, ignoring Death and following his "super-mega important unicorn family quest." (p. 134) Separated, Death meets the moles and, feeling welcomed and appreciated, befriends them, unknowingly becoming part of their scheme to get the scared golden cupcake.

From Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake, written and illustrated by Rob Justus

There may be a lot of pink and purple and bling in Rob Justus's second book starring Death and Sparkles but within all the sugary sweetness and sparkling flashiness there are important messages about being different, empathizing with others, true friendship, and humility (something Sparkles lacks). By juxtaposing the subdued and cautious Death with the look-at-me, self-absorbed Sparkles, Rob Justus lets us see that both extremes can be tiresome. However, a bit of risky taking with some judicious caution makes for a great partnership. And, though the mistreatment of the moles by the unicorns shows Sparkles that his heritage is not as noble as he'd imagined, it does inspire him to do better. (Now, if he just wasn't so over-confident and pushy. Sigh.)

From Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake, written and illustrated by Rob Justus

Although Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake only releases tomorrow, I'm already looking forward to Book 3 in this series. (Please let there be more books coming.) Judging by Rob Justus's Acknowledgments, he has lots of ideas. Maybe the ghost pirates didn't show up here, but I think Death and Sparkles have lots more adventures, and calamity, to experience, and more revelations to make about themselves.

 

• • • • • • •

 

Death & Sparkles (2021)

Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake (2023)

How to Be a Goldfish

Written by Jane Baird Warren

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-9230-9

240 pp.

Ages 9-12

October 2022

 

Most kids will end up doing a family tree or genealogical research sometime in school. Many will have family members they can talk to or use the internet to seek details. But, in 1981, when given a family history project called "Every Family Has a Hero," 13-year-old Lizzie Ross wonders how she's ever going to manage. Her family is basically her mother Susan and her grandmother Emma. Her grandfather had died in the war, and her mother had never married the man who'd fathered Lizzie. Thankfully Lizzie does have Harry, the elderly farmer next door, who cares for her after school. Harry, on the other hand, certainly has some stories, from being sent to Canada as a Home Child to saving a man at Juno Beach. When her mom, a lawyer, heads to nearby Toronto, to help in the defence of gay men who were being harassed by the police after the infamous bathhouse raids–it is 1981–Lizzie goes digging into old family photos and memorabilia hoping to get something to present.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, eleven-year-old David Macrath is still trying to adjust to his new life after the passing of his grandfather with whom David and his mom Carla had once lived. Now they live with Mom's latest boyfriend and her boss, Cameron Kelch, above his real estate office. At home, David is dealing with Kelch who wants David to man up and play sports and forget about his comics, movies, and favourite Star Wars. In fact, Kelch would love to send David away to boarding school, especially as he has big plans to develop the land and farm which Carla inherits from her father.

When David, his mom and Kelch head out to check out the farm and find Harry living there, the two story lines come together, with the two kids becoming allies. But will their alliance help them to save Harry's farm and protect the families they want and deserve?

Because this is historical fiction, author Jane Baird Warren embeds the reader in a time of the original Star Wars, the bathhouse raids and homophobia, no cell phones or computers–hence no easy genealogical research–and more. But this really is a story of family and family secrets and thus has no time constraints. It's about making family from bits and pieces, sometimes related and sometimes not. And that is a story for all times, regardless of the setting. By making family the focus, young readers will recognize the different configurations of family as authentic, though Lizzie and David still have to deal with small-mindedness related to those families.

As someone who lived in the 1980s, I can attest to the turbulent times. The news was rife with protests, war, strikes, riots, homophobia, and all manner of discontent. But it was also a time of learning and understanding with the opportunity to see that diversity enriched our lives and that different did not mean bad. How to Be a Goldfish reminds us that, in the right environment and with people in our corners, we can flourish and be and do better.

Rogue Princess

Written by B. R. Myers

Swoon Reads (An imprint of Feiwel and Friends)

978-1-256-30343-1

294 pp.

Ages 13-18

January 2020

There is no greater power than the power of choice. (pg. 175)

Delia is a princess who lives on the planet Astor. With turning 18, she must now choose a prince to marry. In fact, princes from the neighbouring planets of the Four Quadrants are gathering at the palace, ready to win her hand, including Prince Felix, a military man from Trellium, Armano from Delta Kur, Oskar from the Kalasta Belt, and the lovely Prince Quinton. Though Delia knows the importance of her ancestry and the traditions of Astor, as handed down from Arianna, the first queen of Astor, she aspires to more before she weds. This leads her to reprogram her android seamstress Marta so that she might escape, changing into the uniform of the Queen's Guard and hijacking a patrol ship.

But Delia is not alone. Unbeknownst to her, Aidan, a kitchen chore boy at the palace, has just stolen a dagger he found in a prince's room and is making his escape too. Aidan too has aspirations, helping himself to small trinkets so he might earn the money to leave behind the Dark District of Astor where he lives with his cruel stepfather and stepbrothers, Drake and Morgan.

This is Delia and Aidan's introduction to each other and one that will change their lives. He eventually learns that she is Princess Delia but, because he never tells her the truth, she believes he is a prince's bodyguard and then her secret bodyguard. Ultimately she returns to the palace and he to his home to slave to his family but they are thrown together time and time again, each trying to help the other and growing closer in their affections and admiration. But neither is as they appear. She is not the pretty princess who wishes to don beautiful gowns and live away from her people in her glorious palace. He is not just a simple servant. Together the rogue princess and the mysterious boy find their way to something extraordinary for themselves and the planet Astor.

B. R. Myers' new young adult novel of speculative fiction is dense with subplots, with nasty, odd and charming characters–I loved Delia's sister, Shania–

A double stranded necklace of colorful shells hung to his waist...He strode away, the shells clicking softly.
"I like a man who is also a wind chime," Shania remarked smartly. (pg. 13)

and with fantastic settings that my measly review cannot accommodate everything. I'd love to mention the pirates, the six-handed man, the sandworms and the plot to overthrow the Queen but there just isn't the space. But I can tell you that B. R. Myers has written a dashing version of Cinderella in which the princess doesn't need to be saved, that the bad guys are sometimes the good guys, and love can flourish under the oddest of circumstances. And she does it with humour and attention to detail that immerses the reader in circumstances rife with absurdity and tragedy.

"...but I'm hoping you can join me in dessert later."
"Join you in dessert?" Delia had an image of sitting in a large bowl of cream and berries with Prince Felix staring at her from the opposite side of the rim. (pg. 131)

The blurb on the back cover of Rogue Princess accurately describes the novel as a "gender-swapped sci-fi YA retelling of 'Cinderella'" but it's so much more. It's a romantic read in which the girl and boy save each other and a planet and their people by choosing to make paths for themselves while still honouring those who created them.

Thrice Burned: A Portia Adams Adventure

Atlantic Canadian publisher Fierce Ink Press has generously included me in the blog tour Blog on Fire for the release of Angela Misri's sequel Portia Adams Adventure, Thrice Burned.  Please check out additional blog posts at Fierce Ink Press. And, for those of you who have forgotten the deals of Portia Adam's first cases, read my review of Jewel of the Thames and get some additional background from my interview with Angela Misri at the time of its release.

Thrice Burned 

A Portia Adams Adventure

Written by Angela Misri

Fierce Ink Press
978-1927746691
281 pp.
Ages 12+
For release March 24, 2015
Reviewed from advance reading copy ePub

The shocking revelation at the conclusion of Jewel of the Thames (Fierce Ink Press, 2014) that her grandparents on her father's side are ex-criminal Irene Adler–currently known as Irene Jones–and Sherlock Holmes may have hit Miss Portia Adams hard but she won't let it distract her from her law studies at Somerville College or from honing her detection skills.  She continues her lessons in self-defense from Bruiser Jenkins, and studying alongside Chief Inspector Archer of Scotland Yard.  But she's also learning more about London's landscape, both topographical and invisible, and about lie detection from the formidable lawyer Mr. Ian Meyers.  Having established her own group of Irregulars, street children whom she pays with money, food and treats, Portia undertakes three new cases, Casebooks Five through Seven : Thrice Burned, Box 850*, and Truth Be Told.

In Casebook Five, arsons at three different locations, but with no damage to adjoining buildings, have Portia making the acquaintance of Miss Anne Coleson, a reporter looking to salvage a marred reputation and earn a living to care for her younger siblings.  While Portia is reluctant to oblige, she begins to see some positives to Annie's proposal, especially once Annie becomes romantically involved with Constable Brian Dawes, a young man for whom Portia has romantic feelings.  Ultimately the two women work together somewhat to solve the perplexing arsons, though it is truly Portia with her sharp mind and doggedness who brings the criminals to justice.  And all that while she tries to balance her affections for Brian, the intriguing forensic scientist Dr. Whitaker, and her grandmother's choice of suitor, Dr. Beanstine, coroner and a lord's son.

While the title Thrice Burned does refer to the trio of arsons in which Portia becomes involved in solving, it can also refer to the multitude of circumstances by which her own reputation is injured, through antagonism, humiliation, disappointment and revelation.  Of course, the criminals whose crimes Portia reveals are always a potential threat to her, but the involvement of a reporter, Mr. Dick McGregor, whose fabricated and outlandish stories refer to her and her activities without any veracity, leads to endangering her work and privacy.  Though she has allowed Annie Coleson to refer to her activities as those of Consulting Detective P.C. Adams–without any reference to her gender or ancestry–McGregor puts Portia's actions into question with the police who begin to believe that Portia is taking credit for their work. Fortunately, the support of Brian Dawes, Chief Inspector Archer and Sergeant Michaels helps to right those incorrect insinuations.

In Casebook Six, Angela Misri effortlessly takes Portia into the darkness, that occasionally enveloped her grandfather Holmes, when flummoxed with a case of potential theft, an antagonistic British Secret Intelligence Service agent and her affections for Brian Dawes. 

"This is not an ordinary ennui, Portia.  The excitement and adrenaline of a case–a really engaging, difficult case–that was the high.  The solution and then the time between that and the next exciting case...that was the low.  And for Sherlock, the high was higher than anything else in his life, and, therefore, so was the low." (pg. 150)

Regardless of the complexity of the Box 850 case and the subsequent case involving the disappearance of women of ill-repute upon their public damnation at the Matfelon Church, Portia is able to focus her detection skills on solving the mysteries with scientific elegance.  Though struggling with amorous feelings with which she is wholly unfamiliar, Portia conducts her sleuthing with the eye for details and labyrinthine problem-solving of one grandfather i.e., Sherlock Holmes, and the humanity of the other, Dr. Watson. Angela Misri has created Portia Adams to be a true incarnation of the great detective and his friend and biographer, while ensuring the Canadian consulting detective is wholly her own person too.

Reading A Portia Adams Adventure, whether it be Jewel of the Thames or Thrice Burned, is like revisiting the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle often chose to recount several of Sherlock Holmes' cases in a single tome, Angela Misri follows suit, extending the authentic and complementary nature of the series to those of the famous detective.  Thrice Burned is like having new Sherlock Holmes mysteries to read, only now starring an inquisitive and astute young woman (without the Asperger's Syndrome tendencies) and in a London of the 1930s.  And it works so, so well.  Elementary, wouldn't you say?

Blood Prophecy (The Drake Chronicles, Book 6)

by Alyxandra Harvey

Walker Books/Bloomsbury

978-0-802734297

475 pp.

Ages 14+

2013

Blood Prophecy, the sixth and final book of Alyxandra Harvey's The Drake Chronicles, came out at the end of last year but I couldn't bear to read it.  Ending trilogies is hard enough. Imagine what it's like having committing yourself to getting involved with characters after six books. But it's time.  Time to wrap up story-lines, relationships and clean up the messes from nasty vampires and rogue hunters.

When the various vampire tribes gathered at the Blood Moon (Book 5) to forge relationships and see the new queen crowned, Solange, the youngest of the Drake offspring, was not dealing well with her new vampire-ness, seeming to have gone to the darkside and listening to a voice that encourages her to feed her blood lust (not something her family does).  Sadly, her brother Nicholas and her best friend, Lucy, Nicholas' girlfriend, get caught up in her machinations, which then threaten all the Drakes and relationships between tribes.

While Solange struggles to command her thinking and actions, she begins having bizarre experiences–like time travel or magic–in which she relives the events that the voice in her head, Viola, endured in the 12th c. There are dragons, dungeons, witches, a love interest, a nasty grandmother, and a whole lot of anger.  Luckily, Lucy is sure that Solange is not herself and more likely possessed by another's spirit.  Lucy gets help from all the Drakes and close friends to attempt to rid Solange of Viola, and make things right at the Blood Moon camp where Solange/Viola caused much mayhem.  And did I mention that somebody, dubbed the Dracula Killer, is murdering humans and making it look like the vampires are to blame?

By alternating chapters from the points of view of Solange, Lucy and Nicholas, Alyxandra Harvey provides the means for the characters, and the readers, to put the clues together about Solange's bizarre behaviour, though tracking Solange's actions was rather confusing.  I actually enjoyed the emphasis on Lucy's voice again, as each of the Drake Chronicles books tend to emphasize the budding relationship of one Drake son with a new character, and Lucy and Nicholas' relationship has not been front and center since Hearts at Stake.  Of course, Kieran and Solange do resolve their bumpy love in Blood Prophecy but Lucy and Nicholas' interactions are so much more satisfying.  That said, I think Alyxandra Harvey had a hard time trying to incorporate all the established romances (Hunter and Quinn, Christabel and Connor, Isabeau and Logan) into Blood Prophecy, though they all make appearances.  Because the couples vary greatly in their sensibilities, their cursory participation in the plot, sadly, just wasn't enough for fans of the Drakes.

While Blood Prophecy and Blood Moon to some extent establish the story-line that brings together all the groups, vampire and not, introduced in the earlier books, Books 1-4 are still my favourites, relying more on establishing the Drake family and its interactions with these groups.  With three Drake sons–Sebastian, Marcus and Duncan–left without their own full novels in which they find partners for themselves, The Drake Chronicles ended far too abruptly for me.  I wanted more.  

Luckily, though Alyxandra Harvey has completed the novels of The Drake Chronicles with Blood Prophecy, look for extras at her website and elsewhere.  There are six novellas, including Sound and Fury which is appended to Blood Prophecy, to help take the sting off the end.