Cooper Clark and the Dragon Lady

Written by Valerie Sherrard

Illustrated by David Jardine

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-462-1

80 pp.

Ages 7-10

2019

Cooper's friends Jared and Nina like dragons but Cooper does not. He just tries to avoid anything to do with dragons: movies, games, play. But when his regular after-school babysitter, Linda, takes a new job and can't look after him anymore and his parents suggest Mrs. Mulligan, it becomes a whole lot harder to deal with his fear.

Cooper's parents don't know what he knows about the elderly Mrs. Mulligan. Older boys Lenny and Matt have told everyone that she has a dragon with a pointy tongue in her basement and sometimes she lets it run free. So Cooper creates a web of lies to try to get out of going to Mrs. Mulligan's house.  When those don't work, the boy takes evasive actions.  In the end, after a series of missteps, Cooper learns a thing or two, including how to knit, and that all dragons are not the same.

Cooper Clark and the Dragon Lady is an early reader that addresses the power of the imagination to feed fears from gossip and rumours. There really is a dragon in Mrs. Mulligan's basement but it's a version that delights not hurts. Sadly Cooper, like most children, believes those who are older and might know better and this proves to be his undoing. Well, that and his fear of dragons that he doesn't share with his family or friends.

Tackling important issues in early readers is not always easy. You don't have the expressive illustrations of picture books that can carry much of a message or the vocabulary and word count of middle grade or YA novels to delve deep into issues such as anxiety and fears. So, for Valerie Sherrard to speak to young readers at their level of worry and the expression of that worry, she has accomplished much with Cooper Clark and the Dragon Lady. It's a short story that accepts that young children will have fears that seem outlandish to those who are older and that they will find clumsy strategies to deal with those fears. However, those fears are very real. But, with some support from others, and a dose of the truth, those fears can be reconstructed into something less destructive.

Princess Pistachio and the Pest

by Marie-Louise Gay

Translated by Jacob Homel

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-73-6

48 pp.

Ages 5-8

For release March, 2015

Pistachio Shoelace may have been disappointed when she learned the true nature of her royal status, or lack thereof, in Princess Pistachio (Pajama Press, 2014) but the little red-haired wonder of Marie-Louise Gay's newest series has unforeseen challenges to address in her second adventure, Princess Pistachio and the Pest.  And we're so delighted to share in it with her.

Waking up from a horrible school dream in which she is humiliated when she can't answer a simple addition problem, Pistachio is thrilled to realize it's the first day of summer vacation.  She's ready for adventures with her friends Madeline and Chichi exploring a local cavern. But "Pistachio's heart falls to her belly button" (pg. 12) when her mother instructs her to take her baby sister Penny to the park.

Dragging a wagon loaded with Penny, a tower of toys and the hidden dog, Pistachio continues to daydream about exploring the cavern and what she might find.  Meanwhile, Penny dressed in her rabbit-ear hat and Superman cape, proclaims herself to be Super-Rabbit and repeatedly demonstrates that her super-powers are of the unorthodox kind: pilfering fruit from Mr. Pomodoro's grocery stand; climbing up on a wall and falling into Mrs. Oldtooth's garden; and scavenging treasure from the park's fountain.  Unfortunately, Pistachio is taken as responsible for Penny's misdeeds.

Courtesy of her baby sister, Pistachio is never bored and, upon returning home, realizes that there are worse ways to spend a day than babysitting Penny.  But, it's Pistachio herself, with her imaginative daydreams to compensate for missed adventures and with her reactive diatribes to unexpected turns of events, who makes the day eventful.  Her fiery temper may share each disappointment but it's her exuberance for life that mitigates any annoyances the readers may have about her exasperation.  After all, it was the first day of summer holidays and Pistachio's mother knew to use her "maple syrup tone" (pg. 12) to attempt to sway her daughter.  I suspect the girls' mother, with her own fiery red
hair and foxy twinkle, knows well enough what Pistachio feels.  And luckily, Pistachio may feel many things–embarrassment, disappointment, irritation, fear, inspiration–but never boredom.  

Again, Marie-Louise Gay takes our Pippi-Longstocking-esque young character and places her in classic childhood scenarios to which Pistachio must adapt.  Babysitting younger brothers and sisters during summer vacation is not uncommon for children.  But by taking Pistachio into a neighbourhood of colourful people, diverse friends, and lively interactions, young readers may find the means to endure, even enjoy, surprises that arise during the crazy, lazy days of summer when anything can happen, as it does in Princess Pistachio and the Pest.

The Haunting of Heck House: The Wiggins Weird, Book 2

Written by Lesley Livingston and Jonathan Llyr

Illustrations by Steven Burley

Puffin Canada

978-0143184263

280 pp.

Ages 8-12

For release October, 2014

It's less than a week before Halloween and authors Lesley Livingston and Jonathan Llyr launched The Haunting of Heck House (sequel to How to Curse in Hieroglyphics, 2013) yesterday, and I can't think of a better reason to finally post my review of this captivating middle-grade read that smacks of funny and scary in equal parts.

Unbeknownst to their grandfather and guardian, Pops Pendleton, twelve-year-old babysitting aficionados and cousins Tweed Pendleton and Cheryl Shumacher sneak out to compete in an overnight babysitting competition at the previously-unknown home of Sir Hector Hecklestone the Third on Eerie Lane.  Along with their varied babysitting tools of the trade, the two take along a malfunctioning drive-in speaker that holds the talkative essence of the Great Simon Omar, dead magician. (You'll need to read Book 1 in The Wiggins Weird, How to Curse in Hieroglyphics, to understand the means by which a portal into the Egyptian afterlife probably created Speakie i.e., a disembodied Omar with audio).  

While these plucky girls intend to go to the Hecklestone house and prove that they're the best babysitters/housesitters for the job, there seem to be super-natural forces working against them, not the least of which are a grand piano plummeting down the stairs, flying books assaulting them, dripping ectoplasm, doors that open and lock without explanation, and their competition, tech wizard Feedback, and 13-year-olds Hazel Polizzi and Cindy Tyson.  Luckily, the cousins get the help of their friends Pilot and Artie to help problem-solve their way out of a haunted house while playing their make-believe game ACTION! in the roles of the League of Awesome so they can get through some scary situations. 

The house with its "early-Munsters vibe" (pg. 104) seems to have its own agenda and all the kids must share their skills–including lock-picking, tech, gargoyle-translation, role-play and mechanics–to help escape its evil hold, and save the ghosts trapped within.  Never fear, though, because The Haunting of Heck House is more humour than horror, wordplay than wickedness, and fun than frightening.  Of course, an 800-lb. piano tumbling down the stairs at the girls is rather disconcerting but, still believing that their skills are being tested, they all take it with comic sensibility.

"What the heck kinda test was that anyway?" Cheryl glowered. "Agility? Musical appreciation?"
"I really didn't appreciate that," Tweed said grimly. (pg. 106)

Even Simon in his audio-speaker form pipes in that, "Guess there will be no encore tonight". (pg. 106)  And then there's an adorable little gargoyle whose "bat-like wings...red eyes, a sharp-hooked beak and talons"(pg. 130) might have been frightening except Ramshackle purrs and likes being stroked like a pussycat!

It's not surprising that, with Lesley Livingston and Jonathan Llyr both involved in acting, that The Haunting of Heck House is a story ripe with a quick-paced plot, highly-visual settings and characters, and priceless dialogue.  And, while Steven Burley's illustrations of the kids' ACTION! role-plays provide entertaining graphics, The Haunting of Heck House is so well written that it easily provides readers with a virtual visual that runs like a movie that could played at the twins' beloved Starlight Paradise Drive-In, with or without 3D-glasses.  Enjoy the movie!