Made 4 You

Written by Eric Walters

DCB

978-1-77086-661-4

296 pp.

Ages 13+

September 2022

 

Except for the headaches which have started plaguing her–and for which she has had multiple MRIs–seventeen-year-old Becky James's senior year is mapped out as getting good grades, prepping for the SATs, volunteering at a seniors' residence, and partaking in extracurricular activities like school band and social justice club and managing the boys' basketball team.  Then she meets Gene Newman, a previously-homeschooled student from New York state whom she will host and offer assistance.

As smart as Gene is, he needs support to fit in at their Nobleton, Indiana high school. His first-day blue suit and shiny brief case, as well as his formal speech, make him a standout. But he's a fast learner, following Becky's advice with respect to dress and more. Soon he's not just fitting in but he's attracting attention as an exceptional student, saxophone musician and basketball player. As they spend more and more time together, and Gene reveals the research his adoptive parents have been conducting on human intelligence and strategies for learning, the two teens become closer. But it's not smooth sailing for the young couple as there are secrets that could put them both in danger and perhaps keep them separated forever.

When science fiction is written well, it becomes less fantasy and more possibility, and Made 4 You is so plausible that readers will wonder if the story is based in reality. (Of course, that's also the finesse that is Eric Walters's writing.) Research on human intelligence is vast and expanding, as scientists look to how we learn, apply and adapt, so raising a young man like Gene who can learn anything quickly and thoroughly is not surprising. However, the depth of his learning, from math to sports and social interactions, is astounding, especially as it is coupled with empathy and love. Because Eric Walters takes Gene beyond the genius he is and makes him into a teen in love, Gene is a complete, albeit extraordinary, human.  And with dangerous adversaries looking to exploit the science behind Gene's intellectual development, Made 4 You goes beyond a sci fi romance into a thriller and action adventure. It's a story that has it all: sweet moments of falling in love, mysterious scientific research, and chase scenes across land and sky. Moreover, with Eric Walters at the writing helm, not only is it a story made for any middle-grader or teen who reads across genres, Made 4 You is also complex, nuanced and full of heart. (Even the dedication will give readers an "Awww" moment of pause.)

On the Line: Cover and trailers reveal

 

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

Authors

 

 Paul Coccia 

and

 

 Eric Walters 

are set to release their first collaboration

and I'm pleased to reveal its cover here 

and a video about the book.

 

Voilá!

 

 

ON  THE  LINE

Written by Paul Coccia and Eric Walters
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-45982-713-4
312 pp.
Ages 9-13
March 15 2022

Reviewed here

From my review of December 24, 2021:

What's on the line for thirteen-year-old Jordan Ryker? Everything. His parents can't stop arguing. The auto plant where his dad works, being the town's major employer, is shutting down. Even basketball, which is everything to Jordan and his best friend Junior, is somewhat tenuous with the school's new basketball coach who really doesn't know what he's doing. And now Jordan has to figure out how to work with new kids brother and sister Aaron and Tammy who are very different and both want on the boys' basketball team.  

...

This is the first writing collaboration between Paul Coccia and Eric Walters and, having reviewed books by both previously, I can attest to a new synergy to their writing as they bring their strengths in plotting, character development, and voice and meld them with LGBTQ+ issues and sports into something new and important. They've given us a story that challenges young readers to see beyond themselves and from different perspectives and with compassion for the struggles that others may be experiencing. With heart and intention, they've put themselves out there and helped us see from that angle what's really meaningful: friends, family, and fair play for all.

 🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

 

I'd also like to share a couple of videos about the book. This first was prepared by author Paul Coccia and has been posted by publisher Orca at https://youtu.be/lHMFkieD4ZQ.

 

Posted by Orca Book Publishers on January 31, 2022 on YouTube.

 

 

This second book trailer, created by Daniel Rolo, has also been posted on the Orca YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/KjyDne1gJ7Q.

Posted by Orca Book Publishers on February 7, 2022 on YouTube.

 

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

 

March 15, the release date for On the Line, is just 6 weeks away 

so be sure to get your pre-orders in via Orca 

or your favourite book store.

On the Line

Written by Paul Coccia and Eric Walters

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-45982-713-4

312 pp.

Ages 9-13

March 2022

 

"...if you're down twenty points in the last two minutes, you still play your best..." (pg. 52)

What's on the line for thirteen-year-old Jordan Ryker? Everything. His parents can't stop arguing. The auto plant where his dad works, being the town's major employer, is shutting down. Even basketball, which is everything to Jordan and his best friend Junior, is somewhat tenuous with the school's new basketball coach who really doesn't know what he's doing. And now Jordan has to figure out how to work with new kids, brother and sister Aaron and Tammy, who are very different and both want on the boys' basketball team.  

Most unexpectedly, Jordan's dad moves out and reveals that he's gay. In a community where everybody knows everyone else's business, Jordan is not dealing well with it. Junior tries to help Jordan see the courage his dad is showing in being true to himself finally, and Tammy with whom Jordan starts going out is all about supporting social justice issues and even starts a Gay-Straight Alliance club at the school. But it's all too much for Jordan who responds to his parents' separation and his father's coming out with frustration and anger. 

At thirteen, Jordan is already dealing with a lot of new situations. He's thinking about girls but is both intrigued and uncomfortable with them. He's been struggling with an unstable home situation, which then becomes even more dubious as he tries to adjust to two different lives and a father different than the one he thought he always knew. Worse yet, Jordan takes it all personally, convinced that he is the aggrieved party, rather than seeing beyond himself what others may be feeling and experiencing. He can't see the efforts that everyone around him are making to support him and themselves in what they need. Sadly, though Junior, Tammy and others try to help him accept their support, there are some whose homophobic and narrow-minded perspectives on the Ryker family cause more tension for all. 

There's a great story here but it's Paul Coccia and Eric Walters's characters that carry On the Line. With Jordan, they have given us a typical young man in a somewhat unusual familial situation. They've created a kid who loves his family, hates their fighting, is starting to have romantic feelings, and is angry and frustrated because none of his life feels straightforward or easy anymore. I don't know many who would choose to go through puberty again but to compound that tension with confusion about your father and his relationship with you would be overwhelming, as it is for Jordan. Then there's his father who is trying to navigate a new relationship with his son, with his wife, with his community and even a new partner but most of all with himself. There's Tammy who strives for the world to be fair to her and to others. She challenges the school for her right to be on the boys' basketball team. She's all about diversity and inclusion and she wants others to be the same. Even Junior and Aaron are developed into full characters that add contrast and meaning to On the Line.

This is the first writing collaboration between Paul Coccia and Eric Walters and, having reviewed books by both previously, I can attest to a new synergy to their writing as they bring their strengths in plotting, character development, and voice and meld them with LGBTQ+ issues and sports into something new and important. They've given us a story that challenges young readers to see beyond themselves and from different perspectives and with compassion for the struggles that others may be experiencing. With heart and intention, they've put themselves out there and helped us see from that angle what's really meaningful: friends, family, and fair play for all.

Thanks A Lot, Universe

Written by Chad Lucas

Amulet Books (Abrams)

978-1-4197-5102-8

288 pp.

Ages 10-15

May 2021 

Thanks a Lot, Universe is the story of two boys, both coming to terms with new realities. While they are as different as they appear on the cover, the two are both looking for and finding their true selves, with or without the help of the universe.

Told in the alternating voices of thirteen-year-olds Brian Day and Ezra Komizarek, Thanks a Lot, Universe parallels the stories of the two Halifax boys as they become true friends, and maybe more, though the plot is very much driven by the shy and socially anxious Brian. On the day of his thirteenth birthday, Brian learns via letter that his father has left–the police are after him for his role in "cannabis production and distribution"–and his mother, distraught, attempts suicide, though Brian finds her in time to save her.

We'd thought everything was fine. We hadn't known the world was ending. (pg. 16)

Because the whereabouts of their father is unknown and their mother is hospitalized, Brian and his 9-year-old brother Richie are sent to the foster home of grandparents-like Gordon and Emma Wentzell. Still being questioned by Sergeant States of the police about his father, and now dealing with social worker Kate Evans and the incessant attempts at Mrs. Wentzell to engage him, as well as bullying by Victor MacLennan at school, Brian gets absolutely no respite from his social anxiety, dealing with strangers everywhere.

Meanwhile, Ezra is dealing with his changing relationship with his best friend Colby Newcombe who is in the throws of first love and hanging with a new group which includes Victor. Fortunately Ezra still has his older half-sister Natalie and friends Ty and Kevan with whom he can talk and help him sort out his feelings, including about girls or not.

There are people we hang around because it's comfortable or convenient or safe, then there are our people. When you find them, you'll know the difference. (pg. 48)

Though Ezra knows the quiet Brian from basketball, it's not until the two connect over music briefly on a bus ride, that Ezra begins to really notice him. So when Brian runs away with his brother, Ezra joins up with Brian's teacher's son, Gabe Clelland and his girlfriend Brittany, to find them.

Life is probably doing to kick you right in the junk someday, B-Man. This is all the fatherly wisdom I've got. Brace yourself and kick right back. (pg. 84)

Finding Brian and Ritchie is only half of the story. What happens after the boys are found is a new story, with Brian establishing new supports and the means to divert his Super Awkward Weirdo Syndrome–SAWS is his term for his social anxiety–and Ezra admitting his feelings about his new friend and acting on them with heart and gentleness.

 

In his debut novel, Chad Lucas has given young readers a new way of seeing. As readers, we see the anxiety of family trauma, coming out, and regular teenage angst but Chad Lucas has made us see beyond the surface and look a little deeper into what we think we know. Brian is seen as the quiet kid, perhaps a little weird, even by himself, but beneath that front is a complicated young man who is dealing with so much more: making sense of his own disorder, worrying about a mother with a mental illness, angry with a father involved in illegal activities, and agonizing over a broken family, which may or may not be repairable. But when you're only thirteen and you're left to repair that family without having the supports necessary to do so, it's overwhelming. Most of his peers only see him as different and, though there are adults who can see his need for help, Brian's anxiety doesn't allow him to ask for it. Ezra, on the other hand, is comfortable in his own skin, with his friends and family, but he too is dealing with something new. In his head, he ruminates about his attraction to boys and with whom he might be able to share that. But taking a chance on talking about it with someone else, whether family, friend or crush, is still a risk. 

 

Fortunately, sometimes the universe gives you what you need. Through an alignment of circumstances, Brian and Ezra find each other and give each other something they need, whether a push, a pull, or just a hand. It's all good, or at least better. Sometimes that's all the universe can give you.

 

• • • • • • •

 

Look for my interview with author Chad Lucas tomorrow.

 

• • • • • • •

Tough Call (Lorimer Sports Stories): Guest blog post

Occasionally I invite young readers to review books 
for CanLit for LittleCanadians. 
I'm very pleased to present this review 
by eleven-year-old Bronte L., a Grade 5 student.

Written by Kelsey Blair

Lorimer

978-1-45941-368-9

128 pp.

Ages 10-13

September 2018

In Tough Call by Kelsey Blair, Malia King signs up to be a basketball referee to help her family with the basketball fees for her and her sister, Flo. She is assigned her first basketball game to referee. Malia is excited to find out that she is the referee for Flo’s first game. During the game, she makes a call favouring the rival team, Boundary. Her sister Flo gets furious with her because she feels that it was a close call and it cost them the game. Shouldn’t Malia have made the call in her sister’s favour? After that call she finds out how difficult reffing truly is.

When Malia gets her full reffing schedule, to her disappointment she is one of the referees for Flo’s games during the playoffs. People were still coming up to her in the halls and giving her a hard time about not making calls to help her own school win. How will refereeing more of the games make things for Malia in school? This new schedule is putting pressure on her to choose between favouring her school or making fair calls.

I thought Tough Call was a great book with lots of dialogue and detail. Kelsey Blair did a marvellous job describing the basketball games. Her play by play description of the action made it like I was there watching Malia and Flo! Kelsey Blair created a very believable main character. Her vivid descriptions of Malia’s emotions were so strong, you could feel them yourself.

Tough Call is a great light read for grades 4-8. At only 127 pages, it is easy and enjoyable for students to read. Her plot line is very relatable for students of this age group and the events in the book are family friendly. I encourage all basketball fans to read Tough Call.  True fans of the sport will appreciate the finer details and understand the pressure in these situations. Readers who are not fans of basketball will still enjoy Malia King’s story, as everyone can relate to being under pressure at school. I would give this book an 8 out of 10 as it has a great plot line, an inspiring story, and genuine characters.

Written by Bronte L. (11)

Sadia: Blog Tour Guest Post by author Colleen Nelson

Yesterday I reviewed Colleen Nelson's newest novel, Sadia, from Dundurn Press. I adore Colleen Nelson's novels for their variety of themes and strong characters with voices that resonate with all.  Today Colleen Nelson shares a few things you need to know about Sadia, so please join me in welcoming her.

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

Colleen Nelson

Hello CanLit for LittleCanadians!

My newest book, 

Sadia

launches this month 

and 

 I thought I’d share

  5 Things you didn’t know about Sadia.

1. I hear voices. Yep, that’s how all my books start. The character talks to me when I’m doing random things, like washing dishes or driving to work, and all of a sudden a whole story is spinning in my head. I liked Sadia as soon as I heard her talking in my head and even more once I made her into a basketball player.

2. I don’t play basketball. I’m not good at any sports except yoga (and I don’t think that counts as a sport). But my husband went to Gonzaga University and I’ve been forced to watch many of their games. My boys both like basketball, so I asked them for help when it came to the basketball scenes in the book.

3. I would love to do a project like ‘If You Give a Kid a Camera’. I’ve done versions of photography projects with my elementary students. If any teachers want to try it, reach out to me. I’d love to see what your students come up with. Photography is such a powerful way to communicate ideas. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all.

4. The original manuscript was called ‘The Brilliance of Bees’ (The old cover is still floating around in cyber space), but had to be changed because it didn’t really capture what the story was about. Mr. Letner used to be an entomophile, which is a lover of insects. I sprinkled facts about bees throughout the book, but ended up deleting them. There are a lot of similarities between bee hives and classrooms: bees are hard-working and cooperate, everyone has a job and no job is more or less important than another’s. I now have a lot of bee facts ‘buzzing’ in my head so maybe they will appear in another book.

5. Sadia was written because a student of mine requested books with Muslim characters. I couldn’t find any in our library except Deborah Ellis’ ‘Breadwinner’ series, which she’d read. I asked other Teacher-Librarians and our local book seller, but no one had any suggestions. About the same time, I came across an article about a team of Muslim girls who sewed their own basketball uniforms so they could play games. From that point on, the plot came quickly and Sadia was written in six weeks over summer holidays.

I hope you enjoyed discovering more about Sadia.

Thanks for having me on your blog!

~ author Colleen Nelson

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

It is always my pleasure to welcome Colleen Nelson
to CanLit for LittleCanadians
and to continue reviewing her stellar YA novels.

Support Canadian authors and #youngCanLit
by checking out Sadia and Colleen Nelson's other books

Sadia (Dundurn, 2018)

Blood Brothers (Dundurn, 2017)

Finding Hope (Dundurn, 2016)

250 Hours (Coteau, 2015)

The Fall (Great Plains Teen Fiction, 2013)

Tori By Design (Great Plains Teen Fiction, 2011)

Sadia

Written by Colleen Nelson

Dundurn

978-1-45974-029-7

240 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2018

As I passed the classroom door, I caught sight of myself in the small pane of glass.  Was it the hijab that Mariam was running away from?  Seeing me must remind her of who she really was, who she'd always be.  I wished she'd realize that taking off her hijab wasn't going to change that. (pg. 82)

For Sadia's friend Mariam, de-jabbing i.e., removal of her hijab when at school and changing into more revealing clothes improper for a Muslim girl are the means to fit in and become recognized by athletic classmate Josh.  While Sadia would never contemplate doing the same, she tries to understand her friend's need to shed her headscarf and appreciate her perspective on being a Muslim girl in a Winnipeg high school.  And perspective is everything she and her classmates realize after their teacher—and also basketball coach—Mr. Letner gives them an assignment based on the premise of "If you give a kid a camera."  While Sadia and her classmates begin to take photos of their lives, they reveal much about what they experience at home and at school including family challenges, hidden passions and friendships lost and found.

While she undertakes her project, which evolves to include a passion project to help newly-arrived refugees, Sadia grapples with Mariam's de-jabbing and drive to fit in which becomes more complicated after Sadia is chosen for the school's All City Pre-Season Co-ed Basketball Team on which Josh plays.  Sadia is thrilled to be playing the game that her brother taught her and accepts the accommodations she must make to play–changing in private, covering up far more than her teammates, and wearing her hijab–but being on the team causes more friction with Mariam, especially after Josh's attentions are directed towards Sadia.  It all comes to a climax at the tournament when Sadia's hijab becomes a mobilizing force for family, friends, teammates and strangers.

Sadia addresses Sadia's honest acceptance of her Muslim culture but also how she finds the means to meld it with her love for basketball, rather than abandon one passion for another.  Sadia's self-acceptance is mature and extraordinary and she would be an impressive role model for Muslim girls trying to find their own way.  Without being deceptive or disingenuous, Sadia helps new Muslim girl Amira prepare for her new life in Canada and show Mariam that it is possible to be a practising Muslim and have fun.  Just like the photography assignment Mr. Letner gives his class, it is all about point of view.

Author Colleen Nelson continues to ramp up her writing, developing characters with whom all readers can identify.  From those dealing with bullying, guilt and grief (The Fall, 2013), or abandonment and discrimination (250 Hours, 2015), or with sexual abuse and drug addiction (Finding Hope, 2016) and poverty and violence (Blood Brothers, 2017), Colleen Nelson pens real characters whose decisions propel them into life-changing situations.  For the first time, Colleen Nelson has given Muslim girls a role model, a girl who recognizes that she has been accorded much attention and discrimination because of how others perceive her hijab, often incorrectly, but who appreciates what being a Muslim means and accepts those cultural traditions as the basis for whom she is.  Sadia does not struggle with wearing the hijab, as does her friend Mariam, but when thrust into the limelight where wearing the hijab might prevent her from playing basketball, she considers with great thought and insight what it means to continue wearing it.  Still she stays true to herself, empowered, not restricted, by her hijab or being Muslim.  For her, de-jabbing would be negating her true self, just as not playing basketball would.  In Sadia, being yourself is better than having it all and being Muslim is in itself empowering.

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

Check back tomorrow for Colleen Nelson's guest blog post titled "5 Things You Didn't Know about Sadia" and upcoming blog tour stops at Lost in a Great Book, MG Book Village and Dundurn Press.

Game Plan

CanLit for LittleCanadians 

is pleased to join with

 

and 

author Natalie Corbett Sampson

 in their

Basketball and Babies Blog Tour

to celebrate the release of

GAME PLAN

Game Plan

by Natalie Corbett Sampson

Fierce Ink Press

978-1-927746097

351 pp.

Ages 12+

November, 2013
Reviewed from ebook 9781927746127

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
gang aft a-gley  
~ Robert Burns (from "To a Mouse")

Robbie Burns astutely wrote that, whether preparing for winter or for your future, plans do not always follow in a straight trajectory from beginning to end.  I'm not even sure whether it be best that they do.  Regardless, there are many times when you're on track and successfully following the steps of your plan when you may be catapulted off and onto a different road.  The trick is knowing how to adapt to your new plan and deciding whether returning to your original is a good idea, or even an option.

The life plans of two families are entwined from the start of Natalie Corbett Sampson's first novel, Game Plan.  Basketball is everything to teens Ella, older brother Ben and his best friend Charlie.  All on their school teams, along with Ella's friend Alex, the friends are always up for improving their skills and practising, and hopeful of being scouted and attending university.  And, though she has always been more comfortable being one of the guys, Ella is flattered when another basketball player at school, Sam Cleveland, shows an interest in her and asks her out.  That's the little penny on the tracks that will have Ella's plans teetering.

Katherine and Danny Frayne are a young couple who've been married for 7 years, and trying for a baby for the past 5.  Their plan of a family seems to be dissipating, after several tries at in vitro fertilization.  Katherine is desperate, having envisioned herself as a mother for so long, but Danny gets her thinking about other options, including adoption and fostering children.

While Ella and Sam's relationship becomes more serious, she is caught off-guard when they have sex at a party at which she'd been drinking.  Although she doesn't let that happen again (though she feels like a loser and worries about making Sam angry), that single random act catapults Ella into an unforeseen situation: pregnancy. 

While the reader may predict how the two story lines will converge, the Fraynes and the Parkers will not encounter each other till much later in the book.  Until that time, each family experiences repeated disappointments and hope, having been thrown off their game plans and attempting to adapt to their new circumstances, chosen or not. (Surprisingly or not, Sam has no problem telling Ella that the baby isn't part of his plan and that, if she doesn't get an abortion, it's game over for them.)

Natalie Corbett Sampson takes the time to develop the two story lines fully to ensure that the angst of Ella's pregnancy and the hardships Katherine and Danny experience in trying to conceive and then adopt are completely palpable.  The highs and lows of receiving unexpected news, unfathomable positive and negative reactions from close ones, and picking oneself up to continue to adjust are heartbreaking.  The consequences of having your Game Plan averted can be debilitating.  Ella's initial question about whether she's good enough for Sam soon transforms into whether she has ruined her whole life, and Katherine is wondering whether they're not getting pregnant because they'd be rotten parents and then whether they even dare to hope.

Game Plan makes it clear that those with the flexibility and courage to adapt their life plans, as needed, can make it through whatever life throws at them, whether they be basketballs or babies.

I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.

Harry S. Truman

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/harrystru164081.html#Pu0Q7p41dc32sfLl.99

I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.

Harry S. Truman

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/harrystru164081.html#Pu0Q7p41dc32sfLl.99

If you're in Nova Scotia this week, consider attending the

Book Launch  

for

Game Plan

on 

Thursday, November 21, 2013

6:30-8:00 p.m.

Canada Games Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia

to meet author Natalie Corbett Sampson, 

learn more about her book and 

get an autographed copy of Game Plan 

for yourself or a young reader

I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.

Harry S. Truman

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/harrystru164081.html#Pu0Q7p41dc32sfLl.99