Way Off Track (A Nansi Graphic Novel)

Written by Carl Brundtland

Illustrated by Claudia Dávila

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1004-1

152 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2025 

 

Nansi has always been a runner and she's good at running. She even dreams of being known as the fastest person alive. But just because she's good at running doesn't make her a generous winner or even a smart competitor.

From Way Off Track, written by Carl Brundtland, illustrated by Claudia Dávila

Not surprising that Nansi's overconfidence in her running leads her to make some poor choices. After all, what can it hurt to overeat or stay up late when she's got natural talent, or so Nansi thinks. But when she loses a preliminary race to her rich classmate Tania, Nansi is dazed. Convinced Tania's win is due to her new shoes, Endorphics Beta Fly 4.7U, Nansi is determined to get a pair. Problem is that the shoes are over $300. 

 

Though she comes up with some impossible schemes, getting a job seems like her best option, and her Jamaican Granny sets her up with her friend known as Auntie Berry to work in her salon. With a month to go before the all-school track meet, Nansi is committed to her part-time job, though her friends Ayesha and Angela just think Nansi needs to train better. 

When an opportunity to attend a training event pops up, Nansi has to figure out a way to be in two places at the same time. With a little blackmail and some clever disguising, Nansi pulls it off, or so she thinks. But, she has a lot of learning to do, and not just with respect to her running, if she is to succeed and focus on what's really important.

From Way Off Track, written by Carl Brundtland, illustrated by Claudia Dávila

This is Carl Brundtland's debut graphic novel and he packs a lot into it. First and foremost is a child with a skill for running but who still needs to learn to see beyond herself. Nansi gets into a lot of trouble because she thinks she is a better runner than everyone else and doesn't need to work for it. Even after she loses a race, she never takes any responsibility for that loss, attributing that loss to a pair of shoes. (Later she dreams of an interaction with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who reminds her that, "No shoes make the runner."; p. 132) Instead of focusing on training and learning skills to help her improve her running, she schemes to take advantage of her brother's relationship with a girlfriend he's not supposed to have.

From Way Off Track, written by Carl Brundtland, illustrated by Claudia Dávila

Carl Brundtland also brings us into a family that is rich in affection and Jamaican culture. (I might recommend that you read Granny's and Auntie Berry's speeches aloud to get the full nuance of their Jamaican patois, suffused with wisdom and affection.) From the food to the sibling relationships and the kids' relationship with Granny, Way Off Track brings us into both the familiar and the uncommon, for some of us. So middle-grade readers will know a Nansi and a Tania and Nansi's brothers and grandmother and will understand why Nansi wants to excel, though maybe not her attitude about her skills. But, like them, she learns when she's mistaken about something and finds the way to make things right for herself and others. (Of course, guilt plays a big role in compelling her to do better.) By giving us Nansi' story both on and off the track, Carl Brundtland makes her a whole person, with whom the readers can identify.

From Way Off Track, written by Carl Brundtland, illustrated by Claudia Dávila

Artist Claudia Dávila has illustrated a number of graphic novels (e.g., Child Soldier, ThunderBoom) as well as  picture books (e.g., Fast Friends, Friends Find a Way!) and non-fiction books (e.g., The Canadian Kids' Guide to Outdoor Fun) and, with each project, she achieves the right attitude of gravitas, information, social justice or humour that is required. In Way Off Track, Claudia Dávila's artwork, which has been digitally created, keeps the boldness of youth and of the talented while making it a true middle-grade story of kids who want to fit in and do well. I'm most impressed with how Claudia Dávila suffuses Nansi with her attitude and ego but also her agitation when things don't go to plan. Especially charming are Nansi's imaginings and dreams of her and her friends as Powerpuff-like girls.

 

It looks like Carl Brundtland is poised to write more Nansi graphic novels–the spine is labelled with a large "1"–so whether the Grade 7 girl has more lessons to learn at home or school or whether her friends, distinct in their own passions and skills, become the stars of their own stories, it is too soon to tell. Regardless Carl Brundtland, along with Claudia Dávila, has given us a fresh new character from which readers can learn as they laugh. And I bet that Granny will always have something good cooking on the stove.

The Secrets We Keep

by Deb Loughead

Dundurn

978-1-459737297

184 pp.

Ages 12-15

December 2016

Not all secrets are bad; in fact, The Secrets We Keep ends on a very sweet one.  But the secrets being kept in Deb Loughead's newest young adult novel are the destructive kind, the kind that destroy relationships and souls, the kind that erode slowly the edges of what is good until it becomes a slippery slope with a pit at the bottom.

Ever since that field party at the quarry last June when challenged teen Kit Stitski disappeared and was later found dead, drowned in the water, fifteen-year-old Clementine has been tortured with guilt, convinced that she played a role in his death.

It’s like his ghost will not go away and leave me alone.  And now that I know his mother’s still hunting for answers, my secrets are spooking me even more. (pg. 15) 

Worse than her own guilt, Clem’s supposed best friend, Ellie Denton, who had also been secretly at the quarry, partying with Mac, a boy on whom she’d been crushing, is manipulating Clem with the threat of exposure.  With excessive demands on Clem to always be available to cover for her and Mac, Ellie becomes a menace that Clem can’t seem to shake.  Though Clem wishes she could speak to her family about this, she finds some relief when she convinces her tech-addicted parents and younger brother to agree to put aside their devices regularly for some quality family time, including at night when Ellie regularly texts Clem.

That might get Ellie somewhat off her back but Clem is still plagued by a guilty conscience and a crush on Grade 10 student, Jake Harcourt, with whom she’d once been part of a Circle of Friends support group for Kit in middle school.  When the two finally reconnect as friends who've both taken on blame for Kit’s death and recognized how the circumstances have changed them, Clem and Jake look for ways to be something positive in the lives of Kit’s mother and younger brother, as well as expose a lot more secrets concerning the young man’s death.

Though The Secrets We Keep is not a mystery, there is a problem to be solved and secrets to be exposed and Deb Loughead never lets the reader’s adrenalin levels subside.  The tension that Clem suffers at the hands of her friend drives the story and her to find some resolution, one with which she can live.  And though it is never obvious, Jake, the boy who defends another teen rumoured to have fought with Kit that night, is the means to that resolution, as well as a sweet respite from the strain of keeping secrets and harbouring guilt.  The Secrets We Keep has both the strong plot and character development to hook teen readers but its strong message about connecting and disconnecting, both personally and digitally, makes the story one worth reading and heeding.

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Reviewed just in time, The Secrets We Keep launches this Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at Harbourfront's Lakeside Terrace in Toronto.  Details here.

The Secrets We Keep: Book launch (Toronto)

Deb Loughead

author of 

numerous young adult CanLit

will be launching her newest title

The Secrets We Keep

by Deb Loughead

Dundurn

978-1-459737297

184 pp.

Ages 12-15

December 2016

on

Wednesday December 14th, 2016

7:00 p.m.

at

Harbourfront Centre

Lakeside Terrace

The book is described as follows, on Dundurn's website:

First she blamed herself. Now she doesn’t know who to trust. 

When Kit disappeared at a party and was found drowned in the quarry the next day, Clem knew who to point the finger at: herself. She was the last person to see him alive, the last person who could have helped. If she had just kept a closer eye on him instead of her crush, Jake, maybe Kit would still be here. She knows she made a mistake, and wishes she could just forget about it — but Clem’s friend Ellie says she’ll expose Clem’s secret if she doesn’t play along with Ellie’s lies. 

Jake seems to have his own difficult secrets, and when he and Clem start to talk, they make a plan to help themselves move on. But when an unexpected discovery at the quarry makes everyone question what they thought they knew, Clem and Jake decide it’s up to them to uncover the truth.

Retrieved from https://www.dundurn.com/books/Secrets-We-Keep on November 29, 2016.