I Got You Babe (Orca Currents)

Written by Paul Coccia

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-459834705

120 pp.

Ages 9-13

RL 2.1

February 2023

 

Twelve-year-old Mac Riley has lots of ideas. He has lots of big ideas. His ideas are so big that they are almost overwhelming. In fact, his ideas may be just a little too big especially if he can't see that they may be jeopardizing some of his relationships.

 

When Charles Middle School's parent association, headed by Mac's dad, meet to discuss their annual fundraising Fun Fair, students which include Mac and best friend Amy are invited to attend. Mac, with Amy's tech assistance, suggests that they redo their boring Fun Fair with a Pride-themed event that is fresh and inclusive. Mac, who loves a bit of flash, from his clothing to his attitude, suggests everything from a rainbow-striped bouncy castle, a dunk tank and multicoloured cotton candy, to fireworks and a talent show with the winner crowned "Sparkling Crown of the Carnival." Though the committee recognizes that it might be too expensive to have it all and that there might be some pushback, they decide to go ahead. 

But Mac goes a little overboard with his plans, convinced he has something to prove.

"I wasn’t sure they were going to go for the carnival idea. Now that they have, it’s like I’ve got something to prove. It has to be great. It has to make money. People have got to like it. It needs to be epic.” (pg. 19)

Though Amy reminds him that the carnival isn't about him, Mac just steamrolls ahead with his plans, including planning on him and Amy winning the lip sync contest by depicting Cher and Sonny respectively. Amy tries to tell him that she's apprehensive of dressing like Sonny while Mac gets to dress in drag, but he just demands they rehearse daily and that she tries harder. 

Mac might be following the "go big or go home" precept but he doesn't realize that he's acting like the carnival is all about him. He may want to emulate the strong woman that Cher is but, instead of focusing on her iconic nature, he's acting like a diva. Will the Pride Carnival be the inclusive success Mac envisions or is he putting his relationships in jeopardy, and about to suffer the same fate as the famous duo, just to prove something?

If you don't know Sonny and Cher's song "I Got You Babe," take a listen to any version, video or audio, of Sonny Bono's song. It's catchy and heartening and will remind you that support doesn't require anything but being there. The song may be about a romantic relationship, but Paul Coccia's story goes beyond that singular type of relationship. I Got You Babe tells us that whether it's a friendship or a parent-child relationship or even self-love, support with understanding for strengths and flaws helps us through. Mac is imperfect–aren't we all?–but he learns from his mistakes and he does so  because there are those that support him, like his friend Amy and his father and his mother. With that kind of support, anything is possible: growth, love, and even winning a talent show.  And Paul Coccia makes us realize that it's all possible. This hi-lo (high interest, low vocabulary) story may be written at an easier reading level for middle-grade readers but its story is accessible to everyone. Paul Coccia writes a story about kids that are thinking outside the box and wanting to do interesting things. But what they get, in addition to a great school fundraising event, is learning that others have their back and that's something we all need to know.

• • • • • • •

 

Image from Orca Book Publishers

We're going to help get the hype going for this new novel that comes out February 14, 2023. Along with  this review, I'll be posting an interview with author Paul Coccia tomorrow with student Hasini. And here is the book trailer for I Got You Babe from Orca Book Publishers.

I GOT YOU BABE Trailer

Uploaded by Orca Book Publishers on January 23, 2023 to YouTube.

Flickers by Arthur Slade: Out today!

The long-awaited, new book from 

Arthur Slade

#youngCanLit author of 

The Hunchback Assignments series

Modo: Ember's End

Jolted: Newton Starker's Rules for Survival

Megiddo's Shadow

Tribes

Dust

and many more

is here!

Flickers

by Arthur Slade

HarperCollins Canada

978-1443416658

256 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 26, 2016

 * * * 

Described by the author himself:

The Great Gatsby meets The Twilight Zone in this chilling 1920's Hollywood page-turner...

From http://www.arthurslade.com/books/

A movie scream so chilling and powerful, it will open up another dimension ...

Orphaned twins Isabelle and Beatrice Thorn are living a glamorous 1920s Hollywood life as wards of Mr. Cecil, a mysterious and influential director. Isabelle is a silent film starlet, destined for greatness in the very first "talkie"--a horror flick. Beatrice spends her days hidden away on the Cecil estate with her books and her insect collection, scarves covering her birthmarks and baldness. But Beatrice’s curiosity about the death of her parents and the unsettling fate of a reporter is getting the better of her and she’s starting to realize Mr. Cecil has truly dark designs for this movie. 

From http://www.arthurslade.com/flickers

 * * * 

And reviewed by author/illustrator Debbie Ohi as:

So I was just going to read the first few pages of Arthur Slade's new middle grade novel FLICKERS this morning to get a taste of what the book was like but then I COULDN'T STOP READING AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. Finished it just now.

Wow. Such a good read.

SoOOoooOOoooOOooo deliciously creepy and dark (I'm a fan of horror MG). Love how the mystery gradually unfolds, and the plot twists along the way. Love the relationship between the sisters. I just loveloveLOVED this book.

If I have nightmares tonight, I am SO going to blame Arthur Slade. :-) I'm also looking forward to rereading the book when it officially comes out this April!

---Debbie Ohi, Author and Illustrator

 * * * 

If you haven't gotten the impression that Flickers is a delightfully scary read, watch the book trailer here.

Flickers by Arthur Slade

Uploaded by HarperCollins Canada to YouTube on April 25, 2016.

Yesterday

by C. K. Kelly Martin
Doubleday Canada
978-0-385-66845-3
355 pp.
Ages 13+
2012


Sixteen-year-old Freya just wants "living to feel the way it should." (pg. 78) Not like her sister Olivia (10) isn't really her sister. Not like Freya has all the details about her life but can't recall what she likes or feels or can do well. Not like she can only remember the facts of the memories but not the memories themselves. What she does know is that it is 1985 and that she, her mom and Olivia have recently come to Canada after the death of Freya's father, a diplomat, in an explosion in New Zealand.  And she gets lots of headaches and can almost tell what's going to happen before it does.

While at the museum with her class, Freya sees a handsome, green-eyed boy on the street and she is convinced that she knows him.  Following the young man, she learns where he lives, and returns another day to confront him.  Through questioning the boy, Freya learns that Garren's dad was also a diplomat who was killed in an accident in Switzerland but Garren does not recognize Freya at all.  In fact, he is infuriated with her insistence that he should know her.  It isn't until Freya returns with family photos and newspaper clippings that the two realize they share the same grandfather, Henry Newland, and both were seen by Dr. Byrne when they were stricken with the flu when they arrived in Canada.  But confronting their grandfather just sets them on the run when Freya "sees" him contacting men in dark suits with guns to come after her and Garren.

To avoid putting their families at risk, Freya and Garren hide out while they try to find some answers.  In fact, Freya convinces Garren to let her visit a hypnotherapist to help clarify her memories.  What Freya learns is that her memories are actually 78 years into the future, in the year 2063, and that Garren was a part of her life then.  Unfortunately, Garren's trust in Freya's memories is waning, realizing that he is giving up everything to follow her and help her while he himself has no memories of a life in the future.

So Freya's Yesterday is actually taking place in the future, or has taken place in the future, or will take place in the future.  I'm not really sure what verb tense is appropriate here.  But, while I may be confused with the timeline of Freya's life, those shortcomings are my own; C. K. Kelly Martin has no difficulty conveying those details to the reader.  Freya's anxiety about feeling out of place, actually out of time, is expertly handled by C.K. Kelly Martin whose book My Beating Teenage Heart (Random House, 2011), reviewed here, similarly takes the reader back and forth between times and experiences.  As a teacher-librarian, I know that this play between the past (future?) and the present can be a difficult concept for younger readers to follow and appreciate for its complexity and the richness it lends to storytelling; young adult readers of Yesterday should have no difficulties grasping and relishing this approach. 


I've just learned that C.K. Kelly Martin has her own YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ckwriter where you can see a book trailer and teaser for Yesterday, as well as trailers for several of her other books.  For those readers who enjoy video overtures for books, I'd recommend checking the author's channel out. I will include her book trailer for Yesterday here, though.

Yesterday Book Trailer

Published on June 24, 2012 by ckwriter to YouTube.

Vikki VanSickle's Book Trailer Contest now open!

To herald the February release of her newest book

Days That End in Y

Scholastic Canada

978-1443124324

240 pp.

Ages 10-14

February 1, 2013

Vikki VanSickle

author of  

Words That Start with B (Scholastic Canada, 2010) and

 Love is a Four-Letter Word (Scholastic Canada, 2011)

has announced a

 BOOK TRAILER CONTEST

 Just create a fun video, no longer than two minutes in length, 

celebrating the Clarissa and Benji book series

Grand Prize

• your video posted to the author's and Scholastic Canada websites

• a school visit from the author, including a fun writing workshop

• a library of Scholastic books, valued at $100.00, for yourself

• signed sets of the series for your classroom and school library

Three Runners Up

• video posted on the author's website

• prize pack from Scholastic Canada, valued at $25.00

Contest runs from October 1 to January 15

Winners announced on February 1, 2013

For rules and regulations and 

information about submitting your video,

contact Vikki VanSickle at Vikki.vansickle@gmail.com

More details can be found at author Vikki VanSickle's blog at http://vikkivansickle.wordpress.com/book-trailer-contest/

When I Was Small series

On April 4, 2012, I reviewed Sara O'Leary's delightful picture book When I Was Small, illustrated by Julie Morstad, published by Simply Read Books (2011).

Today, I learned that When I Was Small is just the newest of three books by Sara O'Leary and Julie Morstad which are all based on young Henry and his curiosity.  The three books are:

When I Was Small

Written by Sara O'Leary
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Simply Read Books
978-1-897-476-38-3
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2011

Where You Came From

Written by Sara O'Leary
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Simply Read Books
978-1-894965-46-0
32 pp.
Ages 3-8
2008

When You Were Small

Written by Sara O'Leary
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Simply Read Books
978-1-894965-36-1
32 pp.
Ages 2-6
2005

I will need to check out the first two books in this lovely series, but you can do that here, courtesy of the book trailer uploaded by Simply Read Books on May 18, 2012, recently showcased on a School Library Journal blog.

Published on May 18, 2012 by simplyread1 to YouTube 

 

The Calling

by Kelley Armstrong
Doubleday Canada
978-0385668545
336 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Maya Delaney, the protagonist from Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering (Doubleday Canada, 2011), first book in the Darkness Rising trilogy, thought she knew all there was to know about herself: she'd been adopted; she had some Native blood in her; she lived in Salmon Creek, a town built around the St. Cloud Corporation's research facility on Vancouver Island; she had a gift for healing injured animals; and she had a paw-print birthmark.  But as The Gathering unraveled, so did Maya's perceptions of herself and her community.  She was still dealing with the suspicious death of her best friend, Serena, while Serena's boyfriend, Daniel, who had always been there for Maya, was acting antagonistically to newcomer, Rafe, whose "bad boy" facade had turned many people against him.  Unfortunately, Maya was strangely attracted to Rafe, who revealed to her that she was a shape-shifter, like he and his older sister, Annie.  But, after a forest fire is set by armed men, one of whom looks like Maya and who attempts to capture her, everyone is evacuated from Salmon Creek and Maya has more questions than ever.

The Calling begins with Maya and Daniel, and teens Nicole, Samantha, Corey and Hayley, with Maya's dog Kenji, Nicole's dad the mayor, and an unconscious Rafe, being whisked away from the fire by helicopter.  But, too soon, Maya and Daniel realize that things are not as they appear.  In the ensuing chaos, the Mayor dies, the pilot is knocked out by the force of Daniel's words, the now-conscious Rafe falls out of the chopper, and Sam must take the controls and crash land it.  The teens and Kenji survive the crash but are left looking for safety while evading those sent to capture them.

While searching for safety, the teens' efforts are complicated by a series of circumstances that reveal more about their own supernatural attributes and motives.  Maya is almost drowned like Serena, Nicole is shot and captured, Daniel begins to recognize that he is able to sway others' thinking and to intuit danger, and Maya shape-shifts into a cougar for the first time, all while being pursued by the Nasts, a corporate rival of the St. Clouds, claiming to want to help them.  From snatches of information, Maya and Daniel learn that the kids are part of the St. Clouds' Project Phoenix, and that another project by the Edison Group, Project Genesis, has gone awry and those kids are on the run too.  Ultimately, a subset of the Salmon Creek kids must head out in search of these young people to get answers to their own growing bank of questions.

Readers are advised to read The Gathering first as it clarifies many circumstances in The Calling.  Although Kelley Armstrong attempts to cover details from the first book in the teens' recollections or statements made by their pursuers, I still had to reread portions of The Gathering to ensure that I had synthesized the details correctly.  Of course, this may just be my own weakness.

With the plot revealing possible answers to Serena's death and the biochemical manipulation by the St. Clouds on the teens, Maya and her friends carry their troubles with them now, anticipating physical changes and emotional revelations with which they are unfamiliar to deal.  Of course, their pursuers are still a concern, thwarting the kids' attempts to learn more about themselves, but the secrets that their bodies carry within may be the most devastating and dangerous of all.  I hope that when more details are revealed, however, that much of it is not just announced by their pursuers or in found memos but through the thoughtful reasoning already demonstrated by Maya and Daniel.

Surprisingly, Kelley Armstrong's characters become ever more real to the reader.  Their attempts to understand and deal with the strangeness of their situation are very reasonable, even if a character such as Sam is seen as more caustic. I found myself more sympathetic to Corey and Hayley than after reading the first book as they became multidimensional characters who expose their fears and weaknesses, as well as strengths, knowing the importance of revealing their true selves.  For that reason, I am delighted to anticipate the next book in the series, knowing who will be leading the journey, and the inevitability of the Darkness Rising series connecting with Kelley Armstrong's other trilogy, Darkest Powers.


The book trailer for The Calling, uploaded by harperteen to YouTube on March 9, 2012, can be viewed at my Book Trailers page here.

Darkest Light: coming soon to our blog

Today, Penguin Canada uploaded the book trailer for Darkest Light, the sequel to Hiromi Goto's Half World (Puffin, 2009).  When Half World was released, it won acclaim from all sectors, winning the Carl Brandon Parallax Award (for speculative fiction) and the 2010 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic (Young Adult category), and was nominated for the White Pine award, the Young Adult Library Services Association (of the ALA) Best Fiction for Young Adults, the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the international IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. (Whew!)

Half World, written by Hiromi Goto and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, is a dark tale of loss and courage (suggestive to me of a contemporary version of Danté’s Divine Comedy) that bridges different worlds of the flesh and the spirit.  Protagonist Melanie Tamaki is devastated by her mother's death.  As expected, her mother leaves the Realm of the Flesh (our world) to enter Half World (a world of suffering and atonement) until she is welcomed into the Realm of the Spirit.  But the balance of the three worlds has been destroyed and Melanie, a cumbersome girl, must endure the horrors of Half World to re-establish harmony between worlds.

 

In Darkest Light (Razorbill, 2012), many years have passed and Melanie's younger brother, Gee, who was not raised with his sister, enters Half World in search of his past.  Until I have my copy to review, that's about all I can tell you, so I'll let the book trailer entice you instead.

 Uploaded by PenguinCanada to youtube on Feb 8, 2012