If I Could Draw...

Written and illustrated by Patricia Storms

 ‎ DC Canada Education Publishing

978-1-834140667

36 pp.

Ages 4–8

April 2026 

 

A boy is bored. He is dismayed that he can't draw and that's what's holding him back from eliminating that boredom. If only he could draw, all would be well.

From If I Could Draw..., written and illustrated by Patricia Storms

 He then imagines all the wonderful things he would draw if he could draw. There would be dancing skyscrapers, unicorns playing ukuleles, and robots that served desserts. (Yum!) But as he imagines all the things he would draw, his little brother interrupts him, wanting to play. 

From If I Could Draw..., written and illustrated by Patricia Storms

In fact, he's so delighted to hear his big brother's ideas that he draws them, giving his brother the tangible art he so longs to create. What comes from that is a mutual admiration of their skills to imagine and to draw making a collaboration to chase away any boredom.

From If I Could Draw..., written and illustrated by Patricia Storms

Patricia Storms's story is one of creativity and self-awareness. It's reminds young children to identify the skills they have and not focus on the ones they don't have. (There will always be things we can't do.) Even better, she lets a younger brother help his older sib recognize what he himself cannot see. This lovely sibling relationship is one of support, not competition. And even though the older brother is initially reluctant to engage with his younger sib, he is moved by his words and takes the time to listen. By doing so, he learns to see his little brother's drawing skills and accept appreciation for own imagination. 

From If I Could Draw..., written and illustrated by Patricia Storms

Patricia Storms has both written and illustrated her own picture books (e.g., Never Let You Go, 2013), written picture books illustrated by others (e.g., The Dog's Gardener, 2021), and illustrated those authored by others (e.g., Moon Wishes, 2023). She obviously has no problems with the drawing component or the writing part. Still she reminds us that sometimes we forget what we can do when we can't do something else. And Patricia Storms helps us see the misery of not being able to do something—those illustrations lack colour and life—but also the brightness and fun when one is free to visualize and create.

 

I'm glad that Patricia Storms continues to delve into her creativity by exploring her art, both written text and visual art, to give colour and shape to the joy of a child's imagination. By showing us the different skills of two siblings, Patricia Storms reminds us to try, to play, and to collaborate if we are to find inventiveness.

Seeking Draven

Written by Michael F. Stewart

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-738-1

204 pp.

Ages 9–12

April 2024

 

The cover of Michael F. Stewart's latest novel, and his first in free verse, is subtle and deceivingly simple. It's not unlike the fungi that ten-year-old Teagan loves to study and draw. But, like the mushrooms and other fungi, what you see is just a fraction of what is there, most hidden and complex. Seeking Draven is a story of such depth of feeling and craft, masquerading as a short novel about a little girl who likes mushrooms and playing with her phone.

 

Teagan's 18-year-old brother Draven has always been there to support her: to find her when she gets lost in the woods, to defend her to their dad, to play basketball bump with her, and more. But when their dad accuses Draven of theft in front of his friends, Draven takes off and everything changes.

But when the smoke clears Dad falls silent,

Draven leaves us in his exhaust and everyone else goes

Home. (p. 13)

Devastated by Draven's absence and Dad's reluctance to tell her anything or to search for her brother, Teagan decides to look for him herself. It's almost impossible–though she breaks into Draven's bedroom to look for clues–until her dad gives her his old cell phone, hoping that it will make her less sad and quiet. (He doesn't realize that she's angry.) Now with a cell phone, which she calls Tab, Teagan goes on the hunt for Draven and tries to reconnect.

 

But that cell phone becomes something more for Teagan as she tries to find Draven, looking for him on social media. Now she sees herself through others' comments and she feels the pressure to share, and to be liked, and even laugh at others' misfortunes. She's taking selfies and listening to the comments. Like the zombie fungus which will alter the behaviour of ants which ingest it, Teagan's cell phone is taking over her life. As her father recognizes her addiction to it, Teagan has a revelation about Draven, piecing together clues from his computer searches and expensive stuff she found in his room, and suspects a gambling addiction.

Addictions make us lie.

     They make us falsify.

     If addiction made Draven a thief

     What is it doing to me? (p. 108)

So begins a new leg of Teagan's search for Draven, and a mission for understanding.

Michael F. Stewart has given us some compelling young adult novels, from his Assured Destruction tech trilogy or Counting Wolves and Heart Sister in which characters deal with mental health issues but, with Seeking Draven, he steps into a whole new genre of writing. The power of the writing is still there but, in its novel in verse form, Michael F. Stewart gives a story of addictions, both gambling and tech, a weightiness to which they are entitled. These are significant issues of chronic mental health, stealing relationships and lives from those afflicted. If they are fortunate enough to acknowledge their addictions, and accept help, and seek treatment, they may be able to break that dependence. The issue is important, and Michael F. Stewart treats it as such but, by juxtaposing Teagan's obsession with her cell and Draven's gambling, and enveloping it all in their close brother-sister relationship, he also manifests it as a family issue. Teagan's insight into what both she and her brother are experiencing is profound, especially for a ten-year-old child. But, if it shows us anything, there is no age limit on compassion and a willingness to help.

I've always been a huge fan of novels in verse and know that those who endeavour to write in this form are challenged with choices that limit text to words and phrases that have impact. Michael F. Stewart has just demonstrated his proficiency with this form, distilling important ideas into fewer words and phrasing that has intensity. 

If anyone's a thief, it's Dad,

Stealing

Hope. (p. 16)

I wish I could tell you how Teagan's story and that of Draven resolve but that will be the story you will need to read for yourselves. Fortunately, good or bad, Michael F. Stewart has the skill and heart to tell their stories from multiple perspectives and with sensitivity to their difficulties and to tell them with an eloquence of verse that makes us understand and empathize.

Middle Bear

Written by Susanna Isern

Illustrated by Manon Gauthier

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-842-9

34 pp.

Ages 3-7

October 2017

Reminiscent of the tale of the three bears, a middle-sized bear learns that he is neither too large nor too small to take on a challenge.  In fact, he's better than just right.

Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/gallery/25738405/Mediano-spain-2014 on January 5, 2018. 

The middle bear of three brothers understands well his place in his family.

He was not big, but he was not small, either.  Neither strong nor weak, neither tall nor short, neither a lot nor a little...

He accepted that his were middle-sized things–bicycles, umbrellas, clothes, dishes–but he didn't necessarily want to be the middle child as it made him sad sometimes.

From Middle Bear 

by Susanna Isern

illus. by Manon Gauthier

But when his parents fall ill and need willow bark, it is the middle bear who is able to fulfil the task, with the support of his siblings, simply by being neither the heaviest nor the smallest.

He was the middle one.
And being the middle one, he could do all sorts of things: small things, middle-sized things and big things, too.

Spanish writer Susanna Isern's story (originally published as Mediano in 2014) about the angst of the middle child becoming self-aware is simple and yet profound, all the more so for Manon Gauthier's cut paper collage illustrations. The artwork of predominantly sombre colours imbues an atmosphere of steadfastness in the bears' lives, complementing the three brothers' acceptance of their places.  However, Manon Gauthier's art demonstrates, with hints of rose and orange, blue and green, that there is lightness and opportunity for accepting something different.

Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/gallery/25738405/Mediano-spain-2014
on January 5, 2018.

Middle children, of which I am one, may not always know that they don't have to be relegated to a middling position of vagueness, and books like Middle Bear are great tools for inspiring young children, especially middle ones.  Middle children and bears should, and we do, aspire to be whatever they choose, big or small or in between.


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Because I wanted readers to see how beautiful the double spread illustrations were, I shared several images from Manon Gauthier's Behance website at https://www.behance.net/manongauthier.  Because scanning a bound book does injustice to the illustrations, I chose to show readers the original artwork, in all its glory and sans distracting divides.  I hope readers and Manon Gauthier forgive me this indulgence.

Blood Brothers

Written by Colleen Nelson

Dundurn

978-1-459737464

216 pp.

Ages 12-15

February 2017

Reviewed from advance reading copy

"...just cuz we share blood, doesn't make us brothers." (pg. 208)

Brothers are born and brothers are made through commonalities in purpose and temperament.  But does one kind of brotherhood surpass the other? How do you weigh what one brother means to you against another?  These are the questions being asked throughout Colleen Nelson's new work of young adult fiction as two fifteen-year-old boys steer through life, amidst the poverty and violence of a tenuous world and one of apparent opportunity for better.

Jakub Kaminsky admits that he has a sad little life. His parents emigrated from Poland for a better life before his mother died giving birth to him.  An injury at work left his devout father with a mangled leg and unable to work.  Now the two live in a rooming house on the West Side and attend and volunteer at St. Mary's, the parish of Father Dominic.  Jakub works hard at school and gets good grades, but he's truly alive when he's tagging as Morf.

Lincoln Bear may live with his mother and father and younger brother Dustin, for whom he tries to be an attentive big brother, but his home life is hardly comfortable, emotionally or financially.  When 21-year-old brother Henry returns from eighteen months in prison and promptly reestablishes his connection to the Red Bloodz gang, Lincoln is pulled in, hopeful of reconnecting with his brother and making a better life for himself. But restoring that relationship entails Lincoln becoming involved in jacking cars for a chop shop the gang runs which leads to more dangerous and illegal activities.

Jakub knows Henry is using Lincoln but he has no defence when he himself is involved in illegal tagging, especially after Lincoln takes the fall when they are almost caught by the police.  With Jakub starting as a bursary student at the prestigious St. Bart's school, and Lincoln falling deeper under the thumb of his violent brother, it becomes evident that the friendship between the two teens is at risk.

The survival of their friendship ends up being the least of their worries, though it is a driving force, when Lincoln becomes involved in a murder, and Jakub finds a very public but dangerous way of revealing the perpetrators. Blood Brothers culminates with a violent struggle between brothers of different kinds and very real consequences for all involved in desperate ventures.

"It's too late, I want to tell her.  It's like when water gets sucked down a drain.  Stuffing a finger in to stop it won't do any good.  The water still slips away." (pg.161)

Colleen Nelson leaves no time or breath of respite for the reader who is thrown from one harrowing situation to another, as both Jakub and Lincoln attempt to create lives that matter for themselves.  Yet, with all the poor choices the two make–and there are many–they are guided by a desire to be part of something good whether it be family, friendship, church or school. They want to be persons of consequence, because of their art or their presence or their actions.  They want what everyone wants: to matter.  Whether that happens depends on where you start and where you go and all the steps you take in between.  For Jakub and Lincoln, whose voices Colleen Nelson asserts both honestly and compassionately through those strides and missteps, it's their brotherhood that walks with them, leaving its own footprints.


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Be sure to check out Dundurn's book trailer for Blood Brothers at https://youtu.be/k026kfO89L4.

Uploaded to YouTube by Dundurn Press on November 24, 2016. 

Liam Takes a Stand

Written by Troy Wilson

Illustrated by Josh Holinaty

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-161-9

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2017

In the aftermath of Family Day here in Ontario, I think little Liam would have a thing to say about family and brothers in particular.  Twin older brothers actually. And brothers so overwhelmingly competitive that nothing else matters.  Fortunately Liam is an insightful child who is determined to “win” his brothers’ attention and, though they are too busy outdoing each other, Liam perseveres, making for a happy family in the end.

From Liam Takes a Stand 

by Troy Wilson 

illus. by Josh Holinaty

Lester and Lister’s competitive spirits take them from sports activities to creative endeavours and finally to entrepreneurship when they each open lemonade stands for the summer.  It’s Lester’s Lemonade Universe vs. Lister’s Lemonade Multiverse, and Liam wants to help but is told he’d just told them back, ostensibly from winning this latest venture.  So Liam, determined to show his brothers how hard he can work, takes on a series of neighbourhood jobs, paid in cash by all but Mrs. Redmond who pays him in apples.

From Liam Takes a Stand 

by Troy Wilson

illus. by Josh Holinaty

While Lister and Lester continue to grow their businesses to outrageous proportions, trying to outdo and to outsell the other, Liam works hard, saves his money and eventually opens Liam’s Apple Avenue.  He takes a soft touch to his business, though, unlike the hard sell and gimmicks of his older brothers, and Liam’s business becomes a resounding success.  Hard-pressed to be outdone by their little brother, Lester and Lister start their own apple drink stands, too busy with hype to work on making the best product possible.

Fortunately, Lester and Lister recognize what they must do to win even a little bit, and Liam is smart enough to hold onto what he has accomplished while getting what he’d always wanted i.e. play time with his brothers.

Troy Wilson’s take on sibling rivalry is over-the-top and yet so realistic.  Two brothers willing to do whatever it takes to succeed over the other—success itself is never the goal—and ignoring their little brother who ends up being their biggest competitor yet.  In starting to believe their own hype, they disregard all else in the pursuit of domination. And it’s little Liam who initially loses out but finally wins in the brother game of life.

From Liam Takes a Stand 

by Troy Wilson 

illus. by Josh Holinaty

While Josh Holinaty has illustrated for non-fiction books and for other media, Liam Takes a Stand is his first picture book project and his artwork is gloriously over-the-top, perfect for the story.  His big-headed stick figures and colourful displays of convoluted businesses ensure the focus is on the boys and their efforts and I can see children rolling on the floor laughing (yes, they do actually do this) with the boys’ uproarious results.  And I can see them all trying to copy Josh Holinaty’s characters, as children tend to do with favourite cartoons.

Beyond the obvious entertainment value of Liam Takes a Stand, as a teacher I could envision using the fun and hyperbolic attention of the boys to their work for lessons in advertising and economics as well as character education. That makes Liam Takes a Stand a nice little package of fun and life lessons for all to enjoy.

Betting Game

by Heather M. O'Connor

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-0930-7

216 pp.

Ages 10+

October 2015

I've never been much for sports-based fiction, assuming that the plot and characters will be less than stellar when focusing on a sport and its logistics.  And it can be even worse if it is a sport with which I am not familiar.  But, though I'm not a big soccer fan, Betting Game easily captivated my interest with its action and suspense and honest teen characters.

Seventeen-year-old Jack and his brother Alex are very earnest about soccer, attending the Durham Lancers Soccer Academy, aspiring to positions in professional leagues.  Alex is the current captain and takes his responsibility very seriously while Jack is doing co-op with the Lancers' physio team, getting an inside track on injuries and the status of the players.  Not surprising then, when Jack meets a bookie, Luka, through his father at a Lancers game, Jack doesn't tell Alex about it.  Though Jack is chagrined when his dad shares with Luka Jack's successes on fantasy soccer online, Jack is finessed into dishing about the team himself and into placing his first real bet.

My first real bet.  It bumps the game up to a whole new level. Like watching a movie on IMAX instead of a laptop.  Or hearing your favorite band live.  No wonder people bet on sports. (pg. 27-8)

 As with all gambling, the successes beget further bets and Jack becomes both a benefactor of Luka's generosity and ultimately a victim of this relationship.  Meanwhile, the boys' team is learning to work with its new striker, Gil, and Alex, as captain, is distracted, leading Jack to get further and further into Luka's betting game.  

Heather M. O'Connor, an author whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Ontario Library Association's recent SuperConference, has no trouble grabbing the reader's attention with a fast-paced action-filled story.  Betting Game is undoubtedly the kind of read that will grip both sports fans and reluctant readers (at a reading level of 2.0, Betting Game is definitely a hi-lo book).  The story doesn't waste time with extensive prose, having Jack quickly falling deep into the betting game and, though he initially acknowledges the stupidity of his actions, he becomes addicted to the thrill of winning, of having a secret that sets him aside from his brother, and of the self-importance it cultivates in him.  And though hi-lo texts tend to place less emphasis on setting and atmosphere and characters, Betting Game does not lack these elements.  Instead, the story wins the reader over fully with its gripping storyline and its winning ending.  That just goes to show that you can't always bet on how things are going to turn out, whether it be a game, life or a book.

A Teachers' Guide is available from Orca Book Publishers at http://digital.orcabook.com/teachersguides-bettinggame/

Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin

by Chieri Uegaki

Illustrated by Qin Leng

Kids Can Press

978-1-894786-33-1

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

2014

Having recently recommended Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin to a fellow teacher-librarian looking for picture books about perseverance, and then noting the numerous book award shortlists that have included this book, I was dismayed to realized I have never reviewed this little gem on CanLit for LittleCanadians.  My bad.  This omission is solely due to my negligence and the overwhelming number of great youngCanLit books I choose to read.  Hopefully this post will put some things to right.

During their summer trip to Japan to visit her grandfather, Hana becomes enthralled with the beautiful music he makes.  As the Second Violin in a symphony orchestra, Ojiichan plays the classical pieces of Mozart and Mendelssohn and Bach, but he could also play requests for his grandchildren and recreate sounds of the natural world like crickets, raindrops, and birds.  

Upon their return home, Hana begins to take violin lessons and, though her older brothers laugh at her efforts, she is determined and even signs up to play in the school talent show.  She may practise for her parents and her dog Jojo and even for her grandfather's photo, but she still feels nervous when her name is called, following five previous violinists!  In her mind, Ojiichan's words of encouragement, "Gambarunoyo, Hana-chan", help her to do her best and consequently captivate her audience, even her brothers.

From Hana Hashimoto, Six Violin by Chieri Uegaki, illus. by Qin Leng

Chieri Uegaki's message of trying to do your best is a global one but one that too often gets lost when children are told that they're great at everything that they endeavour.  That is a disservice we commit.  While Hana is never told she's the greatest and she can do anything to which she puts her mind, she chooses to persevere.  Her achievement in the talent show is not the success of many formulaic books that would have her winning or being showered with accolades (thank you, Chieri Uegaki) but rather in challenging herself to get up on stage and make magical music with her violin.  She does this rather successfully, just as Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng do.  Qin Leng's illustrations have that light touch that works so well with the musical nature of Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin, the Japanese cultural landscape, and the little girl with the quiet strength.  

Without going over the top myself, I can sincerely attest to the faultlessness of including Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin on lists for the 2015 USBBY Outstanding International Book List, the Cooperative Children's Book Center 2015 Choices and on shortlists for the 2014 Governor General's Award for Illustration, 2016 Shining Willow, and the 2015 Christie Harris Illustrated Book Prize among others.  It seems that everyone appreciates Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin.


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I've posted KidsCanPressMovies book trailer for this lovely picture book here.

The Traveling Circus

by Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel

Illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-420-6

152 pp.

Ages 7-11

For release April 2015

Charlie and his younger brother Max are going traveling with their parents again, though as Charlie recognizes,

Sometimes I wonder why people want to travel.  It can be so much effort! (pg. 20)

The family first hit the road in Travels with my Family (Groundwood, 2006), before going On the Road Again! (Groundwood, 2008) and then staying for a Summer in the City (Groundwood, 2012).  This time, they're heading to the former Yugoslavia to visit Fred, an acquaintance of their father's, and his wife Gordana.

Oh boy!  A country broken up by a war, where people spoke a language with no vowels and that no one could understand.  The perfect place for a vacation! (pg. 14)

From a start in Padua, the home of Saint Anthony, where Max goes awol, the family heads through Slovenia to Croatia, almost losing the boys to an ill-placed pee at the border (!).  The family meets up with Fred and Gordana, grandson Libero and another couple, Bobo and his wife Silvia, to take their first ferry ride and head to Cres, where they learn that vacations are for being close to people, before continuing to their ultimate destination, Vrgada, "a tiny sleeping island with no cars, where nothing every happens." (pg.110)

"The Traveling Circus" is what Charlie begins to call the motley band of vacationers with their cases and picnic baskets and bags as they parade onto and off of ferries, along streets, in cars along mountainous roads and following the women of Vrgada and their wheelbarrows.  As narrator, Charlie makes it clear how much he would prefer avoiding these family adventures, and not having to always watch over Max, and having some alone time to ponder and explore.  But it is his ponderings and the way he sees his family and friends, and the places they visit, and the circumstances of their visits that make The Traveling Circus the insightful and funny adventure that it is.  

Although Charlie never fails to acknowledge his respect and love for his family, he can see the ridiculousness of some of his parents' attitudes and actions.  

Sometimes my parents just didn't take things seriously.  I mean, how would they have explained that to our friends back home and especially to my grandmother? "Oh, we had to leave the boys in a prison in Croatia.  But don't worry, they'll be out in a couple of years." (pg. 49)

The same goes for little Max, whom Charlie reassures when one disaster or another befalls the little boy.  But, it's Charlie's insights into the people of the former Yugoslavia and the impact of war that are the most poignant.  It's an eye-opener to him and will be for young readers too.

No one had won this war.  One side lost their houses and had to leave.  The other side left, too, because they were ashamed of what they had done.
     There was nothing left but an empty village, full of land mines, where no one could live. (pg. 101) 

The Traveling Circus may appear to be a farcical family trip but it's an endearing voyage of discovery into a world ravaged by war that can still amaze with its beauty, people, and affection.  I don't know whether this adventure is based on one Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel took with their own children but I still thank them for sharing the colour and animation of The Traveling Circus with us, fiction or not.