Hug?

Written and illustrated by Charlene Chua

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0206-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

2020

 

It's amazing what a hug can accomplish. When this child's cat coughs up a disgusting hairball and looks a bit shaken, she offers the feline a hug which it agrees to with a simple, "Okay" and a generous "Thank you" mid-hug. When a dog watching requests a similar hug, the child agrees, with the cat proudly looking on.

From Hug? by Charlene Chua

After the initial cat hug, each double-spread, with only a few exceptions, has a creature asking for a hug, and then getting it, while a foot or nose or face or paw of another begins to enter the scene. Little ones will enjoy guessing what animal will be asking for a hug next. After the cat, there's the dog, a pair of ducks and duckling, a skunk, a bear, a porcupine, and a tiger. There's even a unicorn that comes along but it politely declines with "No, thanks. I'm good."

From Hug? by Charlene Chua

Though the child is reluctant to refuse any request for a hug, even from a stinky skunk or a prickly porcupine or a potentially dangerous tiger, each hug seems to leave her more bedraggled. But, when she is bombarded with a barrage of requests and demands from everything from a dragon, to a snake and even an alien, she screams "STOP!"

Fortunately, her cat knows what she might need, and a simple and familiar question gets her the hug she too needs to feel better.

From Hug? by Charlene Chua

Charlene Chua has illustrated many picture books, including several which I have reviewed here on CanLit for LittleCanadians (e.g., Going Up, The Pencil, and Fishing with Grandma), but this is the first which she has written and illustrated. However, it's evident from Hug? that this will only be the first of many because Charlene Chua charms with the simple importance of her words and her disarming artistic style, especially with characters' faces. That strength of message here is on gentle acts of kindness that come from recognizing another's distress or need for comfort. There's asking for consent to touch, even for a hug, and accepting any answer as valid for that individual. There's also the message that sometimes we all need to ask for help or at least to accept it if things are to get better. These are pretty compelling understandings for addressing mental health concerns and yet Charlene Chua keeps it light and sweet through both words and art. Using watercolours, watercolour ink, and coloured pencils, as well as Photoshop, Charlene Chua encircles her story with art that is bright in colour and shape. Even when the child has reached her limit and needs to address her own needs, the illustrations are cheery but still clamorous as would befit a child in crisis. 

 

I bet Charlene Chua knows about giving and getting hugs and I trust that all involved in those embraces, or perhaps just in the kindness of asking, recognize the compassion necessary to share oneself and will pay if forward with their own Hug?, book or affection.

Trail of Crumbs

Written by Lisa J. Lawrence

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-2121-7

247 pp.

Ages 13+

2019

We all hope a trail of crumbs will lead us to safety and maybe even home, but both are sadly elusive for seventeen-year-old Greta in this young adult novel of trauma and abandonment.
 
After their mom died from breast cancer when Greta and her twin brother Ash were just eight, their dad Roger fell apart. He lost his truck driving job because of a DUI, had to sell the house and sent the kids to live with a relative. Though he remarried and got the kids back, the turmoil of their lives becomes one of emotional abuse with their stepmom Patty always yelling, complaining and blaming Greta and Ash for everything. After another altercation, Patty convinces Roger to abandon the kids and they sneak off in the night.

Seven years he'd made excuses for Patty's anger, tried to make them share the blame in her tornado of drama. They'd been kids–imperfect, noisy, messy. He'd played middle man between a wolf and two sheep, trying to justify why the wolf always tore at them. Trying to please that rabid wolf. (pg. 89-90)

Left alone in their cold basement apartment in Edmonton with limited money of their own, Greta and Ash consider their options. A plan to confront their father falls apart, though it does find them a new ally in a classmate and neighbour, Nate. They look for jobs. They approach their landlord, Elgin Doyle, an older man who lives in the upper part of the house, about deferring the rent but instead he offers to let them stay in a spare room he has in return for chores like shovelling snow.

Though initially uncomfortable with their new living situation, the normally-withdrawn Ash seems to come out of himself, cooking with Elgin and standing up for the older man to his hostile adult daughter Alice. But, while Greta grapples with their abandonment, she is also trying to clarify the traumatizing circumstances involving a sexual encounter with Dylan.

She could never make sense of those shards still rattling loose inside her. They dug in, but no matter how long she looked at them, they never formed a whole picture. A grotesque kaleidoscope. When she tried to sort through it, all the colors mixed together until it turned into swamp brown. (pg. 124)

Trail of Crumbs is a story of finding a way to survive the trauma of parental abandonment and of sexual assault. It's about finding family and friends in unlikely allies and trusting those who would support you no matter what. It's not an easy story to read because the trauma is so raw. Even when Greta and Ash try to logically deal with their abandonment, and Greta tries to sort out the events with Dylan, you know they're just struggling to endure, to get through it, to survive. There is a visceral fear about stopping to give in to the anguish and hopelessness. But Lisa J. Lawrence, who wowed critics with her debut novel, Rodent (Orca, 2016), writes with power and intrepidness, never letting us question whether Greta and Ash are real. They are, as are their problems. They've survived trauma after trauma and keep on going. They don't even know how brave they are. They are their own heroes.

That trail of crumbs may be elusive and often invisible, but I was consoled that Greta and Ash found sufficient to keep them bound as siblings with enough left over to lead them to a new support family.

He Must Like You

Written by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Viking (Penguin Random House)

978-1-9848-3571-0

336 pp.

Ages 14+

July 2020
Reviewed from advance readers copy

Young girls are often told, or at least they once were, that if a boy teased you or went out of his way to annoy you or get your attention that “he must like you.” And even though  they may feel unsafe or targeted, they were instructed to just bear it and were essentially chastized for making a big deal of it. Everyone should know better today. But do we?

Libby lives with her parents in the small community of Pine Ridge and in January of her senior year, her parents inform her of her new reality. Seems that because her older brother Jack dropped out of pre-med and skipped off to Greece around the time her dad was fired from his real estate brokerage firm, her parents have decided that they’ve spoiled their kids and it’s time for Libby to become independent. Not only do they want her to get a job and look for an apartment–they have plans to redo her and Jack’s rooms for Airbnb rental–but her education fund is gone. Libby is flabbergasted but she has no choice but to find a way to make some money.

She is determined to get a job as a server so she can boost her savings with tips. Because of her dad’s reputation as a jerk who provokes local businesses–they later learn he’s moved on to trolling on social media–she gets a wait job at the Goat, a restaurant just out of town. The staff is friendly and she likes the work, and Kyle, the host, helps her out by sending the big spenders her way to increase her tips.

Though Libby is not currently seeing anyone, she’s struggling with feelings about relationships and interactions she’s had and is having with certain guys in her life. She had a weird relationship with her ex-boyfriend Boris that was based more on relenting to sex than consenting to it. Then there’s Kyle who flirts like crazy with her and with whom she has sex though doesn’t feel good about doing it. There’s also her good friend Noah who is in a long-distance relationship but to whom Libby is drawn romantically.  And then there’s Perry Ackerman, the town’s saviour and big-tipping Goat customer, who regularly harasses her with sexually explicit banter and handsiness.

The turning point for Libby is a school assembly about consent given by a public health nurse.

…Dahlia Brennan basically just reached into my brain, grabbed a bunch of my memories from where they were filed (mostly under “crappy sex” or “boy acts like jerk” or “Libby is an idiot”), threw them on the floor, and told me I have to refile them under “coercion,” “sexual assault,’ and “rape.” (pg. 66)

So not only is she dealing with a lousy family situation, Libby is recognizing that, beyond the overtly offensive Perry whose behaviour should never have been tolerated by so many,  her crappy feelings related to Boris and Kyle need to be resolved if she is to have a positive relationship with Noah (fingers crossed) and keep a job she needs.

He Must Like You is a big story. (Danielle Younge-Ullman knows how to do important stories for young adults. If you haven't read her Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined, which won the Forest of Reading's White Pine Award and was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award, put it on your to-be-read list.) He Must Like You is a story about sexual harassment, assault, consent, relationships and family. And Danielle Younge-Ullman ensures that it is all about Libby and what she is experiencing and what she needs. She gets to choose how she feels. She gets to decide what is acceptable for her in approaching the guys who have compromised her will and safety.  She gets to decide what she will and will not accept. In a time of #MeToo, Danielle Younge-Ullman educates young teens of all genders that consent is not just a yes or a no. It’s so much more. And Danielle Younge-Ullman does this with subtlety and sensitivity, common sense and even humour.

He might like her–and Noah does–but no person should feel unsafe or compromised or guilted by the another's interest or actions and He Must Like You and Danielle Younge-Ullman leave no room for misinterpretation or ambiguity about this while telling a great YA story that inspires hope for love and empowerment.

Will Ladybug Hug?

Written and illustrated by Hilary Leung

Cartwheel Books (Scholastic)

978-1-338-21560-1

37 pp.

Ages 2-5

October 2018

Will Ladybug Hug? Well, she sure wants to, especially as she loves to use hugs to say hello and goodbye. And now that she's packing up for her trip, she wants to say goodbye with hugs. But are all Ladybug's friends willing to let her hug them?

In one of a new series of board books, author-illustrator Hilary Leung handles the touchy subject of hugs with sensitivity and humour. His new sextet of friends–Ladybug, Crocodile, Bear, Sheep, Frog, and Giraffe–are as different in morphology as they are in behaviour and it's these differences that help them reflect the differences in all of us.

From Will Ladybug Hug? by Hilary Leung

Ever polite, Ladybug approaches each of her friends for permission to hug them. Crocodile looks reluctant but is happy to allow her a side hug.  

Side hugs are cool.  

Bear gives a warm hug and Frog a jumping hug while Ladybug gives a flying jump hug to Giraffe. Sheep declines a hug and Ladybug accepts this, evident in both her demeanour and her words.  

Sheep does not want to hug and that's okay.  

Even when Ladybug asks about a group hug, all but Sheep agree and Ladybug can still find a way to include her friend with an enthusiastic high five. (Note: Ladybug still asks,"And is Sheep ready for a high five?") Everyone is a little different and that makes their friendships all the more special.

From Will Ladybug Hug? by Hilary Leung

I've loved Hilary Leung's artwork since his Ninja Cowboy Bear series with David Bruins (Kids Can Press, 2009-2011) though it is especially well suited to concept books such as Will Ladybug Hug? With bold shapes that are easily recognizable to young children, though unique in expression and manner, Hilary Leung takes on the idea of consent from a wholly unique while educational direction. Hugs can be heart-warming and non-threatening but they can be unwanted and recognizing this without taking offence demonstrates Ladybug's acceptance of differences amongst others without judgement. She does not insist on giving hugs to those who do not want them. She amends her need for hugs by giving side hugs, high fives and just respecting the needs of others. Oh, that everyone could learn this lesson as amicably as Ladybug extends it.

I think Hilary Leung has a hit series on his hands here. His digital illustrations of a diverse collection of animal friends will speak to children about a variety of important but distinct concepts–consent, compromise and emotions–while delighting them with cheerful illustrations in vivid colours used to tell charming stories appropriate for our youngest readers.

Will Bear Share? (May, 2018)

Will Sheep Sleep? (May, 2018)

Will Ladybug Hug? (October, 2018)

Will Giraffe Laugh? (January, 2019)