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)

Yael and the Party of the Year

Written by Tamsin Lane

Simon & Schuster Canada

978-1-5011-7613-5

160 pp.

Ages 8-12

2018

Yael Lewis is twelve and the party of the year is her upcoming bat mitzvah. That is, if it isn't railroaded by her mother, her anxiety over her Torah reading and public speaking, and a couple of boys that are turning her head. But that seems the norm for an almost-thirteen-year-old girl, right?

As much as I'd like to tell you more about the plot, I really can't. That's because there is no single plot line in Yael and the Party of the Year. Yael and the Party of the Year, and a second title, Tara Takes the Stage, released last year by Tamsin Lane, are part of a new series called Yes No Maybe So. I can tell you that Yael is preparing for her bat mitzvah, that she is expected to read a portion of the Torah and that there will be a party at which she is expected to give a speech. Those elements are cemented in the story as is the venue for her party, the Maize amusement park, and her friends, Tara, Gemma and Paloma, and three boys, Eli, Cam and Gabriel. After that, it's up to the reader to make decisions for Yael. Will she go to Eli's house to rehearse her reading or to the amusement park for a tour with her parents? Does she encourage Cam to attend synagogue with her family or not or does she feign illness not to go at all? Does she focus on her girl friends or give into her crushes? Who will get that special first dance?

I thought it might be impossible to review a book whose plot is determined by the choices of the reader. But a Yes No Maybe So book is less a choose-your-own-story than seeing that sometimes choices lead to only a few outcomes. Tamsin Lane, the pen name of a Canadian writer whose books I've previously reviewed on CanLit for LittleCanadians, recognizes how little things can become very big things for young people, especially when they are convinced that every decision could make or break their futures. Expecting that any decision could mean the difference between a complete and total disaster, as was Eli's bar mitzvah, and the party of the year is a heavy load for a young person upon whom great hopes are placed. Fortunately, young readers who undertake a reading of this interactive book will recognize soon enough that the outcomes may be different but they aren't always better or worse and that there's sure to be a few laughs along the way. From the epic tantrums of Yael's two-year-old sister Rivka to getting lost in a corn maze, Yael and the Party of the Year makes lightness out of seemingly critical choices. Fortunately Tamsin Lane makes sure that Yael gets a great party in the end, whether she gets kissed or not, or wears the T-shirt her mother chose or her own design, or whether her first dance is a slow one with a boy she likes or the chicken dance.

Ninja Cowboy Bear

Still doing rock-paper-scissors?  Need a bit more kinesthetic activity? Want to support Canadian authors and illustrators?  Then, have I got a series for you.

Two young men, David Bruins and Hilary Leung, have come together to produce Ninja Cowboy Bear, a series of books based on the unlikely friendship of these three characters.  Ninja, Cowboy and Bear love spending time together - swinging, cycling, baking, kite-flying - regardless of their very strong differences.  The stories revolve around the three friends and how they work through their differences in personalities and abilities in order to stay friends.

Illustrator Hilary Leung's charming characters are recognizable even to very young children, who will enjoy the detailed but unencumbered drawings of their activities.  Teachers and parents will love the lessons about accepting differences but the kids will love the playful interactions of the friends and learning how to play the new version of an old decision-making strategy.

To date, three books in the series have been published:

The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear
by David Bruins and illustrated by Hilary Leung
Kids Can Press, 2009
978-1-55453-486-9

Ninja Cowboy Bear Presents The Way of the Ninja
by David Bruins and illustrated by Hilary Leung
 Kids Can Press, 2010
978-1-55453-615-3

Ninja Cowboy Bear Presents The Call of the Cowboy
by David Bruins and illustrated by Hilary Leung
 Kids Can Press, 2011
978-1554537488




Of course, one of the best things about the series is the game Ninja Cowboy Bear.

To play the game:

1. Use Hilary Leung's illustration here to learn the 3 moves of the characters. Ninja looks ready to attack, one leg bent and raised.  Cowboy pulls two guns out, ready for a shoot-out. Bear holds both arms up to look big and scary.

2. Stand with your back to your partner and decide which character's pose you will use.

3. When ready, take 3 steps away from each other, counting to three.  Turn around on "3".

4. See who wins.

 (Both of the above game diagrams are provided as downloads at the Ninja Cowboy Bear website of David Bruins and Hilary Leung.)

I would recommend checking out their amazing Ninja Cowboy Bear website for information about the books and the game, as well as accessing colouring sheets, crafts, T-shirts, and contact for the author and illustrator.

I'm looking forward to the inevitable fourth book in the series.  Roar of the Bear? Hibernating with Bear? Your guess is probably better than mine.