Julia and Romano

Written by Eric Walters
DCB Young Readers 

978-1-77086-823-6
Ages 13+
304 pp.
March 2026

 

When sixteen-year-old Julia Anderson's mom, Susan Eden, moves the two of them to Campbell River, BC, Julia a.k.a. Jules is not impressed. Not only is she leaving her boyfriend Paris, and friends like Jodi, Shannon, and Beth behind, she must leave the big city Toronto for a smaller community where the major industries are forestry and fishing. But, because Mom caught Jules's dad cheating and wanted a new start, she accepted a job as the executive director and lawyer for the environmental group Eco-Guardians at Campbell River.

 

So, while Mom is busy dealing with a logging company eager to cut a disputed tract of forest, as well as with associated businesses like the mill, Jules goes exploring. When she is accosted by dangerous Steller sea lions, she meets local teen Cody who takes her for fish and chips. She doesn't know much about him, as he goes to the other high school in town, but the two bump into each other a few times, and he shows her around town. Cody is smitten and becomes very protective of her. He warns her to be careful around some people, like the Devil Dogs, a local biker gang, and at her first bush party.

 

Even as the two teens are falling in love, they learn that Julia's mom has been fighting Cody's dad, Raphael Romano, who owns Royal Lumber Mill. The two teens had never realized that the conflict their parents had was with each other because Jules has her father's last name. And his dad and her mom are not pleased about Cody and Jules's relationship.

 

As in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which inspired Julia and Cody's story, there is conflict between families, a secret relationship, and a love that cannot be broken. Even the teens see the similarities, they anticipate a happier ending.

“This isn’t Romeo and Juliet,” Cody said. “This is Julia and Romano. We’re free to write our own story and this one can have a happy ending.” (pg. 148)

I'm glad the Forest Kid Committee (Red Maple) put this novel on its summer reading list because that means teens (and late middle-grade readers) have already been enjoying the story of Jules and Cody. I'm also glad that I finally got to review this novel. Beyond its sweet Shakespearean inspiration, Julia and Romano is influenced by the unique location of Campbell River, focusing on the land, its people, and its industry. Campbell River becomes a character in itself, shaping the way people interact, the struggles they have, and how the environment dictates so much. Eric Walters, extraordinary storyteller and observant writer of the human condition, tells Jules and Cody's story as a function of their place: how they meet, how they date, and how they are conflicted. He gives them latitude to be themselves and to grow to be new people. This is how Julia and Romano differs from Shakespeare's play. Eric Walters's characters are not doomed by their circumstances. They can be more than the legal and environmental feud between their families. They can make change happen and continue to love.

 

Don't worry that Jules and Cody's story will end as Romeo and Juliet's did. Eric Walters has written a love story that will endure.

The Log Driver's Waltz

Words by Wade Hemsworth

Illustrated by Jennifer Phelan

Simon & Schuster Canada

978-1-5011-6195-1

40 pp.

All ages

September 2018

Whether you know the song "The Log Driver's Waltz" from the National Film Board short (John Weldon, 1979) or the version by the group Mountain City Four (with vocals by Kate and Anna McGarrigle) that accompanied the Canada Vignettes animated film, The Log Driver's Waltz is a piece of Canadiana which all will recognize. Written by folk singer-songwriter Wade Hemsworth of the agile log drivers he observed while he worked as a surveyor in remote areas of Canada, The Log Driver's Waltz is an iconic folk song of work and play and love in a northern landscape of trees and water.

Wade Hemsworth's lyrics may take readers and music listeners to a time when log driving, the work of moving cut trees from the forest to the mills downstream via river, was common and economically critical, but The Log Drive's Waltz is really a song about dancing, as a girl dreams to dancing with a lively and sure-footed log driver.

When the drive's nearly over
I like to go down
And watch all the lads
as they work on the river
I know that come evening
they'll be in the town
And we all like to waltz with a log driver. 

From The Log Driver's Waltz by Wade Hemsworth, illus. by Jennifer Phelan

Reading The Log Driver's Waltz has me singing aloud a song that should be sung at campfires and school concerts to celebrate a Canada of our past. But it's Toronto artist Jennifer Phelan's updated artwork that brings the song and its story to the present, without making it a contemporary tale, which it is not. Log driving is very rare anywhere in the world now but Jennifer Phelan's illustrations seem almost timeless. Though the log driver's appearance could be from the 1920s or the 2010s–a bearded fellow in a plaid shirt and toque–the dress of others reflects a variety of times.  There are the long dresses of the 1900s or the flapper girl dresses and the spats of the 1920s and even top hats. In fact, our T-shirt-wearing girl puts on a simple frock and pumps that could be from anytime between 1920 and 2018.

While she makes The Log Driver's Waltz about the log driver and a girl who yearns to dance with him above all others, Jennifer Phelan also makes the story a detailed homage to the task of the log drivers. She creates movement, integral to the work and the dancing, with line and shape that reflects the original animation of the film with astounding success. It's an organic take on the log driver's story.

From The Log Driver's Waltz by Wade Hemsworth, illus. by Jennifer Phelan

Moreover she honours those folk who brought history to life through music and art. In one image, the girl prepping for the dance is seen wearing a McGarrigle Sisters'1979 concert tour T-shirt. The flyer distributed to all announces the Weldon Waltz, recognizing the director of the NFB film. Even the endpapers show a darkened theatre with a small lit screen. And a stone statue outside the dance hall where the Weldon Waltz is held depicts the songwriter himself, Wade Hemsworth. Moreover, this is a Canadian story, though log driving was done throughout the world. Here we see pine trees reflective of Group of Seven styles, beavers, moose and the folk art traditions of our country.

The Log Driver's Waltz is a celebration of music and art, retelling a story from the past and giving it new life in the present. And we're delighted to be reminded of those who go "birling down and down white water..." and renew the earworm experience of that vintage song.