The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe

Written by Stephanie Simpson McLellan

Illustrated by Zoe Si

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-393-4

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

April 2021 

 

Poor Timothy Shmoe.  He's a kid who never intends to do wrong or misbehave. In fact, according to the myriad of apologies he has to write, he always has a reason behind whatever incident has landed him in hot water again. Unfortunately, things just keep happening. (Funny, huh?)

From The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe by Stephanie Simpson McLellan, illus. by Zoe Si

Timothy Shmoe was not a bad kid...

But sometimes he did bad things.

From calling his father a bad name to expressing his dislike for a gift, playing hockey inside or touching other people's things, Timothy is a kid who just does things and doesn't think about the consequences. In other words, he's like many kids.

From The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe by Stephanie Simpson McLellan, illus. by Zoe Si

For each sorry event, Timothy is required to write a letter of apology. He often starts them with "I'm sorry that..." before going on to explain why what happened has happened. He was just trying to be honest or wanting to cool his mother down on a hot day or he woke up on the wrong side of the bed or Fluffy scratched him or...or...or. There's always something with Timothy that explains away his behaviour, or so he thinks.

From The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe by Stephanie Simpson McLellan, illus. by Zoe Si

But all those little episodes become a colossal comedy of errors when Timothy attends his sister's dance recital and he and his marbles end up creating an act of their own.

From The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe by Stephanie Simpson McLellan, illus. by Zoe Si

Parents and teachers know that impulse control in children may develop earlier (ages 3-4) but may take years to become entrenched, and Timothy is just learning to see that his actions have consequences. Like many parents, his are frazzled, trying to find the means to teach Timothy the behaviours that are less destructive or hurtful and the letter-writing may be a good start. Though he's obviously a reluctant apology writer, Timothy starts to accept that his actions are impacting others. In fact, his final letter suggests that his parents may wish he was never born because he wrecks everything. There is one more letter, this one from his dad, that expresses something very different.

I would only be sorry if you were not my son.

Stephanie Simpson McLellan, who has written a number of my favourites including The Christmas Wind (20017), takes both a light-hearted and serious tone in The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe. Yes, he does some silly things that older kids and adults usually recognize as potentially disastrous, but the frustrations that he and others feel are very real and even distressing. For a child to feel unwanted is sad. Thankfully Stephanie Simpson McLellan has given Timothy parents who are understanding and loving and, with their help, he's sure to grow into his self-control.

Vancouver cartoonist and illustrator Zoe Si uses ink and watercolour to play on that tenuous relationship of humour and consequence. She easily turns Timothy's initial delight in his play into frustration, embarrassment and even shame with his body language and facial expressions. We know how Timothy feels, as well as everyone in his orbit of activity. Except for the crazy dance recital where everything goes awry, Timothy is always the focus of Zoe Si's artwork, with significant white space being used to emphasize his limelight. 

 

There are laughs in The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe but also lessons about intention, consequences and forgiveness. Timothy Shmoe is anybody who makes mistakes and then has to face the consequences for those mistakes. That's all of us. Here's hoping none of our mistakes are ever too consequential for forgiveness.

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.

What If Bunny's Not a Bully?: Book launch (Burlington, ON)

Join author

 Lana Button 

for story time fun at the book launch 

of her latest picture book

What If Bunny's Not a Bully?

Written by Lana Button

Illustrated by Christine Battuz

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0055-4

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2020

on

Sunday, March 1, 2020

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

at

A Different Drummer Books
513 Locust St.
Burlington, ON
L7S 1V3

From publisher Kids Can Press: 

Ideas about bullies (and how we define people) are turned on their heads in this playful rhyming story that questions why a child is being labeled a bully.

Gertie the elephant says everyone on the playground should stay far away from Bunny because she's super mean. But Kitty has questions: How did Bunny become a bully? Was she born that way? Was she stung by a bullybug? Or maybe she caught the bully flu? Wait, does that mean bullying is contagious? And if it is, couldn't the other animals catch it, too? But ... then no one would play with them either, and that doesn't seem fair. Is it possible that Bunny is sorry? Should they give her a second chance?

Not your typical bullying story, Lana Button's fresh take flips the focus from the child being bullied to the one being called a bully. In cadenced rhyming text, the compassionate and insightful Kitty leads children through a series of questions that get at the core of the assumptions we make about others and how it feels to be on the other side of name-calling. Christine Battuz's expressive illustrations use tenderness and a touch of humor to complement the emotional level of the text. Altogether, this is a perfect child-level exploration of empathy. It would be an excellent choice for discussions about bullying, or more broad issues of social development. It also works for character education lessons on empathy, compassion, fairness and inclusiveness.

Retrieved from https://www.kidscanpress.com/products/what-if-bunnys-not-bully on February 10, 2020.

Harvey Comes Home

Written by Colleen Nelson

Illustrations by Tara Anderson

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-097-0

224 pp.

Ages 8-12

September 2019

A scent, a touch, a colour, a voice. They can draw memories. And memories can take you places. They can take you away from the present and towards something else. They can take you to a past that needs to be remembered or give direction to follow forward. And they can take you home in more ways than one.
 
Harvey is a West Highland Terrier who is left in the care of a dog-sitter while Maggie and her family go on holidays. While they are away, Harvey gets out of his yard and "His curiosity takes him farther and farther away from his home." (pg. 18) After several days away, scrambling for food, attacked by another dog, distracted from a rescue, Harvey is found by eleven-year-old Austin who helps his Grandpa out after school at the Brayside Retirement Villa. Though his mother and grandfather insist that Harvey's owners must be looking for him and that Austin needs to take him to the shelter to help locate them, Austin lies about his efforts, hopeful that he'll be able to keep the dog.

During the day, Harvey stays with Grandpa Phillip at Brayside where everyone, staff and residents alike, fawn over the Westie who acts as an unofficial therapy dog. But when Austin arrives, Harvey accompanies him on his chores. When the reticent Mr. Pickering takes a liking to Harvey, Austin finds the ninety-six-year-old man finally willing to talk and share about his past. He talks of his own dog, General, and of growing up during the 1930s. Though Mr. Pickering is sometimes confused about who Austin is, whether his own wife is still alive, and what Brayside is, he goes to a place of memory with Harvey by his side. As for Harvey, when he "sits beside Mr. Pickering, he drifts off into a place of contentment." (pg. 69)

While Mr. Pickering reminisces about living during the Depression and his complicated friendship with an abandoned girl named Bertie, Harvey's memories of Maggie are fading to elusive scents and sounds, Austin continues in his uncomfortable lies, and Maggie searches desperately for the Westie. Colleen Nelson's title may give away a happy ending for Harvey but it's wrapped in a complex tug-of-war of emotions as Mr. Pickering tells his heartrending stories about hardships and tragedies and lessons about forgiveness are learned.

Told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of Harvey, Maggie and Austin, Harvey Comes Home is not just a story about a dog lost and found. It's a story about the bonds between human and dog. These are the bonds that tie us in love and gratitude, responsibility and empathy. They are the ones that give us our humanity via our benevolence for others. But Harvey Comes Home is also about the power of memory to bring us home. I will admit that Colleen Nelson's story brought me to tears time and time again, as an aging Mr. Pickering grabs at his memories, as Bertie survives against all odds, and as Harvey and General are loved and love.  Colleen Nelson always tells a good story (see her YA titles Sadia, Blood Brothers, Finding Hope, and The Fall for a great sampling) but, in her first middle-grade novel, she is able to grab the reader's heartstrings while blending a dog story with an intergenerational relationship and embedding profound reflections on the Depression and the Dust Bowl. It's a complete package as Harvey's, Maggie's and Austin's stories converge, integrated with heart and important messages about connecting with others and forgiveness for mistakes made when scared, hurt or alone.

Harvey Comes Home will make dog-lovers hug their animals and children ask their grandparents to share their stories from their own childhoods, bringing all a little closer and giving life to new memories for all.

From Harvey Comes Home by Colleen Nelson, illus. by Tara Anderson

Circle

Written by Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Candlewick Press

978-0-7636-9608-5

48 pp.

Ages 4-9

March 2019

Young readers met Circle and her friends Square and Triangle in Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's earlier books in the Shape trilogy, Triangle (Candlewick, 2017) and Square (Candlewick, 2018), but now it's Circle's turn to reveal herself. In each of the books, the shape at its centre have dealt with personal issues of trust and self-confidence and, above all, friendship, and now Circle finds herself similarly challenged in this final book in the Shape trilogy.

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Circle and her friends Square and Triangle are playing a game of hide-and-seek near Circle's waterfall but she insists that they cannot hide behind the waterfall. But Triangle chooses to do just that and Circle slips in behind the falls to find him.

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

It is very dark in the cavern behind the falls but, as Circle goes in farther, calling out to Triangle, it becomes pitch black. Only Circle's eyes are visible until a second pair appears. As Circle chastizes Triangle for his rule-breaking and disregard for his friends, the second pair of eyes remains silent. Finally Circle apologizes for her rant and tells Triangle that they love him, just as a third pair of eyes appear behind Circle with Triangle's voice thanking Circle for her declarations. Then things get a little harried as the two realize the third set of eyes does not belong to their friend, though in hindsight, Circle recognizes something highly relevant.

"You know," she said, "that shape in the dark might

not have been bad. It might have been a good shape.

We just could not see it."

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Let's talk about the subtlety of message which is perfectly understated for the very young for whom this board book was written. Kids will know about playing and rules and friends and getting frustrated and angry and then taking all back. They'll know about being afraid of the dark and confronting their fears. But, while Circle speaks to all that, in the hands of that dynamic duo of American Mac Barnett and Canadian Jon Klassen, it also speaks to larger issues of forgiveness and tolerance. Big concepts for a little book but presented in such a sophisticated way that it will permeate any barrier.

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

There is a quietness to Jon Klassen's earthy illustrations, created with a combination of coloured pencils, gouache and crayons, evoking the natural setting for the stories of the three shape friends. Like the rocks and the cavern and the shapes themselves, the illustrations have substance but are not oppressive, while giving hints of harmony and freshness with the touches of mint green for Circle's waterfall. It's so easy to fall into Jon Klassen's art and swim around, even if in the pitch darkness of the deepest depths of that cavern.

I am sorry to see this trilogy end but I am ever hopeful that the partnership of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen will continue, as it should, to add to the canon of picture books that tell powerful stories with distinction and without preaching.

Shape trilogy by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

All That Was

Written by Karen Rivers

Farrar Straus Giroux

978-0-374-30246-7

384 pp.

Ages 12-18

January 2018

Seventeen-year-olds Piper and Sloane are friends. On the surface, they are very similar, or at least make themselves appear similar in hair style and colour and clothing, and spend all their time together or they did until the No-Boyfriend Rule is broken.  But Piper and Sloane's friendship is one of contradictions: love and hate, appreciation and disrespect, and camaraderie and rivalry. With that kind of a basis for a friendship, what happens when one of the friends is gone?

Though Sloane Whittaker thinks of herself as common compared to the more exotic Piper Sullivan, Piper is actually more like the flirty alpha in their friendship. If she wants something, she goes after it and is oblivious to the nuances in their friendship that might indicate Sloane may think differently.  So when they attend an art show that includes the work of Soup Sanchez, a boy Sloane has liked since fourth grade, Piper teases her shamelessly until Sloane denies liking him. The next day Piper reveals she and Soup connected after the show and are now going out. Now Sloane must endure Piper's personal divulgences about their kisses and sex while secretly yearning for the boy she has always liked and coincidentally seems to like her. But it's hard to say "No" to Piper. So when Piper decides that Sloane must experience sex, and she sets her up with a boy, James Robert Wilson, Sloane goes along.

But trouble is brewing as Soup and Sloane are regularly thrown together and Piper, oblivious until one fateful night, continues to direct their lives and her story to her best advantage.  That all changes when Piper dies.

All That Was is told in the voices of Sloane and Soup in terms of "Before" and "Now" relative to Piper's death. Most of the story is the "Before" in which we learn about the basis for Sloane and Piper's friendship; their revealing discussions which are both friendly and hostile; Sloane's aspirations to be a documentary filmmaker; and Soup and Piper's relationship. The "Now" brings to light the police investigation and arrest of a murderer, the guilt Sloane and Soup harbour, and the necessity of perspective and forgiveness, even of oneself.

Although many would consider Piper and Sloane frenemies and their friendship essentially doomed, I think it goes far deeper than that. The two girls sincerely love one another as friends but there is an inherent meanness to their interactions.  Theirs is a dance of sarcasm and one-upmanship, trying to be individuals but scared to be separated.  It's a very real relationship though not one to which anyone would aspire. Although I like some aspects of Sloane, probably identifying her as the underdog of the two, neither Piper nor Sloane are very likable. Karen Rivers made them very real–I suspect most teens know a Piper and a Sloane at their high schools–and their connectedness authentic though strained. Whether there is a message here about forgiveness or getting past tragedy, I don't know.  I do know that Karen Rivers makes it clear that not all friendships are rainbows and unicorns, just as she did in her earlier book Finding Ruby Starling (2014).  Some relationships are darker and deeper like crows and tumultuous waters, but they still build our life experiences, good or bad. Sloane and Soup, and yes, even Piper, can take from this chapter and move forward. Sometimes it is what it is. And All That Was just was.

By the Time You Read This

Written by Jennifer Lanthier

Illustrated by Patricia Storms

Clockwise Press

 978-1-988347-05-9

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

April 2017

By the Time You Read This, this book will probably be out and I’ll have missed its launch, but, hey, what can you do? At least it’s not the devastating news like that which the arm cast-addled Oscar pens to his former friend Sam, beginning with “To my mortal enemy, By the time you read this….” He then proceeds to itemize all the play things he is dismantling or putting the kibosh on in light of their conflict: the Scientific Experiment of Glorious Doom; their Indestructible Fortress of Fiendishness; their Epic Battle of Giant Robots versus Alien Insects; the Magical Zoo of Mystical Creatures; the Neverending Novel of Awesome Adventures; the Precarious Portal for Intrepid Explorers; and the Time Travel Tower of Ultimate Power.  It seems Sam laughed when Oscar fell when skateboarding.

But all that anger dissipates when Sam finds Oscar and apologizes for laughing, not realizing he’d hurt himself.  Recalling all the fun things they had done together, Oscar relents, asking Sam if she’d like to sign his cast.  With that, the two surrender to their friendship and get back to the business of serious play.

From By the Time You Read This 

by Jennifer Lanthier 

illus. by Patricia Storms

Though Oscar is initially vehement in his new enemy-ship with Sam, as denoted by his powerful words and the decisiveness of his actions, he is not immune to a little empathy and an apology.  It’s amazing what a small step of humility and voiced regret can do to turn things around, especially in a childhood friendship.  Children are forever making friends and dissolving friendships on a whim, justifiably so or not.  It’s evident that, in By the Time You Read This, even anger and disappointment can be fleeting and resolved amicably with just a few words.  Jennifer Lanthier’s text demonstrates the depths of friendship in Oscar and Sam’s imaginative play, especially in their super-duper partnership in taking on the world.  How could Oscar and Sam not stay friends?

From By the Time You Read This 

by Jennifer Lanthier 

illus. by Patricia Storms

Patricia Storms, who can illustrate both tender books like Never Let You Go and playful picture books like The Ghosts Go Spooking, lends an energetic atmosphere to By the Time You Read This, portraying the spirit of children in her boldly-coloured cartoons and in the little details in signage (e.g., "Oscar + Sam ONLY, No Parents Allowed, No Brothers Either") and toys.   Kids will laugh themselves silly over the creatures in the Magical Zoo of Mystical Creatures, like the Farting Fur-Tail and Lionisaurus Rex, and probably recognize a few of their own toys within the pages of By the Time You Read This. They’ll definitely see themselves in the book.  This is a important as young readers need to know that friendships sometimes fall apart but can be reconstructed, sometimes with just a little bandage of kind words.  And even though By the Time You Read This ends with Oscar and Sam reconciled, back at play in their Planetary Pirate Ship, they might still have another falling out.  Such are the nature of friendships when you’re close to someone and care about what they feel and do. But, with a smile and a little play (perhaps the board game on the inside of By the Time You Read This' s cover), all might be forgiven.

Everton Miles is Stranger Than Me

I'm delighted to be posting today and tomorrow as part of Dundurn's blog tour for Everton Miles is Stranger Than Me. Check in tomorrow for my interview with author Philippa Dowding.

by Philippa Dowding

Dundurn

978-1-4597-3527-9

228 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2016

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Time to take flight again with Gwendolyn Golden, who first learned that she was a Night Flyer in Philippa Dowding’s The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden (Dundurn, 2014).  Having taken her first flight, she has been given “The Complete  & Unabridged Version (Newly Updated!)” of “Your First Flight: A Night Flyer’s Handbook” which explains the basics about Mentors (hers is Mrs. Forest of The Float Boat candy store) and Watchers (hers is Mr. McGillies, a local hermit) and Spirit Flyers and more.  But it doesn’t prepare her fully for the dark, winged figure with glowing eyes that she hears calling her name when flying near the cornfields at Mr. McGillies's cabin.

Starting high school brings its own anxieties, particularly from bully Shelley Norman and from Martin Evells, with whom Gwendolyn had shared an awkward kiss (called “The Worst Kiss Ever”) last spring and whose mother had started a rumour that she was a drug addict (you'll definitely want to read The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden).  Circumstances at home are similarly tenous with her twin siblings, Christopher and Christine a.k.a. C2, who have been directed by their school to take part in family therapy which Mom and Gwendolyn must also attend.  But things become even more messy when she learns that Everton Miles whom she’d met at the Midsummer Party of Night Flyers a few months earlier has moved to Bass Creek with his older brother Emerson.  More handsome and grown-up than she remembers him, Everton warns Gwendolyn not to fly out to Mr. McGillies's alone anymore.

Who is he to tell her what to do when he's been seen with his arm around Shelley Norman?! But then Martin is continuing to show an interest in Gwendolyn and demonstrating how caring he can be, especially when she sees him out at Mr. McGillies’s cabin.  Wait. What?  And then Gwendolyn learns Martin and Everton have been working together out at Mr. McGillies's. OK, that's all weird but stranger yet, and darker too, is the Rogue Spirit Flyer who is trying to beguile her away from everything and everyone.  Did I mention that Everton has been working with Celestine, a Spirit Flyer, “a starshot immortal of light and air” (pg. 74), to hunt down this Rogue?

Everton Miles is a teenage Rogue-hunter with terrible taste in girls and a shimmering, underage Spirit Flyer for a friend. 

If I didn’t think so before, I do now: it’s entirely possible that Everton Miles is stranger than me. (pg. 77)

So amidst the typical and dreadful teen angst of boy-girl crushes, rivalries and friendships, and family frailties, Gwendolyn Golden is worrying about a scary Rogue that has targeted her.  Fortunately for Gwendolyn, Philippa Dowding has given her an all-star cast of supporters in best friend Jez, potential boyfriend Martin and fellow Night Flyer Everton, as well as in her hilarious siblings (their repartee is worth the price of the book!).  The secondary characters of Mom, Mr. and Mrs. Forest, Dr. Parks, Celestine and Mr. McGillies help round out the sharp edges of a life in upheaval.  And I haven't even mentioned the shocking revelations regarding Gwendolyn’s family that come to light.

Beyond the fantastical night flying, the aspiration of many a dreamer, Everton Miles is Stranger Than Me is firmly grounded in a coming-of-age story, one in which self-acceptance and forgiveness come from the ordinary.  The extraordinary is just in the way you see things, allowing the conventional to be seen from a different perspective. Whether spatially–above or below– or temporally–from before or after–perspective is everything, isn't it? 

Finding Ruby Starling

by Karen Rivers

Alfred A. Levine Books/Scholastic

978-0-545-53479-6

304 pp.

Ages 10-14

August, 2014

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Karen River’s latest book for young readers is a successful take on a Parent Trap-type plot, albeit with the benefits of modern technology and perhaps a friendly spirit. 

While goofing around online with a face-matching app called FaceTrace, 12-year-old Ruth Quayle, adopted daughter of a heart surgeon and a scientist, discovers a British look-alike in trendier clothes named Ruby Starling. Through a series of Tumblr posts, emails with her best, talking to her parents, and contacting Ruby, Ruth determines that she and the other girl are identical twins who somehow became separated.

“I feel like half of me has just been peeled away, like a decal being pulled off its back sticky bit, making me just the waxy papery rubbish left behind.” (pg. 11)

Unconvinced about Ruth’s theory, Ruby reaches out to her friends for advice, though she knows that only her mother – a busy artist distracted by her work – and her deceased grandmother could tell her the truth.  Finding the need to talk to grandmother, Ruby writes letters (obviously never sent) to air her thoughts.  When a painting by Ruby’s mother of her as a baby with a shadow baby in the background falls off the wall, Ruby becomes convinced that her Nan has sent her a message from beyond the grave indicating that Ruby and Ruth are indeed twins.

By using only emails, letters, and Tumblr posts for Ruth and Ruby to communicate their secrets, concerns and questions, Karen Rivers’ ensures that the girls’ youthful voices are always maintained.  And, though the twins have bigger issues with which to deal, including fear, abandonment and grief, Karen Rivers embeds those issues seamlessly within natural interactions with family and friends, adding quirky teachings from a Buddhist calendar, occasional ghostly messages and some boyfriend-girlfriend drama to help keep the heavy issues from detracting from the story’s feelgood nature.

Karen Rivers’ story of long-lost twins could have easily followed a typical, comedic path. But by showing how the lives of Ruth and Ruby are enriched by the discovery of each other, the author has created a more complex narrative that explores themes of family and friendship.

(A version of this review was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)

Kubiw, H. (2014, October). [Review of the book Finding Ruby Starling, by Karen Rivers]. Quill & Quire, 80 (8): 38.