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.

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/