Me & Mr. Bell

by Philip Roy

Cape Breton University Press

978-1-927492-55-0 (pb)

978-1-927492-57-4 (eBook)

140 pp.

Ages 9-13

2013

For Alexander Graham Bell, his vacation home at Baddeck, Cape Breton is his retreat and inspiration for his many ideas.  For the residents of Baddeck in 1908, Bell is the smartest man in the world and worthy of their awe and respect for his privacy and that of his family. Not surprising that everyone regularly shows up to welcome the family when they return and to witness any demonstrations the great man chooses to share publicly. Sadly, ten-year-old Eddie MacDonald who still cannot read or write bungles a message about the Bells’ return time and angers his father so much that the man deems Eddie only good enough to be a farmer and nothing else.  Chastened, Eddie accepts himself as the “learning cripple” his family and teacher believe him to be, even introducing himself as “Nobody” when he accidentally meets the famous Alexander Graham Bell.

Though no one believes that the boy has met the great man, Eddie begins to see Bell more regularly, even being invited to Bell’s home, meeting Helen Keller, and receiving mail from the man when away.  With a few revelations and much determination, Eddie learns to see himself and others in a new light, courtesy of his friendship with the elusive inventor.

In a straightforward but rich story, author Philip Roy intertwines the lives of a brilliant innovator with an unassuming boy, emphasizing their common bonds and the opportunities that can be lost when judgements override all else.

For teachers who are always looking for great historical fiction, especially for the middle grades, I would enthusiastically recommend Me & Mr. Bell.  By integrating information about a great scientist and Helen Keller (there's biographic tie-ins here) with the history of flight (another curriculum topic), simple machines and innovation, the geography of Nova Scotia, and character education (determination, perseverance and imagination), Me & Mr. Bell has it all, and at an appropriate reading level.  And it's youngCanLit which we should be supporting in all our book choices.  Perfect package for everyone!

Guilty

by Norah McClintock

Orca Book Publishers

978-1554699896

223 pp.

Ages 12-15

2012

Reviewed from ebook

978-1554699926

There's usually no single truth because every story varies with the perspective.  So too with crimes.  And in Norah McClintock's Guilty, two young people, Finn and Lila, see two crimes from two different perspectives.  The first crime, ten years earlier, had Lila's father, Louis Ouimette, accepting a guilty plea for the murder of Finn's mother.  Now, only three days after Louis Ouimette's release from prison, Finn's step-mom Tracie is shot, and Finn's dad shoots Louis in self-defense.

While Lila tries to deal with the loss of her father and the logistics of being alone and returning to live with her aunt in Boston, she tries to reconcile her confusion about the events that took her father's life.  Her dad had always told her that he hadn't killed Mrs. Newsome but the stolen goods had been found in his apartment, so he took a plea to get out of prison faster to be with his daughter.  But what was he doing at the Newsome's when he'd vowed to be turning everything around for her?

Meanwhile, Finn is helping his father cope with the loss of his second wife (even if Finn couldn't stand her): going to the police station, helping with funeral arrangements, tiding up Tracie's wardrobe.  But Finn can't help but be reminded of his mother's murder.  He'd only been seven but finding her body when he and his dad had returned from an evening out at his dad's club had been traumatic.

When Lila goes to the police station to enlist the help of Detective Sanders, she meets Finn who shares with her his rage at the man who killed his mother and how his dad had killed that man, unaware that he is speaking about Lila's father.  That meeting is but the first that bring Lila and Finn together as she pursues information from the police files, from a prison tutor and from old work mates at Mr. Newsome's club, as well as discretely from Finn, who begins to reconsider what he knows about both crimes. 

Guilty is a perfect example of why Norah McClintock is the queen of Canadian YA crime fiction, having won the Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction at least five times.  In Guilty, the reader knows that there are major gaps in the police reports about the crimes from the onset, with Finn claiming to be a witness when the reader can tell the limits of his observations.  And with Lila delving into the details of both crimes, using only the resources most people could access (e.g., internet, library, newspapers, interviews, etc.), her pursuit is reasonable albeit determined.  She is not just looking for the answer to, "Who-dun-it?" but also to "Why?" and "How?," making the mystery far more complicated to unravel.  Guilty is great plot-driven crime novel that doesn't sacrifice its fine characters for want of a better story.  With both Finn and Lila coming at the crimes from different perspectives, converging at a dramatic life-threatening climax, Norah McClintock keeps the story fast-paced and intriguing, hopeful for justice (the coveted aim for most readers of crime fiction) and even peace of mind through resolution.

Charlie's Key

Written by Rob Mills
Orca Books
978-1-55469-872-1
254 pp.
Ages 12+
2011 

The cover art of Charlie's Key may suggest a dark and eerie, spine-tingling story but the suspense here is much more common and sadly relates to Plato's question: "Who will watch the watchmen?"

Charlie Sykes, 13, and his father, Michael, leave Fort McMurray, Alberta, for Newfoundland shortly after his father gets a troubling phone call.  A car accident with a moose (very common in Newfoundland) leaves Charlie an orphan but not before his father slips him an unfamiliar key.

Under the watchful eyes of the police, who seem to react to the Sykes name, Charlie is shunted from the hospital to "The Hollow", a juvenile facility, until a foster placement becomes available for him.  At the school, an older, nasty kid, nicknamed Flarehead, targets Charlie, physically abusing him whenever Frankie Walsh, another teen, isn't around to stand up for Charlie.  Frankie, a tough guy, takes an interest in Charlie upon learning his last name, and helps protect him in exchange for completing a reading proficiency test that Frankie repeatedly fails but needs to pass in order to be released from The Hollow. Another significant contact Charlie makes here is with Clare Dalton, a teen at the adjacent girls' rehab facility, who does some on-line research about the Sykes family.  Charlie learns of his uncle Nick, his father's brother, who has recently been released from prison where he'd been incarcerated for murder. His victim had been Brother Sullivan, one of the monks in charge of Cliffside, the orphanage at which Nick and Michael stayed after their parents' deaths in a fire.  A second murder in prison added more time to Nick's sentence.

When Frankie is released the same day that Charlie is to attend the memorial service for his father, he helps Charlie get away from the police (Sergeant Grimes, a.k.a. Tubby) and Child Services people (including his advocate, Dez) but not before Charlie meets his uncle.  Even when Frankie and his preppie friend, Gerald, take Charlie to a party at Clare's house (Clare, now out of rehab though still using Oxy (i.e., oxycodone), is a friend of Gerald's), Nick finds him and threatens him to get the key. But, it is only with several more encounters between Nick and Charlie, as well as other key characters, that the full story is revealed.

Rob Mills' writing seamlessly brings together the pathos of Charlie's situation with the coarseness of Frankie's and Nick's circumstances.  Their worlds, choked by alcoholism, intense anger and/or societal limitations may be difficult to comprehend for some, especially with the crude language used (particularly in references to women or to the abuse), but their realities are just that.  However, although Charlie's reality moves from one of naiveté and relative safety to one interconnected with Frankie and Nick, he is able to adjust well, applying his past to new experiences to help him make appropriate and ultimately self-sustaining decisions.  Beyond Rob Mills' strong characterizations is the suspenseful plot of Charlie's Key, which spends little time focusing on the mystery of the key itself but rather on the balance and merger of the past and the present.  The cliff hangers, beyond those of its setting, repeatedly lead the reader to anticipate but instead surprise, just the way a great thriller should.