Worm on the Job

Written by Maureen Fergus

Illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1316-5

36 pp.

Ages 3–7

May 2026

 

If there's one lesson to learn from Worm, it's that anything is possible if you can see your strengths for what they are and apply them to each situation. Not surprising that Worm is the guy for every job because he believes in himself. 

From Worm on the Job, written by Maureen Fergus, illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

After being the head librarian for many years, Worm decides it's time for a new job. And he's willing to try anything. Even when the job may be hazardous to Worm, like life-guarding in the hot sun or deep-sea fishing among sharks, Worm gives it a try. But when he sees a sign advertising for a "courageous night security guard to keep dastardly thief from stealing nifty inventions," (pg. 8) Worm thinks he's found just the job for him. And though the manager is reluctant to hire him, Worm easily proves his value with his unique strengths.  

From Worm on the Job, written by Maureen Fergus, illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

When that dastardly thief shows up just as Worm is checking out all the cool inventions, Worm puts his many strengths of flexibility and sliminess to work to catch the bad guy.

 "And when I believe I can do something . . ."

 "I usually can." (pg. 33-34)

From Worm on the Job, written by Maureen Fergus, illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

It's not often that a worm can inspire risk-taking and self-confidence, but Maureen Fergus's Worm does just that. He believes he can, so he does. He may have to adjust his choices, but they are still his to make. And because he believes in himself, every choice is a step closer to finding another job that he will challenge himself to take on. He is tenacious, courageous, and positive, and he could be a role-model for any non-worm who may be anxious about trying something new. 

 

Because Maureen Fergus's story of Worm is couched in much humour which illustrator Paul G. Hammond strengthens with his whimsical digital art—do check out the clever details like Worm sorting library books on soil, composting, or crawling, or the striking inventions in the convention center—Worm on the Job is not a preachy tale. It's fun and inspiring and entertaining. And perhaps it will give all readers an opportunity to see their own attributes with fresh eyes.  

Nevin Knows

Written by Mireille Messier

Illustrated by Elena Comte

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-3684-6

32 pp.

Ages 3-5

February 2025 

 

What does Nevin know? He knows what he wants. 

From Nevin Knows, written by Mireille Messier, illustrated by Elena Comte

Nevin may not have a lot of words in his vocabulary yet–he is but a toddler–but he's pretty clear how to say "No" and "Yes" and he knows when to use them. When he and his Grandpa Frank are getting ready to visit the park, Grandpa Frank asks Nevin what he wants to wear. He gives his grandson choices, some of which are quite silly, and Nevin makes it clear which is the best choice for him. He may not realize it, but Grandpa Frank is giving the child the opportunity to be part of the process rather than just making him do what his caregivers are going to do anyways. (The sneakers were always the best choice, as was the ball cap.)

From Nevin Knows, written by Mireille Messier, illustrated by Elena Comte

Even as they start heading out, Grandpa Frank asks Nevin which way to go. (I'm sure Grandpa Frank knows but by giving Nevin the opportunity to voice his choices, the child is amused and given power.)

From Nevin Knows, written by Mireille Messier, illustrated by Elena Comte

Nevin knows his favourite places to play and how much he likes greeting the birds and a dog, and even which flowers to pick for Nana. (Thankfully he doesn't want the planted flowers but rather the dandelions.)

From Nevin Knows, written by Mireille Messier, illustrated by Elena Comte

The whole point of Nevin Knows is how a grandfather allows his grandson to make choices that empower him, even if Grandpa Frank has known all along what they would be doing and where they would be going. It's a kind and compassionate grandparent who can ask rather than always be telling a child what's going to happen. I suspect that even if Nevin chose something inappropriate, Grandpa Frank would turn it around to ensure that it was a good choice but one that Nevin made himself. Mireille Messier, who has written numerous picture books in both English and French (e.g., The Magic Cap, Nutcracker Night, and Fatima and the Clementine Thieves just to name a few), easily gets into the head of a young child and what they want and to thrive, and into the shoes of those fun and kind grandparents who care for their grandchildren without being authoritarian. Mireille Messier demonstrates that young children, even those with limited vocabularies, can share their feelings and needs if there are only those who would ask and listen.

 

Elena Comte, a Montreal illustrator and nurse, created the artwork for Nevin Knows digitally, emphasizing the shapes and colours that would appeal to very young children. But more than that, she creates scenes that emphasize the elements would be most important to children: dandelions, birds, swings, a playground spring rider, grass, and those they love. 

Both Mireille Messier and Elena Comte make sure that this book truly is about Nevin. There may be caregivers who supervise and protect him, but Nevin is given the capacity to make choices. With that gift of empowerment, even in allowing him to make the simplest of choices, his grandfather bolsters his little grandson and provides him with opportunities for building his confidence and his voice, and for strengthening their relationship. How lovely is that?

Good Boy Timmy

Written by Eric Walters

Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

DCB Young Readers

978-1-77086-736-9

24 pp.

Ages 3-5

November 2024

 

Who is Timmy the dog? Is he the old dog who is too old to act badly? Or is he the dog who can get into trouble when no one is around?  Or is he the good dog this little girl and her dad believe him to be?

From Good Boy Timmy, written by Eric Walters, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

Timmy loves going to the park. He gets to see all the other dogs and the kids at play, but Dad is convinced Timmy loves being at home. So, when they must leave Timmy alone, well provided with food and water, they are convinced he'll be a good boy since, after all, he's too old to misbehave.

From Good Boy Timmy, written by Eric Walters, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

Timmy is offended by what he hears, knowing that he is a relative of wild wolves and a descendant of daring dingoes, and he knows how to be rambunctious. He's watched "Animal Planet" on TV! So, Timmy chooses to be Bad Boy Timmy, ripping things apart including the girl's favourite pink sweater, getting into cupboards, and spilling the goldfish bowl. Or does he?

From Good Boy Timmy, written by Eric Walters, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

From the text to the illustrations, Good Boy Timmy has a familiar feel to the innocent stories of mid-century primers but with more heart. Instead of the stereotypical characters of those early stories, Eric Walters has given us a family of father and daughter with Timmy and a story about choosing our best behaviours. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it. And by making the behaviour of that of a dog, Eric Walters doesn't judge children who will all experience different and difficult choices in their lives. His story is instead a gentle reminder to choose well even when tempted to do otherwise.

Eugenie Fernandes also illustrated Eric Walters's picture book Today is the Day as well as her own books including When Rabbit Was a Lion and Finding Lucy. She has a light touch, keeping the stories about the characters and their connections to each other. She gives them life and light and a sense of fun. Timmy may be the star of the book, and Eugenie Fernandes makes him an adorable star, but the little girl and dad are just as captivating, especially in their affection for him.

For a charming story that reminds us all why we should make good choices, Good Boy Timmy is the read. It's also a gentle reminder that dogs will be dogs, as is their nature, but even an old dog can remember important lessons learned.

 

Me (and) Me

Written by Alice Kuipers

HarperCollins Canada

9781443448826

288 pp.

Ages 14+

April 2017

Lark Hardy’s seventeenth birthday should’ve been a fun day, and it had begun that way, a first date with Alec Sandcross canoeing at Pike Lake.  But one moment changes everything.  As the teens are about to embark on some swimming, a cry from Suzanne Fields, the mother of five-year-old Annabelle whom Lark had babysat, draws their attention to the child face down in the water. Alec dives in but hits his head and starts going down.  And as Suzanne yells at Lark to do something, the teen hesitates, not knowing whom to save.  So begins a novel split in two voices, both Larks and both Lark’s.

The first Lark begins to describe the days after the near drowning in which Alec has been saved and Annabelle lays in a hospital bed in a coma. Alec and Lark’s new relationship is blossoming, and he begins to teach her how to do parkour, climbing, running and jumping across obstacles such as buildings and bridges. Becoming so entwined with the attentive and charismatic Alec, Lark starts blowing off best friend Lucy and bandmates Nifty, Reid and Iona to spend time with Alec.  When she starts getting weird messages on her phone about Alec not being saved, Lark is disconcerted but has no answers. But when she visits Annabelle in the hospital, and hallucinates that she’s drowning in water and then glimpses a girl who is but isn’t her, Lark starts to think she’s going crazy.

In an alternate voice and chapters, a second Lark, one who cuts her hair short and dyes it red, recounts those same days, but ones in which music exec Martin Fields and wife Suzanne are ever grateful to her for saving their young daughter while Alec’s family sits by his hospital bedside, contemplating turning off the machines that are keeping him alive.  Lark still harbours much anger about her mother’s passing and translates that anger into petty shoplifting of items she doesn’t even want.  But though this Lark is starting to connect with bandmate Reid, she too is baffled by freaky messages including those of a not-hospital bound Alec and an intimate relationship with him.

Lark, whether the long- and dark-haired one or she of the red hair, have similar circumstances: a musical mother who has passed; a dad with heart issues; best friend Lucy; a passion for writing songs; and playing with bandmates Reid, Iona and Nifty.  She is also starting to suspect she’s losing it, seeing things like imaginary water near drowning her and disappearing messages.

The linchpin for Lark becomes the lyrics her mother started penning before her death.

Perhaps you see it differently
You and me
It’s just a case of who tells the story
Perhaps you see it differently. (pg. 86)

Showering her intense text with astounding lyrics, Alice Kuipers  brings both Larks together to juxtapose the parallel lives they lead after the near drowning at the lake.  Confused by grief, fears and even guilt, both girls (or are they really two?) attempt to make sense of a world in which their own choices for actions have consequences that they wish they could undo.  They are two halves of the same whole, different but similar. They are Me (and) Me.  (There’s even a crazy moment when the two face off and shout, “Who even are you?” “Who the hell are you?”; pg. 240) It’s hard to say whether the two will come together equally, though Lark recognizes that,

I have to stitch myself back together.  I have to make myself whole. (pg. 270)

or whether Lark will become more of one than the other.  However, it’s clear that Alice Kuipers in her daring storytelling and almost maternal concern for her characters wants to help keep Lark together. Life is hard enough without questioning your decisions, especially those made under pressure, and when literally being torn apart by them.  I can’t tell you how it ends (you’ll see when you read Me (and) Me) but I can tell you that the story comes full circle, secured in its own way, though not tied up as you might expect.

Check back tomorrow for my Me (and) Me blog tour stop with a guest post by author Alice Kuipers.  Ever enlightening, Alice Kuipers speaks about why she writes YA.

Best Friends Through Eternity

by Sylvia McNicoll

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-710-8 

192 pp.

Ages 12+

For release February 10, 2015

Most of us dream of the opportunity for a do-over after we've messed up something big.  The regret and/or guilt can be overwhelming.  But what if a do-over was possible but you'd have to be careful not to make matters worse.  Would you do it?  What if you thought you had nothing to lose because you were already dead?

Fourteen-year-old Paige Barta is willing to take that chance after she is killed by a train walking home from school, believing she should have been trying to help her best friend Jasmine (Jazz).  Jazz had been off with her new boyfriend, Cameron, unaware that Cameron's ex, the vicious Vanessa, was plotting an attack. Angrily taking off when she should have been waiting for Jazz,  Paige finds herself laying in a hospital bed, unconscious and dying.  But meeting up on an after-life beach with a childhood friend, Kim, who'd been adopted from China as was Paige, gives the teen the chance for a retake of the past week.

So now Paige has to rethink everything she has said and done, knowing this is her chance to make things right, without letting on that she's going to die or that she knows about the future attack on Jazz.  However, Paige is also rethinking her attitudes about her adoption, about her parents, about Kim's death of which she'd been unaware, about the friendly Max Liu, and even about her food choices.  Being given the chance to make different choices, however, doesn't mean those choices are necessarily better, and Paige learns that sometimes, no matter what, you can't control everything.

Though life-and-death do-overs (is there an actual term for this?) have been popularized in movies and in TV shows, it's a tough one to do well in text, especially for young people for whom the idea of death is often completely unimaginable.  Sylvia McNicoll has shown that she has a knack for writing great teen voices and a strong record for bringing the issue of death into the realm of youth, having made it a focus in books such as crush.candy.corpse (Lorimer, 2012), Dying to Go Viral (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013) and Revenge on the Fly (Pajama Press, 2014). But the focus is not on the morbid but the life lead and the choices made for purposeful lives. Although Paige is shocked to learn she is dying and that Kim has died and that others may die as a result of her actions, her focus remains on choices made with compassion rather than anger and bitterness.  It's a lesson we could all learn.  Too bad Paige–and probably everyone who has ever lived–doesn't learn this lesson until it's too late.  Fortunately, in Best Friends Through Eternity, Sylvia McNicoll gives Paige another chance to show us how it's done.

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If you get the chance, check out the book launch for Best Friends Through Eternity, this weekend in Burlington, Ontario. Sylvia McNicoll puts on a great book launch!

Dying to Go Viral

by Sylvia McNicoll

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-271-9

251 pp.

Ages 12+

June, 2013

When fourteen-year-old Jade dies as a result of a skateboarding accident, dying becomes the least of her worries.  Nothing will undo that, no matter how much she chastizes herself about her carelessness and stupidity.  Let's face it: skateboarding without a helmet while hanging onto a car just so your eighteen-year-old crush can film it is pretty stupid.  And, like most stupid choices, there are unwanted consequences.  Jade's is her death.  But a lovely welcome from her mother on "the other side" has Jade wishing she hadn't caused so much more grief for her brother Devon and her dad and asking if she could return to the land of the living, just temporarily, to mitigate their guilt in her death.  Jade is given the opportunity to go back one week before her accident, and although she cannot change anything (it's that whole one-small-change-could-affect-all-history scenario), she can set things up so that her dad and brother accept no blame for her death.

But, when she returns just at the moment her best friend Scratch is about to attempt a grind on his skateboard which she knows will result in a broken wrist, Jade cannot help but try to step in.  Of course he still injures himself in a similar manoeuver but shortly after that and with more serious consequences, teaching Jade to heed her mother's advice that she shouldn't make any changes to the larger destiny.

"We can't know whether some change you make will drive destiny down a worse or a better path.  That's what makes reliving this week so dangerous." (pg.37)

So, Jade draws up a list of intentions, mostly centred on getting her dad a girlfriend and backing off on insisting Devon go to university (something he isn't at all interested in but willing to do but then quit), and allowing the three of them to spend more quality time together as a family.  But two things continue to thwart her plans:  Dad's workaholism with respect to his graphics company, and Devon's reluctance to interact with his father, knowing Dad just refuses to see Devon's perspective.  Luckily, her seven-day deadline puts enough impetus behind Jade to propel her into action.

By making casual suggestions, Jade is able to manipulate a few more family dinners, more discussions and appreciation of sunsets and such, even getting Dad to agree to attending the high school orientation BBQ with her and taking a day off work to spend a special day together with Devon and some friends.  Surprisingly, it's the changes in Jade's general outlook that have the greatest impact.  It's as if she can see the big picture while experiencing all the intimate details. Seeing Scratch's injuries as a parent might, watching their elderly cat Oreo as he deals with ravages of aging, appreciating her favourite dish, finally learning how to make fudge - Jade recognizes them for more than just what they appear to be.  Similarly, her one personal wish, to be kissed by Aiden, finally has her recognizing him as someone who looks to her, and everyone else, simply as sources of footage for his film-making.  Sadly, one realization has her proclaiming, even if only to herself,

"Mom, I can't die now.  I just fell in love." (pg. 219)

With that heart-breaking line, Jade seamlessly transforms from the instigator of change to the subject of destiny, good and bad, no longer making things happen, just reacting without deliberating.

I may have been astonished that Sylvia McNicoll would begin Dying to Go Viral with the main character's death but I should have trusted her expertise, the same skills that have made her an award-winning writer.  While I was apprehensive that the storyline would follow that of the play/movie Heaven Can Wait or TV shows like Twice in a Lifetime, I should have trusted Sylvia McNicoll to never write the easy plot, ending with a happily-ever-after.  Her plot has Jade trying to make things right and not always succeeding (hmm, sounds like real life) and learning a lot about herself and others when she takes the time to experience her life.  Her death and her return to her corporeal body allow her to make lemonade out of lemons for herself and others. Her story proves that lemonade can be sour but there is sweetness to be had if you make it right.  Jade did, courtesy of Sylvia McNicoll.

~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

If you'd like to attend the book's launch and you're around Burlington, Ontario at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 9, 2013, check out her mother-daughter book launch.  Or you could watch Sylvia McNicoll's virtual book launch below or at http://youtu.be/ZNfM6FpkqPU in which she speaks about her new book, including the originating idea of Dying to Go Viral.


Dying to Go Viral Online Book Launch

Published by Sylvia McNicoll on June 6, 2013 on YouTube.

The Way We Fall

Written by Megan Crewe
Hyperion Disney Group
978-1-4231-4616-2
308 pp.
Ages 12+
2011

There are many ways to fall.  You can fall down, fall in love, fall apart, fall asleep, fall at someone's feet, fall back, fall away, fall behind, fall flat on your face, fall short, fall afoul. And in Megan Crewe's first book in her YA Fallen World Trilogy, The Way We Fall, someone at sometime has demonstrated each type of falling.  On an island that succumbs to the wrath of an infectious virus, "falling" becomes the norm.

Through the journal entries of sixteen-year-old Kaelyn, ostensibly to her former best friend Leo who is going to school off the island, the reader is taken on a harrowing trek from health to illness to fear and death, with valiant efforts throughout to manage, if not eradicate, a contagion.  When the infection first hits, it is hard to differentiate it from a cold, with the typical coughing and sneezing.  However, when relentless scratching is evident, followed by displays of extreme expression of affection, distrust and hysteria, coupled with delusions, hospitalization is required. As the microbiologist on the island, Kaelyn's father becomes a central figure in the investigation of the virus, and Kaelyn, her older brother Drew, and Mom, an islander who manages the local café at the local service station, are among the first to wear masks and keep themselves home to avoid contact with others.

With the spread of the illness and deaths recorded from it, some islanders find their way off the island, though some, like Kaelyn's Uncle Emmett and her seven-year-old cousin, Meredith, are encouraged to wait until the mainland has secured a site to process them.  But, when the island is quarantined, the residents become reliant on the mainland government for food and medical and other supplies, a position that many protest, with consequences.  The reactions of the islanders as well as the mainlanders, including soldiers sent to offer protection, to the quarantine could warrant a study in fear.

While Kaelyn volunteers to notify residents of the quarantine and help get ill residents to hospital, Leo's girlfriend Tessa is recruited to help grow plants that may offer hope for treatment (a passionate gardener, Tessa has her own greenhouse).   A young man, Gav, who'd organized a group of guys into a Fight Club, had them "looting" from the grocery store and storing goods in a warehouse, arranging deliveries to those who couldn't get out, were ill, or had no support systems.  Through a series of interactions, including Gav coming by to teach them some self-defense, he and Kaelyn grow closer, offering each other support and affection in a troubling situation.

While I have shared very little about the sequence of events that lead to the story's end, probably because the plot and subplots are complex (but elegant), the reader will not be given much reprise from action and chaos of a community faced with more than a contagion; the mentality of those quarantined presents as much turmoil as the fatal infection itself.  The psychological responses of the residents to living with a contagious illness and in a quarantined situation vary from heroic and charitable to egocentric and even mercenary.  With a complex menagerie of characters, coupled with Megan Crewe's plotting and organizational style i.e., Kaelyn's short, dated journal entries addressed to Leo, The Way We Fall successfully keep readers interested throughout, appropriately earning it a nomination for this year's Forest of Reading®'s White Pine Award.  While the book offers some hope in its conclusion, don't expect everything to be resolved by the time the ferry finally approaches the island again; after all that falling, it will take a lot to help everything right itself ("in love" exempted).

Luckily, The Lives We Lost, Book 2 in the Fallen World Trilogy, came out just last month, and the title of the third book, The World We Make, has been announced for release in the winter of 2014. Megan Crewe can be assured that this reviewer will be pursuing those titles promptly, determined to learn more about Leo, Drew, Aunt Lillian, the underlying hostility between Drew and Gav, and the only positive fall - Kaelyn and Gav in love.