You Need Pants!

Written by Sonya Bell

Illustrated by Jordan Wray

Scholastic Canada

978-1-0397-0563-0

24 pp.

Ages 3–8

July 2025 

 

This child is all in for a wealth of adventures. But first their parent has to get them dressed, and that may be greatest of all undertakings.

From You Need Pants!, written by Sonya Bell, illustrated by Jordan Wray

For this little one, each day is a "new day full of silliness and dirt." (p. 3)  His mom, the narrator of the story and a peripheral character in an orange jumpsuit, reminds him of all the things he can do, but first they have to get him dressed. For each piece of clothing he needs—shirt, pants, socks, shoes, coat, hat—she points out, in rhyming text, what fun he can have. 

You can hop, skip and jump

as you march with the ants!

 

You'll sing as you go—

so let's find you some pants.

From You Need Pants!, written by Sonya Bell, illustrated by Jordan Wray

On each double-spread illustration, courtesy of Vancouver's Jordan Wray, the child's imaginative adventure is set against the reality of the play. A flight on a rainbow is actually him drawing at the breakfast table, while his mom holds up a sock to put on. A voyage on a pirate ship seeking lost treasure is him balancing on a pillow with a sword and paper pirate hat alongside a whale stuffie and a toy ship. This time, his mom attempts to get him into his coat. But to have all these fantastic exploits, he must get dressed. 

From You Need Pants!, written by Sonya Bell, illustrated by Jordan Wray

When he's finally dressed and heading out the door, having taken to the stage with the dog and cat playing back up, his mom realizes she has missed something crucial. Oh dear.

 

I can see why Sonya Bell is considered a humorist as well as a writer. You Need Pants! is a cheeky look at getting a child dressed but its ending gives readers a punchline that is convincing, silly, and yet familiar to anyone—parent, teacher, caregiver—who has needed to dress a child. Sonya Bell whose impressive career has included roles as a journalist, a speech writer and a joke writer on This Hour Has 22 Minutes knows how to deliver the laughs but embed it in a context that is appropriate for her audience. Children will love this kid who is so happy and carefree, imagining wonderful scenarios of travel and accomplishment, but laugh at his mom who is desperately chasing him around the house and encouraging him to put on just one more piece of clothing. They'll especially enjoy the ending when it's her misstep that will undo all that hard work. 

From You Need Pants!, written by Sonya Bell, illustrated by Jordan Wray

The playfulness that Sonya Bell portrays in her rhyming text—"You can build a huge tree fort with million-dollar views. You're a tiny homeowner! Oh no! Where are your shoes?"—comes across in Jordan Wray's digital illustrations. They have drawn this child as happy and creative, making a city with a firetruck all out of boxes, imagining sliding with penguins on an iceberg of a slippery rug, and going on a hike through a jungle with his stuffed monkey among the potted houseplants. There's colour everywhere and joy both in the child's imagination and in the house. Nothing is without the zest of personality, from the child's dinosaur PJs to his mom's stylish bibbed overalls, hoop earrings, and headscarf-tied afro. This mom may be frazzled but maybe not—the child doesn't seem anything but content—and yet Jordan Wray makes their story one of liveliness and pleasure and even accomplishment.

 

That effort may be short-lived—you'll see when you read the story—but Sonya Bell and Jordan Wray take us through the process of getting a small child dressed for the day and let us see it from two perspectives. The operation may be exasperating, and it certainly is straggling, but it is fun. And the kid will be fully dressed when he finally gets to leave the house. What more could a parent ask for?

Weekend Dad

Written by Naseem Hrab

Illustrated by Frank Viva

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-108-5

36 pp.

Ages 4-7

May 2020

My dad says I have two homes now.

Though TV and movies may play up the drama involved with parental separation, Weekend Dad tells how bittersweet it may be for children who live between households. It's not the joy of double houses and playing off one parent against the other. It can be hard and it can be sad. From Naseem Hrab's poignant words to Frank Viva's affective artwork, Weekend Dad is the real story behind a separation within a family.

From Weekend Dad by Naseem Hrab, illus. by Frank Viva

The story starts on a Monday morning when "my dad moved out  of our house and into an apartment." Each day that follows the child is reminded of his dad, whether it's the colour of his hair or his tears at a hamster's death or that he hates tuna fish.

From Weekend Dad by Naseem Hrab, illus. by Frank Viva

But when Friday night comes and it's time for the weekend with his dad, a new reality begins. It's taking a bus to an apartment which is home but not home. And though he has his hedgehog stuffie Wendell, it's different and things makes him feel scared.

From Weekend Dad by Naseem Hrab, illus. by Frank Viva

Their Saturday is filled with new routines from eating eggs for breakfast, playing cards and going to the park, all repeated Sunday. But when it's time to leave, the child is mindful of each parent being alone without him. Still this child must reconcile that his father will not be coming in when dropping him off and to that end, Dad hands him a touching letter about how much he loves him and is always with him.

...you will hear your dad's heart beat, and with each beat, you will hear the words: "You are loved." No instrument can pick this tiny pulse up except for your own heart and imagination.

This is a story of reality but with heart. Mom and Dad aren't going to find their way back to each other. (And Naseem Hrab makes sure not to place blame on either parent or make the story about their relationship. This is all about the child.) Dad's apartment is rather sparse but he's working to make it more for his son.  Naseem Hrab's text from the child's perspective is similarly stark as the situation probably is for any child experiencing a separation within the family. It is what it is. The boy doesn't overthink but he does take it for what it is right now: complex, confusing, and harsh. The only relief is in the dad's words, words that he undoubtedly took time to compose, and which touch with their affection and concern.

From Weekend Dad by Naseem Hrab, illus. by Frank Viva

Between the muted tones of olive drab, rose brown, grey and yellow and the ever-present scribbles of cloud and smoke, Frank Viva's artwork does not divert from Naseem Hrab's text. The upheaval and the austerity of the circumstances are reflected in Frank Viva's ink and digitally coloured illustrations. With few colours and an economy of shape, Frank Viva conveys what this child sees and feels, and it is bleak. But things will change, and Naseem Hrab's final words, having father and son heading off to buy a bed, and Frank Viva's last double spread, a little brighter in colour and alive with activity, indicate things are going to be okay.

The Secret of White Stone Gate (Order of Black Hollow Lane, Book 2)

Written by Julia Nobel

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

978-1-7282-2003-1

304 pp.

Ages 8-14

March 2020

After a tumultuous first year at Wellsworth boarding school in England (see my review of The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane), Emmy is both excited and apprehensive about returning after summer holidays. She is glad to be reconnecting with her friends Lola and Jack but she knows that her intention to find her long-missing father may put her and her friends in danger, again, with the mysterious and treacherous secret society known as the Order of Black Hollow Lane.

Several things make this year at Wellsworth a little different. First, twelve-year-old Emmy has been instructed to have her mom’s cousin Lucy, a snarky woman who breeds Chinese crested dogs and aspires for her and husband Harold to be in every posh club in London, including the Thackery Club, act as unofficial guardian.  Secondly, she hides the all-important Order's medallions–though the Order has been told they were all destroyed–in a safety deposit box at the Royal Bank of London. Thirdly, new schoolmates at Wellsworth include Jack's new roommate Sam, for whom Emmy is feeling a little fluttery, and Jack's little brother Oliver who is having a hard time fitting in.

After the funds from the Wellsworth Annual Charity Supper and fundraiser are discovered in Lola's dresser and she is expelled, Emmy learns that the Order has set up Lola and will continue to do harm unless Emmy tells them where her father is. Sadly, Emmy does not know where Thomas Allyn is and worse yet, Lucy is hearing rumours about Emmy and her friends from her club acquaintances that suggest the young people are troublemakers. Sam agrees to go undercover and befriend Brynn, Lola's nasty cousin and Order member, to help Emmy and Jack. But after two violent assaults on her friends, Emmy wonders if she can find her father and save her friends before it's too late.

Before Wellsworth, Emmy may have lived with her mom, a parenting expert, but she lacked family. Her mother is far too wrapped up in her career and purporting to always know what's best for her daughter, including connecting her with a selfish cousin who cares little for Emmy, but who fails to listen to Emmy, particularly in regards to her father. (It's easy not to like Emmy's mom and Lucy.) It's not surprising that Emmy wants to learn more about her father, though when she discovers he is alive, she has mixed feelings about the man who seems to want to protect her at all costs but who chose to leave years ago. Because of the confusing relationships with her parents, Emmy inevitably finds the family she needs with her friends at Wellsworth. And she has mystery upon mystery to solve with her allies.

Julia Nobel's first book in the Order of Black Hollow Lane series, The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane, is a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize and a nominee for the Forest of Reading's Silver Birch Fiction award so young readers will be pleased to know that The Secret of White Stone Gate is available to continue Emmy's story. There's a new mystery, new characters, and more nefarious actions perpetrated by the Order but Emmy is getting closer to her father and helping him while making a real life for herself at Wellsworth. Fortunately, the mystery must continue with a third book if we are to learn whether Emmy and her friends will be able to keep the treasures of Black Hollow Lane from falling into the hands of the Order. No news yet on Book 3 but I'm sure it won't be a secret for long.

Good Morning, Grumple

Written by Victoria Allenby

Illustrated by Manon Gauthier

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-014-7

24 pp.

Ages 2-4

March 2017

According to Victoria Allenby’s dedication, she has a couple of grumples in her life–a big one and a little one–and I suspect that, if you’ve been trying to rouse your kids during March break when they’d much rather sleep, you’ve got some grumples of your own.

A grumple, a grumple is hard to awaken.
It doesn’t like noises. It hates being shaken. 

It loathes and despises a bright, cheery voice,
And big, shiny lights are a terrible choice. (pg. 5)

From Good Morning, Grumple 

by Victoria Allenby 

illus. by Manon Gauthier

In Good Morning, Grumple, a mother fox, who has obviously endured many a morning struggling to get a grumpy young one in rumpled bed clothes out of bed, attempts the near impossible feat with an established process of rhyming song and accompanying actions.  It starts with a soft singing of “Shh–Shh–Slow we go.  The sun is rising on tip-toe, tip-toe.” (pg. 9)  Nice and easy, but the grumple just burrows deeper into the linens, only feet and a paw clutching a stuffie visible.  That’s OK.  Mother knows the next step is getting a little closer and a little louder with “Shush–Shush–There’s no rush.  The sun is gold in the morning hush.” (pg. 10) Mother Fox may rely on the sun for her inspiration but the efforts are all hers, with tickles, kisses, hugs and a dance, all with louder affirmations until both mother and child are out the door, welcoming the new day and its promise for play.

Every household must have one or two grumples, and Victoria Allenby has contrived a playful way of rousing them to waking.  You may need to read the book several times, with your child, to establish the song, and I’m not sure of the melody, but little ones will delight in the role they get to play, even if it means ultimately getting out of bed.

Victoria Allenby has proven that she can write light and refreshing books for pre-readers and early readers (Nat the Cat Can Sleep Like That, Pajama Press, 2013; Timo’s Garden, Pajama Press, 2015; Timo’s Party, Pajama Press, 2016; Rhino Rumpus, Pajama Press, 2016) but now she’s bringing that novelty to helping parents parent, all without preaching about how to do it right.  I wonder if she even intended to provide a wake-up protocol for grumples or just share an engaging practice that might work for others.

From Good Morning, Grumple 

by Victoria Allenby 

illus. by Manon Gauthier

Manon Gauthier lends her trademark cut paper collage (see Elliot, Pajama Press, 2016, and All to World a Poem, Pajama Press, 2016) to Good Morning, Grumple, establishing evocative scenes with her artistry.  Colour is limited but effective, with the neutrality of a grumple atmosphere evident throughout.  No grumple would ever see much in the way of colour before deigning to open his/her eyes completely, and Manon Gauthier supports this premise wholeheartedly.  But Manon Gauthier refuses to keep things stark and uninspiring.  All indoor and outdoor scenes, before and after waking, are freckled with birds, flowers, and household furnishings and decorations that invite readers in.  Collage art has never been so expressive and atmospheric.

Enjoy the smaller and inviting format of Good Morning, Grumple with Pajama Press’ unique padded cover, rounded corners and heavy-duty paper that make it a pleasure to hold.  Let me know whether the premise works for your own little grumples but remember: it may take a few tries, and a little more sunshine than we’re seeing in March, for it to work.  Even if it doesn’t, you’ll enjoy a great read with your youngest ones and perhaps lead them to the self-discovery of their grumple status and ultimately to an appreciation of the efforts made on their behalf.

Saving Stevie: Book Launch (Toronto, ON)

Debut YA author

Eve Richardson

will be launching 

her young adult novel

Saving Stevie

by Eve Richardson

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-540-0

228 pp.

Ages 14-17

November 2016

on 

Thursday, December 8, 2016

7 p.m.

at

Mabel's Fables

662 Mount Pleasant Road

Toronto, ON

Thirteen-year-old Minto's family is in crisis. Minto's older sister has had a baby and immediately abandoned the family and her son. Her father and mother are overwhelmed with the new baby and not coping. When Minton hears discussions about the possibility of turning weeks-old Stevie over to adoption services, Minto must take action and responsibility. She steals away in the night with the baby, some basic supplies and a little bit of money to hide in a shacktown. There are so many problems to deal with — Minto isn't sure she can make this work. But she has to keep trying because the alternative is not acceptable.

Description retrieved December 5, 2016 from Fitzhenry & Whiteside website at http://www.fitzhenry.ca/Detail/0889955409

King Baby

Written and illustrated by Kate Beaton

Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic

978-0-545-63754-1

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

September 2016

Though some parents might not find it humourous the way the baby in King Baby has his parents running to and fro to make his life perfect–perhaps they'll see it as castigating their own efforts–children and others will laugh at the uproarious manipulation by a swaddled egg of a baby to get everything, and I mean everything, that he desires, now and forever.  Yep, as the book says, "It is good to be king."

From King Baby by Kate Beaton

From King Baby’s birth, after which he is presented to his many admirers bearing gifts and admiration, the baby is generous with his smiles and laughs and kisses, his wiggles, gurgles and coos.  But then he begins to demand: food, burping, changing, bouncing, being carried.  It’s endless.  For King Baby, life is grand.  For King Baby’s parents, life is exhausting.  He sees them as subjects, fools even, though their ineptitude finally gets him up and toddling.  His future is even more glorious now with all that he can accomplish, though not always to everyone’s delight. (The cat looks a little dismayed.)  But King Baby has to grow up, and becoming a big boy, he learns that they’ll be going through the whole process again, this time with Queen Baby.

It’s obvious that Kate Beaton, known as Auntie Katie to the Malcolm to whom she dedicates the book, knows that of which she writes and illustrates.  A new baby is a wondrous joy but an exhausting one.  Kate Beaton’s quirky illustrations, especially of King Baby as a rotund creature swaddled in a blanket and topped with a golden crown, are too funny, and lend a comical air to a bizarrely normal yet wacky situation i.e., the joy and adoration of a new baby.  I don’t know if Kate Beaton meant to give King Baby that evil glint in his eye but he seems to know what he’s doing i.e., making everyone jump to satisfy his every whim.  Without the means to communicate with clarity, King Baby has them running around doing everything to appease him.  Ah, it’s good to be king!

From King Baby by Kate Beaton

Share this hilarious book with any new parents you know.  If they’re not too tired, they’ll certainly see the humour in their situation.  And if they’re just too tired, share it with the aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandfathers and godmothers and everyone else who appreciate the cuteness that is a new baby but recognize the long haul of parenting still to come.  Hail the royal entourage!

Under the Dusty Moon

by Suzanne Sutherland

Dundurn 

978-1-459732025

268 pp.

Ages 12+

January 2016

When it’s just you and your mom, and your mom is the formerly-famous Micky Wayne, currently a solo singer but once lead of the band Dusty Moon, it’s not surprising that your lives are outrageously intertwined, even entangled, in a very public world.  Micky Wayne has a intense personality, both showering sixteen-year-old Victoria with love and embarrassment while putting it all into her music career.

That’s just who she is: transparent.  Her heart’s not so much on her sleeve as it is set out on a plate that she’s passing around the crowd for everyone to take a bite of. (pg. 10)

But Victoria, or the famous Vic of her mother’s songs, is coming to an age when she is torn between not wanting or needing her mother to always be there but still wanting her mother’s attention.  And with her mother learning at the onset of summer that she’d be going on tour to Japan, then returning to do the big annual end-of-summer concert on Toronto Island, before going to Europe for several months in the fall, Victoria feels shafted and disgruntled, and is almost cruel to her mother, telling her “Maybe if you were a real mother” (pg. 98) after Victoria is doored while cycling and ends up in a cast.

As Victoria navigates her evolving relationship with her mother, she is also extending herself into new and changing relationships with her peers.  Though her friendship with BFF Lucy is solid, the two girls are going beyond their gaming obsession of Lore of Ages, LoA, and delving into an gaming group for women called She Shoots that supports girls in creating games.  But their collaboration becomes precarious when Victoria decides to ask a boy, Shaun, from last year’s drama class to hang out.  Lucy thinks he’s an idiot, but Victoria asks him out anyway.  After a disastrous first date at a nude beach on the Island and a lengthy period of avoidance due to embarrassment, Victoria becomes more and more involved with the young man, though she lies to him about her mother when she learns he’s a big Dusty Moon fan and doesn’t know Micky Wayne is her mother.  Sadly, this new romance puts a strain on her relationship with Lucy, who too feels neglected.

Change is inevitable especially when you’re a young adult and yearning for independence ("I mean I love her, but I can't share her life forever"; pg. 259) and new experiences while still wanting to hold onto that which is familiar and seemingly safe.  Suzanne Sutherland, whose earlier book Something Wiki (Dundurn, 2015) is also a coming-of-age story with overtones of digital experiences, delves deeper in Under the Dusty Moon with older protagonists, extreme mother-daughter relationships, and a more intense boy-girl romance.  But at its heart it’s still a story of a girl growing up, though Victoria's evolution is not an easy one–Is growing up ever easy?–and happens in fits and starts.  Just like the game that she and Lucy are creating, growing up is like walking into a big house of unopened rooms that need to be explored.  Some doors are scary to open, others welcoming. Some open into expansive rooms, and others are just portals to other doors.  And, like their game, the choices one makes decide where you end up.  But, if you’re choosing to read Under the Dusty Moon, you’ve made a great choice and will enjoy the experience of accompanying Victoria on her newest game of life. Beta, anyone?

Flannery

by Lisa Moore

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-076-5

268 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2016

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Oh, Flannery Malone. Flannery, Flannery, Flannery.  You are one of a kind. From your conceptual-artist, parenting-blogger mother, to the father you’ve never met, cherubic-x-devilish half-brother Felix and poor but rich life in St. John’s, Newfoundland, I’m, as they say, delighted to meet you but wouldn’t want to be you.  Actually, for that matter, I wouldn’t want to be a sixteen-year-old girl again and maybe that’s what I don’t envy about you, but you are unstoppable–in a good way– and a delight and your readers should be grateful to Lisa Moore for introducing you to us.

Boys are becoming an issue for Flannery.  Well, one boy in particular: Tyrone O’Rourke.  Though they’d been the closest of friends as kids before he’d moved away when his mom married his step-dad Marty, Tyrone has morphed into a graffiti artist known as SprayPig, sought by the cops, and rarely attends high school.  Regardless, Flannery sees the whole package that is Tyrone, past and present, and she is seriously in love. When she is partnered with Tyrone for their Entrepreneurship class project, he suggests they make potions, just like they pretended to make as kids, marketing them as magic.  But, except for this suggestion, Tyrone is awol for all work on the project, and Flannery ends up conceiving, creating and packaging the four different love potions herself.

But while she is navigating her working and crushing relationship with Tyrone, Flannery’s best friend Amber seems to be steering herself away from Flannery and her competitive swimming and into an all-consuming first relationship with Gary Bowen, a classmate and lead singer of a band whose music video will be the source of their own Entrepreneurship project.  Though Amber is becoming brutally opinionated about Tyrone, Flannery tries to diplomatically warn her friend of Gary’s dark side.  But between first loves and parents as well as the trials of high school society, Flannery and Amber and Tyrone would seem to be going against the current and where they end up may not be up to them.

“So love is work and it’s always changing and it’s making and noticing and needing and giving and definite.  It’s definite.” (pg. 113)

Lisa Moore gets into the head and heart of a sixteen-year-old so effortlessly that it’s surprising that this is her first book of young adult fiction.  Of course, from her award-winning adult fiction–Caught (House of Anansi, 2013), February (House of Anansi, 2009) and Alligator (House of Anansi,  2005)–we know Lisa Moore flawlessly tackles issues of youth and relationships and recklessness head on, never wavering from the task of telling the story no matter how fragile the characters or precarious their situations. And her insight into the tenuous nature of…everything, is evident in Flannery’s outlook and beliefs.

"I had understood about evil. I had seen how it was ordinary and stupid and there was nothing magical or fairytale-like about it.
      It was just a grown-up taking his problems out on a kid. Because he could. Because nobody stopped him.” (pg. 103)

While Lisa Moore doesn’t make everything right by Flannery’s conclusion, she does create closure for most story lines and even a bit of hope–in a kiss– which, just as in life, is sometimes all you can expect.

"Not believing in something requires a lot of effort.  It is easier to believe.  Once I have accepted that something is true, I have a hard time losing faith in it." (pg. 104)

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

I'm thrilled to announce that author Lisa Moore has graciously agreed to read at the Young Adult venue of this year's Eden Mills Writers' Festival on September 18, 2016.  Other YA authors attending include R. J. Anderson, Lena Coakley, Douglas Davey, E. K. Johnston, Sylvia McNicoll, Liane Shaw and Amanda West Lewis, Check back to CanLit for LittleCanadians for a full list of guest authors in the YA and children's venues and for more details.

Elliot

by Julie Pearson

Illustrated by Manon Gauthier

Translated by Erin Woods

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-85-9

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

For release March 2016

As soon as I read Elliot, I knew it was something very, very special.  And then I learned that Elliot was a translation (capably handled by Pajama Press' Managing Editor Erin Woods) of a 2014 French-language picture book from Les 400 coups that had already won Le Prix du livre jeunesse des Bibliothèques de Montréal for 2015.  Its subtlety and poignancy ensures its sure status as a winner in English as well!

Elliot is a young rabbit with lots of spirit.  But when he cries, or yells, or misbehaves, like all children are want to do at some point, his parents do not understand his needs.  They seek help as caring parents might and a social worker named Thomas comes and takes Elliot to live with another family “until his parents learned how to take better care of him.”

Everything is different with this new family but best of all they understand when Elliot is hungry, upset or needs attention.  And things are better when Elliot’s parents come to visit, so much so that eventually they are ready to take Elliot home again.  But, when things don’t change at home, Elliot is sent to another family.  Though he gets to visit with his parents, Elliot is told by Thomas that his “parents could never take care of him, because they did not know how.”

But Thomas helps find Elliot a “a forever, forever family”,  one that does more than just understand him, because they love him.

Elliot is a heartfelt story about finding one’s true family, the one that will love and care for you forever. It might be a foster family, it may be the family you’re born into, or it might be the one that ultimately adopts you, as Elliot is fortunate to find.  But Julie Pearson embues the story of Elliot with an underlying sadness, for Elliot who is being a child and for his parents who try to do the best they can for him but can't quite manage it.  And Manon Gauthier’s subtle collages of muted colours, save for Elliot’s red striped shirt, express that sadness and the grayness of tenuous family so movingly.  I defy anyone to read Elliot and not cry for the emotional hardships Elliot braves and cheer for the rosy blush of happiness (with a splash of red text) that comes when Elliot becomes part of a new family.

There are very few picture books that I want to clutch a little tighter and hold onto in my heart a little longer.  Elliot is one that has touched me so.

From Elliot (pg. 27) by Julie Pearson