The Undercover Book List

Written by Colleen Nelson

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-187-8

224 pp.

Ages 8-12

September 2021 

With the departure of her best friend Sienna to a new home and school, Jane McDonald is not looking forward to her Grade 7 year. But a literary mystery and an undercover friend-making activity may be what she needs to help make the year tolerable. Maybe even more.

In alternating voices and chapters of twelve-year-olds Jane and Tyson, Colleen Nelson brings together two kids with very divergent views on reading. Jane is a voracious reader, a passion she has shared with her best friend Sienna. But, with her dad already posted overseas as a Chief of Staff for a peacekeeping mission and now Sienna moving far away, she is feeling empty. Still Sienna has left her a clue that she hopes will help her friend find other reader friends. Giving Jane the code name X, Sienna initiates the Undercover Book Club by which Jane can leave notes and book recommendations and connect with others. 

The note is found by Tyson, a non-reader and prankster, who discovers the note when sent to the library for a book while he waits for the principal to discipline him. Tyson is not a reader. In fact, he can't even take books of the library since he has not returned some from last year. But when this Mutant-Z aficianado gamer has his Xbox taken away and has nothing else to do, he sneaks out the book in which the first note is found, recommends a book he remembers his teacher reading, and starts on his own reading journey.

Tyson knows X is Jane but she has no idea he's Y. As the two begin an unlikely book friendship, and Jane and her Kid Lit Quiz team struggle to reorganize after Sienna's departure, the Undercover Book Club is born, each reading new books and talking about their choices and learning more about themselves. As they compile a list of extraordinary books–with shout-outs to Canadian authors Kenneth Oppel, David A. Robertson, Monica Hughes and Susin Nielsen among others–it's a journey of self-discovery and self-development and it's all courtesy of reading.

Readers know the richness that stories can bring into their lives. We meet new friends, travel to different places and times, and we learn.  By bringing together a reader and non-reader, Colleen Nelson, an astute writer and undoubtedly understanding teacher, has written about every child out there. The ones that love books will always find something to read but can get so much insight from the perspectives of others. Those that haven't become readers yet often just need the scaffolding of the right book or the right person to bring them to reading. With the Undercover Book Club, Tyson and Jane both find their people among those they would have dismissed originally and enrich their lives beyond just reading.

Colleen Nelson has a natural skill at giving young readers characters who are real, though not always likeable at first, and who are able to change with their experiences and perspectives. It's her characters who have always driven her stories, whether they are in her picture books (e.g., Teaching Miss Muddle, 2020), middle grade (e.g., Harvey Comes Home, 2019) or young adult novels (e.g., Sadia, 20018), and give her plots the foundation for exploration of topics from bullying to abandonment, abuse and empowerment. By letting us see Jane and Tyson from different perspectives and responding to common scenarios, they become even more real.

Thanks for seeing me for who I am. And who I wanted to be, even if I didn't know it. (pg. 258)

For the reluctant reader who doesn't know they're a reader yet and for those who will consume this story with gusto, The Undercover Book List is for them. From its fabulous cover–easily identifiable as that of illustrator Scot Ritchie–through Colleen Nelson's irresistible text and appended notes about authors and books to check out, The Undercover Book List brings reading out from under its nerd status into a mainstream social avocation it can be.

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Tomorrow I'll post about Colleen Nelson's hybrid (limited in-person and online) book launch for The Undercover Book List on Friday, September 17, 2021.

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The Reptile Club: Book launch (Winnipeg, MB)

Join 

author

 Maureen Fergus

for the launch of her newest picture book

The Reptile Club

Written by Maureen Fergus

Illustrated by Elina Ellis

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-655-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

September 2018 

Reviewed here

on

Saturday, September 29, 2018

at

1 p.m.

at

McNally Robinson Booksellers

Grant Park Shopping Centre

Winnipeg, MB

🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊

 

See my review today about this clever picture book about reptiles, passions, friends, and acceptance and then take in the book launch next week for The Reptile Club.

In a Cloud of Dust

by Alma Fullerton

Illustrated by Brian Deines

Pajama Press

978-1927485620

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

For release March, 2015

Like so many children who live in isolated communities in Africa, Anna accepts the need to travel long hours if she is to attend school.  The opportunity for schooling is worth it.  While others may be playing football during lunch break, Anne completes her homework which she cannot do at home as she always arrives home after dark.  This day, however, she has missed the arrival of the bicycle library and all the bicycles are snatched up by her classmates.

But, Anna still recognizes the value of these donated bicycles and goes out of her way to help her friends learn how to ride, experiencing their joy vicariously.  However, by accompanying them on their rides home, she finds her own journey takes much less time,  especially when her friend Mohammad shares his with her.

In a Cloud of Dust provides a glimpse into the lives of children who must travel long distances for the chance to attend school. Alma Fullerton's text is modest in its quantity but weighty in its simple message of compassion and support, similar to her A Good Trade (Pajama Press, 2012) and Community Soup (Pajama Press, 2013) picture books.  And, while I look forward to seeing more of Alma Fullerton's own artwork in future endeavours, Brian Deines' illustrations are incomparable, effectively portraying the dusty and lengthy distances over Anna must travel to school. Because of his reliance on oils, Brian Deines' illustrations are highly evocative of the landscape and mood of the remote areas of Anna's Tanzanian home, providing less detail and more ambiance than other media might provide, particularly in the brush of the illustrator of Bear on the Homefront (Innes and Endrulat, Pajama Press, 2014).

In the hands of Alma Fullerton and Brian Deines, the story of Anna and her travels to and from school are never lost In a Cloud of Dust.

Gift Days

by Kari-Lynn Winters

Illustrated by Stephen Taylor

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-192-7

32 pp.

Ages 7+

2012

On the heels of a holiday season which many treat as gift days, Kari-Lynn Winters' newest picture book, Gift Days, from Fitzhenry & Whiteside exemplifies the true nature of a gift.  It is not a present given on a statutory holiday or to commemorate the anniversary of one's birth.  It is a heartfelt sharing of something that is and will be cherished, freely and without expectation of reciprocity.

Gift Days takes the reader to Uganda where a young Nassali is expected, since the death of her mother, to prepare the meals, fetch the water and firewood, and look after her younger sisters, the weeding and the washing.  The expectation for Matovu, her older brother or baabawe, is to attend school and learn lots.  But Nassali dreams of learning to read and write and going to school.

"Maama always said an education is the path to a better life."

Knowing that "Maama would have wanted it this way", Matovu begins to complete Nassali's chores one morning a week so that they can spend time practising reading and writing.  These special days become her Gift Days.

By emphasizing Nassali's desire to read and write and become educated, rather than the custom that she take on the household responsibilities upon her mother's death from HIV/AIDS, Kari-Lynn Winters takes Gift Days from the hardship of a young girl's life in Uganda to the story of a young person determined to find the means to succeed, albeit with constraints.  Kari-Lynn Winters notes in her afterword that, although Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child declares that every child has the right to a good quality education, many do not have access to it by virtue of geography, economics, health and traditional responsibilities.  Gift Days provides the hope that an education is within the realm of possibilities for everyone and anyone, even if that education is not provided in a traditional school setting.  Artist Stephen Taylor's rich illustrations evoke both the warmth and starkness of Nassali's life but his final illustration of an adult Nassali, so simple and encouraging, takes the story to a reassuring and bright resolution, just as her future appears to be.

Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World

by Susan Hughes

Owlkids Books

978-1-926-8-18863

64 pp.

Ages 8-13

2011

I don't often review non-fiction. It's not that I don't enjoy it but I find that it's very hard to find non-fiction that is fresh in its topic, presentation, organization and writing. Sometimes I wonder if a publisher (none of the ones I list on this blog) just dashes something off on a topic they know is on the curriculum and could get a few school sales. Having been on non-fiction selection committees in the past, I know the dearth of exceptional children's non-fiction that is published annually. That said, several Canadian publishers, Owlkids, Kids Can Press and Annick most notably, have an extensive line of exemplary non-fiction for younger readers. And one of the authors who is making a name for herself via her non-fiction is Susan Hughes.

Two of her most highly lauded books are Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked By Modern Science (Kids Can Press, 2010) which won the 2011 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-fiction and No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure (Kids Can Press, 2008). Currently nominated for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction, the Diamond Willow Award, the Red Cedar Information Book Award and the Hackmatack English Non-fiction Book Award, Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World also seems destined to garner worthwhile attention and prizes.

The empowering message of Off to Class is that, though every child has a right to an education, not everyone has access or opportunity to go to school, and there are people working doggedly to ensure that all children, no matter their circumstances, are given that chance. So, no matter how remote or harsh the environment, or how poor the family or how small the community, or what prejudices and circumstances exclude some from an education, there is someone willing to help provide a school. It may not be a traditional North American school, but it is a place of learning and it works for these children.

Brimming with colourful photographs of children, classrooms, schools and the environs, Off to Class provides a comprehensive look at learning places in three chapters: Working with the Environment, No School? No Way! and One Size Doesn't Fit All. Classrooms from Bangladesh, India, Cambodia and Nepal, to Brazil, Haiti, and Uganda, Burkina Faso and Kenya are featured, and those integral in making these schools come into being are featured. For me, the most compelling of stories relate to schools that grew from only a vision and a lot of heart. By working with the communities and their needs and circumstances, rather than imposing their own attitudes and ideas, people have performed miracles, creating schools where only rubble or emptiness may have been.

Susan Hughes' writing is inviting and forthcoming, the information never lost in cumbersome text. With features of non-fiction text like indices, fact boxes (e.g., More than 20 million children worldwide have lost their parents to AIDS. Almost a million of these kids live in Uganda. pg. 35), captioned photographs, bios and photos of key people, and a map with schools' locations, Off to Class is a fascinating look at the different configurations schools have taken, offering hope to children, communities and the environment that might never have been imagined.

I've posted a very sweet book trailer of Off to Class as told by young people on CanLit for LittleCanadians Book Trailers page here.