Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 3: Four Chilling Tales

Written by Joel A. Sutherland

Illustrated by Sara Harding, Maya McKibbin, Jackie Reynolds, & Josh Rosen

Scholastic Canada

978-1-0397-1126-6 

144 pp.

Ages 9–12

September 2026 

 

There's always a good time for reading all the Haunted Canada series, graphic novel or not, but what better way to herald the Halloween season than with a new Haunted Canada Graphic Novel from Joel A. Sutherland and a quartet of talented illustrators.

 

In this third volume titled Four Chilling Tales, Joel A. Sutherland tells us four haunting stories from the past that move into the present day. The first story is "Rebecca's Concrete Grave" in which a young woman in 1876 Moncton is declared a witch after she helps save her family's farm when drought and fire ravages the rest of the community. After she is hanged and placed in a grave filled with concrete, the area is said to be cursed. When contemporary teens play a prank on a student, Rebecca appears to challenge the betrayal. Illustrator Sara Harding takes us easily from post-Confederation Canada to a contemporary setting, giving us a frightening Rebecca that will be the thing of nightmares.

Illustration by Sara Harding from Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 3: Four Chilling Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland

The story of "Nighttime in the Asylum" comes from Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Quebec (1959) when a building was being used as a boys' home. When three boys sneak to the basement to open a stolen Christmas gift, they hear a voice telling one to use a lighter to burn it all down. Almost sixty years later, after the boys' home had been turned into an asylum and now bought by a couple who see profits in opening it to ghost hunters, the yellow-green ghosts still want those whom they encounter to burn everything down. Illustrator Maya McKibbin gives us wacky ghost hunters, electrifying specters, and shockingly mesmerizing eyes on those stricken by the ghosts.

Illustration by Maya McKibbin from Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 3: Four Chilling Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland

"The Swamp Hag" is the third story and is illustrated by Jackie Reynolds. This story from Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, has a miner dealing with the disappearance of his daughter in 1943. The miners believe that mines are haunted, so some aren't surprised when Clancy believes he sees his daughter there. But, the real surprise occurs when two miners, Nate and Walt, go to work their fields, and Walt admits to seeing something that he has been ashamed to reveal. 

Illustration by Jackie Reynolds from Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 3: Four Chilling Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland

Joel A. Sutherland's final story, "The Haunted Camp," is inclusive of all the earlier tales as a scout leader at Camp Gilwell, Lebret, Saskatchewan regales his young charges with scary stories. Some don't believe the stories, but when he tells them the one about the creepy old place nearby, they may start to think differently. It's a story of a doctor who opened his home to tuberculosis patients. When his wife becomes ill, she begs him to take care of her beloved dogs Archie and Bailey. After he remarries and then dies, his first wife haunts the home looking for her dogs. Josh Rosen's illustrations are both playful and surprising. The boys are curious, bold, and anxious, and their scout leader is a little goofy, though he does go to check out the haunted house. As for the ghosts of Helena, the doctor's wife, and her dogs, Josh Rosen gives them just the right touch of menacing. They are enough to make a good story without keeping young readers up at night.

Illustration by Josh Rosen from Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 3: Four Chilling Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland

Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 3: Four Chilling Tales will be a colourful diversion until the costumes and trick-or-treating are upon us. Better yet, Joel A. Sutherland makes us believe these stories might all be true, if you trust in his preface.

The following stories are inspired by true events. That's right, true. You can choose to believe...or not. The ghosts don't mind either way. 

 Huh?

 

Go

Written by Deborah Ellis

Groundwood Books

978-1-77946-133-9
224 pp.
Ages 9–12

June, 2026 

 

What does the word "go" mean to you? Is it related to travel, to movement, or to leaving somewhere? Is it having a go at something, or playing the game? Is it the euphemistic word for passing away? Or does it relate to how something is functioning? Deborah Ellis, as she did in her earlier short story collections Sit (2017) and Step (2022), examines what a single word can and does mean in the lives of young people.

In three sections, titled "On Your Mark," "Get Set," and "Go," Deborah Ellis tells eleven stories. Each story is named for its main character, though three stories, one in each section, are related to one character named Brodie. Brodie's story begins with his incarceration for an accident on a stolen ATV that led to the injury of a farm worker. His story goes from court to four-month detention and finally release. For Brodie, "go" means going to juvenile detention, thinking about where he might like to go with his life, and choosing to go on.

 

Other stories in the "On Your Mark" section have Joan learning more about herself by dealing with her miserable grandmother and self-absorbed parents, and Janine who finds out about secret family and chooses to go forward with that knowledge and not stay silent. Their goings are just beginnings.

 

In the second section, "Set," Deborah Ellis's stories introduce injustices of the past in Diego Garcia, of the present with a boy in foster care when fires hit a community, and of Uyghurs detained in boarding schools, internment camps, and worse. In the final section, "Go," an unaccompanied Libyan boy is forced into the counterfeit trade, a family reconfigures itself after the death of both parents, and a boy's half-marathon run inspires others to action.

 

Deborah Ellis's protagonists may vary in their circumstances and their locations, but they all live with circumstances generally beyond their control. As young people, some barely teens, they are limited to the circumstances determined by their parents, their guardians, their foster families or the state, regardless of the choices they may make for themselves. It's this uncertainly of care that may quietly or publicly compel them to action. But Deborah Ellis gives them the resolve to decide which way they might like things to go. As in all her books, from her highly-acclaimed The Breadwinner series to more recent My Story Starts Here: Voices of Young Offenders (2019) and The Outsmarters (2024), Deborah Ellis gives voice to those who cannot be heard. Whether they are fictional or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that they are making decisions about where their next steps go. They may be challenging  themselves to grow or to leave, to help others or to counteract the actions of others. But Deborah Ellis gives them the opportunity to express themselves and go wherever those next steps will take them.

 

• • • • • • • 

 

Sit (2017)

Step (2022)

Go (2026)

 

Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 2): Four More Terrifying Tales

Written by Joel A. Sutherland

Illustrated by Hannah Barrett, Mike Feehan, Maya McKibbin, and Matt Salisbury

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-9630-7

144 pp.

Ages 9–12

September 2025 

 

To follow up on Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 1): Four Terrifying Tales (2024), Joel A. Sutherland brings us another four Canadian ghost stories that will thrill, shock, scare, and even delight young readers, especially those who can't get enough horror reading.

 

The first story is "The Bog Wraith," which is illustrated by Maya McKibbon (she illustrated The Song That Called Them Home, 2023). At Pelly River Crossing, Yukon Territory, in 1897, a man leaves his wife and daughter to find gold in the riverbeds of Dawson. When Jerry and his dog Max come across three old-timers, he is warned about crossing the Pelly River because of the muskeg and the ghosts. But when Jerry is forced by a bear to cross, he finds both terror and assistance from spirits trapped there.

From "The Bog Wraith" in Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 2): Four More Terrifying Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland, illustrated by Maya McKibbin

St. John's artist Mike Feehan illustrates the second story which is titled, "The Etobicoke Poltergeist." Set in 1968 Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto, a family of parents, two young daughters and a baby son is plagued by the ghost of an old woman. The menacing ghost warns the oldest daughter of hardship, sickness, and death. When Dad goes on a strike and the baby is hospitalized, the family brings in a minister to perform and exorcism.

From "The Etobicoke Poltergeist" in Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 2): Four More Terrifying Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland, illustrated by Mike Feehan

The third story is called, "The Bloody Neck Man" and apparently took place in 1802 in the village of Myrnam, Alberta. Matt Salisbury illustrates the story of two fathers who cannot get along and refuse to let their two children, the daughter of one and the son of the other, associate. The two kids, however, like to help each other, sharing fish they've caught and more. When their two fathers and other men go off to trade furs, the two young people realize they've both had a dream about a man with a bloody neck. Pierre believes it is a fetch i.e., a supernatural double of someone and a bad omen. Soon, Lizzie realizes that dream, and the pool of blood she discovers on the floor, has more to do with their fathers than might be expected.

From "The Bloody Neck Man" in Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 2): Four More Terrifying Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland, illustrated by Matt Salisbury

"The Doll That Wouldn't Die" is the final story and the most recent, taking place in 1980s Gatineau Hills, Quebec. In this story, illustrated by Hannah Barrett, a family of three moves into their new house, and the very young son Timothy finds a doll. The pregnant mom thinks it's creepy and intends to get rid of it but Timothy, who has been talking to the doll, demands it back. Whether they can destroy the doll or separate the child from it may not be under their control.

From "The Doll That Wouldn't Die" in Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 2): Four More Terrifying Tales, written by Joel A. Sutherland, illustrated by Hannah Barrett

Author Joel A. Sutherland knows how to tell a scary story or five. Just check out his numerous Haunted Canada short story collections (e.g., Haunted Canada: The Second Terrifying Collection) or his middle-grade horror (e.g., The House Next Door). I especially appreciate his highlighting of Canadian ghost stories. In this collection, we travel from Alberta to Ontario, from the Yukon to Quebec. And the stories take us from the time of the fur traders to those seeking their fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as more contemporary stories. Each has their own supernatural element, though all have frightening natures that need to be braved. And the way Joel A. Sutherland tells these stories makes us believe these things could happen to anyone. Shudder.

 

Because each story is different, each illustrator delivers us to a different time and place. Maya McKibbin gives us remote landscape of bogs and forests, while Matt Feehan takes us to the swinging '60s of sideburns, fabric chokers and peasant dresses. Matt Salisbury gives us the remoteness of Alberta when people fished and trapped, and the men travelled far to trade. Finally, Hannah Barrett delivers us to our most contemporary setting and gives us a creepy doll that is an unlucky, cherished moppet and more the kind of nightmares.

 

It doesn't matter that Halloween is just days away. Maybe Halloween will be a great time for sharing these ghost stories, but young readers who appreciate horror will find Haunted Canada (Graphic Novel, Volume 2): Four More Terrifying Tales a fabulous read anytime. I just might recommend not saving them for a bedtime reading, especially with illustrations that might pervade your sleep and emerge in your nocturnal visions. 

 

• • • • • • • 

 

Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 1: Four Terrifying Tales (2024)

Haunted Canada Graphic Novel, Volume 2: Four More Terrifying Tales (2025) 

2025 Stephen Leacock Student Humourous Short Story Competition

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) was a well-known Canadian writer and humourist as well as academic whose impact on Canadian culture and society has been recognized with countless awards, including being recognized as a National Historic Person of Canada. For me, his book Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town makes him as quintessential a writer of CanLit as Lucy Maud Montgomery, Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. 

 

In 1947, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was established, and the student writing award in 1977. 

The 2025 competition is now open, closing on April 15, 2025, and I encourage parents and teachers to invite Ontario teens (ages 14-19) to submit their humourous short stories or personal essays to this competition. The prizes are very generous and this contest gives young writers an opportunity to get their work out there and maybe meet a Canadian author of note. (See prizes below.)

 

Details follow. Full details can be found at https://leacock.ca/studentaward.php and inquiries can be made to Christy den Haan-Veltman, Registrar - Student Awards, at studentawards@leacock.ca.

 

🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻 🖊

 

WHO MAY ENTER?

The contest is open to Ontario students (public, separate, private, home school, university or college) who are of ages 14 to 19.

 

 

WHAT TO SUBMIT?

The contest is looking for:

• an original humourous short story or humourous personal essay;
• maximum word count of 1500 words;
• a titled work; and
• formatted to include page numbers and the title on every page.

Depending on how you submit, whether online or by mail, the formatting will be different, so page attention to the requirements as posted on https://leacock.ca/studentaward.php.

 

HOW TO ENTER?

There is a $5 entry fee.

 

Submit your writing by the deadline of Tuesday, April 15, 2025 through the following link  https://leacock.ca/essayform.php or via mail (so make sure it's postmarked before the April 15th deadline).

 

(All this information are posted on the Leacock Award website at https://leacock.ca/studentaward.php)

HOW WILL SUBMISSIONS BE JUDGED?

Entries will be judged blind. (Entries are opened on arrival in Orillia by a disinterested party who removes the cover page and assigns a number to the entry. The number is placed in a register, along with the student’s name and school, and the numbered entry is then passed to the committee of judges who are all published authors, many of whom have been nominated or have won the Leacock Award. The register is not returned to the committee until the judging is complete.)

WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?

First Prize: $1500

Second Prize: $750

Third Prize: $750 

Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 15, 2025.

 

Winners will read their works at the "Meet the Authors Night" in Orillia on Friday, June 20, 2025 and receive their awards. (Note: All three student winners will receive two tickets, one for themselves, plus one for their guest, though additional tickets may be purchased.) 

The first place winner will also be invited (two tickets) for the Gala Dinner on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at which the winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour will be announced.

 

🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻 🖊

 

Time to get your funny on and start writing.

 

Good luck to all young writers!

 

Step

Written by Deborah Ellis

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-815-2

150 pp.

Ages 8-12

March 2022

For many of us, our days are spent stepping out and stepping in and stepping around. These are our everyday lives of going to school or work, dealing with peers and family, and returning home. But there are milestone days. For many children, those days include their birthdays. And, for the children of Deborah Ellis's ten stories in Step, the milestone day of an 11th birthday brings with it a new opportunity to step. 

 

Each of the ten stories within Step is titled with a single and powerful word.  They are Smash, Alone, Rock, Rubber, Shoes, Ride, Laundry, Free, Nails, and Supper. Some take place in familiar North American settings, like Smash in which Connor takes his sister's rejected and fearful dog for a walk and both see and become something different. Or Ride, in which Aislyn is taken to the county fair by her older sister and deserted to spend time with her boyfriend. But there are other stories that take us to the unfamiliar. In Rubber, Oma and her family are escaping on a rubber raft for Europe, and in Free, a child and her mother and sister leave the gangs and deaths of their homeland to walk days into the land of the free. Perhaps the most disparate in setting is Laundry in which Masud shares a cell with twenty-one men at a prison-like Libyan detention facility. Their cell is a community of unrelated persons who have come together to work as family for everyone. Most unusual is the story of Rock. While its setting will be familiar to young readers, Rock is wholly different in that it includes a supernatural element that links our world with another to highlight a social injustice halfway around the world.

 

From the pen of Deborah Ellis always comes brilliant writing but also profound attention to social justice and the courage of children to step up. This is the same in Step. From neo-Nazis, an inhumane detention center, gang violence, poverty, bullying and those seeking refuge, Deborah Ellis lets young readers see from the perspective of eleven-year-olds who are leaving their childhoods behind and looking at people and places with fresh eyes. For many, that one day of transition from 10 to 11 has given them clarity for flawed family members, for right and wrong, and for their own place.

I love that there has been a resurgence of short story collections, especially themed ones such as Deborah Ellis's latest collection, a companion book to her earlier Sit (2017). In Step, eleven-year-olds are stepping into, stepping up and stepping away. And sometimes doing what is actually another, like Lazlo in Shoes who by stepping away is actually stepping up. These children from around the world are dealing with big issues in their own homes, in their communities and in foreign lands. They must deal with their families, with their peers, with strangers, and with authorities. And each time they must decide what they will do in their steps. They could step back or around. They could do what they might have done at age ten and taken the familiar course. Ah, but they have all just turned eleven. That milestone moves them forward to step differently. These children have come of age, some in common circumstances and some in horrific struggles. Each has stepped into their new maturity in their own way, thinking beyond themselves and instead of others and the greater good. They have attained the wisdom that many of their elders have not.

Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories

Written by Caroline Adderson
Groundwood Books
978-1-77306-572-4
176 pp.
Ages 8-12
August 2021

 

The world may be living under the shadow of the same pandemic but our stories are so different. In Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories, author Caroline Adderson takes us into one community, that of a Vancouver low-rise apartment building, and shares the stories of its residents from the eyes of its youth.

Sunny Days Inside relates the story of Danila's family who were finally going on a plane holiday to Días de Sol (Sunny Days) resort in Baja, Mexico, courtesy of her grandmother. Because of the disparity in wealth between their family and her mother's sister, a woman who travels extensively, the holiday becomes a source of conflict, with the children's aunt heading out on a cruise days before they leave. Then the pandemic hits. Danila's family makes their own indoor holiday but it's tinged with sorrow and guilt when her aunt gets COVID-19 on the ship.

Brothers Alek and Ivan decide they're going to become cave men, after all the barbershops close, in the story How to Be a Cave Family. All the strategies that Palaeolithic beings used to survive, from being afraid of everybody, to hunting and gathering and developing their own language, become their guide to getting through the pandemic.

In Reo and Juliet, Grade 7 peers from apartments 3D and 4B become friends across their balconies as Reo, the athlete, struggles with how to train and Juliet works at overcoming her shyness.

In the following four stories–I Like Your Tie, The Entrepreneur's Bible, The Two Harriets, and The Incredible Escaping Bra Man–young people are challenged with parents who are front-line workers, or those who have lost their jobs or closed businesses, or those impacted by illness, including cancer and anxiety. The kids make new friends, become spies and save a resident's life, and face their own fears about the virus, their families and friends, and their new realities. And it's all while adhering to lockdowns and pre-vaccine protocols.

In the final story, Imagine, the young residents and one special one come together in a socially-distanced and rebellious act that brings them together safely and outside.

Caroline Adderson has always written powerful stories (e.g., Very Serious Children, 2007; Middle of Nowhere, 2012; Norman, Speak!, 2014), though with a smidgen of humour that never distracts from serious issues like abandonment, parenting, foster care, and now COVID-19. Told from a variety of perspectives, the pandemic is viewed as an adventure, a source of fear and anxiety, an opportunity, or even a challenge. We've got kids who worry about their parents, who become superheroes, and those who gain perspective on their pre-pandemic lives. They are all different, as are their stories, but somehow young readers will recognize every one them and their issues, sure to see themselves within. These middle-graders are shy and athletic, Deaf and hearing, silly and serious, anxious and confident. Whether annoyed with a younger or older sibling, cooperating with working or non-working parents, cheering the lack of haircuts, or finding new ways to communicate without congregating, these kids are living through this pandemic. In fact, they're staring it in the face, mask securely on and two metres apart, and reclaiming their lives, albeit new configurations of them.

The Missing Donut and The Traveling Dustball

The Missing Donut

Written by Judith Henderson

Illustrated by T. L. McBeth

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-788-0

56 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2018

The Traveling Dustball

Written by Judith Henderson

Illustrated by T. L. McBeth

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-789-7

56 pp.

Ages 5-8

April 2019

In the Big Words Small Stories series, Montreal author Judith Henderson introduces young readers to some very, very big words via some very, very silly stories. It's an entertaining way to learn new vocabulary in context.

From The Missing Donut by Judith Henderson, illus. by T. L. McBeth

In the first book, The Missing Donut, readers are introduced to Cris and his cat Crat, along with the Sprinkle Fairy who has a word factory in Sicily and uses her helpers, the Sprinklers, to add "Big Words"–highlighted in their own font–to the story. In the first tale, The Missing Donut, Cris learns his jelly donut has been "purloined." Readers are introduced to "discombobulated" after Crat rides Cris's new bicycle into an accident in It's All Downhill and to "bamboozled" when the two get into The Trouble with Chipmunks. The final two stories, Museum of Fabulous Art and Mr. Footz's Fine Footwear, will acquaint readers with "smithereens" and "galoshes."

From The Missing Donut by Judith Henderson, illus. by T. L. McBeth

In the second book, The Traveling Dustball, the main characters have changed to Davey and his dog Abigail, though the Sprinkle Fairy and her Sprinklers are still hard at work adding rich vocabulary to the stories. Abigail finds Davey's sweeping  of the troublesome dust bunnies "irksome" in the titular story though that dustball becomes a vehicle for incredible journeys throughout the book. In Spaghetti and Meatballs, that dustball ferries them to Italy and causes quite a "brouhaha" while in The Big Wave, Abigail does some "lollygagging" before they head to the beach for some more relaxing. While young readers will love learning about a Swiss "phenomenon" of a Stinky Cheese that smells terrible but tastes great, I learned the new word "collywobbles" when the Davey travels to China for Cloud Tea to remedy Abigail's stomach ache.

From The Traveling Dustball by Judith Henderson, illus. by T. L. McBeth

And just as a friendly reminder of all the new words highlighted, and that includes a pronunciation guide too, each book ends with a section called A Small Play on Big Words, in which the Sprinklers bring all the words into play (pun intended).

This is a great new series for early and early middle grade readers to learn new vocabulary, complete with pronunciation and definitions. Moreover, with the books topping out at 56 pages each and published in a smaller format (17.5 cm x 22.5 cm), kids will not feel like they're reading picture books, though the illustrations by American T. L. McBeth make the stories the hit they are. The art may be deceptively simple but it emulates the flow of a graphic novel's illustrations without the intensity of frames and speech bubbles and it works so well with Judith Henderson's dialogue and characters. 

I don't want to burden The Missing Donut and The Traveling Dustball with the label of educational so I'll just encourage parents and school libraries to get these quirky stories into young readers' hands so that they can enhance their vocabularies, chuckle at the antics of personality-rich characters like Crat and Abigail and visit some worlds that might be familiar but also fantastic. (But I have to warn you: learning is going to happen.😊) 

From The Traveling Dustball by Judith Henderson, illus. T. L. McBeth

•••••••••••••••••••••

Book 3 in the Big Words Small Stories series, Smell the Daisies, comes out October, 2019.

The Whirlpool

Written by Laurel Croza

Illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-032-3

96 pp.

Ages 10-14

May 2018

Don't be deceived by the simple cover illustration and the less-than-100 page count. The Whirlpool, a collection of seven short stories from award-winning picture book author Laurel Croza, is not an early reader.  Its stories are sophisticated and aimed at upper middle grades, covering a wide variety of issues from emotional abuse and grief to destiny and bullying.

In It's a Step, the narrator Charity lives with her mother and abusive father.  As her dad rails against her mom taking a job at Tim's, both mother and daughter find the means to take a small step to a better life.  In Book of Dreams, Mike finds the support he doesn't get at home from his mom and her latest boyfriend at a restaurant where he gets respect, appreciation and a turkey dinner. While a very different story in terms of characters, OH! is also about finding home. The Oh! So Perfect Hair Dolly goes from factory to store shelf and dreams of being named by a child. The desolation of being passed over during Christmas shopping and then being relegated to the reduced price bin is reflective of any child who has felt unloved.  

The Whirlpool is the story of fifteen-year-old Jasmine who is the brunt of swirling rumours at the whirlpool that is school about her having a baby. As she deals with the gossip and nastiness, Jasmine resolves to "look the whirlpool in the eye" (pg. 30) and reveal her story. A Beautiful Smile also looks at nastiness at school, this time with a young teen from the north standing up to a mean girl at her new Toronto school. Most satisfying is the public and clever way in which Nicola finds support and salvation.

Although all the stories have something important to impart, my two favourite stories are The Sunflower and Destiny. Though told from the perspective of a squirrel, The Sunflower is neither trite nor silly. It is an emotional story about loss and grief and making connections, and I defy anyone not to sob at its telling.  Destiny is a revealing story about following one's dreams, regardless of others' desires and opinions.  Johnny helped inspire his younger sister Dani to play hockey even when her father thought figure skating would be more appropriate. Dani persevered and changed her father's mind about her playing hockey. Now, with Johnny drafted to the OHL, she wants to help her brother accept his true destiny too.

Each story in Laurel Croza's collection is packed with emotional growth, from taking first steps to fulfilling one's destiny, or saving yourself, or accepting strengths and weaknesses as part of the whole package. The stories may be brief (each less than 20 pages) but they wallop you with the power of their storytelling, dialogue and message. My favourite, The Sunflower, does that all in five pages.

I shouldn't be surprised that Laurel Croza can weave such powerful tales. Her highly-acclaimed picture books, I Know Here and From There to Here, which were beautifully illustrated by Matt James, conveyed amazing stories in few words. But these stories are not picture book tales transformed into text. They are not for our youngest readers, though, because of the length of the books, parents and teachers might expect them to be so.  The stories in The Whirlpool collection deal with issues of abuse, gossip, abandonment, and death. While these are issues with which younger readers may be familiar, the older protagonists in Laurel Croza's stories suggest that older middle grade readers might understand the messages better.

I've always loved short story collections for the breadth of stories that can be told and the piecemeal manner in which the text can be read. They are potent teaching tools and convenient for reading in shorter time periods. With The Whirlpool, Laurel Croza has provided a worthwhile addition to the youngCanLit collection of short story anthologies as it enlightens, reassures and inspires.

Coyote Tales

Written by Thomas King

Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-833-4

60 pp.

Ages 6-9

October 2017

If anyone ever believes that the storytelling tradition of First Nations has disappeared, they need only read aloud the Coyote stories of Thomas King.  Undoubtedly told better in his own booming voice, these Coyote Tales are told with the mischief and wisdom to impart awe and lessons aplenty.

Coyote Tales is actually two previously published Coyote stories by Thomas King.  The first, Coyote Sings to the Moon (originally published in 1999), has that trickster Coyote interrupting the nightly song by Old Woman and the animals praising the Moon.  When Coyote offers to join them, they deny him a voice, knowing how poorly he sings.  Chastized, Coyote leaves in a huff, criticizing the Moon for its disturbing brightness.  Moon, not to take criticism, plunges itself into a pond to enjoy a game of chess with Sunfish.  While Old Woman and the animals search for Moon, Coyote struggles in the darkness, using a skunk as a pillow and falling off a cliff.  But clever Old Woman uses Coyote's horrible singing to force Moon to flee the pond and fating Coyote to a nightly song to keeps Moon from returning to the pond and a life of leisure.

The second story is Coyote's New Suit (originally published in 2004), a charming tale of vanity and envy.  Coyote is perfectly content with his suit of gold, toasty brown until Raven's comments convince Coyote to steal Bear's suit left on a pond's shore. When Bear returns to find his suit missing, Raven tells him that the humans hang clothes they no longer need on ropes and encourages him to help himself.  Coyote continues to steal the suits of Porcupine, Raccoon, Beaver and more animals who, in turn, help themselves to the human clothes hanging on the clothes line.  All orchestrated by Raven, the shenanigans come to a head when Coyote holds a yard sale to clean out his closet and humans and animals alike come in search of new suits.

From Coyote Tales 

by Thomas King 

illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

Thomas King's Coyote Tales recognizes the traditional Coyote stories of First Nations, taking readers to "a long time ago, before animals stopped talking to human beings" (pg. 11) when lessons were learned at the antics of a mischievous and oft humiliated Coyote and the clever playfulness of Raven and the natural world was honoured and celebrated. The legends are told here as comical allegory but are rich in lessons and advice.

Groundwood Books is doing something very clever in opening up previously published picture books to new audiences.  By re-releasing them as very short anthologies, perhaps only two or three stories, with new and fewer illustrations (here by Calgarian Byron Eggenschwiler), they are capturing the early reader and middle grade reader who might not want to be seen reading "babyish" picture books.  Margaret Atwood's A Trio of Tolerable Tales (Groundwood, 2017) was such a collection and I'm hoping that there are more in the offering from Groundwood, especially for Thomas King who still has more Coyote tales to share.

Sit

Written by Deborah Ellis

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-086-6

144 pp.

Ages 10-13

October 2017

The premise for Sit is simple.  There are eleven short stories based on chairs and other places upon which the young protagonists sit, rest, work, deliberate, speculate.  Each begins with a name, descriptor of the seat and usually the place.

Jafar was sitting on a work bench in the furniture factory. (pg. 11) 

Miyuki was sitting on a tatami in the evacuation centre. (pg. 72) 

Mike is sitting on his heels on the floor of his cell. (pg. 91)

Except for two scenarios to which the protagonists return in somewhat different settings, each story is unique.  Still all are touching and deeply personal and insightful about the human condition and humanity, all told based on where we sit and why.

The first story, The Singing Chair, is the story of Jafar, a young boy who works in a furniture factory in Jakarta in order to pay off his family's debt.  But his life is more than this because after work he attends a school for working children and he is learning to read and write.  Jafar returns in the final story called The Hope Chair which focuses on the school and the overwhelming hope it gives him to write himself a bigger and better story.

More stories of a contemporary setting but which transport young readers to global locations include an escape from Taliban rule in Afghanistan to an equally reprehensible "safety" (The Hiding Chair) and Miyuki's story of entering the danger zone after the earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in order to rescue her mother's donkey (The Glowing Chair).  Still a little different is the story titled The Question Chair in which a Berliner named Gretchen is thrown into intense contemplation about the experiences of the Jewish people and the Germans during World War II after sitting on a toilet at a concentration camp museum outside of Krakow.

Some stories read as more local but of worlds perhaps unknown to many readers and sadly familiar to others. There is the Mennonite community in the aftermath of a horrible tragedy (The Plain Chair) and a prison in which a young man in solitary confinement finds hope from an anonymous source (The Freedom Chair).  Even The Day-off Chair has a little girl on a street bench trying to find calm in her angry world, one in which harm is expected. The Time-Out Chair, represented by the pink chair with dinosaur on the cover, is the chair to which seven-year-old Macie is relegated for her multitude of "sins" but where she finds solace in her imagining of a forest house. The only other stories in which the protagonists are revisited are The Knowing Chair and The War Chair which focus on children in a family in transition.  From a food court table and chairs to a swing outside the neutral location for the family custody switch, Barry and his little sister Sue are pulled along in their parents' conflict. Regrettably this story may be all too familiar to some children.

As very different as the stories are in situation, each is a story with a young person struggling either with others or with themselves in order to survive emotionally and/or physically the trials of their lives.  What they learn of others and themselves in the process of sitting is extraordinary.  For Deborah Ellis's young people, sitting is but a starting point for new life stories.  Given the choice of remaining seated, condemned to a suspended existence, or getting up and moving forward, Deborah Ellis's young people choose life in whatever form is available.

Maybe she would live.  Maybe she would ride a great train of suffering for a long, long time, but there might be one day when that train would stop, and she could have a belly full of food and a face full of sun. (pg. 117)

2018 Stephen Leacock Student Humorous Short Story Competition

The Stephen Leacock Medal for Canadian Literary Humour is a prestigious annual which honours the great humorist Stephen Leacock.  While the award is generally given for books for adults, the Stephen Leacock Associates foundation sponsors a student competition.  What a great way to get more humour in our lives, get your students writing with purpose and maybe even win a few dollars!

Here are the details for the competition, as well as a teacher's guide for writing humour, which are posted at https://www.leacock.ca/studentaward.php.

Stephen Leacock 

Student Humorous Short Story 

Competition 

2018

Criteria:
Write a humorous story or personal essay in English with maximum word count of 1500 words.
• titled
• typed, double-spaced on one side of the page only
• pages numbered and without any other identifying marks
• cover page must be included and provide: title, student's name, name of school, school's telephone and email address


Judging:
Judging by 3 published authors is blind i.e., cover pages with key information are removed and the entry is assigned a number which is logged with student's info in a register which is only seen after judging is complete.


Submission:
Send 3 copies of each entry (plus $5 entry fee) by April 15, 2018 deadline to:
Christine Spear
Contest Registrar
8-40 Victoria Crescent
Orillia, ON
L3V 6N6


Deadline:
Post marked no later than April 15, 2018


Participation:
Limited to Ontario secondary school (public or private) students.


Prizes: 
First prize:  $1,000
  + • 2  tickets to the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal Banquet gala (June 9, 2018)
     • accommodation for two
     • an autographed copy of the medal-winning
     • 2 tickets for the Authors Night (June 8, 2018) at which all winners will read their stories

Second prize: $700
  + • 2 tickets for the Authors Night (June 8, 2018)

Third prize: $300
  + • 2 tickets for the Authors Night (June 8, 2018)


Announcements and Presentations:
Winners announced: May 15, 2018

Authors Night (for all winners): June 8, 2018, Best Western Mariposa Inn, 400 Memorial Avenue, Orillia

Gala Dinner (for 1st place winner):  June 9, 2018, Geneva Park Conference Centre, Orillia
   

Contact:
Christine Spear
studentawards@leacock.ca

Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal

Retrieved from https://www.leacock.ca/studentaward.php on October 2, 2017.

A Trio of Tolerable Tales

Written by Margaret Atwood

Illustrated by Dušan Petričić

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-933-1

68 pp.

Ages 7-10

March 2017

I suspect Margaret Atwood doesn’t abide rules for writing, especially ones that insist that alliteration is verboten. Still, writing as she chooses, Margaret Atwood’s style is acclaimed as unique and refreshing and unconventional.  It doesn’t matter whether she writes for adults or for children, dystopia or realistic fiction, graphic novel or picture book.  Her stories poke our psyches into response, whether into delightful laughter or revulsion for worlds gone wrong.  I’m pleased to share A Trio of Tolerable Tales and commend its objective to yield mirth.

The three stories in this tome were originally published as three separate picture books: Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes (Key Porter, 2003); Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda (Key Porter, 2004); and Wandering Wenda (McArthur & Co., 2011).  Together the three have become a short story collection for early readers who wish to read beyond picture books and a challenging read-aloud for anyone wishing to trip over their tongues and twist themselves into tenuous ties.

Rude Ramsay resides with his relatives Ron, Rollo and Ruby and is tormented by the horrific food regularly presented.  He finally revolts.  On the advice of his friend, Ralph a red-nosed rat, Ramsay sneaks across (or rather through) the rampart to enter a realm of fresh and inviting food. But when he helps himself to a radish, they attack, calling him a robber.  It is only when a girl named Rillah steps in that Ramsay is made to see that each lives in a world with attributes the other appreciates.

From A Trio of Tolerable Tales 

by Margaret Atwood 

illus. by Dušan Petričić

Bob of Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda is abandoned by his mother and raised by a bounty of dogs.

But Bob was bashful.  He did not believe he was a boy, and barked when bothered.  He was bewildered by blithering barbers, blathering butchers, bun-bearing bakers and belligerent bus drivers, and would bound behind bushes or burrow under benches when they blundered by.  He would bite busy businessmen in their briefcases.  (pg. 31)

Dorinda, the Cinderella slave of her distant relatives, runs away and discovers Bob and his doggie family.  She takes it upon herself to teach Bob to speak.  When a buffalo, labelled a begonia, ventures into their neighbourhood, it is Bob who becomes brave and Dorinda who becomes daring and together they save the day.

From A Trio of Tolerable Tales 

by Margaret Atwood 

illus. by Dušan Petričić

Wandering Wenda and the Widow Wallop’s Wunderground Washery is the story of Wenda whose “parents were whisked away by a weird whirlwind” (pg. 45).  She befriends a woodchuck whom she names Wesley. Wenda, with Wesley secreted away in her sweater, is whisked away rather unceremoniously by the Widow Wallop who takes them to her underground washery where three other children–Wilkinson, Wu and Wanapitai–were “washing, rinsing and wringing out the whiter than white washing” (pg. 55).  It is Wesley in doing what woodchucks do who helps the children escape the abuse of the Widow and the horrors of their slavery in the Wunderground, and ultimately, with the help of some wolves, they bring a criminal to justice and ensure the return of their parents.

From A Trio of Tolerable Tales 

by Margaret Atwood 

illus. by Dušan Petričić

If you feel there’s a Roald Dahl flavour to Margaret Atwood’s stories, you’d be right.  There are children who must find the means, often humourous though sometimes tragic, to survive selfish or evil adults.  They make comrades of unlikely animals and children, and restore their lives to some semblance of contentment.  As Wesley often says, “Could be worse.”

Dušan Petričić illustrated the original picture books but the black and white drawings in this volume lend a dark air that emphasizes the darker aspects of Margaret Atwood’s stories.  There’s a bleakness that seems more appropriate for readers who are too old for picture books–perhaps only in their own minds–but too young for really disturbing stories.  So, courtesy of Margaret Atwood and Dušan Petričić, A Trio of Tolerant Tales, brought to you by the letters R, B and D and W, fits that bill in all its alliterative glory.

Short Stories for Little Monsters

Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-896-9

48 pp.

Ages 5-8

March 2017

Whether they’re your little monsters, rugrats, toads, or anklebiters, you can bet that little children will be up to no good and good when March break comes around in a few weeks.  You can either prepare yourself for those days with these humourous stories or share them with your own little monsters to while away the days or nights with some imaginative fun, or save them when your own creativity is waning.

From Short Stories for Little Monsters 

by Marie-Louise Gay

In nineteen short-stories told on single pages or double spreads (except for the final story "The Secret Life of Rabbits" that needs four pages to show us what magnificent worlds rabbits make), Marie-Louise Gay takes readers into the fantastical minds and play of children.  From imagining what can be seen when eyes are closed ("When I Close my Eyes") or fantasizing that no one sees them when clad in pillowcases ("The Incredible Invisible Boy" and "The Incredible Invisible Twins") or outrunning monsters that lurk in the wild ("Monster!"), Short Stories for Little Monsters celebrates the creativity of children in their minds and their play, alone and with others.  And beyond child’s play, Marie-Louise Gay takes their visualizations into the worlds of cats, snails, trees and rabbits, for example exposing what our feline friends really see in a dust bunny or a chess game  ("What Do Cats See?" and "What Games Do Cats Play?") and giving us  a snail’s-eye view into "Snail Nightmares" (who knew?) and "The Secret Life of Snails."  Of course, amidst all the fun there is still the apprehension of every day life, when the teacher may call on you ("Who? Me?"), that your mother can see all you do always ("Zombie Mom") or that your friends might see through your façade of wisdom ("Rhisonoros") but this is all life, told in the splendour of colour, line, shape and ingenuity of the very original and inventive creator of Stella and Sam, Marie-Louise Gay.

From Short Stories for Little Monsters 

by Marie-Louise Gay

The wealth of stories about imaginative fun and speculation abounds in this compendium of illustrated stories.  The stories are a delight, both humourous and insightful, but it's Marie-Louise Gay's illustrations that will grab readers first, as they always have. (She has been honoured with numerous awards including three Governor General's Awards for illustration in English-language children's books.)  In her artwork, that often resembles the loose frames of graphic novels, she tells of childish diversions but gives them life with her effusive children, and ever-present secondary characters of bunnies, cats, snails, birds and other creatures.  The details are whimsical and ever-present, and children will delight in spotting the stray underwear, the fish that can't add 2 + 2, and the rabbit flying a carrot plane.  And the colours, glorious colours! And the swirls, the patterns, the textures of her lines and watercolours!  There is a gaiety to Marie-Louise Gay's art (it's okay to pun; Marie-Louise Gay does it too) that is like no other, and brings merriment to each story, even if it's about "Lies My Mother Told Me."

It's always a celebration when Marie-Louise Gay publishes a new book but this multi-story illustrated format is certainly unique and worthy of attention.  Moreover, because it's not a book that needs to be read in any order or all the way through in one sitting, I suspect Short Stories for Little Monsters will be appreciated by all readers and listeners, whether they be little monsters or not, who will continuously find nuggets of wisdom and whimsy throughout.

From Short Stories for Little Monsters 

by Marie-Louise Gay