The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5)

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

English text by Dina Ginzburg

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-9584-3

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

July 2022 

 

In Dom Pelletier's latest volume of his hysterical middle grade graphic novel series, the members of the secret Lunch Club a.k.a. the Philately Club must do some ingenious problem solving with time travel in order to help their teacher, Mr. Peabody, and the original founder of their club, Eglantine, from the nefarious actions of a trio of evil-doers.

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

Determined to save himself from being eaten by Fluffy the sea monster in 1803, the villainous McSticky transports himself back in time, along with the huge moustachioed space monster Zaralgax and his mutant rat companion. Sadly Mr. Peabody is accidentally transported too. But time travel is not necessarily straightforward and the group ends up in various times before the bad guys end up where they want to be. 

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

Meanwhile Tia and Leo end up bringing back to the school a mummy they release from a sarcophagus while on a field trip to the museum and discover, through some very funny circumstances, that it is actually someone they know who hoped to be discovered in the future. With a lot more laughs and some more time travel from the future and into the past, Tia and Leo are able to save Eglantine before McSticky changes the course of history and gets Fluffy to eat her instead.

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

There will be belly laughs, quiet snickers and loud guffaws from kids as they again visit with Leo and Tia and Mr. Peabody in Dom Pelletier's The Lunch Club. Their teachers and parents will understand the irreverence of the stories but kids will just laugh. From Leo who is always getting into mischief like trying to wake up a mummy–"Hey, Mummy, wakey-wakey!"– or sticking fridge magnets to his braces, and Mr. Peabody who can sleep anytime and for long periods, courtesy of a radioactive mosquito, to the odd villains who annoy them, Dom Pelletier has created the weird and wonderful in The Lunch Club. Add a heavy dose of the fantastic, with time-travel, aliens, and wacky contraptions, and The Lunch Club is the place for middle grade readers to visit for a literary snack.

 

• • • • •

The Lunch Club (originally available in French as Les timbres):

#1 It Came From the Basement

#2 The Curse of the Scarewolf

#3 The Mutant Mouse from Outer Space

#4 Revenge of the Bigfoot

#5 The Return of the Mummy

 

Do check out the website dedicated to The Lunch Club, including activities, videos and learning to draw with Dom Pelletier, at Scholastic Canada here.

• • • • •

Weave a Circle Round

Written by Kari Maaren

Tor Books

978-0-7653-8628-1

367 pp.

Ages 12+

2017

After fourteen-year-old Josiah and adult (but not mother) Cuerva Lachance move in to the house on Grosvenor Street, everything in Freddy Duchamp's life goes topsy-turvy. That's saying a lot since life hasn't been that stable to begin with. Maybe Freddy has always been too sensitive–something she doesn't appreciate, knowing that "Sensitive people got stomped on by life" (pg. 12)–but with her parents' hostile relationship transitioning into divorce and her mother marrying Jordan Fukiyama whose irascible son Roland, also 14, seems to hate Freddy, the teen finds little solace anywhere or with anyone. She feels ignored at home (Mom and Jordan are essentially absentee parents) and at school (maturing friends Rochelle and Cathy have left Freddy behind). She's angry at Roland who's a jerk and gets special attention because of his hearing impairment and treats her like she doesn't belong in her own home. And she's frustrated with her brilliant younger sister Mel who gets along with Roland and is often involved in his role-playing games (RPGs).

Though Freddy clashes with the disagreeable Josiah, he seems to be the only one around actually being friendly to her. But Roland has a real problem with Josiah and Cuerva Lachance and warns Freddy and Mel to stay away from them, without any explanation. There are hints of chaos on the horizon: Cuerva Lachance aggravating all with her bizarre behaviour; Mel's surveillance of their neighbours revealing Josiah in two places at the same time; and Freddy and Roland's conflict escalating into verbal assaults and threats.

And then, without warning, Freddy is in 9th c. Sweden in the midst of a battle between feuding Viking families. Josiah is there, explaining that they have time-travelled and that no matter where or when they reappear in the past, Josiah will be there as himself, with Cuerva Lachance as a new character and a third person whom they call Three. Jumping from times that include ancient China, the Upper Palaeolithic, 18th c. England (where they meet Sam Coleridge whose poem Kubla Khan gives the line "Weave a circle round him thrice") and the future of the 32nd century, Freddy attempts to make sense of the dynamics between the three characters and her role while surviving abductions, battles, and Josiah's perplexing attitude.

Weave a Circle Round is all about the struggle between balance and chaos, with a choice that needs to be made as to which will override the other.  In the case of Josiah and Cuerva, the balance of power shifts regularly and Freddy is forced to look within and around her to make sense of the world, both in her personal timeline and in those of Josiah, Cuerva Lachance and Three. How it is resolved is all on Kari Maaren.

Short-listed for the 2018 Sunburst Award for excellence in Canadian literature of the fantastic in the YA category as well as the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, Weave a Circle Round has already made its mark for Kari Maaren who has blended a story that balances its own chaos with harmony and produced a tale of fantasy with complex characters seeking to fit in. They evolve, they mature, and they learn. From her protagonists Freddy, Roland, Josiah, Cuerva Lachance, and Mel, to her secondary characters like Freddy's mom and friends Rochelle and Cathy, all the characters in Weave a Circle Round are complex beings who are motivated by fear and uncertainty and follow their instincts, good or bad, to pursue becoming the characters they choose to be.

The writing is brilliant, both intricate and honest, giving voice to those who seek understanding of self and others.

As far as I can tell, crying about something you can't change is a slightly more sophisticated version of throwing a tantrum because the sun has melted your ice cream. (pg. 17)

And even through the complexities of time travel and the characters' personal development, there is humour.

"...and it doesn't really matter for me. I eat paradox for breakfast. I'm also fond of waffles." (pg. 131)

Weave a Circle Round is A Wrinkle in Time meets Dr. Who. It's a wonderful fabric woven of a fantastic plot and rich characters on a backing of science and history. The message is clear that all lives fluctuate between stable and chaotic, sometimes one more than the other, but the need for balance is irrefutable. And, with the introspection and problem-solving Freddy achieves via her time-travels and interactions with all, Weave a Circle Round becomes her coming of age story. She learns, a little later than sooner, that it's all about writing your own narrative and choosing the roles you'll play and that, if you want to see how things are going to work out, it's best to look where everything begins.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I'm pleased to announce that writer Kari Maaren will be joining YA authors Lesley Livingston and Natasha Deen on a speculative fiction panel at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival on Sunday, September 9, 2018.  Do come out to hear these authors speak, to ask a few questions, and to get a book or two autographed.  It's a wonderful outdoor event to celebrate words.

Gordon: Bark to the Future!

A P.U.R.S.T. Adventure

Written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-409-4

72 pp.

Ages 7-10

May 2018

Gordon, the dog who first appeared in Ashley Spires's Binky Takes Charge (Kids Can Press, 2012) as a new recruit to P.U.R.S.T. (Pets of the Universe Ready for Space Travel), is now at the heart of his own adventure, and it's up to him to save the day.

From Gordon: Bark to the Future! by Ashley Spires

When the aliens (insects) attack in full force, the easily-distracted but tech-savvy canine is the only one of his team to escape to the lab behind the couch.  His only choice is to use his prototype device to send himself back five days earlier to stop the alien invasion before it begins.

But he must be careful not to change anything else.

If he changes the past too much, he could jeopardize the future, which is, technically, his present because he's in the past.

Holy Hair Balls, that's confusing. (pg. 17)

But Gordon soon realizes that he's gone back 5 years and Binky is but a kitten without space accreditation, Gracie (Binky's sidekick) doesn't live next door and Gordon hasn't even been born! Worse yet, his device is out of allofuzzium fuel. Contacting P.U.R.S.T., which is still the felines-only F.U.R.S.T., has the cats freaking out and abandoning headquarters.  It really is up to Gordon alone.

The past needs a poop scoop because this place stinks. (pg. 31)

Gordon makes it back but then realizes he has made a serious revision in the time continuum and must return to truly make things right.

From Gordon: Bark to the Future! by Ashley Spires

I've loved Binky since he appeared in his first adventure, Binky the Space Cat (Kids Can Press, 2009), and cherish every new adventure in his family of books.  Even with Binky only being a secondary character to Gordon's adventure in Gordon: Bark to the Future! (as also happened in Fluffy Strikes Back, Kids Can Press, 2016), the hilarity of pets striking out to save their humans charms even a steadfast cat-lover such as myself.  Gordon has spunk and brains, and even though his attention is sometimes lost to the need for play and food, he comes through with fun and invention. Ashley Spires always, always delights with her illustrations and stories. Look at Gordon in the illustration above trying to swing his way to the top of the roof, only to slide down the wall past the oblivious kitten that is Binky. The art is direct, effective and effusive with story and sensation.

The space pets of P.U.R.S.T. are still fighting those dastardly aliens and keeping their humans safe in Gordon: Bark to the Future! but, with time travel in their arsenal, it's a whole new world of fighting back. Good boy, Gordon!

Movers

Written by Meaghan McIsaac

Tundra Books

978-1-7049-818-1

288 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2016

Reviewed from Advance Reader's Copy

Forget today's world.  Meaghan McIsaac will take you into the new world of 2083 when people live in tiny apartments, use droidlets as keepers of all information, where schools are 64 floors high, water is scarce, powerful winds called Eventualies bombard everyone and everything, and there are Movers, people with the special ability to move others called their Shadows from the future of war, famine and disease to their own time.  And, because there are Movers, there is the Bureau of Movement Activity Control (BMAC) and the anti-Mover group, We Are Now, and Movers' Prison and Shelving–whereby Movers convicted of moving their Shadows are Shelved i.e., put into "An endless sleep. A living kind of deadness" (pg. 2).  It's a totally different world and it's the world of fourteen-year-old Patrick Mermick whose father Michael was Shelved after Moving his Shadow, Oscar Joji, from the future, killing him in the process and causing considerable damage.  Problem is that Michael Mermick was a Phase 2 Mover and incapable of Moving his Shadow.

Now Pat and little sister Maggie, both Phase 1 Movers, and Mom Izzy, a Non-Mover, must live in a world of monthly Mover renewal forms and much discrimination.  Not surprising Mom is known as a Mover symathizer, protesting Shelving, and helping Movers falsity their FIILES–digital accounts of their lives–to keep them from being treated as criminals.

Then everything goes from bad to worse.  Mom gets called into Maggie’s school, because of Mags' new behaviours suggesting the need for a Phase upgrade, and they are both being taken to BMAC headquarters when Mom tells Maggie to make a run for it.  Maggie heads to Pat’s school where a Movement creates destruction and chaos while bringing over the Shadow of Gabby, a classmate of Pat’s and a favourite target of the bullies. Together, Pat and Gabby and Maggie become fugitives and must delve into the underworld of Mover society in order to survive and avoid Shelving.

Movers is an earth-shattering, action-packed futuristic adventure of the heightest proportions.  Set in a future that appears to be of our own making–depletion of most resources, scarcity of others, continued discrimination for those who are different–with new technology and supernatural elements of time-travel, Movers is incessant in its fast pacing and rife with villains of all natures–bureaucratic, school bullies and future warlords–keeping the action steady and plot unravelling.

Another blast sends tremors rippling through the building.  The cement begins to give way under my right foot and there’s nothing I can do.  My body is in freefall and I cry out.  My brain shuts down, and there’s only one thought–I’m so dead–but my hand still has a grip on the metal bar.
I dangle there, scream-crying with Gabby while the rough rusty bar cuts into my palm.  My vocal cords feel ready to snap while the rest of me is consumed by fear.  No Gabby, no Movement, just – falling.
My temples start buzzing, like the lightning has shot right through them, and I can feel him, my Shadow, suddenly aware of me.  He’s angry, overwhelmed by the emotion flooding out of my body and suddenly I’m furious too. (pg. 50-51)

It’s like Die Hard meets The Time Traveler’s Wife for teen readers except the threat is from within and a romance doesn’t drive the story.  But the threat is real and the time travel is real and the horrors of discrimination are real.  And, to cause even more discomfort for readers, the story of Movers isn’t over because Meaghan McIsaac leaves readers on the edge of time and place, literally, with an ending that can’t even begin to be resolved until Book 2 of this new series is announced.  Hang on.

Summer's On: A Young Adult Book List

Young adult fiction may have more mature themes and vocabulary than the books of my earlier summer book lists but, let's face it, they're all about spending time with friends, family, and strangers, at home or elsewhere, and experiencing new things, good or not.  Everyone is living in the moment, often a warm, sunny one! Onward with summer!

           

YOUNG ADULT

Acceleration

by Graham McNamee

Wendy Lamb Books

210 pp.

Ages 14+

2003

Before Wings

by Beth Goobie

Orca Book Publishers

203 pp.

Ages 14 and up

2000

Blues for Zooey

by Robert Paul Weston

Razorbill

272 pp.

Ages 13+

2014

Reviewed here

The Darkest Corner of the World

by Urve Tamberg

Dancing Cat Books

251 pp.

Ages 12+

2012

Finding Melissa

by Cora Taylor

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

184 pp.

Ages 14+

2013

Reviewed here

Finding My Own Way

by Peggy Dymond Leavey

Napoleon

173 pp.

Ages 12-15

2001

The Gravesavers
by Sheree Fitch
Doubleday Canada
336 pp.
Ages 12-15
2005

Grist

by Heather Waldorf

Red Deer Press

228 pp.

Ages 13-16

2006

The Isabel Factor

by Gayle Friesen

Kids Can Press

252 pp.

Ages 12-14

2005

Last Chance for Paris

by Sylvia McNicoll

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

204 pp.

Ages 12-15

2008

Last Summer in Agatha

by Katherine Holubitsky

Orca Book Publishers

185 pp.

Ages 14-16

2001

No More Pranks 

by Monique Polak

Orca Book Publishers

100 pp.

Ages 15-17

2004

Once Every Never       

by Lesley Livingston
Puffin Canada
302 pp.
Ages 12+
2011
Reviewed here

Every Never After

by Lesley Livingston
Razorbill
242 pp.
Ages 12+
2013
Reviewed here

Now and For Never

by Lesley Livingston
Razorbill
280 pp.
Ages 12+
2014

Second Chances

by Brenda Chapman

Dundurn

262 pp.

Ages 12-14

2012

The Silent Summer of Kyle McGinley

by Jan Andrews

Great Plains Teen Fiction

200 pp.

Ages 12-15

2013

Reviewed here

Smokescreen

by Nancy Hartry

Tundra

202 pp.

Ages 12+

2013

Reviewed here

Stolen

by John Wilson

Orca

119 pp.

Ages 10-13

2014

Summer of Fire

by Karen Bass

Coteau Books

295 pp.

2009

Swim the Fly
by Don Calame
Candlewick
345 pp.
Ages 13-15
2009

This One Summer

by Mariko Tamaki

Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Groundwood Books

2014

Reviewed here

Three Songs for Courage

by Maxine Trottier

Tundra Books

324 pp.

Ages 15-17

2006

Totally Unrelated

by Tom Ryan

Orca Books

120 pp.

Ages 11-14

2013

Reviewed here

Truths I Learned from Sam

by Kristin Butcher

Dundurn

177 pp.

Ages 12-16

2012

Wave Warrior

by Lesley Choyce

Orca

105 pp.

Ages 11-14

2007

Way to Go

by Tom Ryan

Orca

214 pp.

Ages 14-16

2012

Reviewed here

What Happened This Summer

by Paul Yee

Tradewind Books

178 pp.

Ages 15+

2006

Wicked Sweet

by Mar'ce Merrell

Feiwel and Friends

330 pp.

Ages 14-18

2012

Reviewed here

Wild Orchid

by Beverley Brenna

Red Deer Press

156 pp.

Ages 12+

2005

Viking Tales: A YoungCanLit Book List

On the last Tuesday of January, the largest Viking festival, Up Helly Aa, is held in rural Shetlands.  This festival, known as a fire festival, celebrates the Norse heritage of the Shetland Islands and involves a procession with a full-sized replica of a Viking galley ship, complete with shields and weaponry, that is set ablaze.

Procession at Uyeasound Up Helly Aa

 © Copyright Mike Pennington

What better way to participate in Up Helly Aa from Canada than by immersing oneself in the various fiction and non-fiction that includes elements of Viking history or mythology.  The following thirty-six titles present a varied sampling of such tales from our rich youngCanLit. (And, if you're teacher, these present an excellent way to integrate your social studies lessons with books by Canadians.)



Picture Books

Erik the Viking Sheep
by Elizabeth Creith
Illustrated by Linda Hendry
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 2-7
1997

 

My Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather...was a Warrior
by Riccardo Francaviglia
Illustrated by Margherita Sgarlata
Lobster Press
24 pp.
Ages 4-8
2003


Chapter Books

Yikes! Vikings! (Canadian Flyer Adventures #4)
by Frieda Wishinsky
Illustrated by Dean Griffiths
Maple Tree Press
83 pp.
Ages 6-9
2007

The Curse of the Viking Grave
by Farley Mowat
McClelland & Stewart
256 pp.
Ages 9+
1987

Out of the Dark
by Welwyn Wilton Katz
Groundwood Books
176 pp.
Ages 11-14
1995

Betrayed: The Legend of Oak Island
by Christopher Dinsdale
Napoleon
292 pp.
Ages 10+
2009

The Dream Carvers
by Joan Clark
Puffin Canada
240 pp.
Ages 11-15
1997

The Face in the Flames (The Adventures of Wordsy & Jessica series)
by David Boyd
Rubicon Publishing
97 pp.
Ages 11 to 14
1989

Catla and the Vikings
by Mary Elizabeth Nelson
Orca Book Publishers
191 pp.
Ages 9-13
2012

Dragon Seer
by Janet McNaughton
HarperCollins
325 pp.
Ages 11-14
2009

Dragon Seer's Gift
by Janet McNaughton
HarperCollins Canada
282 pp.
Ages 10+
2011

The Feathered Cloak (Trilogy of the Tree, Part 1)
by Sean Dixon
Key Porter
143 pp.
Ages 10-13
2007

The Winter Drey (Trilogy of the Tree, Part II)
Sean Dixon
Key Porter Books
221 pp.
Ages 10-12
2009

Draugr (Northern Fright series, Book 1)
by Arthur Slade
Orca Book Publishers
144 pp.
Ages 10-15
1997 
Teachers can download a free study guide for this book from the author's website
 
The Haunting of Drang Island (Northern Fright series, Book 2)
by Arthur G. Slade
Orca Book Publishers
160 pp.
Ages 10-15
1998
A study guide for this book is available from author Arthur Slade's website
 
The Loki Wolf (Northern Fright series, Book 3)
by Arthur Slade
Orca Book Publishers
192 pp.
Ages 10-15
2000 
A study guide for this book is available from Arthur Slade's website 

Kingdom of Trolls (A Middlegate Book)
by Rae Bridgman
Sybertooth
288 pp.
Ages 10-14
2011

Stolen Away
by Christopher Dinsdale
Napoleon
229 pp.
Ages 10-12
2006





Young Adult

Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck
by Joan Clark
Macmillan
418 pp.
1994

The Fetch (The Runestone Saga, Book I)
by Chris Humphreys
Alfred A. Knopf / Random House of Canada
357 pp.
Ages 13+
2006

Vendetta (The Runestone Saga, Book II)
by Chris Humphreys
Alfred A. Knopf / Random House of Canada
322 pp.
Ages 13+
2007

Possession (The Runestone Saga, Book III)
by Chris Humphreys
Alfred A. Knopf / Random House of Canada
369 pp.
Ages 13+
2008

The Sinclair Saga
by Mark Finnan
Formac
154 pp.
Ages 13+
1999

Under the Mound
by Cynthia Heinrichs
Be Read/Simply Read Books
455 pp.
Ages 11-15
2011

Viking Quest
by Tom Henighan
Dundurn
120 pp.
Ages 12-15
2001

Viking Terror (Book 2)
by Tom Henighan
Dundurn
180 pp.
Ages 12-15
2006







Non-Fiction

Adventures with the Vikings (Good Times Travel Agency)
by Linda Bailey
Illustrated by Bill Slavin
Kids Can Press
48 pp.
Ages 8-12
2001

Beowulf
by Welwyn Wilton Katz
Illustrated by Laszlo Gal
Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre
63 pp.
Ages 10+
1999

Cryptic Canada: Unsolved Mysteries from Coast to Coast
by Natalie Hyde
Illustrated by Matt Hammill
Owlkids Books
48 pp.
Ages 9-11
2012

Explorers Who Made It...or Died Trying
by Frieda Wishinsky
Illustrated by Bill Dickson
Scholastic Canada
155 pp.
Ages 12-14
2011

First Folks and Vile Voyageurs (Hilarious Canadian Histories)
by Claire Mackay
Illustrated by Bill Dickson
Scholastic Canada
169 pp.
Ages 10-13
2001

Life of the Ancient Vikings (Peoples of the Ancient World)
by Hazel Richardson
Crabtree
32 pp.
Ages 9-13
2005

Science Detectives: How Real Scientists Solved Six Real-Life Mysteries
by Editors of Yes Mag
Illustrated by Rose Cowles
Kids Can Press
48 pp.
Ages 8-12
2006

The Vikings (Discovering Canada)
by Robert Livesy
Illustrated by A. G. Smith
Stoddart
90 pp.
1989

Vikings: Dress, Eat, Write, and Play Just Like the Vikings (Hands-On History)
by Fiona Macdonald
Crabtree
32 pp.
Ages 8-11
2008