Under the Moon

Written by Deborah Kerbel
Dancing Cat Books (Cormorant Books)
978-1-77086-090-2
194 pp.
Ages 12-15
2012

Contemplating under the moon seems an appropriate activity on a dark night when you are burdened with the worries of daily life.  Even if you're not looking for answers, the darkness seems to absorb the uncertainties while the moonshine offers a glimmer of hope.  But what if that contemplation is not a singular event but a nightly ritual because the burden is the night, a time of sleeplessness?

Teen Lily MacArthur has never been a great sleeper, managing barely a few hours a night.  But, when her dear Aunt Su, an eccentric romance novelist and Lily's nighttime interlocutor, dies unexpectedly, Lily's minimal sleep becomes nonexistent.

Under similar circumstances, most people would seek out the support of friends or family.  With no friends, which Lily attributes to her introversion, and with her parents divorced and incapable of providing support during her wakefulness, Lily finds some relief in sneaking out at night, often chatting with the moon as if a friend.  On one such outing, she walks through the drive-thru at McCool's Fries and makes the acquaintance of the boy she calls Rude Dude whom she later learns is Ben Matthews, a new classmate.  While Lily is attracted to Ben, their occasional encounters, whether at school or at night when she's awake and he's working, are perplexing, occasionally honest and companionable, often undermining and ambiguous.

Coupled with her puzzling relationship with Ben, Lily is shaken by a post-funeral revelation from her aunt, and she begins to tally her sleepless nights believing they will lead to her death.  As she tries to respond to shifting circumstances, with Ben, a new friend Emma, a classmate Todd, and others, Lily begins to delve into the veracity of her own perceptions, and becomes worthy of the magnanimity Aunt Su suggests she has.

Though Under the Moon's title and cover suggest a more innocuous story, Deborah Kerbel's potent writing maintains the shadows of the night and the tangled thinking of the sleepless.  Lily's desperation to stymie her sleeplessness while yielding to new feelings contrasts with Ben's need to balance his unexpected attraction to her while avoiding pity.  In Under the Moon, Deborah Kerbel effectively portrays the turmoil of the teen heart and mind: apprehensive of the unknown, like the obscurity of the dark night, while still hopeful for possibilities that glimmer in the moon.

Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards 2012 Short Lists announced!

Today, the Ontario Arts Foundation, on behalf of the Ruth Schwartz Foundation, announced the 2012 short lists for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards.

Administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards recognize artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature. The award was established in 1976 by Sylvia Schwartz in memory of her sister, Ruth Schwartz, a respected Toronto bookseller.  In 2004, the Schwartz family renamed the awards to honour both sisters.

While funded generously by the Ruth Schwartz Foundation ($6000 for each award) and administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the awards are selected by two juries of young readers from Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School.  Five students from Grades 2 and 3 select the award-winning book for the Children's Picture Book Award, and five students from Grade 8 select the Young Adult/Middle Reader Book Award recipient.

Here are the titles short-listed for the 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards:

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK CATEGORY

Along a Long Road
by Frank Viva
HarperCollins Canada

Loon
by Susan Vande Griek
Illustrated by Karen Reczuch
Groundwood

Migrant
by Maxine Trottier
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Groundwood

Picture a Tree
by Barbara Reid
Scholastic Canada

The Vole Brothers
by Roslyn Schwartz
Owlkids Books

 YOUNG ADULT/MIDDLE READER CATEGORY

Blink and Caution
by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick Press

No Ordinary Day
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood

Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra

That Fatal Night: The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1912
by Sarah Ellis
Scholastic Canada

The Whole Truth
by Kit Pearson
HarperCollins Canada

The 2012 winners will be announced at Toronto’s Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School at 1:00 p.m. on May 31, 2012.

Rocky Mountain Book Award 2012 Winner Announced!

For the past month, readers in Grades 4-7 have voted for their favourite book from twenty fiction and non-fiction nominees and the results tallied and announced yesterday. 

The Winner of the 2012 Rocky Mountain Book Award Gold Medal is...

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom 

by Susin Nielsen 

Tundra Books

978-0-88776-977-1

229 pp.

Ages 10-14

2010 

--> After Violet's TV-director dad leaves Vancouver and reshapes his life into that of a rich LA bigshot with a beautiful actress-wife and perfect twin daughters, he doesn't see the wreckage he has left behind: Violet's younger sister begins bed-wetting; Violet's mother, a stylist, starts dating loser after loser; and Violet is seething with such anger that it compels her to make abominable and hilarious decisions, including looking to match her mom up with George Clooney, the actor.

First two runners-up are:

Burn  

by Alma Fullerton

Dancing Cat Books/Cormorant

978-1-897151-95-2

255 pp.

Ages 10-13

2010

Tower of Treasure: Three Thieves 

by Scott Chantler

Kids Can Press

978-1-55453-414-2

978-1-55453-415-9

112 pp.

Ages 9-12

2010 

Congratulations to the winners and all nominated titles.

World Book & Copyright Day: April 23

World Book and Copyright Day a.k.a. International Day of the Book was inaugurated in 2003 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as April 23. 

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.

From UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day 

at http://ow.ly/ark98

The UNESCO website for World Book and Copyright Day tells of the origin of this celebration as Catalonia where, on 23 April (Saint George's Day) a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold.  Coincidentally, April 23 is also the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth (1564 ) and death (1616), and the death of Miguel de Cervante (1616), although the issue of the Gregorian versus Julian calendar may negate this claim.

Because 2012 will mark the 80th anniversary of the Index Translationum, an international database of bibliographic information about translated books, the focus of World Book Day is books and translation.

The answer to the inevitable question of why translation matters is well answered by the UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova who addressed this in her Message for World Book and Copyright Day 2012

Translation is the first step towards the rapprochement of peoples, and is also a decentralizing experience, teaching diversity and dialogue. Translation is one of the driving principles of our creative diversity, which enriches each language through contact with all the others. 

For teachers interested in commemorating this date with specific activities, consider:

• discussing plagiarism and pirating of copyrighted materials;
• reading the same book in different translations to assess accuracy and validity of the translation (from children's perspective);
• listening to audio books in different languages;
• discussing the value of translated books;
• allowing book trades between children to share their love of reading;
• calculating the proportion of books in the school library which would be worthy of translation into another language and discuss why; and 
• having older students translate a well-known CanLit picture book into their own mother tongue.

n.b. Some countries, such as Ireland and the United Kingdom, celebrate "World Book Day" on alternative days, such as March 1.

Hana's Suitcase: 10th Anniversary

When the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource 

Centre, Fumiko Ishioka, attempted to bring in Holocaust artifacts to enhance the educational experience for children at the Centre, she could not have expected the chain of events that would be set into motion by the delivery of one item.  A small suitcase of unknown origin set Fumiko Ishioka on a quest for information which led her from Tokyo to Auschwitz and finally to Toronto and seventy-four-year-old George Brady, the brother of Hana, the young girl to whom the suitcase belonged.

Czechoslovakian-born Jews, Hana and George's parents were taken away by the Gestapo in 1941.  The following year, orphans Hana (11) and George (14) were deported to Terezin (Therenseinstadt), the concentration camp.  In 1944, the two young people were sent on different transports to Auschwitz, never seeing each other again.

When Hana Brady's story, via Fumiko Ishioka's meeting with George Brady, hit the Toronto news, Karen Levine, who worked for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), picked up the story and created a radio documentary about it.  Later Karen Levine wrote Hana's Suitcase which was published by Second Story Press in 2002. 

Hana's Suitcase

by Karen Levine

Second Story Press

978-1-896764-55-9

120 pp.

Ages 9-12

2002

Since Fumiko Ishioka received that lone archived suitcase, Hana Brady's story and Hana's Suitcase have been retold in dozens of translations, in an award-winning documentary (Odyssey of Hope: Hana's Suitcase), in a stage play (Hana's Suitcase Onstage) and in a docu-drama (Inside Hana's Suitcase).  Now, ten years later,  Second Story Press has published Hana's Suitcase Anniversary Album (2012), with numerous extras, like letters, photographs, play excerpts and more.

Hana's Suitcase Anniversary Album

(Holocaust Remembrance Series for Young Readers)

by Karen Levine

Second Story Press

978-1-926920-36-8

176 pp.

Ages 9-13

2012

If you'd like to extend your exploration of Hana's Suitcase, Quill & Quire is commemorating the tenth anniversary of Hana's Suitcase with a free podcast (available on iTunes).  Get full details of this Quillcast (Episode 7) on Quill & Quire's website. 

Also, CBC Television's Doc Zone which aired the documentary Inside Hana's Suitcase last year (lousy timing on our part) has discussion forums, Q & As and links here used to promote the documentary's airing.

Finally, the Brady family has a wonderful website www.hanassuitcase.ca where Hana's family background is documented, as well as the timeline of events leading to the publication of the book Hana's Suitcase.  There is a wealth of information here to further the reader's appreciation of the book and Hana's story.

Imagine:  Such a big story from such a small suitcase.

In the next few weeks, I'll be putting together a number of CanLit book lists on different issues related to social justice, a hot curriculum topic in Ontario schools and elsewhere.  One such book list will be devoted to the Holocaust, and Hana's Suitcase will feature prominently in this list.  Look for it here soon.

Arthur Ellis 2012 Shortlists announced!

In a series of events nation-wide, the Crime Writers of Canada last night announced the nominated titles for the 2012 Arthur Ellis Awards for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Details about the awards were posted here in January but the award short-lists for books and others writings from 2011 were only announced last night.

Congratulations to the nominated authors in all seven award categories.  On May 31, 2012, some of them will be leaving the Arthur Ellis Awards Banquet in Toronto with their own wooden statuette of a hanging man (whose arms and legs flail when the string is pulled).

As an aside (okay, more like its own paragraph), the origin of the statuette's design has an interesting connection to children's literature.  Children's and YA author, Tim Wynne-Jones, author of Blink and Caution (Candlewick, 2011), recently reviewed here, apparently had a role in its design.  However,  Tim Wynne-Jones, who became an officer of the Order of Canada in December of 2011, humbly explains his role in this note on the Crime Writers of Canada website.

A note on Arthur by Tim Wynne-Jones

I'm happy to clarify Arthur's history. It was my job to head the committee, as Tony said. And my big contribution, as far as I'm concerned, was in realizing that a book prize is kind of a stage prop. The darn thing should look good in somebody's hands as well as on their mantel. So I thought to go to a stage designer, Peter Blais, who happened also to be a wonderful actor, and who happened to be someone I had acted with and knew to have a wicked sense of humour. He got it! He understood what I was trying to say and came up with the jumping jack. So Peter very much deserves the kudos for Arthur and I'm just pleased to have got him on board. It's the best prize around, as far as I'm concerned. I'm lucky enough to have won one and also to have won an Edgar and Arthur beats Edgar all to heck!  (Retrieved from http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/awards/arthur-ellis-awards/history on April 19, 2012.)

Now, back to the shortlists.

Here are the titles and authors nominated for the  2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book:

Blink and Caution 
by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick

Charlie's Key
by Rob Mills
Orca Books

Empire of Ruins: The Hunchback Assignments III

by Arthur Slade
HarperCollins Canada

Held

by Edeet Ravel
Annick Press

Missing
by Becky Citra
Orca Books

 We look forward to the announcement of winners at the end of May.

Special thanks to Bill Selnes at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan (you can get all shortlists here) and tweeps @evacmo and @barbhowson for the scoops.

Larf

Written and illustrated by Ashley Spires
Kids Can Press
978-1-55453-701-3
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
2012

There's no way anyone could think that the term "abominable snowman" is a synonym for a sasquatch when that sasquatch is Larf.  How could anyone possibly consider a seven-foot vegetarian who jogs, gardens and cares lovingly for his pet bunny, Eric, as anything but adorable. (Hmm.  Adorable? Abominable? They must have the two words confused.)  So what if he's big and elusive?  In these times of social justice, we should embrace his uniqueness and individuality and respect his privacy.

From Larf, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

And, if Larf reads about another sasquatch and decides he'd like to meet another of his kind, so be it.  Solitude, after all, isn't always the only option.  So, Larf camouflages himself in a pair of jeans and a black beret, and, with Eric strapped into his front baby carrier, Larf takes the bus to the busy town of Hunderfitz.  But, meeting the sasquatch is not as Larf predicts, and disappointment ensues.  However, this sasquatch still helps fate bring companionship to Larf's life through an unexpected encounter.

From Larf, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Just as Ashley Spires' Binky the Space Cat (Kids Can Press, 2009) and Small Saul (Kids Can Press, 2011) have charmed their way into readers' hearts, so will Larf, the gentle giant of sasquatches.  Although Larf believes he is the only one of his kind, children will have heard about the terrifying Yeti, the Abominable Snowman, and Bigfoot whose size overrides any other descriptors other than vicious.  But Larf's size does not define him because his character is far too lovable to be impeded by his bulk.  Charmingly, Ashley Spires uses bright and unpretentious ink and watercolour (just like Larf himself) to illustrate his story.  But it's the details that will have readers searching for hints and hidden humour throughout, whether it be the declaration on Larf's mug or the very Canadian blanket he drapes across his lap.  Ashley Spires' Larf uses a light touch to illustrate how we should be ourselves but be open to new adventures that may enrich our lives in unpredictable ways.