Book Launch: One Step at a Time, A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way

Join

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

author of 

Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War

on   
Wednesday, September 19, 2012

7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

at

The Station Coffee House and Gallery
5 Wadsworth Street
Brantford, ON
(519) 309-0008

for the launch of the sequel

One Step at a Time
A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way

Eight-year-old Tuyet's harrowing escape from Saigon in 1975 and adoption by her new family in Brantford, Ontario was the focus of Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War (Pajama Press, 2011).  One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way recounts Tuyet's true story of adjusting to her new family and country and accepting the unconditional love and support extended to her, regardless of her polio-stricken left foot and leg which she had always believed made her unadoptable.

Marsha Skrypuch accompanied by Tuyet will generously answer questions and autograph books at this book launch.

And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems

Edited by Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer

Illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

Friesen Press

978-1-77097-953-6

67 pp.

Ages 7–12

August 2012

Reviewed from digital file

978-1-77097-954-3

Fans of sports, poetry, humour and youngCanLit will be sure to cheer for this anthology of poetry that stretches from the experiences of going to the stadium to playing and watching various sports and games (including lacrosse, chess, table tennis, football, baseball and dogsled racing) and finales like the World Series and closing ceremonies.

And the Crowd Goes Wild! editors, Canadian Carol-Ann Hoyte and American Heidi Bee Roemer, have chosen poetry from around the world, hence the global gathering, which includes Canada, U.S.A., Australia, Liberia, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Ghana, Ireland and Wales.  Young readers will recognize many sports like hockey, tennis and football, and learn about nontraditional endeavours such as goalball and monoskiing.  Whether in contexts of global events such as the Olympics and the Paralympics, or based in neighbourhood fields and playgrounds, the poetry will touch readers with its humour, poignancy or familiarity.  From the young girl whose letter asks her coach (also her father) to let her play (The Letter by Eileen R. Meyer), to a girl's relationship with her father solidified over sport (I Watch Football with My Father by Savannah Tesla) or Tiffany Stone's I Hate Hockey, surprisingly told from the puck's point of view, the poetry emphasizes the relation of young people to sport from their own perspectives and experiences.  The reader need not be familiar with the sport or topic to enjoy the poetry, but experiences, personal or observational, will introduce another layer of appreciation and comprehension of the poetry.

One of the numerous poems by Canadians is Pianoball by Jocelyn Shipley, author of How to Tend a Grave (reviewed here).  Showing her writing versatility, Jocelyn Shipley's poem about a child practising piano while yearning for the baseball game is enhanced by a Kevin Sylvester drawing.  Kevin Sylvester, author of the wildly popular Neil Flambé series, is also recognized for his sports-based non-fiction (e.g., Game Day, Annick, 2010; Sports Hall of Weird, Kids Can Press, 2005) and award-winning illustrations (e.g., Don't Touch That Toad and Other Strange Things Adults Tell You, Kids Can Press, 2010) so he was the definitive choice for illustrator of And the Crowd Goes Wild!

I haven't even mentioned a valuable resource for teachers who'd love to meld poetry with sports.  The editors generously referenced each poem to its form (e.g., shape poems, acrostic) and poetic devices such as hyperbole and metaphor. And if that wasn't enough, there is a website at http://crowdgoeswildpoems.wordpress.com/ that is slated to provide primers on writing poetry and interviews with the editors and others related to And the Crowd Goes Wild! book.

As I'm always promoting CanLit for young readers, the inclusion of poetry by non-Canadians does not negate the value of this wonderful anthology.  Published in Canada with the efforts of a Canadian editor and illustrated by a well-known illustrator and sports enthusiast, in addition to the numerous poets from Canada, I can safely attest that And the Crowd Goes Wild! hits one out of the park, no matter who's on the teams. Go, Team Hoyte-Roemer, Go!

I'm Bored: Book Launch

Join 

illustrator 

Debbie Ridpath Ohi 

on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 

from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

at  TYPE Books

883 Queen St. West

(between Bathurst and Ossington)

Toronto

for the launch of her first picture book

I'm Bored

Written by Michael Ian Black

Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

978-1442414037

40 pp.

For release September 4, 2012
 

This simple but highly relevant picture book focuses on a bored little girl who must change her way of thinking and demonstrate, to a potato, that children are not boring but amazing. 

More about Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a children's book illustrator and writer who lives in  Toronto, can be read at her website http://debbieohi.com

n.b. I'm Bored will be released on September 4th but the official launch will take place on September 18th.

Such Wicked Intent: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, Book Two

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-55468-342-0

310 pp.

Ages12+

Released August 28, 2012

Wicked.  Intense.  Dark.  A dash of sweetness. 

It could be dark chocolate I'm describing but it's Such Wicked Intent, the sequel to This Dark Endeavour, Kenneth Oppel's first book in The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein series.  Just like a good dark chocolate, Such Wicked Intent is a treat that should be savoured slowly, with pauses to contemplate the richness of the experience, even smoother than its predecessor.

In This Dark Endeavour (reviewed here on October 5, 2011), teen Victor Frankenstein pursues an alchemical cure for his deathly-ill twin brother, Konrad.  Following the tomes in the Dark Library of his ancestor Wilhelm Frankenstein, Victor sacrifices much, including two of his own fingers, to save his brother, sadly unsuccessfully.

Such Wicked Intent begins just three weeks after Konrad's death, with Victor's father destroying the Dark Library.  First the books are burned and then the structure itself dismantled, with two significant finds revealed.  Below the former Dark Library, workers discover caves with primitive art etched in the walls.  Perhaps more significant is Victor's discovery of a book-like metal box amongst the burnt books.  Within the box, a pendant and materials and instructions for building a Spirit Board for communicating with the dead capture Victor's attention.

With the help of Elizabeth, Konrad's love, and their friend Henry Percival, Victor unearths an elixir, spirit clock and directions for visiting the spirit world.  Victor is delighted to find Konrad, still in his funeral clothes, as well as another spirit, Analiese, a former servant at the chateau.  Awaiting their "gathering" by the brilliant light, Konrad and Analiese endure the terrorizing thumps and groans heard within the chateau, and the swirling mist outside that Analiese believes is an evil entity.  Sadly, seeing his brother and Elizabeth is almost unbearable for Konrad, as they emit blinding light and heat.  On the other hand, Victor finds that being on the other side leaves him empowered, energized and even pain-free. Victor is determined to deliver Konrad back to the world of the living.

And so begin the psychological and moral debates within and between the characters.  Should Konrad be allowed to remain in a kind of purgatory, waiting for the angels, or returned to his family and Elizabeth?  Should Victor pursue Elizabeth though he has vowed not to covet what was his brother's?  How can Elizabeth justify her visits to Konrad with her religious convictions?  What of the jealousies Victor, Elizabeth and even Henry seem to be experiencing?  Most importantly, are they playing God in recreating life and returning Konrad from the dead?

Victor may feel guilt due to his jealousy of Konrad and this may be colouring his actions, including attempting to save Konrad's life and now retrieving him.  But, Victor cannot resolve what he wants to do with what he feels he should want to do.  He is passionate about unlocking the secrets of the universe, especially those contrary to the laws of nature. But this passion, almost a compulsion, torments him when balanced against his family: his father who has asked Victor to cease his unnatural investigations; his mother debilitated with grief; his young brothers who love him; and Elizabeth who is contemplating entering the convent.  How can he ensure his decisions are just? And does it matter if they aren't?

Kenneth Oppel takes the turmoil of Victor's position, as the twin of a more highly admired brother to whom Victor feels disloyal, and embeds it in the darkness of the unknown afterlife and sorcery.  Embroiled in a shifting matrix of grief, lust, affection and faith, Victor's intents, as well as those of the others, seem to shift in response, vacillating between selfish and compassionate.  The Frankenstein madness of Mary Shelley may be growing in Victor but the elaborate veneer of creativity and ancestry may keep it from erupting. Only Kenneth Oppel's imagination and foresight will determine the full extent of Victor's apprenticeship. 

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Uploaded by HarperCollins Canada to coincide with the release of Such Wicked Intent on August 28th, the book trailer can be viewed at CanLit for LittleCanadians: BookTtrailers here.

Shade and Sorceress: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book I

Written by Catherine Egan
Coteau Books
978-1550-505146
279 pp.
Ages 10+
September, 2012

It's wonderful getting into a new book and, as you're reading, you realize that it's captivating you the way the Harry Potter series did: anticipating the next turn in the plot or another unknown fantastical creature with crafty powers, or delivery to a world where the laws of nature need not hold true.  Shade and Sorceress continued to surprise me with unexpected plotting, ultimately leaving me waiting for next book in The Last Days of Tian Di series and hopefully answers to a few surprise questions at the book's conclusion.

Tian Di, the One World, was the fantastical world in which humans were slaves to the Faeries; that is, until the Mancers, scholars of that world, used magic to begin its ongoing separation into Di Shang, the land of humans and beasts, and Tian Xia, the home of the beings of power.  Not surprising that the arrival of five emissary Mancers to Holburg, the island home of twelve-year-old Eliza Tok, would cause such a stir, especially when they arrive on dragons.  On behalf of the Supreme Mancer, Kyreth, these emissaries have come to take Eliza back to their Citadel to begin her studies for her position as Shang Sorceress, the role her mother Rea held until she eloped with a human, Eliza's father, Rom Tok.  Determined to protect her daughter, Rea had used Magic to hide Eliza, although Rea was killed in assisting the Mancers and their allies to entrap the Xia Sorceress in the Arctic.

Although she enjoys learning, Eliza demonstrates no magical powers, except when Kyreth puts her in the life-threatening position of guarding the Crossing between the two worlds.  Eliza learns that her father has been taken by the Cra, the bird-like creatures of the Xia Sorceress, to the Arctic and will only be released if Eliza brings the Sorceress the Mancers' Book of Barriers.  With Charlie, who Eliza sees as a thirteen-year-old boy, though he is a shape-shifting Shade, and Nell, her human friend from Holburg, Eliza sets out to save her father by heading to Tian Xia to seek out the Triumvira, the 3 beings who banished the Sorceress to the Arctic.

Much illusion is used in Shade and Sorceress to hide that which is real and construct that which is imagined but the relationships upon which all plot lines rely are quite genuine.  There are parents protecting their children, lovers who betray, friends who offer unconditional support, prejudice based on power, new allies from nebulous connections, and deception by so many.  The wealth of characters and the nature of their gifts, against a backdrop of caves, carved, black cliffs, ravening forests, hanging gardens, a dead marsh, arctic tundra, temples, a crystal city and all landscapes and structures in between, make an auspicious introduction to The Last Days of Tian Di series.  Fortunately, Catherine Egan, Canadian-born author currently living in New Jersey, neither leaves the reader frustrated with an incomplete ending or a neatly resolved storyline.  With Shade and Sorceress, young readers, not just young adults, are promised a refreshingly new fantasy series that is otherworldy but devoid of vampires.

#CanLit Choices: "Holes" alternatives

Holes

by Louis Sachar

Yearling

978-0440414803

272 pp.

Ages 9-12

RL 5.2

1999

Holes, the multiple award-winning book by American author, Louis Sachar, is the story of Stanley Yelnats who is sent to a juvenile correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds him digging holes.  Of course, he is not surprised by this turn of events as his family has been cursed ever since his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" failed to keep a promise.

Written at RL 5.2 (this means a child should be able to read this at the second month of Grade 5), Holes is often used to demonstrate the following themes:

• fate
• friendship
• justice
• determination

Of course, Louis Sachar's sense of humour and surprise twists are also very engrossing.

                                                                                            

The following youngCanLit books focus on fate and justice and would serve well as updated and alternative novels to Louis Sachar's Holes. And, for those fans of Holes who might like a Canadian alternative, these novels have the twists, turns and laughs that have made Holes such a popular book.

Banjo of Destiny

by Cary Fagan 

Illustrated by Selçuk Demirel 

Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press

127 pp.

Ages 9-12

2011

Courtesy of his parents' dental floss fortune, Jeremiah Birnbaum has the very best of everything that money can buy, including the lessons and education to turn him into a fine young man.  But Jeremiah falls in love with the music of the banjo, and that does not fit in with his parents' plan.

Book Club Questions for Banjo of Destiny

Jolted: Newton Starker's Rules for Survival

by Arthur Slade

HarperCollins

224 pp.

Ages 11-14

2008

Newton Starker has just lost his mother to a lightning strike, the same tragedy that has cursed all his relatives on his mother's side. Armed with his six rules for survival, his trusty truffle-seeking pig, a desire to out-manoeuvre his nemesis Violet Quan, and the will to live, fourteen-year-old Newton, a student at the Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival in Moose Jaw, wonders whether he'll be the one to outlive the curse.

Podcast: Audio and Video of Arthur Slade's reading of Jolted 

The Midnight Curse

by L.M. Falcone

Kids Can Press

208 pp.

Ages 10-13

2010

When their great-great-uncle Jonathan dies, eleven-year-old fraternal twins, Charlie and Lacey Darcy, and their mom are summoned to England, hopeful for an inheritance.  But, it is a curse that transfers from Uncle Jonathan to Charlie, already a nervous worrier, which condemns him to a life sleeping in water from midnight to daybreak, or suffer death.

Book trailer can be viewed at my CanLit for LittleCanadians Book Trailers site here.

Neil Flambé and the Crusader's Curse

by Kevin Sylvester

Simon & Schuster Books for Young People

291 pp.

Ages 8-14

2012

Neil Flambé, teen chef and Vancouver restauranteer extraordinaire, does not that know that the great Flambé chefs have been cursed since the 1200's.  He does know, however, that his dishes now taste like sawdust, the re-opening of the restaurant is doomed (especially after closed by the health inspector) and he's challenged by computer wiz and rival, Stanley Picón, with computer Deep Blue Cheese (DBC), to a cooking duel.  It's a very unsavory situation for Neil.

Activity sheets and a How To Draw Neil Flambé video are available at the Simon & Schuster website

Dunces Anonymous

by Kate Jaimet

Orca Book Publishers
157 pp.
Ages 9-12
2009

Josh is sure to win Class President, but it's his mother that wants it for me, not Josh. To find some help with his dilemma, Josh forms a club, Dunces Anonymous, for students whose parents push them to excel at activities they are not interested in. Two students join him:  Wang, whose father is chess tournament crazy, loves fencing, and Magnolia, who likes to act, does not want to be in the school play, Romeo and Juliet.

In each of the above books, the protagonist must deal with a destiny/fate/curse that is none of his doing, and must look towards his friends and show real determination to ensure that the resolution is more to his liking.  What else does a book alternative to Holes need?  Absolutely nothing!

Leave comments if you have any other suggestions for Holes alternatives or to select an age-old novel that needs refreshing with #CanLitChoices.

A Good Trade

by Alma Fullerton

Illustrated by Karen Patkau

Pajama Press

978-0-9869495-9-3

32 pp.

Ages 5+

Release October 1, 2012

Alma Fullerton, one of my favourite writers of novels in verse (e.g., Libertad, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008; Burn, Dancing Cat Books, 2010), has applied her formidable craftsmanship to create a text light in word count but powerful in message. The story of A Good Trade features a young Ugandan boy Kato whose daily routine has him waking at dawn to collect the day's water at the local well.  Carrying two jerry cans, Kato skips, races and treks to the borehole where he joins other children in filling the cans.  On his return journey, he glimpses into an aid worker's truck and the routine of Kato's day takes on a new spirit and task.

Kato's story could be a sombre one, considering that for his whole life Uganda has been in the midst of a civil war in which children were abducted and terrorized to fight for the rebel forces. But, while not ignoring the presence of armed soldiers, A Good Trade accepts the unrest and horror as only one aspect of Uganda.  There are also the gardens, hills, trails, fields with cattle, and villages with neighbours and children.  And those who offer help.  Alma Fullerton emphasizes the hope that accompanies that aid and the touching gratitude of a young boy, while smoothing the wrinkles of Kato's life to remain a textured canvas of many threads: some thicker, some brighter, some coarser, others frail.

And Karen Patkau's illustrations are the embodiment of that texture, in mosaics of bold colours and angular shapes, recreating Kato's Uganda as a rich landscape.  While Karen Patkau has illustrated many books (e.g., One Watermelon Seed, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008; Creatures Great and Small, Tundra, 2006) and has had her artwork recognized with awards, nominations and honourable mentions, I believe that the pairing of Alma Fullerton's text with Karen Patkau's art style in A Good Trade is inspired.  It's almost as if Karen Patkau's art was destined to evoke the landscape and story of Uganda.  Her sultry skies alone capably recreate the shimmering heat of an African day. 

Whatever forces, human or supernatural, that brought together these two artists, one of words and the other of graphics, knew exactly what they were doing.  There's gratitude all around here: from Kato, from picture book lovers, from compassionate readers.

*     *     *     *     *

By bringing together Alma Fullerton and Karen Patkau, Pajama Press, which was only established in April 2011, continues to impress me with the quality of the titles it publishes. I'm starting to feel like a groupie, promoting great book after great book like True Blue by Deborah Ellis; Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War by Marsha Skrypuch; and Don't Laugh at Giraffe by Rebecca Bender.  The only one I've missed reading is No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs by Rob Laidlaw and that's only because I'm too much of a wuss about animal non-fiction.  Continue to look for reviews of Pajama Press' books here at CanLit for LittleCanadians and at your bookstore.