International Day of the Girl: BookList 3

This third book list, to support the UN's International Day of the Girl, October 11, provides some young adult fiction that lets us...

...stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

From http://litworld.org/standupforgirls 

on October 3, 2012.  

Young Adult

Ashes, Ashes
by Jo Treggiari
Scholastic Press
341 pp.
Ages 12+
2011
In dystopian New York City, Lucy Holloway has survived the plague that has killed so many, but now must evade those who seek to capture her and learn who she can trust.

Blood Red Road

by Moira Young

Doubleday Canada

459 pp.

Ages 14+

2011

In a post-Wreckers world, Saba heads for brutal Hopetown where the Tonton (who abducted her twin brother Lugh) keep order with slavery and deadly entertainment.

Cape Town

by Brenda Hammond

Great Plains Teen Fiction

326 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Attending ballet school at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Renee Pretorius becomes immersed in the beginnings of the anti-apartheid movement of 1989.

Chanda's Secrets

by Allan Stratton
Annick Press
193 pp.
Ages 12-15
2004
In Sub-Saharan Africa, sixteen-year-old Chanda takes responsibility for her ill mother and younger siblings in an atmosphere rife with fear and suspicion about HIV/AIDS.

Fostergirls
by Liane Shaw
Second Story Press
256 pp.
Ages13-16
2011
At yet another foster home, Sadie Thompson, 15, vows to avoid any disturbances until she turns 16 and can ask for legal emancipation.

Gravity Journal 

by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Great Plains Teen Fiction
162 pp.
Ages 12-15
2008
Anise battles anorexia in a rehab centre, reflecting on her health, circumstances and emotions in a journal.

Half World
by Hiromi Goto
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Puffin Canada
190 pp.
Ages 12-15
2009
After her mother dies and enters Half World, Melanie follows her and must re-establish balance between the three realms (Flesh, Spirit and Half World).

Hunted

by Cheryl Rainfield

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

316 pp.

Ages 13+

2012

Caitlyn, 15, has lived through her father's murder, her brother's abduction and her mother's denial of her gifts to evade the government agents determined to destroy Paranormals such as herself.

I'll Be Home Soon
by Luanne Armstrong
Ronsdale Press
200 pp.
Ages 10+
2012
Thirteen-year-old Regan takes to the streets to look for her mother after she disappears.

Kate 

by Valerie Sherrard
Dundurn Press
232 pp.
Ages 11-15
2003
Having been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, Kate is determined to enjoy all her remaining days to their fullest.

Mostly Happy

by Pam Bustin
Thistledown Press
272 pp.
Ages 16+
2008

Even in her tentative life, with her naive parents and then just her flighty mother Prissy, Bean works to create harmony and move forward.

Mountain Girl, River Girl 

by Ting-xing Ye
Puffin Canada
213 pp.
Ages 12-15
2008
Two girls leave their homes to look for better lives in a bigger modern Chinese city but must rely on their courage and wit to survive.

Plain Kate
by Erin Bow
Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic
314 pp.
Ages 12-15
2010
Orphaned Kate finds the means to survive while dealing with the suspicions of villagers and those of the gypsies that offer her some support.

Secrets
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
175 pp.
Ages 9-12
2005
Short stories by women about female protagonists who must deal with secrets.

Skim
by Mariko Tamaki 
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi
141 pp.
Ages 14+
2008
Skim navigates the challenges of her teenage years at school, exploring new friends, witchcraft, and a personal relationship with a female teacher.

Surviving Sam
by Karen Rivers

Polestar/Raincoast Books
205 pp.
Ages 14-17
2001
Three years after her twin brother Sam dies in an avalanche that she survives, Pagan is still struggling to separate herself from his memory and death.

A Spy in the House: The Agency, Book 1
by Y. S. Lee
Candlewick Press/Random House Canada
335 pp.
Ages 13-17
2009
Mary Quinn, rescued from hanging, is recruited by the Agency, a covert operation of female spies, to investigate smuggling activities.

This is Not a Test

by Courtney Summers

St. Martin's Griffin

326 pp.

Ages 13+

2012

Sloane becomes part of a group finding refuge in the high school from marauding zombies.

Thunder Over Kandahar
by Sharon E. McKay
Annick Press
260 pp.
Ages 12+
2010
Unescorted by men, Yasmine (separated from her parents) and Tamanna (escaping a forced marriage and abuse) attempt to reach the safety of Pakistan.

Under the Moon
by Deborah Kerbel
Dancing Cat Books (Cormorant Books)
194 pp.
Ages 12-15
2012
Lily is desperate to deal with her relentless wakefulness, even sneaking out at night, and the compounded turmoil she experiences.

Voiceless

by Caroline Wissing

Thistledown Press

241 pp.

Ages 14+

2012
After her granny is murdered, Annabel goes into foster care and finds both compassion and danger, though not where she expects.

   Help girls be   

    Fierce       Fearless      Free    

Two previous lists for International Day of the Girl can be accessed here:
• Picture Books
• Fiction (middle grade novels)

International Day of the Girl: BookList 2

This second book list, to support the UN's International Day of the Girl on October 11, provides but a small sampling of chapter books and middle grade fiction that lets us...

...stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

From http://litworld.org/standupforgirls 

on October 3, 2012.

n.b. While several of the books listed (e.g., The Breadwinner, The Third Eye and Greener Grass) are part of series with strong female protagonists, only a single book is listed here.  Readers are encouraged to check out sequels to get a more complete story of the amazing fortitude of the girls in these books.

Fiction

Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery
Image of 100th Anniversary Edition
Penguin Group Canada
Ages 8-12
2008
Story of Anne Shirley and the new home she makes with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert on Prince Edward Island.

Before Green Gables
by Budge Wilson
Penguin Canada
447 pp.
Ages 10+
2008
Anne's story from birth to arrival on Prince Edward Island.

The Breadwinner
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
170 pp.
Ages 10-14
2000
Parvana disguises herself as a boy to feed her family in war-torn Afghanistan. 

Catla and the Vikings

by Mary Elizabeth Nelson

Orca Book Publishers

191 pp.

Ages 9-13

2012 

Catla seeks help after her Northumbrian village is attacked by Vikings.

The Crazy Man 
by Pamela Porter
Groundwood Books
214 pp.
Ages 8-12
2005
A farm accident leaves Emmaline disabled and the family farm in need of help.

Going Places
by Fran Hurcomb
Orca Book Publishers
122 pp.
Ages 8-11
2008
Jess and her friends work against the odds to start a girls hockey team in their small town in the NWT.

The Glory Wind
by Valerie Sherrard
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
222 pp.
Ages 11+
2010
In 1946 Manitoba, new girl Gracie must endure the gossip and ignorance simply because of the job her mother takes. 

Greener Grass
by Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
276 pp.
Ages 11-14
2008
Kathleen Byrne’s Irish family deals with life as poor potato farmers until the Great Famine turns things from bad to worse.

Home is Beyond the Mountains 
by Celia Barker Lottridge
Groundwood Books
224 pp.
Ages 10+
2010
Based on the true journey of Assyrian refugee children fleeing from the invading Turkish army in the 1920's. 
 

Looking for X 
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
132 pp.
Ages 11-13
1999
Khyber endures a life of poverty and taunting because of her mother and brothers but an accusation of vandalism compels her to stand up for herself.

Lost Goat Lane
by Rosa Jordan
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
197 pp.
Ages 9-12
2005
In rural Florida, two girls, one black and the other white, find a way to overcome suspicions and work together. 

Making Bombs for Hitler
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic Canada
186 pp.
Ages 8-12
2012
Lida and other Ukrainian children are sent to Germany to work as slave labourers for the Nazis.

Mella and the N'anga
by Gail Nyoka
Sumach Press
160 pp.
Ages 8-12
2005
To restore her father's health, Mella must face the Python Healer.

No Ordinary Day 
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
159 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011
Orphaned and mistreated, Lalli finds a richer life on the streets.

The Orphan Rescue
by Anne Dublin
Illustrated by Qin Leng
Second Story Press
124 pp.
Ages 9-12
2010
Miriam aims to rescue her brother from an orphanage where children must do dangerous work.

The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy
by Jill MacLean
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
160 pp.
Ages 10-13
2009
--> Prinny's life is immersed in dealing with her alcoholic mother, evading a team of bullies, and facing her reading challenges. 

The Shepherd's Granddaughter 
by Anne Laurel Carter
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi
222 pp.
Ages 11+
2008
A young Muslim girl, Amani, learns shepherding from her grandfather, while her family deals with the escalating encroachment of Israeli settlement.

The Third Eye
by Mahtab Narsimhan
Dundurn Press
240 pp.
Ages 10-14
2007
When her village succumbs to the mesmerizing but evil new healer, Zarku, clever Tara courageously takes it upon herself to save the villagers.

Wanting Mor 
by Rukhsana Khan
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi
190 pp.
Ages 10-14
2009
After the death of her mother (Mor), Jameela follows her father who is looking for a new life, ultimately without her.

Watching Jimmy 
by Nancy Hartry
Tundra Books
144 pp.
Ages 11-13
2009
With courage and compassion, Caroline does all she can for her friend and neighbour Jimmy after an accident leaves him brain-damaged.

When the Bough Breaks
by Irene N. Watts
Tundra Books
145 pp.
Ages 9-15
2007
After her mother's death in childbirth, Millie has to balance housework, schoolwork, caring for her siblings and a part-time job during the Depression.

   Help girls be   
    Fierce       Fearless      Free     

International Day of the Girl BookList 1: Picture Books can be accessed here.

Jump Cut: Seven the Series

by Ted Staunton

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-55469-947-6

220 pp.

Ages 9-12

Release date October 10, 2012

While his 15-year-old brother Bunny is getting tattooed to fulfill his grandfather's last wishes (Ink Me by Richard Scrimger), Spencer O'Toole (17) is off to Buffalo with his dad, Jer, to film his kiss from the aging film star, Gloria Lorraine.  While his dad waits outside her retirement home, the tiny elderly woman, still platinum blonde and with heavy make-up, sunglasses, red fingernails and posing with a cigarette, insists that Spencer work for that kiss by helping her run "a few errands." With that, somewhere a director would be shouting, "Action!"

Starting in the fall, Spencer would be starting film studies at Humber College and he sees everything in terms of a script or lighting or scenery or direction.  And with her seemingly simple demand, Miss Lorraine, or GL to her friends, takes Spencer on an adventure that even he can't believe is real.

Stealing a white Cadillac convertible at the retirement home and picking up GL's granddaughter, AmberLea, GL has them heading to Canada.  Of course, there is the complication of the large man and chihuahua they find bound in the trunk of the car, with clear packages of white powder.  He's Al Capoli, a baker known as the King of Cannoli, and his dog, Mister Bones, and Al claims that another resident at the retirement home, Rocco Wings, wants to kill him for allegedly double-crossing him on a deal.  So, with Rocco and his sons in pursuit, the unlikely cast of characters heads for Torrance, Ontario so that GL can share a few secrets with AmberLea before it's too late and Spencer can just fulfill what seemed like a simple request from his grandfather, David McLean.  Unbeknownst to Spencer, though, his grandfather has an important role in GL's secrets, and their telling will help explain all.

Spencer realizes that GL is treating the adventure as if it were a movie in the making and, in fact, is trying to make her life into a movie.  After all, Miss Lorraine claims,

"Life is a movie with no jump cuts.  It's the cutting that makes the movie." (pg. 82)

 If Jump Cut were a movie, and it would make a fantastic film, it would an action thriller with a quirky cast and many surprises, and the audience would be relentlessly sitting on the edge of their seats and falling back with belly laughs.  Ted Staunton's sense of humour is divine, especially when verbalized by the indomitable Gloria Lorraine.  From continually getting Spencer's name wrong (is it Spanky, Spritzer, Skinner or Spunky?) and running into Tim Horton's and other places to change her Dependables (adult diapers) and shooting off a gun she believes is fake, GL is is larger than life.  Ted Staunton has enriched her with the voice of age, experience, compassion and life.  She has it all.  Luckily, Spencer, in a perennial state of disbelief, sees her and their story as a great epic, needing to be told.

Like Kill Bill, the movie Spencer is watching for the fifteenth time at the beginning of the book, Jump Cut has the eccentric elements of a cult classic.  But, I suspect, that Jump Cut and all the other books in Orca's Seven The Series will definitely stay in the mainstream for a long time with their popularity ensuring their status as classics.

UN's International Day of the Girl: October 11, 2012

Salute, applaud and stand up for girls with LitWorld's Stand Up for Girls campaign.

Let us stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

From http://litworld.org/standupforgirls 

on October 3, 2012. 

In aid of the United Nation's International Day of the Girl, October 11, support the goal of literacy for girls world-wide with phenomenal reads from Canadian authors.  In a series of posts for International Day of the Girl, I will focus on picture books, fiction, young adult, non-fiction and series that send the message, "You go, Girl!" Help all children understand the inequities and hardships experienced by many girls solely because of their gender by exposing our Canadian children to the rich CanLit that advocates for girls to be...

   Fierce       Fearless      Free   

Picture Books

The Boy Who Ate the World (and the Girl Who Saved It)
by Don Gillmor
Illustrated by Pierre  Pratt
North Winds Press
2008 

Earth to Audrey
by Susan Hughes
Illustrated by Stéphane Poulin
Kids Can Press
2007

My Name is Elizabeth!
by Annika Dunklee
Illustrated by Matthew Forsythe
Kids Can Press
2011

The Paper Bag Princess
by Robert Munsch
Illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Annick Press
1999

The Remarkable Maria
by Patti McIntosh
Illustrated by Tara Langlois
Maggie and Pierrot
2005

Splinters
by Kevin Sylvester
Tundra Books
2010






Suki's Kimono
by Chieri Uegaki
Illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch
Kids Can Press
2005






Virginia Wolf
by Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Kids Can Press
2012






Willow's Whispers
by Lana Button
Illustrated by Tania Howells
Kids Can Press
2010

When Stella Was Very, Very Small
by Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books
2009

Vikki VanSickle's Book Trailer Contest now open!

To herald the February release of her newest book

Days That End in Y

Scholastic Canada

978-1443124324

240 pp.

Ages 10-14

February 1, 2013

Vikki VanSickle

author of  

Words That Start with B (Scholastic Canada, 2010) and

 Love is a Four-Letter Word (Scholastic Canada, 2011)

has announced a

 BOOK TRAILER CONTEST

 Just create a fun video, no longer than two minutes in length, 

celebrating the Clarissa and Benji book series

Grand Prize

• your video posted to the author's and Scholastic Canada websites

• a school visit from the author, including a fun writing workshop

• a library of Scholastic books, valued at $100.00, for yourself

• signed sets of the series for your classroom and school library

Three Runners Up

• video posted on the author's website

• prize pack from Scholastic Canada, valued at $25.00

Contest runs from October 1 to January 15

Winners announced on February 1, 2013

For rules and regulations and 

information about submitting your video,

contact Vikki VanSickle at Vikki.vansickle@gmail.com

More details can be found at author Vikki VanSickle's blog at http://vikkivansickle.wordpress.com/book-trailer-contest/

Governor General's Literary Awards 2012: Finalists

The Governor General's Literary Awards were announced today on the Canada Council for the Arts' website.  Of the seven awards, the two related to children's book text and illustration are described here on the CanLit for LittleCanadians Awards site.