Tweezle into Everything

by Stephanie McLellan

Illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-47-7

32 pp.

Ages 3-7
August 2013

On-sale August 1, 2013

Little Tweezle, baby brother from Hoogie in the Middle (Pajama Press, 2013), reviewed here on April 24, 2013, has his own issues with birth order, that being his relegation to baby of his monster family–too small and too young to do much of anything.  As much as his parents adore him, he doesn't want to be a baby boy anymore–he wants to be a big boy!  In fact, when he gets into the garden shed, the dish water and his sisters' things, his refrain is, "I big."  His family is not pleased by the messes he leaves behind, including holes in the yard, muddy footprints and taking things that don't belong to him, but his surprise intent and achievement have everyone applauding Tweezle for his big ideas, beyond anything they could have imagined for this little one.

The trick of putting a great picture book together is telling a story that has fluency with powerful but concise text and illustrations that complement the text. Tweezle into Everything has everything that makes a picture book right.  Stephanie McLellan has found the right words for the common dilemma of the youngest child in a family, surprising readers with an unexpected plot twist to Tweezle's story, and Dean Griffiths has again brought the less-than-scary monsters to life.  If you're reading this to your children, make sure to have them carefully note the details in the illustrations because Dean Griffiths does not fill space; every detail enhances the story and even hints at what Tweezle is up to.  If you're anything like me, you'll be delighted by the turnabout in the story, and close the cover with a smile on your face, for Tweezle and others (I can't give it away), and for Stephanie McLellan and Dean Griffiths who've proven that big stories can come in few pages.

Canadians read youngCanLit on CBC Kids' Bookaboo

CBC Kids has brought world-famous Bookaboo, the rock star drummer puppy created by Lucy Goodman, to Canada!  Bookaboo is the very cool dog who cannot play his drums (i.e., he has no BoJo) unless he is read one book a day.  The popular pup, produced by Happy Films, originally for a British TV series in 2009, will now star in a short video series for CBC Kids, with well-known Canadian personalities reading picture books, many of which are youngCanLit, to the cool dude puppy.

Image from http://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/images/Bookaboo-highres.jpg

If you can, tune into these readings on CBC weekdays at 10:00 a.m. and on Saturdays at 7:15 a.m.  These readings are also available on the CBC TV channel on YouTube.

Because what I do here is promote youngCanLit, I've included the links to those videos in which picture books by Canadian authors and illustrators are showcased.  Here they are:

• Peter Mansbridge reads Mélanie Watts' Scaredy Squirrel

• Jian Ghomeshi reads Barbara Reid's Subway Mouse

• Fefe Dobson reads Robert Heidbreder's Drumheller Dinosaur Dance 

• Jeff Stinko reads Dave Whamond's My Think--Ma-Jink 

• Cathy Jones reads Nicholas Oldland's The Busy Beaver

• Anthony Calvillo reads David Bruins and Hilary Leung's The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear 

• Hugh Dillon reads Katie Van Camp's Cookiebot!: A Harry and Horsie Adventure

• Jacob Hoggard reads Linda Bailey and Colin Jack's Toads on Toast

• Joannie Rochette reads Geneviève Côté's Mr. King's Things

• Nico Archambault reads Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin's Stanley's Party

• Bret Hart reads Ashley Spires' Larf 

If additional readings of youngCanLit are uploaded, I'll be sure to make readers of CanLit for LittleCanadians aware of these.  Meanwhile, enjoy these readings as an alternative format for sharing youngCanLit with your children.

Prince Puggly of Spud and the Kingdom of Spiff

by Robert Paul Weston

Illustrations by Victor Rivas Villa

Puffin

978-0-670-06397-0

207 pp.

Ages 8-12

2013

What to wear? It’s a lament for many of us on a daily basis. If you lived in the kingdom of Spud, you would choose to wear bold, garish colours and patterns that might appear wildly excessive to the stylishly-inclined and, as far as the Kingdom of Spud is concerned, that’s every other kingdom around you: Spiff, Smug, Hip, Sleek, Swish and Chic.  Fashion and trendiness are the mandates of all the other kingdoms, particularly the Kingdom of Spiff, led by King Dandy von Fop. But there's always someone who doesn't quite fit in somewhere. So begins our tale.

In Spiff, it's King Dandy's daughter, Princess Frannie, who chooses to wear pajamas daily, reading perched high upon a mountain of cushions in Frolicsome Hall at the castle. Her father pleads and cajoles her to try to wear a dress or follow the trendy advice of Miss Ruby La Rue of Ruby Boutique, especially now that the ballroom is needed for the Kingdom's Centenary Ball.  

In Spud, it's their ruler, King Walter, who has a hard time with the Spudlian fashion and its muddy landscape, choosing to abandon his kingdom for trendier environs in which his regal nature might shine.  Without a monarch to lead the people, a new ruler is sought, one who would epitomize the style and pride of Spud.  Puggly O'Bungleton, a poor Spudlian who lives in a tumbledown shack with his memoir-recording great-granny is selected and his coronation is set.  Neighbouring kingdoms are, of course, invited to attend as protocol would require, although the disdain of the other monarchs except for King Dandy stops them from attending.

With the upcoming Spiffian Centenary Ball, King Dandy must reciprocate an invitation to Prince Puggly who is thrilled to be invited to a party.  But the dejection that Frannie and Prince Puggly both experience due to the rude comments of Prince Hep of the Kingdom of Hip and Miss Ruby LaRue respectively have the two royals returning to Spud together and conspiring to ridicule those whose fashion snobbery led to their humiliation.

Robert Paul Weston has done it again.  Just as he did with his first venture into novel in verse, his award-winning Zorgamazoo (Razorbill, 2008), the author has delivered a narrative in fluent verse à la Dr. Seuss that BEGS to be read aloud. (I myself read the melodious text to whatever cat would stay to listen.)  But the auditory experience is matched by the visual in Prince Puggly of Spud and the Kingdom of Spiff as selected text is emphasized with different fonts, styles and form, as seen in a portion of page 46 here.

Beyond the fun language and fluid rhyming, Robert Paul Weston could be channelling Shakespeare for a younger, more contemporary readership. He has all the elements of any great comedy:  discord between generations; the high spirits of youth; the accepted ways of their elders; plotting for revenge or restitution; recognition of one's mistakes; and a happily ever after.  Within his fantastic world of cultures enslaved to dress, of quirky characters, and of kingdoms stunning in their grandeur or mud, Robert Paul Weston shares a cautionary tale of judging by appearance in a most ear- and eye-catching fashion. 

If you're a parent or teacher, put this one on your list of best bedtime or classroom read-alouds.  If you're not, just go and buy for the pleasure of reading. It is sure not to go out of style, ever!

Smokescreen

Written by Nancy Hartry

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-405-3

202 pp.

Ages 12+

August 2013

I know that most coming-of-age stories involve protagonists in their early to mid-teens, but Kerry Williams is seventeen and definitely in need of growing into herself by Smokescreen's book end.  You see, at the story's onset, Kerry is thrown into a totally unfamiliar situation: a summer job for the Department of Forestry and Parks in the northern Ontario bush as a cottage development technician i.e., looking for potential sites to develop for cottages.  Kerry is convinced that her mother happily finagled this job for her after she'd disappointed her by losing a major Irish Dance competition due to a fall and subsequent injury ("My body betrayed me.  Correction, my mother overtrained me." pg. 8). Regardless how naive the Toronto teen might feel in her new circumstances, especially after she meets Yvette Bernier, her nineteen-year-old partner for the summer, she is determined to not fail.  Luckily, even though Yvette comes off the bus looking like a trendy urbanite, she knows everything about working in the bush, dealing with campfuls of men, negotiating with bosses who try to push summer students into unsafe conditions, and how to handle herself to ensure a profitable and worry-free summer, and she willingly shares this knowledge with Kerry.

But a raging forest fire has them moving base camps several times and conscripted to work in food prep and camp work for the fire crews.  In addition to their misogynistic boss, Buzz Harcourt, there's Didier, the handsome and friendly crew boss of a fire unit; Matt the pilot who must take them north regardless of Yvette's refusal to go; Rolf, the older, no-nonsense professional camp cook who is eventually brought in; Slash, the scary and scarred man brought in to help with heavy kitchen work; Aubrey, the intense Métis fire crew boss on whom Kerry crushes and Yvette does not trust; and Mr. Sirois, the violent and sexist boss man from New Brunswick.  

Over time, Yvette has learned to trust very few people, particularly ones that seem to have hidden agendas, and she warns Kerry repeatedly about watching her back.  But, with the discovery of Yvette's pink lighter at the source of the forest fire, the young women realize that there is someone who is setting Yvette up, and they must tread carefully to keep their jobs and protect themselves.  Problem is that Kerry and Yvette have very different perceptions about whom to trust, and the emotional baggage they each bring to their friendship has them repeatedly at odds.  It's only when the two get mixed up in a potentially deadly situation that Kerry can see Yvette's vulnerability and accept her own strengths as the basis for their survival.

Nancy Hartry, author of the 2010 Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award–Watching Jimmy (Tundra, 2009)–knows how to take a straightforward storyline, e.g., teens taking summer jobs in the bush, and enriching it with psychological intricacies and complex social situations that can take straightforward to dangerous.  And that's probably why her stories hit home for her readers.  There are no paranormal experiences or supernatural elements that take the story into the fantasy and improbable, if not impossible, realm.  The characters in her books could be our children, our neighbours, friends, family.  So, as we read and recognize that these circumstances could happen to anyone and that different elements could be derived directly from the news, we read a little more cautiously, hopeful that no one we know should ever have these experiences, and thoroughly, perhaps learning the means by which survival may be achieved.  Nancy Hartry shares a dramatic story that could be passed down from one summer student to another, or from parent to child, or from anyone to anyone who wants to tell a good story and teach a little something in the process.  Nancy Hartry does both in Smokescreen. 

Nothing Man and the Purple Zero: Book Launch (Toronto)

Join

Richard Scarsbrook

award-winning author of young adult books,

Cheeseburger Subversive (Thistledown, 2003)

Featherless Bipeds (Thistledown, 2006)

The Monkeyface Chronicles (Thistledown, 2010)

for the launch of his newest book

 

Nothing Man and the Purple Zero

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-770863118 

240 pp.

Ages 12+

on

Monday, September 16, 2013

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

at

The Melody Room

in 

The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West (at Gladstone)
Toronto, Ontario


Richard notes that, in addition to his reading of an excerpt from the book, "there will be a LIVE DRAMATIC PRESENTATION of a scene from the book, featuring LIVE PROFESSIONAL DRAMATIC ACTORS!"

(I'm so glad they're not DEAD professional dramatic actors. Whew!)

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Having not read the book yet, I can't say too much. But, the brief synopsis at the Dancing Cat Books website suggests a hilarious book about two teens who foil a robbery and then deal with the video of their feat going viral.

Read the synopsis at Dancing Cat Books website for all the reasons you'll want to get this book!

Rush: The Game, Book 1

by Eve Silver

Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins

978-0-06219213-4 (hc)

978-0-06219216-5 (ebook) 

364 pp.

Ages 13-17

June, 2013

Reviewed from Harper Audio version

Just before she dashes in front of a truck to save a deaf little girl in the road, teen Miki Jones is sure she hears someone call her name.  And it isn't Luka, the boy on the track who her group is watching, who rushes to save Miki.  But when she awakens, wondering if she's alive or dead, in heaven or somewhere else, Miki is introduced to the young man with that voice, Jackson Tate.  Unfortunately, he doesn't answer a lot of her questions, taking her healed self to the lobby, a clearing with large boulders where she meets their other team members: Luka; a red-haired cheerleader Rochelle; and Tyrone, a young man in his 20's.  Here Miki is told the basics of the game, as Luka calls it, in which members of their team have been "pulled" from real life, initially by apparent death, through time and space to complete missions against aliens known as the Drau.  If they are successful in eliminating the Drau wherever they've been sent, and have survived, as indicated by the colours of their wristbands, they are respawned and returned to their lives as if no time has passed.  

It's a steep learning curve for Miki who learns the rules of the game; how to gear up with weaponry; to avoid looking into the mercury-like eyes of the Drau; and how to fight.  Luckily Miki has two things in her favour: she is proficient in the martial art of kendo, and Jackson is always watching out for her.  In fact, upon her respawn, Miki discovers that Jackson is a new student at her high school, which is lucky because she has a lot of questions and confusion and Luka is apprehensive about talking about it outside the game. Unfortunately, her best friend Carly sees Miki as interested in both Luka and Jackson, and her uninformed perception puts their friendship in jeopardy.  

It hardly seems fair that Miki, who is already struggling with her mother's death from lung cancer and her father's consequent alcoholism and denial, should be plunged into an alternate world to fight aliens who want to take over all of humanity.  But, it doesn't seem like she has any choice, learning that both she and Jackson have ancestors who fought the Drau and it is in their genetic memory to do the same.  This exceptionality serves to help them anticipate attacks by sensing the Drau, but may also be their doom.  With escalating raids by the Drau, and Jackson's role in Miki's summoning to the community, the bond that has grown between the two seems destined to be challenged. 

Just as there seems to be little time for Miki to become acclimatized to her new reality between missions, young readers will find it difficult to rest and synthesize the ever-changing circumstances of Miki's life.  Rush is definitely a thriller, akin to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, with a strong female protagonist who is thrown into a difficult situation and must continue to think on her feet if she is to stay alive.  Just as gamers might recognize commonalities between their games and Rush's storyline, circumstances change randomly and sometimes irrevocably, and all you can do is play along. Eve Silver has ensured that Miki continues to learn as she plays and to take it all in stride, even if it is evident she hates playing the game but will, if only for the sake of her father.

On her website, www.evesilver.net, Eve Silver reassuringly indicates Books 2 and 3, named Push and Crash respectively, are slotted for release in 2014 and 2015.  Thank goodness, because Rush's conclusion is vexing and one that readers will demand be resolved favourably.  You know what I mean, Eve Silver, right? All others will need to read Rush to make sense of this.   

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I've posted the book trailer for Rush uploaded by Eve Silver to YouTube on June 7, 2013.

Caribou Song / Atihko Nikamon

by Tomson Highway

Illustrated by John Rombough

Fifth House Publishers

978-1-89725-261-1

32 pp.

Ages 4+

June, 2013

Joe and Cody are two brothers who travel with their parents by dog sled across the tundra all year round.  Joe plays the kitoochigan, an accordion, while his younger brother dances.  At one stop, a large rock in the middle of a meadow seems a fine spot for music and dance, especially when singing, "Ateek, ateek! Astum, astum!" ("Caribou, caribou! Come, come!"). Engrossed in their play, the two boys do not hear the rumbling of thousands of caribou heading their way, even though young Cody has fallen onto the caribou moss below.  While their parents fear for the boys' safety, the rapids of powerful beasts carry the boys along and the mystical voice of the herd invites them to know the caribou spirit.

Tomson Highway, award-winning Canadian and Cree playwright and author, originally offered this tantalizing story in 2001, illustrated by Brian Deines (HarperCollins, 2001). This new edition, illustrated by Chipewyan Dene artist John Rombough,  emphasizes the intensity of the story, specifically the emotional experience of the boys amidst the enormity of and the potentially fatal caribou run.  The bold and rich tones of blues and purples, strongly outlined in unrelenting black visually depict the fierce, almost violent nature of the landscape and the caribou in run.  The intermittent golden hues of the sky and other backgrounds lend a warm cushion that provides relief from the terror and hostility of the boys' circumstances.  

Presented in English and Cree, Caribou Song will take young readers to a world fast disappearing: one of a frozen landscape of snow and traditional hunting and life on the tundra.  For those readers who can appreciate the high Cree translation of Caribou Song, this new edition suggests that there are still valuable ways to retain their ancestral ways.