Bye-Bye, Evil Eye

by Deborah Kerbel

Dancing Cat Books

978-1-770863941

168 pp.

Ages 9-12

May, 2014

How could summer be anything but blissful for thirteen-year-old Dani Price when she's taking her first plane ride to spend a three-week summer holiday with her friend Kat Papadakis in Greece at Kat's aunt and uncle's resort?  Even with Kat's superstitious mom as their chaperone, Dani is sure that it was

"going to be a summer to remember. I can feel it on my skin and in my bones–like that whispery tickle up your spine when something big's about to happen." (pg. 9)

Because Dani knows that she's fortunate to be popular and pretty, she is determined to help Kat get a little romance in her life, not just through the countless romance novels she reads and hides from her disapproving mother.  While her first steps included getting Kat into contact lenses and trendier clothes, she's now determined to help find the boy that will be Kat's first kiss.

Problem arises when Dani continues to be the one to draw boys' attention, starting with Costa, a young man who works at the resort, and then Nick Barbas, a fourteen-year-old friend of Kat's family who also arrives from Toronto.  Crushing on Nick, Dani makes sure that Kat is not feeling the same for Nick, though Kat doesn't seem to be interested in any of the boys Dani suggests for that first kiss.  Soon, Nick and Dani become inseparable, enjoying hanging out on the beach with Kat, chatting, swimming and even sneaking out for a real date.

But that bliss is tempered after days suffering with food poisoning, a fall that puts her on crutches, a bee sting, and finally the loss of her passport, preventing Dani from returning to Canada with Nick and Kat.  Though Mrs. Papadakis is generous with her mothering of Dani during her times of need, she is sure that the bad luck Dani is experiencing may be due to a terrible curse, the Evil Eye.  And even though Dani is not superstitious, her bad luck continues once she is back in Toronto.  While she doesn't want to admit to Nick that she believes in the curse, Dani consults with Kat and her mother on reversing the effects of the Evil Eye.

Deborah Kerbel enjoys flavouring the sweetness of young love and the exoticism of a Mediterranean holiday with much humour. Take Dani's descriptions of her holiday activities to which she offers some semblance of education, all to appease her mother.

"Dear Mom, yesterday I learned all about traditional Greek food and beverages and fishing techniques.  Today Kat and I plan on studying local beach life in its natural habitat..." (pg. 31)

Hard to believe that Dani's actually writing about enjoying a huge Greek meal, tasting the aperitif ouzo, learning that Costa lost several fingers when his dad used dynamite to fish, and then going out for the day at the beach for suntanning, swimming and boy-watching! And, when Dani is convinced she's cursed and needs a surefire remedy, her attempts, here with garlic, lean towards the hilarious!

"If three cloves are good, six will be even better. As per Kat’s instructions, I peel them and stick them all over my clothes. One in each pocket, one tucked into my underwear, two in my T-shirt pocket. I have one left over, so I put it in my mouth and swallow it" (pg. 135)

Even with a plot based on superstitions, Bye-Bye, Evil Eye is a totally believable story.  Young teens trying to navigate relationships with friends, mothers, boys, and new situations are liable to grasp onto any explanation they choose if it fits their way of thinking at that moment.  Given some time, perspectives will undoubtedly change, explaining why the spontaneous and lively Dani changes her mind about curses, and why the more traditional Kat is less than open about sharing details that could be relevant to their situation. As middle grade fiction, Bye-Bye, Evil Eye will give young readers a bit of escapism (holiday in Greece!), a bit of boy-girl crushing, a little girl drama, and some mother issues.  Reality and fancy all wrapped in a delightful tale in which not everything is as it seems.

Peach Girl

by Raymond Nakamura

Illustrated by Rebecca Bender

Pajama Press

978-1-927-485-58-3

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

May 2014

Here is the story that will bring a smile to every reader's face and teach the value of seeking the truth rather than paying attention to rumours.  It's a sweet story about a brave little girl named Momoko who bursts forth from a peach deposited at the door of a childless farming couple, determined to make the world a better place.

Momoko waits only long enough for her new mother to make clothes for her from the peach skin, for her father to construct a helmet and shield from the peach pit, and for peach dumplings to be made to stave off hunger on her journey.  

"Peachy," said Momoko. "Now I'm ready to go."

Her first goal in making the world a better place is to locate an ogre purported to eat small children.  Along the way, Momoko encounters Monkey, then Dog and finally Pheasant, all who tell her where they believe the ogre lives and the horrors of his size, his teeth and his eyes.  Though each is nervous, the promise of dumplings that the animals can see and smell convince them to join her.

Working together to reach the ogre's island castle, the bravado each exhibits dissipates quickly, except for Momoko, whose sureness of purpose and diplomatic inquiries welcome the truth of the ogre.

Based on a traditional Japanese folktale about a peach boy named Momotaro who fights demons, Raymond Nakamura updates the story with a strong female protagonist as an activist, rather than a warrior.  Her no-nonsense attitude and tact are the armaments of her endeavour, ones she embodies rather than carries. 

However, I have to say that her outfit and accessories are rather peachy, and her face inspiring, all courtesy of illustrator Rebecca Bender, art director at Pajama Press.  The realism of Rebecca Bender's artwork is not weighed down with excessive detail, though it is sufficient to engage the readers in a storytelling that could be real, until the ogre shows up, of course.  

Momoko's disregard for rumours and the directness of her engagement with everyone, from her parents to the animals and the ogre, can certainly teach us all a lesson or two.  With fortitude and respect (she never negates the animals' stories of the ogre), and a healthy dose of trust, Momoko is able to make a start on creating a better world.

Lumière (The Illumination Paradox, Book One)

by Jacqueline E. Garlick

Amazemo Books

978-0-99216300-6

458 pp.

Ages 12+

December 2013

"How much do you trust me?"

When you have a secret that could lead to your hanging from the gallows, dipped in hot wax, or discarded with criminals and the Infirmed to a societal wasteland, you're very careful with whom you place your trust.  But at some time, everyone needs a little (or a lot!) of help and you need to trust someone.  

Fortunately for Eyelet Elsworth, her father, a famous inventor, who perished the Night of the Great Illumination, and her mother, who is put to death on the charge of being a shape-shifter and killing the royal baby, always looked for ways to protect her and even reverse her affliction.  Sadly, she lost her father when she was but eight years of age, and her mother nine years later.  Now at 17, Eyelet is running away from her home in Brethren, where she attends (attended!) the Academy of Scientific Delves and Discoveries, pursued by Professor Smrt and soldiers called Brigsmen.  Challenged as exhibiting madness but really hunted for her father's notebooks, Eyelet only has her mother's necklace with an hourglass-shaped vial containing an emerald light, and the location where her father's invention, The Illuminator, is stored.

Though Eyelet may not believe it, she is fortunate to discover her father's invention being  removed from the warehouse.  Grabbing hold on the carriage in which it's been taken, Eyelet is taken by Urlick Babbit to the safety of the home he shares with his father in the Ramshackle Follies, a scorned land beyond the limits of the Commonwealth.  Though Urlick is perennially focused on his face of raised purple scars and blemishes that he believes marks him as a monster, Eyelet sees beyond this, curious about the plethora of gadgets, the restrictions he places on her if she is to stay, and the location of her father's Illuminator. 

But both Eyelet and Urlick are keeping secrets and unknowingly creating misunderstandings that may put their relationship and even their lives in danger.  Neither can guess the other's intentions but each is convinced that they do. Readers will celebrate each forward step of Eyelet and Urlick's adventures, all the more so because they demonstrate great strength of purpose but are emotionally weakened by their perceived debilitations.  Fortunately, the intervention by a secondary cast of characters and a little honesty go a long way in bringing Eyelet and Urlick together, emotionally and strategically, to achieve something grand. Urlick's simple kindnesses towards Eyelet and Eyelet's disregard for his facial features will have you cheering for their inevitable romance so charmingly evoked by Jacqueline E. Garlick's rhythmic imagery.

"All the blood in my body tingles.  Not in the cool metallic way it does when I'm falling into an episode, but warm and cursive, like fancy handwriting over fine parchment paper, all loopy and beautiful, seeping in and out of every pore." (pg. 373)

The plot developments in Lumière will keep readers riveted, as will the imaginative gadgetry–a cigarette holder and flame thrower, for example–that enriches the steampunk genre. But, for me, sharing Eyelet's and Urlick's perspectives, usually in alternating chapters, and their witty repartée took me from beginning to end in two short readings.

"Ohmilord, ohmilord, ohmiLOOORD!" I scream.

"What are you doing?" Urlick shouts.

"Saving you?" I gulp as I swing past. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Have you lost your mind?"

"No, not yet. But soon, I suspect." (pg. 345)

Book Two in The Illumination Paradox series is set to be titled Noir (another title based on Eyelet's father's notebooks) though there is no ETA for it yet, though I will continue checking Jacqueline E. Garlick's website at http://jacquelinegarlick.com/, as I recommend you do, because Lumière leaves Urlick just about at his end.  And we wouldn't want anything to separate them when he's just found the "only girl I ever believed could understand me" (pg. 204), would we?

Taking the Reins: Guest Review

by Dayle Campbell Gaetz

Coteau Books

978-1-550-505528

232 pp.

Ages 10-14

2013

Taking the Reins was a great, enjoyable book that had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the whole book. As an avid historical fiction reader, this book surpassed my expectations, and gave me more of a knowledge about the difficulties and hardships girls living in these times had to face. 

Another favourite of mine is horses, so the blend of historical fiction and horses was a perfect fit for me. Not many books have this unique feature, so it has become one of my favourite books I have ever read!

I loved this book because I could clearly connect to Emma’s reluctance to keep Nugget’s name the same because I am very stubborn, but normally, like Emma, I can be persuaded. The only feedback I would give you is that if I had a horse that I loved, like Katherine and Nugget, I would not have sold him as quickly as Katherine did. I know that Katherine's family needed the money, but if I were in her shoes, I would have gotten a job so that I would be able to keep my horse and still help my family.

Thank you so much for writing this amazing book and I am crossing my fingers that there will be more awesome books like this one! 

Grace D., Age 12

Taking the Reins

by Dayle Campbell Gaetz

Coteau Books

978-1-550-505528

232 pp.

Ages 10-14 

2013

Though only fourteen, Katherine Harris has already felt the need to take the reigns, figuratively- and literally-speaking, in order to help her family who'd come from England to make a new life for themselves in Canada.  The family's hopes had been dwindling, along with their savings, since an extended stay in San Francisco (before they reached Hope, BC) when they all had fallen ill and Katherine's older sister Susan died.  Then starting their farm, for which they are sorely ill-prepared, Katherine's father is mauled by a bear and requires medicine, and Katherine must retrieve her nineteen-year-old brother George who has run off in search of gold in the Cariboo.  Returning home on her bay mare, Nugget, Katherine's adventure masquerading as a boy and travelling with a guide, William, must be forgotten as she must return to behaviour befitting a young girl and think about selling Nugget for some much needed money.

Fortuitously, the man who purchases horses from miners returning from the Cariboo and takes them to Victoria for wealthy buyers is Mr. Charles Roberts, the very man who had given her Nugget as a thank-you for her sister Susan's devotion to his niece Baby Rose when his brother's family was also travelling from England.  Katherine hatches a plan with Mr. Roberts to enlist her parents to care for his store so that he might travel to Jamaica to visit his brother and family, that her parents might leave the farm even temporarily (though George would remain behind to tend to it), and that she might go to school in Victoria. And since Nugget would be sold in Victoria, Katherine might have opportunities to visit him.

Meanwhile, Emma Curtis, who is just shy of 14 years of age, is gifted with Nugget from her newly-found father, Tall Joe, who'd left her and her mother in England to find his riches in the new world.  Left destitute, and her mother dead, Emma had accepted the  opportunity to travel to Canada via brideship, although she skirted marriage by taking a position at the home of Governor and Mrs.Douglas.  Still too proud, too angry and too scared to show herself as she is, Emma is reluctant to accept Nugget, though her father insists she learn to ride as he intends to travel to the interior next spring to start his own farm.

Emma and Katherine become acquainted at Beckley Farm, where Nugget is boarded, and become friends, though they each keep secrets about themselves, afraid of being judged for their heritage, their weaknesses, and griefs.  But the two girls must sidestep those issues in order to work together to find the happiness they both deserve.

You will hear me say time and time again that I am not a horse person.  My greatest affinity is to cats.  And, though I will always share an affection and compassion for all animals, my understanding of horses is negligible.  But Taking the Reins allowed me to share in the bond between Katherine and Nugget, while understanding Emma's initial trepidation for this large animal.  Even more, though, Dayle Campbell Gaetz made Taking the Reins into a story about facing an uncertain future in the context of prejudice and insecurity, emotional and financial, and allowing others into your life so that you might move forward.  Nugget is the bridge that allows Katherine and Emma to share of themselves and see beyond their needs and instead focus on what others need.  It's an inspiriting story that could be from any time, but told especially well in the tumultuous settlement times in British Columbia in the 1860's when new ways had to be built on the land and between people in order to survive.  Fortunately, women such as Katherine and Emma, as well as Susan and Mrs. Douglas, showed the courage and good will to take the reigns for more than just themselves.

Cover Reveal: The Night is Found

The Magdeburg Trilogy 

by author Kat Kruger

published by Fierce Ink Press 

began with

The Night has Teeth

reviewed here on January 13, 2013

by Kat Kruger

Fierce Ink Press

978-0-988-10671-0

294 pp.

Ages14+ 

2012

followed by

The Night has Claws

reviewed here on September 14, 2013

by Kat Kruger

Fierce Ink Press

978-0-9917937-5-4 (pb)

978-1-927746-02-8 (ebook)

269 pp.

Ages 14+

September, 2013

The trilogy is set to be completed 

with the publication of the final book

The Night is Found

to be released in July

but the spectacular cover 

has just been revealed 

by Fierce Ink Press

and here it is!

Isn't it amazing?

And just to get you really excited about its July release, 

here's the final paragraph from my review of 

The Night has Claws, 

so that you know (sort of) what's coming.

Hold onto your book or device because The Night Has Claws may start with the emotional and physical clean-up of story-lines fromThe Night Has Teeth but it ends on an even messier closing. I don't mean messier as in confused but rather in terms of catastrophic ruin.  It breaks apart with secrets revealed, relationships and alliances exposed and shattered, and upcoming hostilities and combat forecast. The reader may still be hopeful for reconciliation between Connor and Madison and Arden and Amara but surprisinglyKat Kruger has you cheering for the motley band of protagonists and even laughing along at times. (Honestly, how often can a writer use the admonishment "Bite me" as a double entendre?) And there's even more action, surprises and affairs of the heart coming because we know that where The Night Has Claws leaves off, Book Three will launch and continue to thrill.

So, make a notation on your calendar for the release of 

The Night is Found,

my review on July 8th, 

and 

 guest post by Kat Kruger on July 9th. 

I can hardly wait!

Can you?

The Night Gardener

Written by Jonathan Auxier
Puffin
978-0-670-06772-5
384 pp.
Ages 10+
May, 2014

Something wicked this way comes, and it's Jonathan Auxier's second book, The Night Gardener. Not a story for the faint of heart, it's fortunate that our narrators are the bold Molly and her younger brother Kip who learn all about what goes Thump, Thump, Thump in the night.

At fourteen, Molly is taking care of her crippled, ten-year-old brother whilst their parents are travelling to the New World to make a new life for them after the Irish potato famine drove them from their homeland. A born storyteller, she uses stories to distract, console, explain and protect her brother as they make their way to a posting at the home of Master Bernard Windsor, his wife Mistress Constance, and their children Alistair and Penny. Forewarned by locals of the sour woods and a mysterious family history, the two are still surprised by two ominous circumstances. First, a giant tree adjacent to the manor has breached the house via its trunk, branches and roots. Secondly, based on a large family portrait of the Windsors, it seems all four members of the Windsor family have succumbed to an illness that has paled their skin, dulled their hair and generally weakened them.

While Molly is diligent about taking care of her brother and acting as both sister and parent, she is very observant of the secretive Windsors and their manor. She notices discreet visits by the Master and Mistress through a locked green door, listens to Penny's admissions of a night man who leaves muddy footprints, and deals with her own alarming nightmares. But once Kip witnesses the same night man, Molly investigates the noises, wind and leaves that appear, and the shadows that haunt the house, as terrifying as they are.

She wiped the perspiration from her palm and adjusted her grip on the candlestick. "Master Windsor, is that you?" she said as bravely as she could.
The footsteps stopped.
The wind stopped.
Her heart stopped. (pg. 74) 

The secret of that green-doored room, the night visitor, and the diminishing health of the Windsors and then Molly as well are woven with wishes and dreams and haunting supernatural elements. Jonathan Auxier blends the innocence of the poor and orphaned children (Molly and Kip) with the suspicious activities of the wealthy Windsors to tell a story based on the paradox of being careful what you wish. The Night Gardener is the grim reality of those wishes and Jonathan Auxier's darkly atmospheric writing will lead readers with trepidation into the sour woods and within grasp of the far-reaching tentacles of a frightening entity that exploits wishes. But I suspect that Jonathan Auxier's purpose is not to frighten (though he is very good at that) but to help, just as Molly admits in her differentiation between storytelling and telling lies:

"A story helps folks face the world, even when it frightens 'em. And a lie does the opposite. It helps you hide." (pg. 288) 

Like Jonathan Auxier, Molly is a bonafide storyteller, but she needs her encounters with the night gardener to recognize the need for honesty, even if it makes for an unnerving tale. But making a reader uncomfortable is a sure sign that the storyteller has made a connection and created an opportunity for learning, whether it be for Molly, Kip or the reader of The Night Gardener. Something to ponder as you wait for your heart to stop racing.

 

The Night Gardener   The Night Gardener   The Night Gardener

I'm sorry that, because of this tardy review, I missed the launch (on May 31, 2014) of The Night Gardener as announced on Jonathan Auxier's website at http://www.thescop.com/. But don't let that stop you from checking out his website that includes his bio, videos, and other scoops from this scop.