Tank and Fizz: The Case of the Slime Stampede

by Liam O’Donnell

Illustrated by Mike Deas

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-459808102

152 pp. 

Ages 8-11

For release March, 2015 

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Slick City in Rockfall Mountain is a quirky community comprised of ogres, trolls, goblins and other monsters. Named for the goop that is dredged from the bottom of Fang Harbor, Slick City is a hub of technological and engineering development. But Mr. Snag, Gravelmuck Elementary’s ogre custodian, still relies on cleaning slimes in his job, having been appropriately licensed to do so. When his slimes are somehow released and run amok, Mr. Snag is arrested and eight-legged Principal Weaver promptly hires the suspicious Mr. Zallin, a monster who uses alternate cleaning methods. Convinced that Mr. Snag is innocent, two fourth-graders, goblin Fizz Marlow and troll Tank Wrenchlin, put their detection and engineering skills to work to determine the true culprit.

Author of Owl Magazine’s Max Finder mysteries, Liam O’Donnell knows how to weave the typical elements of detective stories such as multiple plot lines, red herrings and the usual suspects. But, with the addition of graphics by illustrator Mike Deas, with whom O’Donnell has created six books in Orca’s Graphic Guide Adventure series, The Case of the Slime Stampede is escalated from just middle-grade mystery or graphic novel to a clever amalgam. The graphics, both comics integral to the story’s progression and supplementary illustrations, complement the uproarious text. From the first line (“The principal’s car got eaten first”) and dialogue (“Smart detectives always listen to their tails”) to setting details (“The rest of the day dragged like a legless zombie tied to a dump truck”), readers will be entertained and anxious to solve the mystery. While the story could be an allegory about progress and reliance on limited resources, or even a tale of discrimination, The Case of the Slime Stampede is actually a monstrously imaginative and funny read that launches a great new series.



(A version of this review was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)

Kubiw, H. (2015, March). [Review of the book Tank and Fizz: The Case of the Slime Stampede, by Liam O'Donnell]. Quill & Quire, 81 (2): 34.

Best Friends Through Eternity

by Sylvia McNicoll

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-710-8 

192 pp.

Ages 12+

For release February 10, 2015

Most of us dream of the opportunity for a do-over after we've messed up something big.  The regret and/or guilt can be overwhelming.  But what if a do-over was possible but you'd have to be careful not to make matters worse.  Would you do it?  What if you thought you had nothing to lose because you were already dead?

Fourteen-year-old Paige Barta is willing to take that chance after she is killed by a train walking home from school, believing she should have been trying to help her best friend Jasmine (Jazz).  Jazz had been off with her new boyfriend, Cameron, unaware that Cameron's ex, the vicious Vanessa, was plotting an attack. Angrily taking off when she should have been waiting for Jazz,  Paige finds herself laying in a hospital bed, unconscious and dying.  But meeting up on an after-life beach with a childhood friend, Kim, who'd been adopted from China as was Paige, gives the teen the chance for a retake of the past week.

So now Paige has to rethink everything she has said and done, knowing this is her chance to make things right, without letting on that she's going to die or that she knows about the future attack on Jazz.  However, Paige is also rethinking her attitudes about her adoption, about her parents, about Kim's death of which she'd been unaware, about the friendly Max Liu, and even about her food choices.  Being given the chance to make different choices, however, doesn't mean those choices are necessarily better, and Paige learns that sometimes, no matter what, you can't control everything.

Though life-and-death do-overs (is there an actual term for this?) have been popularized in movies and in TV shows, it's a tough one to do well in text, especially for young people for whom the idea of death is often completely unimaginable.  Sylvia McNicoll has shown that she has a knack for writing great teen voices and a strong record for bringing the issue of death into the realm of youth, having made it a focus in books such as crush.candy.corpse (Lorimer, 2012), Dying to Go Viral (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013) and Revenge on the Fly (Pajama Press, 2014). But the focus is not on the morbid but the life lead and the choices made for purposeful lives. Although Paige is shocked to learn she is dying and that Kim has died and that others may die as a result of her actions, her focus remains on choices made with compassion rather than anger and bitterness.  It's a lesson we could all learn.  Too bad Paige–and probably everyone who has ever lived–doesn't learn this lesson until it's too late.  Fortunately, in Best Friends Through Eternity, Sylvia McNicoll gives Paige another chance to show us how it's done.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you get the chance, check out the book launch for Best Friends Through Eternity, this weekend in Burlington, Ontario. Sylvia McNicoll puts on a great book launch!

Best Friends Through Eternity: Book Launch (Burlington, ON)

Join 

Sylvia McNicoll

author of numerous middle-grade and young adult novels

including

crush. candy. corpse

Lorimer 

978-1-4594-00627 

219 pp. 

Ages 12+ 

2012

Dying to Go Viral

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1554552719

232 pp.

Ages 12+

2013

Revenge on the Fly

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-56-9

224 pp.

Ages 8+

2014 

for the release of her newest young adult book

Best Friends Through Eternity

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-710-8 

192 pp.

Ages 12+

Sunday, February 15, 2015

 2:00 p.m. 

at

 A Different Drummer Books 

513 Locust Street

Burlington, Ontario

Call or email to reserve an autographed copy

905.639.0925

diffdrum@mac.com

Sylvia McNicoll promises Indian food, a demonstration on sari dressing, a reading and autograph session.

No-Matter-What Friend

by Kari-Lynn Winters

Illustrated by Pierre Pratt

Tradewind Books

978-1-1896580838

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

2014

How Kari-Lynn Winters is able to express the magnitude of a lifetime of friendship in a mere 24 lines, some of only one or two words, is beyond me.  But she does so with her choice of understated vocabulary and its affective quality.

When a boy interrupts his playing with his peers to stop and spend time with his old dog, he enjoys the fond memories of being with his no-matter-what friend.  The turquoise ball from toddler days continues to be an important part of their play, even once the boy is able to ride a bike, climb trees and ski. And still the dog–maybe a cross between a Great Pyrenees and a Newfoundlander–with the jowly face and thoughtful eyes stays by the boy's side.  But Bud is growing old while the boy is growing up, and the boy's beckoning of Bud to come and play must be amended to respect all that the two mean to each other still.  Sweetly, the boy knows how to be a no-matter-what friend to Bud as well.

I became enamoured with Pierre Pratt's unique art with Gustave (Simard, 2014) in which the heavily-inked illustrations helped impose the sombre tone of that picture book. However, in No-Matter-What Friend, Pierre Pratt's ink-outlined elements are softened by lines of diffuse edges and fill of warm colours that complement the friendly nature of the boy-dog relationship. Appropriately, the association of Kari-Lynn Winters' endearing text with Pierre Pratt's art depicts fully the wealth and breadth of the two characters' companionable love.

Sweetest Kulu

Written by Celina Kalluk

Illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis

Inhabit Media

978-1-927095-77-5

32 pp.

Ages 0-6

2014

The baby addressed as Kulu–an Inuktitut term of endearment–is cradled as softly in the embrace of the Arctic's natural elements, floral and faunal, as the book cover above rests in the illustration of its green end papers.  Gently, securely, safely, lovingly.  And the words that are sung to the child from the lulling poetry of the text convey even more the expanse of caring and respect afforded the child in his/her Arctic milieu. 

From the Sun bathing the child in "ribbons of warm light" to the Wind who "had learned your name, charming Kulu, and invited the world to meet you",  Kulu is welcomed by a multitude of visitors that come to greet the child and gift Kulu with positive attributes of being loving, helpful, tender, creative, patient and more.  Each gift bestowed becomes the song the world sings to Kulu "because you are true love."

I can imagine the words of Sweetest Kulu as a lullaby to reassure Kulu to accept the riches of the world and the goodness within to lull the child into the sweetest of slumbers. Author Celina Kalluk is an Inuit throat singer and the lyrical quality of Sweetest Kulu is evident in every verse. Her words are as beautiful as the sentiment with which they are infused.

Adventurous Snow Bunting gifted you seeds from Arctic cotton,
and flowers for you to plant and grow with,
reminding you to always believe in yourself,
happy Kulu. (pg. 8)

I have never heard of artist Alexandria Neonakis, a Nova Scotian illustrator currently residing in California.  Sweetest Kulu is only the second children's book she has illustrated but I suspect that the demand for her artwork will increase exponentially.  Her use of colour and line to create a myriad of textures and feelings, all with an Arctic flavour, are so compelling that I'm convinced the child is perfectly safe at the head of a great muskox or snuggled by a polar bear beside her cub.  

Sweet Sweetest Kulu has just been selected, justifiably so, for the USSBY 2015 Outstanding International Book List, representing the best of children's literature from other countries, only one of 42 books for younger readers from pre-K to Grade 12.  Looks like others have welcomed Sweetest Kulu and the work of Celina Kalluk and Alexandria Neonakis as warmly as the story's child has been embraced.

In a Cloud of Dust

by Alma Fullerton

Illustrated by Brian Deines

Pajama Press

978-1927485620

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

For release March, 2015

Like so many children who live in isolated communities in Africa, Anna accepts the need to travel long hours if she is to attend school.  The opportunity for schooling is worth it.  While others may be playing football during lunch break, Anne completes her homework which she cannot do at home as she always arrives home after dark.  This day, however, she has missed the arrival of the bicycle library and all the bicycles are snatched up by her classmates.

But, Anna still recognizes the value of these donated bicycles and goes out of her way to help her friends learn how to ride, experiencing their joy vicariously.  However, by accompanying them on their rides home, she finds her own journey takes much less time,  especially when her friend Mohammad shares his with her.

In a Cloud of Dust provides a glimpse into the lives of children who must travel long distances for the chance to attend school. Alma Fullerton's text is modest in its quantity but weighty in its simple message of compassion and support, similar to her A Good Trade (Pajama Press, 2012) and Community Soup (Pajama Press, 2013) picture books.  And, while I look forward to seeing more of Alma Fullerton's own artwork in future endeavours, Brian Deines' illustrations are incomparable, effectively portraying the dusty and lengthy distances over Anna must travel to school. Because of his reliance on oils, Brian Deines' illustrations are highly evocative of the landscape and mood of the remote areas of Anna's Tanzanian home, providing less detail and more ambiance than other media might provide, particularly in the brush of the illustrator of Bear on the Homefront (Innes and Endrulat, Pajama Press, 2014).

In the hands of Alma Fullerton and Brian Deines, the story of Anna and her travels to and from school are never lost In a Cloud of Dust.

Review, Rant or Something Else

Recently I was disheartened to hear about a number of reviewers–and I use that term very loosely–who have gone beyond sharing their thoughts on books and deemed themselves to be the voice of authority in declaring a book to be something less than worthy of publication.

There was a review posted online that began with a series of expletives. Nice, huh? Another purports a recently-announced award nominee to be garbage. Finally, there's the headliner who has decided that a major award-winning book is undeserving, slamming the efforts of the writer but also, perhaps unknowingly, all those of the jury–writers themselves–who'd read numerous books to produce an exemplary short-list before selecting a winner. I have several questions for the writers of these reviews.  If you are one of these "reviewers", please feel free to take this little quiz.  The questions are multiple choice so you won't have to struggle to find the right words, just pick them out of the line-up.

The Reviewing Books Quiz

1. I review books to:

❍ share my reading.
❍ make money.
❍ deflate egos.
❍ practise my spelling.

2. When I read a book and love it, I always:

❍ share with others so they might have an opportunity to explore a new book.
❍ stay silent so that I can keep it my little secret.
❍ burn it so no one will ever know that I was weak enough to show pleasure.
❍ find a way to focus on the book's or author's weaknesses since nothing is perfect.

3. When I am not enjoying a book, I:

❍ stop reading it immediately and never think of going back to it.
❍ continue reading it in case it gets better.
❍ go online and make sure everyone knows how much I didn't enjoy it.
❍ burn it so it will never see the light of day again.

4. When I finish a book that I didn't like, I:

❍ don't bother publishing a review.
❍ write a review about the storyline and positives I did find in the book.
❍ write a review that tells everyone exactly how I feel.
❍ go to the website of the author or the publisher and, focusing on my outrage for the book's content/style/message, pull no punches about my feelings for the book.

5. My favourite reviewer is:

❍ the one who tells me briefly about the book's plot and writer's craft.
❍ the one who tells me everything so I don't even have to read the book.
❍ the one who tells it like it is, showing no restraint in their use of profanities and comparison to other lowly tomes.
❍ me.

6. I believe that authors

❍ have laboured for their craft and, even if the book isn't my favourite, I don't have the right to slam their efforts.
❍ should be prepared for criticism if they want their books published and read.
❍ are full of themselves and need a dose of reality to remind them they're nothing special.
❍ waste their efforts.

Scoring:
If you need me to tell you what the right answers are, you should not be a reviewer.

I was once told that readers use reviews to help them decide where to spend their dollars so if a book isn't any good, we need to be forthcoming in our assessments of books.  Luckily I don't review for that organization as I don't believe this to be true.  I believe that readers are smarter than that, recognizing that no single reviewer holds the truth about a book, any book, and sometimes the only way you know if it's worth spending your money on it is to buy the book.  Reviewing is about sharing, and no one wants to share poisonous fruit.

Just an FYI, this was a rant, not a review.