Strange Light Afar: Tales of the Supernatural from Old Japan

by Rui Umezawa

Illustrated by Mikiko Fujita

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-723-8

144 pp.

Ages 10+

September 2015

Because Rui Umezawa’s eight Japanese folk tales all include some element of the supernatural–ghosts, monsters, magical creatures, or spirits of the dead–these stories are a perfect read for the month of October and Halloween when all things creepy come to reside in the media and in classrooms.  But these tales have several additional key elements to which educators and readers in general will be drawn.  First the stories are firmly embedded in a Japan of fishing villages, cherry blossoms, Buddhists, and mountains, alongside samurai, kimonos and kawauso, lending opportunities to examine an ancient civilization and another culture with which most of us are unfamiliar.  Secondly, these eight stories focus on important life lessons and avoidance of the deadly vices including greed, envy, wrath and sloth.

The first story is called “Snow” and recounts a terrible night when a young boy and his mother are trapped in a snow storm and visited by a Snow Woman who spares the boy’s life on the promise he would never reveal what he’d seen.  It is his betrayal of this promise many years later and without malice that turns his world upside down.  Another supernatural creature appears in “Trickster”, a story in which a peddlar who attempts to cheat his customers with an elixir of questionable efficacy is himself tricked.  Similarly, a young man attempts to keep a beautiful immortal with him by stealthy kindness in “Captive.”

While “Honor” includes a samurai’s horrific death by chopstick, it is an ethical tale of two warriors who take mutual vows of brotherhood and honor each other even after death.  On the other hand, “Envy” examines sibling rivalry in which a jealous brother uses violence to deal with a brother whose goodness repeatedly provides him with wonderful surprises.

In the final three stories, the young men suffer the pains of their own vices, never acknowledging their own roles in their downfalls.  “Vanity” has a young man who feels he loves far too easily given the gift of returning to the time of Buddha to witness his teachings.  In “Paradise”, a lazy, drinking man is given a chance to live in an underwater paradise with a beautiful woman, and though he is wise and compassionate enough to help an abused turtle,

When an animal knows there is no hope, it smothers its own will to survive.  Otherwise, life becomes too painful to bear. (pg. 121)

he is not wise enough to help himself.  And, in “Betrayal”, a married man poisons his wife when he begins to see her as less than perfect.

Each story brings the reader to the fishing villages or festivals or town of a Japan of another time, and Mikiko Fujita’s black and white pencil drawings convey this same other-worldly atmosphere impeccably.  But it is Rui Umezawa’s emphasis on the lessons to be learned and the enlightenment to be had just for reading that will beguile the reader.  The scare factor is minimal–usually associated with the appearance of supernatural beings–but useful in teaching caution, suggestive of the dreadfulness that could arise for living lives of selfishness and wickedness.

Delve into another time and place with these eight stories in Strange Light Afar: Tales of the Supernatural from Old Japan, and teach and learn life lessons that are guided by other-worldly entities who may or may not wish to frighten.

#CanLitChoices for Grade 2 novel studies: stand-alone youngCanLit

Following up on my earlier post about #CanLitChoices for use with Grade 2 students eager to get into novels, this post will look at a handful of novels that are not part of series but still perfect for readers of ages 6-9. Links to reviews or brief descriptions are provided if the subject matter is not evident.  Some books are a little easier, some a little more challenging but all are perfect for those young readers who are just starting to delve into reading beyond the picture book area of the library or classroom and into that once out-of-reach section of the library once harbouring books only for older readers.

After all, there are #CanLitChoices for everyone!

Clover's Luck: Magical Animal Adoption Agency
by Kallie George
Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger
HarperCollins
144 pp.
Ages 7-10
2015
Reviewed here

Danny Who Fell in a Hole
Written by Cary Fagan
Illustrated by Milan Pavlovic
Groundwood Books
116 pp.
Ages 7-11
2013
Reviewed here

The Four Seasons of Patrick
by Susan Hughes
Red Deer Press
80 pp.
Ages 7-10
2013
Reviewed here

Kit: The Adventures of a Raccoon
by Shirley Woods
Illustrated by Celia Godkin
Groundwood Books/Douglas and McIntyre
92 pp.
Ages 8-11
1999

Marsh Island
by Sonya Spreen Bates
Orca Book Publishers
64 pp.
Ages 7-9
2009
Two young brothers go camping with their father on Marsh Island where a mystery awaits them.

The Mosquito Brothers
by Griffin Ondaatje
Illustrated by Erica Salcedo
Groundwood Books
128 pp.
Ages 7-9
May 2015
Reviewed here

Prove it, Josh
by Jenny Watson
Sono Nis Press
157 pp.
Ages 8-11
2013
A dyslexic young boy takes to the water in a BC boat race to show his reading skills don't define him.

Tank and Fizz: The Case of the Slime Stampede
by Liam O’Donnell
Illustrated by Mike Deas
Orca Book Publishers
152 pp.
Ages 8-11
2015
Reviewed here

Timo's Garden
by Victoria Allenby
Illustrated by Dean Griffiths
Pajama Press
48 pp.
Ages 5-8
2015
Reviewed here

Very Serious Children

by Caroline Adderson
Illustrated by Joe Weissmann
Scholastic Canada
144 pp.
Ages 7-10
2007
Two brothers, the children of circus clowns, run away to seek a "normal" life of friends, a home, nutritious meals and baths.

An Inheritance of Ashes

by Leah Bobet
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers
978-0544281110
388 pp.
Ages 12+
October 2015
Reviewed from advance reading copy

An Inheritance of Ashes is a dark tale.  A dark, dark tale. And, though it has supernatural elements, An Inheritance of Ashes is a familiar tale of fears and love and heroes and isolation and pride, and family.  And it has a force within.  A force that good may come from evil.

The emptiness grew, and split, and ate the whole world in its wake.  It was never going to be all right again. (pg. 126)

Hallie, 16, and her sister, Marthe, 26, both inherited Roadstead Farm from their abusive father, and now run it–raising barley, goats, poultry, etc.–with Marthe’s husband, Thom Clarlund, or they did until Thom went to war against the Wicked God and his general and prophet Asphodel Jones and army of irregulars, and their creatures, nay monsters, everyone calls Twisted Things.  Though the two young women are cautiously hopeful of Thom’s return, now that a man named John Balsam who “by magic, skill or cunning killed the Wicked God” (pg. 23), Hallie and Marthe take on a vet named Heron for whom “No one’s waiting for me to turn life normal again” (pg. 13) to help with the harvest and running the farm.  

But things are far from normal at the farm. Twisted Things begin to appear, one here, another there, killing the air, burning whatever they touch, contaminating the remnants of their lives.  And Hallie worries that the Great Army, desperately searching for John Balsam, will quarantine the farm, if not take it away from them.  Though Hallie is reluctant to ask for help, Heron and their neighbours, the Blakeley’s, come to their assistance.  Moreover, even though Hallie recognizes that, because of the abuse of their father, “We were ruined for loving people.  We were ruined for being loved” (pg. 244), Tyler Blakely who has his own war ghosts begins to court her and, with his sister Nat and Heron, help her recognize that she doesn’t have to take on the evil alone, or hide or run from that which seems too much. “We made each other less alone.” (pg. 272)

There are things not of our world in An Inheritance of Ashes, and there are things that were never of their world either, including a Wicked God that is more storm than substance and bird- and lizard-like creatures that burn and kill that which they touch, and a violent purple and green world that is evident only through a hole in the air.  But fighting evil and finding strength with others and holding onto that which is everything–a home, family, friends–are our world, and Leah Bobet easily supplants readers from their comforts into the darkness of Hallie’s world.  Rife with atmosphere and Hallie’s longing for rightness, An Inheritance of Ashes demonstrates that what we get from family is not always what is expected.  If might be an inheritance of a family farm, or of fear, or isolation, but it can be the fortitude to continue on, when all expect failure to reverberate.  And, with powerfully evocative text, Leah Bobet allows Hallie and others in An Inheritance of Ashes to sift through the cinders and residue after a horror and find something worth keeping.

Junior Sleuth Academy & Book Launch: The Dead Kid Detective Agency, Loyalist to a Fault (Toronto)

Small Print Toronto 

in partnership with Toronto Public Library

presents 

Junior Sleuth Academy

a mystery-writing workshop for writers aged 8-12

with artist-author 

Evan Munday

creator of the widely lauded series
The Dead Kid Detective Agency

on

Sunday, October 18th, 2015

2:30 p.m.

at 

Lillian Smith Library 

239 College St. (at Spadina)

Toronto

Get your free tickets here.

The workshop involves some 

supernatural sleuthing and creating spooky stories 

followed by

the launch 

(with books available for purchase and signing)

of Book 3 in The Dead Kid Detective Agency series

Loyalist To A Fault

by Evan Munday

ECW Press

9781770410749

304 pp.

Ages 9-13

September 2015

If you've kept up with the series, you'll know that October Schwartz made a promise to help solve the mysteries of the deaths of her five dead accomplices: Morna MacIsaac, Cyril Cooper, Tabetha Scott, Kirby LaFlamme, and Derek Running Water.  In Loyalist to a Fault, October looks into the death of Cyril Cooper in 1783, back to the time of the United Empire Loyalists.

2016 Forest of Reading nominees announced today!

Young readers, their teachers, school-librarians, public librarians, authors, illustrators, and publishers have waited anxiously for this day, the day that the Ontario Library Association announces the nominees for the 2016 Forest of Reading® programs. Now extending beyond Ontario, even more readers are enjoying new Canadian literature as part of the Forest of Reading® programs.

These readers' choice award programs invite teachers and librarians (school and public), as well as parents of home-schoolers, to sign up for these programs through the Ontario Library Association. Once you've registered for the programs and purchase the books, young readers will be on their way to voting for their favourites in April.

With over one hundred nominated titles, I have presented the nominees in multiple posts. See the lists below for nominees for the different programs.

Blue Spruce and Silver Birch Nominees

Red Maple and White Pine Nominees

Le Prix Tamarac and Le Prix Peuplier Nominees

Q & A with author Caroline Pignat: 2015 Governor General Literary Award finalist

Last week, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the finalists for the 2015 Governor General Literary Awards.  Amongst the many worthy nominees is Caroline Pignat for her recent book, The Gospel Truth.  Interestingly, Caroline Pignat has already won the GG for children's book text, in 2009 for Greener Grass (Red Deer Press, 2008).

The Gospel Truth, which I reviewed on January 13, 2015 (review here) is a staggering achievement for a book of youngCanLit, both in its content and its form, and I now have the honour of interviewing author Caroline Pignat about her book.

Photo by Angela Flemming

HK:  What was the germ of an idea that had you focusing your story on the life of a young slave woman in Virginia in the mid-1800s?

CP:  To be honest, it started as a sequel to finish up my Irish series. Kit told her story in Greener Grass and Wild Geese, and then Jack told his in Timber Wolf. So I figured Annie, the third and youngest Byrne orphan, needed a chance to tell hers. She was five when we last read about her. To make her at least fifteen, meant setting her story in 1858 and I just Googled “Canadian history 1850s.”

The facts fascinated me, particularly those about the Fugitive Slave Act and the influx of people escaping from slavery to Canada. After researching the Underground Railroad and the role of abolitionists, I pitched Annie’s story to Red Deer Press and they offered me a contract.

I began writing it in the alternating voices of Annie and a house slave named Phoebe. But I soon realized that I didn’t care about Annie and I was skimming through her parts to get to Phoebe’s. Though mute, Phoebe had much, much more to say. Her voice felt stronger. Richer. Much more engaging. I knew then, that this wasn’t Annie’s book, it was Phoebe’s.

HK:  The Gospel Truth is written in free verse and an astounding accomplishment for your first foray into that form.  But I believe your writing is so well suited for free verse as you are able to use words both sparingly and powerfully.  What made you choose this form for The Gospel Truth?

CP:  In the beginning, I wrote my chapters in prose, alternating POV between Annie and Phoebe. Because of the research I’d done to tune in to Phoebe, she had a very distinct voice. Sparse. Simple, but wise. Figurative. I had previously written free verse for the voice of Will, the bullied character in my first novel, Egghead. I loved the form and was keen to try it for an entire novel, but none of my books since seemed to be a good fit. When Phoebe spoke, I realized that her diction, syntax, and the symbolic way she saw her world truly was poetic. She was speaking in free verse, but I was writing it in prose at first. Switching to free verse was liberating, it felt like cleaning away all the clutter and getting right to the heart of her. Many early poems came word for word from those first draft chapters.



HK:  Writing The Gospel Truth in six different voices–Phoebe, Master, Miss Tessa, Doctor Bergman, Bea the housekeeper and Shad another slave–must have been challenging because they are so unique.  How were you able to keep their voices distinctive and still find the means for them to experience the commonalities of life on a plantation in 1858? And how difficult was it to get the voices right, with dialects of the slaves and people of the region of which you wrote?

CP:  Egghead is told in three voices; the Greener Grass series is told in Kit and Jack’s voices; Ellie is narrating Unspeakable, but I also included Jim’s journal entries; and my upcoming novel, Shooter (Penguin, May 2016) is in the voices of five students in a lockdown. I love seeing a common experience through different perspectives. I love figuring out what filters flavour each character’s interpretation of that reality. But writing in multiple POV means treating each one of those narrators as a main character. It means knowing them intimately and developing them completely so they appear distinct, authentic, and believable.

My research informed my characters’ attitudes, experiences, and perceptions. I read many biographies and autobiographies of abolitionists as well as those by enslaved people like Josiah Henson, Harriet Jacobs, and Solomon Northrop. But what helped me really tune in to their voices --  particularly those of Phoebe, Shad, and Bea -- was reading transcribed slave narratives, like those in Unchained Memories. Those vivid descriptions of slave life, their turns of phrase (“and that’s the Gospel truth”), and their varied experiences and resilient spirits affected me deeply and inspired my characters.



HK:  There is a lot of self-deception going on in The Gospel Truth.  Whether it’s the bird playing dead–“That bird just so scared of what it, it gotta go pretending what isn’t” (pg. 18)–or Will telling his brother Shad that “being blind to what is, don’t make it false” (pg. 87), it’s all about self-protection.  How important do you think this is amongst your characters and for people in general when dealing with challenges?

CP:  I think we grow into our truth. We discover it and accept it, as we are ready. Self-deception can be a kind self-protection, for a time, it may be necessary, but if we stay there, in denial, we are as trapped as that bird in the cage.

Parts of this journey for Phoebe are the baby steps she takes: to learn her letters; to steal a notebook; to meet with Bergman; to help Will escape. With every choice, she moves one step closer to discovering, accepting, and eventually speaking her truth.

HK:  Secrets play a tremendous role in The Gospel Truth and in fiction in general.  And Phoebe makes a very insightful declaration about secrets in the book.

“Every one carry secrets inside,
but once they spilled
there ain’t no taking them back.
And just like blood,
Everyone that secret touches 

be stained.” (pg. 167)

What do you think is more difficult to write about: the keeping of secrets or the telling of secrets?

CP:  Secrets are powerful. Though dangerous in real life -- they’re fabulous in fiction. A juicy secret can drive character motive, stir fear, and raise tension. It complicates relationships because a secret weakens integrity, arouses suspicion, and undermines trust.

In multiple POV, secrets bring even more to the story because now the reader knows not only the secret, but who is in on it, and what is at stake. Usually, the longer a character tries keep a secret, its telling becomes even more difficult and destructive. If a plot includes a secret, I try to make the most of the scene where it’s revealed.

HK: I know that you are an accomplished writer of historical fiction, having already won a Governor General Literary Award for Greener Grass (Red Deer Press, 2008) among many other book awards, and I anticipate more such volumes in the future.  But, will you consider writing more novels in free verse–please, please, please!–whether it be historical fiction or not? In fact, do you have any plans or works in progress or set for publication already that follow that format?

CP:  I love writing free verse -- and I’m so encouraged by how The Gospel Truth is being received. Because free verse is so sparse, it forces me to focus on that one meaningful moment. It makes me notice and highlight what really matters. Where first person is like being in someone’s head --  free verse is like being in their heart. It’s raw, honest, and intense. I would love to write another novel in free verse -- assuming I find a character whose voice is best expressed in that form.

As I wrote The Gospel Truth, I realized this story was really about Phoebe’s inner journey to choose freedom. It was fascinating to watch her slowly progress beyond her fear and come to that moment of decision. Will she risk everything and leave all she has ever known?

Though I had researched the URR for the outer journey, it didn’t belong in this novel. Maybe it deserves a sequel --  but I’m still discerning that one.

HK:  I often ask this question of authors and I would love to know your take on it: Would you rather produce one book of extraordinary importance that becomes a classic but one to which all your writing is forever compared, or would you prefer to author many different books for different audiences and which could not be compared to each other?

CP:  Hmmm. Tough question, Helen!

Do I want to live in the shadow of one super-fantastic book... or in productive obscurity? As a one-hit wonder... or as muzak?

Hmmm.

In which one of these scenarios am I on a beach in Cuba?

When I think product, yes, I would LOVE to create a book of extraordinary importance. But when I think process, I would HATE to believe that I had peaked as a writer. I need to try new things. I need to feel inspired and excited about my next work-in-progress. Comparison only leads to creative constipation.

So, I’d choose to author many books for different audiences. Besides, classic or not, I believe that each book is extraordinarily important to someone.

And sometimes that someone is just me.



HK:  If there is anything else that you would like to share with readers of CanLit for LittleCanadians about The Gospel Truth, your nomination for another Governor General Literary Award, or your writing, please fee free to do so.  We’d really love to know more!

CP:  You’ll find links to excerpts, reviews, and research materials on my website:

www.carolinepignat.com

Right now, I’m working on a Study Guide for The Gospel Truth. It should be available for free download in early November. Great for book club discussion, as a Novel Study Unit, or as a resource for Black History Month in February.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

Many thanks 

to the generous Caroline Pignat 

for sharing her writing, with much honesty and humour, 

and 

to children's book publicist Winston Stilwell 

for arranging this Q & A.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

BUT WAIT!

There is a giveaway, yes GIVEAWAY, starting today October 13, for one of 10 free SIGNED copies of The Gospel Truth on Goodreads, so it's a perfect chance to get your own copy, if you don't have it yet.  In addition to being named a finalist for the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award, The Gospel Truth is also a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award, the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and is an honour book for the CLA Young Adult Book of the Year Award!  The giveaway is open to readers in the US and Canada.

So enter now for your chance to win one of ten SIGNED copies of The Gospel Truth by Caroline Pignat.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/158207-the-gospel-truth

Between Shadows

by Kathleen Cook Waldron

Coteau Books

978-1-55050-612-9

100 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 2015

"When we lose people we love, we need to remember how they lived, not just how they died.  Life is more than shadows, it's the light behind those shadows." (pg. 12-13)

Ari Martin's memories of his 9th summer at his Gramps' cabin are filled with learning how to swim, paddle, and picking mushrooms and berries.  That is, until an accident with a logging truck takes his mother's life and Ari and his father never return.  Finally, Ari is 12 and set to visit Gramps alone this summer. Then his grandfather dies.  So what had been a perfect plan becomes Dad and Ari flying from Toronto to meet with Dad's sister Laurel and go to the cabin, now painted in the colours of the rainbow, to settle Gramps' estate.

But, regardless of Gramps' will which leaves the cabin and 160 acres on Canoe Lake to Ari, everything can be sold by his father and aunt if they decide to do so and put the money into a trust for him.  And Aunt Laurel, who'd already put up a locked gate to the property, has arranged for a realtor to appraise the property and is talking to a developer who wants to put up a resort and golf course.

However, Ari is out there reliving the summer with his Gramps and making the acquaintance of a girl named Tam who knew his grandfather–seems like everyone nearby did and really liked the man–and shares with Ari a secret way to a secluded beach that his grandfather allowed locals to use.

The family they once were–with Mom and Gramps–is gone, now in the shadows, and only ever briefly do Ari, Dad and Aunt Laurel come together to act as a normal family.  But Ari is holding out for a family and friends and a place to call home more than his father and aunt realize and, with a little help from new friends and Gramps, he's going to do it.

I'm sorry I missed Between Shadows when it first came out because it is a great read: inspiring and honest and pitched perfect for a middle-grade readership.  While still dealing with difficult issues of death and grief and family dynamics, even dysfunctional ones, Kathleen Cook Waldron gets inside Ari's head and knows what a kid–and he could be any child from 8 to 12–wants and needs without having him become precocious or demanding.  He's just a kid who wants to feel the love of family and the safety of home and friendship.  That's not asking that much.  And by getting Ari to see Between Shadows for the good stuff that was out there and within his grasp, Kathleen Cook Waldron provides a cheery reminder that sometimes things work out just fine.