Heart of a Champion: Book launch (Burnaby, BC)

Join

Ellen Schwartz

author of 

for the launch of her newest
middle-grade novel!

Join her and publisher

Tundra Books

an imprint of Penguin Random House

for the launch of

Heart of a Champion

by Ellen Schwartz

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-880-8

257 pp.

Ages 9-12

March, 2016

on

Sunday, March 13, 2016

2 p.m. (PST)

at

Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre

6688 Southoaks Crescent

Burnaby, BC

The book is described as follows on the Penguin Random House web page for the book:

Ten-year-old Kenny (Kenji in Japanese) worships his older brother, Mickey (Mitsuo), a baseball hero whose outstanding performance on the Asahi baseball team has given him fame and popularity. Despite Kenny's suspected heart condition, he is determined to practice secretly with Mickey so he, too, can one day try out for the Asahi. But world events soon overtake life in this quiet community. When Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in 1941, everything for Kenny and his family spirals out of control: schools are closed, businesses are confiscated, fathers are arrested and sent to work camps in the BC interior and mothers and children are relocated to internment camps. When Mickey is arrested for a small act of violence, Kenny manages to keep his family's spirits up, despite the deplorable conditions in camp. Coming across a "vacant" field covered with scrap wood, broken shakes and torn tar paper, Kenny gets permission to clear it and convert it into a baseball field. One by one, the boys in the camp pitch in, and the work gives purpose to their long days. Kenny's persistence, hard work and big dreams shape the teen he is to become in this story of happiness found despite all odds.

Retrieved from http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/250703/heart-champion#9781770498822 on February 20, 2016.

Movers

Written by Meaghan McIsaac

Tundra Books

978-1-7049-818-1

288 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2016

Reviewed from Advance Reader's Copy

Forget today's world.  Meaghan McIsaac will take you into the new world of 2083 when people live in tiny apartments, use droidlets as keepers of all information, where schools are 64 floors high, water is scarce, powerful winds called Eventualies bombard everyone and everything, and there are Movers, people with the special ability to move others called their Shadows from the future of war, famine and disease to their own time.  And, because there are Movers, there is the Bureau of Movement Activity Control (BMAC) and the anti-Mover group, We Are Now, and Movers' Prison and Shelving–whereby Movers convicted of moving their Shadows are Shelved i.e., put into "An endless sleep. A living kind of deadness" (pg. 2).  It's a totally different world and it's the world of fourteen-year-old Patrick Mermick whose father Michael was Shelved after Moving his Shadow, Oscar Joji, from the future, killing him in the process and causing considerable damage.  Problem is that Michael Mermick was a Phase 2 Mover and incapable of Moving his Shadow.

Now Pat and little sister Maggie, both Phase 1 Movers, and Mom Izzy, a Non-Mover, must live in a world of monthly Mover renewal forms and much discrimination.  Not surprising Mom is known as a Mover symathizer, protesting Shelving, and helping Movers falsity their FIILES–digital accounts of their lives–to keep them from being treated as criminals.

Then everything goes from bad to worse.  Mom gets called into Maggie’s school, because of Mags' new behaviours suggesting the need for a Phase upgrade, and they are both being taken to BMAC headquarters when Mom tells Maggie to make a run for it.  Maggie heads to Pat’s school where a Movement creates destruction and chaos while bringing over the Shadow of Gabby, a classmate of Pat’s and a favourite target of the bullies. Together, Pat and Gabby and Maggie become fugitives and must delve into the underworld of Mover society in order to survive and avoid Shelving.

Movers is an earth-shattering, action-packed futuristic adventure of the heightest proportions.  Set in a future that appears to be of our own making–depletion of most resources, scarcity of others, continued discrimination for those who are different–with new technology and supernatural elements of time-travel, Movers is incessant in its fast pacing and rife with villains of all natures–bureaucratic, school bullies and future warlords–keeping the action steady and plot unravelling.

Another blast sends tremors rippling through the building.  The cement begins to give way under my right foot and there’s nothing I can do.  My body is in freefall and I cry out.  My brain shuts down, and there’s only one thought–I’m so dead–but my hand still has a grip on the metal bar.
I dangle there, scream-crying with Gabby while the rough rusty bar cuts into my palm.  My vocal cords feel ready to snap while the rest of me is consumed by fear.  No Gabby, no Movement, just – falling.
My temples start buzzing, like the lightning has shot right through them, and I can feel him, my Shadow, suddenly aware of me.  He’s angry, overwhelmed by the emotion flooding out of my body and suddenly I’m furious too. (pg. 50-51)

It’s like Die Hard meets The Time Traveler’s Wife for teen readers except the threat is from within and a romance doesn’t drive the story.  But the threat is real and the time travel is real and the horrors of discrimination are real.  And, to cause even more discomfort for readers, the story of Movers isn’t over because Meaghan McIsaac leaves readers on the edge of time and place, literally, with an ending that can’t even begin to be resolved until Book 2 of this new series is announced.  Hang on.

If I Had a Gryphon: Book launch (Toronto)

Join

Vikki VanSickle

author of 

for the launch of her

first picture book

If I Had a Gryphon

by Vikki VanSickle

Illustrated by Cale Atkinson

Tundra Books

978-1770498099

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

February 2016

on

Saturday, February 20, 2016

2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

at

Lillian H. Smith Library

Toronto Public Library

239 College Street

Toronto, ON

There will be:

• activities

• prizes

• fun for all ages!

Sam from If I Had a Gryphon

Books will be sold by Mabel's Fables

No registration required

Betting Game

by Heather M. O'Connor

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-0930-7

216 pp.

Ages 10+

October 2015

I've never been much for sports-based fiction, assuming that the plot and characters will be less than stellar when focusing on a sport and its logistics.  And it can be even worse if it is a sport with which I am not familiar.  But, though I'm not a big soccer fan, Betting Game easily captivated my interest with its action and suspense and honest teen characters.

Seventeen-year-old Jack and his brother Alex are very earnest about soccer, attending the Durham Lancers Soccer Academy, aspiring to positions in professional leagues.  Alex is the current captain and takes his responsibility very seriously while Jack is doing co-op with the Lancers' physio team, getting an inside track on injuries and the status of the players.  Not surprising then, when Jack meets a bookie, Luka, through his father at a Lancers game, Jack doesn't tell Alex about it.  Though Jack is chagrined when his dad shares with Luka Jack's successes on fantasy soccer online, Jack is finessed into dishing about the team himself and into placing his first real bet.

My first real bet.  It bumps the game up to a whole new level. Like watching a movie on IMAX instead of a laptop.  Or hearing your favorite band live.  No wonder people bet on sports. (pg. 27-8)

 As with all gambling, the successes beget further bets and Jack becomes both a benefactor of Luka's generosity and ultimately a victim of this relationship.  Meanwhile, the boys' team is learning to work with its new striker, Gil, and Alex, as captain, is distracted, leading Jack to get further and further into Luka's betting game.  

Heather M. O'Connor, an author whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Ontario Library Association's recent SuperConference, has no trouble grabbing the reader's attention with a fast-paced action-filled story.  Betting Game is undoubtedly the kind of read that will grip both sports fans and reluctant readers (at a reading level of 2.0, Betting Game is definitely a hi-lo book).  The story doesn't waste time with extensive prose, having Jack quickly falling deep into the betting game and, though he initially acknowledges the stupidity of his actions, he becomes addicted to the thrill of winning, of having a secret that sets him aside from his brother, and of the self-importance it cultivates in him.  And though hi-lo texts tend to place less emphasis on setting and atmosphere and characters, Betting Game does not lack these elements.  Instead, the story wins the reader over fully with its gripping storyline and its winning ending.  That just goes to show that you can't always bet on how things are going to turn out, whether it be a game, life or a book.

A Teachers' Guide is available from Orca Book Publishers at http://digital.orcabook.com/teachersguides-bettinggame/

Malaika's Costume: Book launch (Toronto)

Join author

Nadia L. Hohn

and illustrator

Irene Luxbacher

with publisher

Groundwood Books (House of Anansi Press)

for the official launch of their picture book

Malaika's Costume

Written by Nadia L. Hohn

Illustrated by Irene Luxbacher

Groundwood Books

9781554987542

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2016

on

Saturday, March 5, 2016 

2 p.m.- 4 p.m. 

at

A Different Booklist 

746 Bathurst Street

Toronto, ON

The book is described as follows:

It’s Carnival time. The first Carnival since Malaika’s mother moved to Canada to find a good job and provide for Malaika and her grandmother. Her mother promised she would send money for a costume, but when the money doesn’t arrive, will Malaika still be able to dance in the parade? 

Disappointed and upset at her grandmother’s hand-me-down costume, Malaika leaves the house, running into Ms. Chin, the tailor, who offers Malaika a bag of scrap fabric. With her grandmother’s help, Malaika creates a patchwork rainbow peacock costume, and dances proudly in the parade.

(Retrieved from House of Anansi website at http://houseofanansi.com/products/malaikas-costume)

In addition to supporting diversity in youngCanLit,

this book launch will be a great opportunity to:

• get a taste of the Caribbean Carnival season

• hear a reading of the book by author Nadia L. Hohn

• meet the illustrator Irene Luxbacher, and

• purchase a copy of the book, and get it signed. 

Hannah and the Wild Woods

by Carol Anne Shaw

Ronsdale Press

978-1-55380-440-6

240 pp.

Ages 10+

September 2015

Author Carol Anne Shaw introduced West Coast Hannah and her supernatural affinities in Hannah and the Spindle Whorl (Ronsdale Press, 2010) and followed up with Hannah and the Salish Sea (Ronsdale Press, 2013).  In both stories, Hannah, a teen who lives in Cowichan Bay, had been touched by First Nations spirits of the past, giving her a greater appreciation for their history and for the environment.  Though Hannah and the Wild Woods is the third book in the series, I  am pleased to say that it can be read without reading Books 1 and 2, capably standing alone with a new set of characters and story line, while keeping Hannah tethered in spirit to her roots and passions.

It’s spring break and fifteen-year-old Hannah is heading to the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to work with the Coast-is-Clear program, clearing beach debris, much washed up from the Japanese tsunami of 2011.  Surprisingly, also going is Sabrina Webber, Hannah’s rich-girl nemesis, who has to do some eco-community service to avoid juvie for shoplifting.

Things at home are a little tenuous with Hannah’s dad considering moving them from their houseboat at Cowichan Bay to a home in Victoria with his girlfriend, Annie.  Moreover, Hannah’s boyfriend Max is in Mexico vacationing with his family and seemingly at arm’s length.  But Hannah does have Jack, her raven buddy, who follows her to the Tofino area where she will be staying at the lodge called the Artful Elephant with other Coast-is-Clear volunteers.  Led by the program facilitator, Peter, and his girlfriend Jade, Hannah and Sabrina are joined by an older teen, Kimiko, who reveals that she lived through the tsunami and has lost her father.  But there is something unsettling about Kimiko, from the way she moves and disappears sometimes to her relentless questioning of Hannah, and it’s evident that the lodge’s resident dog, Norman, thinks things are off with Kimiko too, kicking up a fuss whenever she’s around.

When a glass ball with curious markings on a gold chain that Jack finds for Hannah goes missing, Hannah begins to suspect Kimiko.  But, Hannah has no idea how weird things are going to get, especially when she spies a fox with multiple tails and the glass ball and chain hanging from one of them.  There’s also a lone wolf that appears to be watching the lodge and the volunteers.  With Jack’s help, Hannah tries to learn Kimiko’s secret and that of the fox and wolf, and make things right for the whole lot of them, while still working to clean up the environment.  She’s one busy girl.

It’s evident that Carol Anne Shaw has great affection for the West Coast, its people and environment, and she takes the reader into that milieu easily.

I push my hair under my hat and face the sea, leaning into the wind at a forty-five degree angle.  It's as though the wind up here is on steroids! I hang for a couple of moments, feeling weightless before allowing myself to be blown back upright.  I feel a little bit like the shrubs and western hemlock out on the point, all of them growing in the same direction, shaped by years of being hammered by the relentless winds. (pg. 38-39)

Everything Hannah feels and does is embedded in that caring and concern and she is a totally believable character.  She wants to be good and do good but is still human with her distress, frustration, suspicion, worry and anger.  But by tying in elements of Japanese folklore, specifically the kitsune and Okami, Carol Anne Shaw makes Hannah and the Wild Woods into a bigger story of finding oneself and one’s family and accepting mistakes as learning steps.  Kimiko has lots of learning to do (even if she is almost 900 years old!) but, at 15, Hannah has lots of life wisdom to share.  Though there are multiple harrowing circumstances and even a devastating loss, Hannah and the Wild Woods will deliver the reader to a calm that can only appear after the storm.  Look forward to the ending.

To the Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground (Great Idea Series)

Written by Monica Kulling

Illustrated by David Parkins

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-520-3

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

January 2016

The son of former slaves, Garrett Morgan, came from humble beginnings, working on a Kentucky farm alongside his family before heading north at 14 to find something more.  His first invention came by simple observation from the clothing factory floor which he cleaned.  Sewing machine belts were often breaking and Garrett Morgan's development of a stronger belt resulted in a promotion to sewing-machine repairman.  Garrett Morgan relayed this success into his own sewing-machine shop and tailoring shop, and was on his way.

Garrett Morgan could well have been considered a success at this point, owning his own house, and running his own businesses.  His successes were all the more because he was an African American man in a time of great prejudice and ignorance.  But he continued to develop new products, serendipitously developing a cream for hair straightening which led to his first patent and the beginnings of the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company.

But the key product for which Garrett Morgan is showcased in To the Rescue! came from the man's shock at the death toll from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City in 1911.  Determined to help the firefighters breathe while inside burning buildings, Garrett Morgan developed a safety hood, the precursor to the gas mask, that utilized long hoses to draw breathable air from ground level and allow the wearer to exhale safely, with a sponge to filter out smoke.  He called it Morgan's Safety Hood and Smoke Protector.  Though it worked, it was often shunned because the inventor was black.

It wasn't until a gas explosion trapped more than thirty men underground in Cleveland that Garrett Morgan's safety hood was utilized and applauded as valuable. Not surprising the safety hood was developed further for use as a gas mask during World War I.

With Black History Month upon us and To the Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground just published last month, it seems appropriate that I share the book with readers now.  Everyone knows the big inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison but Monica Kulling continues to shine some publishing light on the accomplishments of lesser known but just as notable inventors.  The safety hood was a great idea and Garrett Morgan is deserving of recognition for this achievement.  It’s heartbreaking that the colour of his skin may have prevented earlier implementation of his invention and perhaps could have saved lives sooner.  Fortunately, some were able to see beyond that and accept the significance of the safety hood for everyone.

Surprising, Tundra’s Great Idea Series uses a variety of illustrators, though the text is wholly Monica Kulling, and I like the selection of David Parkins to illustrate To the Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground.  David Parkins, who also illustrated In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up and Spic-and-Span! Lillian Gilbreth's Wonder Kitchen by Monica Kulling, is reknowned as a cartoonist, including an editorial cartoonist for The Globe & Mail, and there’s a retro cartoon feel to the art that works well for To the Rescue! The illustrations of pen and ink with watercolours are embedded in realism, necessary for non-fiction, but still gentle and detailed, conveying much about the time and the people, critical for a biography.

I understand that there will only be ten books in the Great Idea Series and this one is the eighth.  So, if you haven’t already, get with it and start your collection of illustrated biographies with To The Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground to recognize the inventiveness of one African American while talking up safety and necessity as the mother of invention.