YoungCanLit for International Women's Day (March 8)

As important as it was for me to put together this list of youngCanLit titles relevant to International Women’s Day,  it was a difficult list to compile.  There are numerous books of youngCanLit in which girls and women are able to achieve extraordinary accomplishments or are strong, determined characters who are great role models for young readers.  Like Dave Whamond’s Oddrey (Owlkids, 2012) or Caroline Pignat’s Phoebe from The Gospel Truth (Red Deer Press, 2014). But, for International Women’s Day, I focused on those books whose characters or biographical emphases are on girls and women who have had to overcome much because of their gender or were able to accomplish much in spite of their gender.  These are their stories and those that need telling.


PICTURE BOOKS

Gift Days
by Kari-Lynn Winters
Illustrated by Stephen Taylor
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 7+
2012
Reviewed here

The Highest Number in the World
by Roy MacGregor
Illustrated by Geneviève Després
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-7
2014

The Paper Bag Princess
by Robert Munsch
Illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Annick Press
28 pp.
Ages 4+
1981

When Mama Goes to Work
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Illustrated by Jessica Phillips
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 1-5
2013
Reviewed here



FICTION & YOUNG ADULT

Abby’s Fabulous Season
by Alain M. Bergeron
Translated by Chantel Bilodeau
Second Story Press
300 pp.
Ages 8-11
2014

Born Ugly
by Beth Goobie
Red Deer Press
270 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

The Breadwinner
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
176 pp.
Ages 10-14
2000/2015

The Farmerettes
by Gisela Tobien Sherman
Second Story Press
348 pp.
Ages 12+
2015

The Girls They Left Behind
by Bernice Thurman Hunter
Fitzhenry & WHIteside
191 pp.
Ages 12-15
2005

Jane, the Fox and Me
by Fanny Britt
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou
Groundwood Books
104 pp.
Ages 10-16
2013

Lily and Taylor
by Elise Moser
Groundwood Books
224 pp.
Ages 14+
2013
Reviewed here

Moon at Nine
by Deborah Ellis
Pajama Press
224 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Reviewed here

My Book of Life by Angel
by Martine Leavitt
Groundwood Books
246 pp.
Ages 14+
2012
Reviewed here

No Ordinary Day
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books160 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011
Reviewed here

The Paper House
by Lois Peterson
Orca Book Publishers
108 pp.
Ages 8-11
2012
Reviewed here

Stained
by Cheryl Rainfield
HMH Books for Young Readers
304 pp.
Ages 14+
2013
Reviewed here 

Straight Punch
by Monique Polak
Orca Book Publishers
256 pp.
Ages 13-16
2014

Susanna's Quill
by Julie Johnston
Tundra Books
327 pp.
Ages 13+
2004

Thunder Over Kandahar 
by Sharon E. McKay
Annick Press
260 pp.
Ages 12+
2010

Wanting Mor
by Rukhasana Khan
Groundwood Books
192 pp.
Ages 10-14
2009





NON-FICTION

Astonishing Women Artists (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Heather Ball
Second Story Press
120 pp.
Ages 9-13
2007

Because I am a Girl I Can Change the World
by Rosemary McCarney with Plan International
Second Story Press
32 pp.
Ages 7-12
2015

Canadian Girls Who Rocked the World 
by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Illustrated by Tom Bagley
Walrus/Whitecap Books
120 pp.
Ages 9-11
2009

Courageous Women Rebels (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Joy Crysdale
Second Story Press
124 pp.
Ages 9-13
2013

Dazzling Women Designers (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Jill Bryant
Second Story Press
128 pp.
Ages 9-13
2010

Every Day is Malala Day
by Rosemary McCarney with Plan International
Second Story Press
32 pp.
Ages 7-12
2014
Reviewed here

Exceptional Women Environmentalists (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Frances Rooney
Second Story Press
120 pp.
Ages 9-13
2007

Extraordinary Women Explorers (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Frances Rooney
Second Story Press
118 pp.
Ages 9-13
2005

Fearless Female Journalists (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Joy Crysdale
Second Story Press
128 pp.
Ages 9-13
2010

girlSpoken: From Pen, Brush & Tongue
Edited by Jessica Hein. Heather Holland and Carol Kauppi
Second Story Press
201 pp.
Ages 12+
2007

Great Women From Our First Nations (The First Nations Series for Young Readers)
by Kelly Fournel
Second Story Press
84 pp.
Ages 9-13
2007

Great Women Leaders (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Heather Ball
Second Story Press
100 pp.
Ages 9-13
2004

Hyena in Petticoats: The Story of Suffragette Nellie McClung
by Willow Dawson
Puffin Canada
95 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011

In the Bag: Margaret Knight Wraps It Up
by Monica Kulling
Illustrated by David Parkins
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 5-9
2011
Reviewed here

Incredible Women Inventors (The Women's Hall of Fame Series)
by Sandra Braun
Second Story Press
112 pp.
Ages 11+
2006

Kim Campbell: The Keener Who Broke Down Barriers (Canadian Prime Ministers: Warts & All)
by Heather Grace Stewart
Illustrated by Thomas Dannenberg
JackFruit Press
57 pp.
Ages 9-13
2007

Lacey and the African Grandmothers
by Sue Farrell Holler
Second Story Press
164 pp.
Ages 9-13
2009

Locating Alexandra
by Margaret Rodgers
ECW Press
170 pp.
Ages 15+
1995

Magnificent Women in Music (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Heather Ball
Second Story Press
108 pp.
Ages 9-13
2005

Nobel's Women of Peace (The Women's Hall of Fame Series)
by Michelle Benjamin & Maggie Mooney
Second Story Press
146 pp.
Ages 9-13
2008

No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure
by Susan Hughes
Illustrated by Willow Dawson
Kids Can Press
80 pp.
Ages 9-12
2008

Phenomenal Female Entrepreneurs (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Jill Bryant
Second Story Press
152 pp.
Ages 9-13
2013

Pink Power: The First Women's Hockey Champions (Recordbooks)
by Lorna Schultz Nicholson
James Lorimer
125 pp.
Ages 9-14
2007

Queens of the Ice: They Were Fast, They Were Fierce, They Were Teenage Girls (Recordbooks)
by Carly Adams
James Lorimer
131 pp.
Ages 10-13
2011

Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education (CitizenKid)
by Elizabeth Suneby
Illustrated by Suana Verelst
Kids Can Press
36 pp.
Ages 8-10
2013

Remarkable Women Writers (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Heather Ball
Second Story Press
120 pp.
Ages 10-14
2006

Reporter in Disguise: The Intrepid Vic Steinberg
by Christine Welldon
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
78 pp.
Ages 10-13
2013

Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
208 pp.
Ages 10-13
2011

Spectacular Women in Space (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Sonia Gueldenpfennig
Second Story Press
111 pp.
Ages 9-12
2005

Spic-and-Span!: Lillian Gilbreth's Wonder Kitchen
by Monica Kulling
Illustrated by David Parkins
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 7-10
2014
Reviewed here

Super Women in Science (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)
by Kelley DiDomenico
Second Story Press
102 pp.
Ages 9-13
2001

Susanna Moodie: A Life
by Michael Peterman
ECW Press
178 pp.
Ages 13+
1999




FILM

Kim Campbell: Through the Looking Glass
Directed by Michel Jones
Produced by Silva Basmajian
National Film Board of Canada
71 min.
Ages 14+
2000



The Petticoat Expeditions Series
Directed by Pepita Ferrari
Produced by Kent Martin
Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter
National Film Board of Canada
Ages 10-14
1997
Part 1: Anna Jameson
23 min., 29 sec.

Part 2: Frances Hopkins
19 min., 32 sec.

Part 3: Countess of Aberdeen
20 min., 1 sec.

Under the Willow Tree: Pioneer Chinese Women in Canada
Directed by Dora Nipp
Produced by Margaret Wong
National Film Board of Canada
52 min.
Ages 14+
1997

Dragonfly Kites / Pimithaagansa

by Tomson Highway

Illustrated by Julie Flett

Fifth House Publishers

978-1-89725-263-5

32 pp.

Ages 4+

March 2016

The two young Cree brothers from Tomson Highway’s Caribou Song (Fifth House, 2013) return in a new release of the second tale from the author and playwright’s Magical Songs of the North trilogy. This time the boys and their parents and dog Ootsie are heading to spend the summer further north in Manitoba.

From Tomson Highway’s reminiscent text and Julie Flett’s creative and evocative illustrations, Dragonfly Kites takes readers to a simpler time and one deep in traditions. A time of traveling north by canoe and erecting a tent by a lake so papa and mama could fish while the boys played by themselves on land, and “think up games with made-up toys.” (pg. 6) The boys are only limited by their imaginations and because their imaginations are so expansive, there are no constraints on their play.

They create personalities from sticks.  They make friends of terns, loons, rabbits, and eaglets.  And they create magical kites from dragonflies and string. But even after the sun sets and the boys are asleep, their dragonfly kites take them on wondrous adventures.

From Dragonfly Kites by Tomson Highway, illus. by Julie Flett

The story of Dragonfly Kites is both uplifting and calming and beautifully captivated by Julie Flett’s illustrations.  The clean lines of her art may appear to be stark but they conjure the lavish environment of the lakes and north of Tomson Highway’s story so persuasively that any “more” would have been too much.

Like Caribou Song, Dragonfly Kites is presented in English and Cree and shares another aspect of traditional Cree ways, the summer in the north. While most young readers could not imagine a whole summer away from their technology, Joe and Cody demonstrate the richness of a life based in family, the natural world and imaginative play is more than enough to fill their days and their dreams.

Malaika's Costume

by Nadia L. Hohn

Illustrated by Irene Luxbacher

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-754-2

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2016

Bring in the sunshine of the islands and the colours of Carnival and Trinidad and Tobago with Malaika's Costume which launches tomorrow in Toronto.

Young Malaika is anticipating her first Carnival without her mother who has moved to Canada to make a better life for Malaika and Grandma.  She is hopeful that her mother will be sending money for a costume, as promised.  But a letter arrives that has Grandma pulling out a “tired costume. It smell funny and it dusty.  The costume squeeze my belly and some of the sequins fall off.  I feel hot and itchy.”  Distraught, Malaika runs through the familiar streets of her community until a kaiso song reminds her of her grandmother and that being poor does not mean being without dignity.

With donated scraps of fabric from Ms. Chin the tailor lady and Grandma’s help, an astounding peacock costume of red, blue, jade and purple, with gold and more is created, ultimately bringing the Carnival to her mother in Canada.

Nadia L. Hohn has given Malaika’s Costume a rhythm that evokes the busyness and warmth of a community that nurtures and supports.  Even the young girl’s initial disappointment is tempered with the affection of her Grandma and the realization that she has so many good things in her life.  And the text, rich with dialogue of patois, ensures that the atmosphere was created for the ear as well as the eye.  Irene Luxbacher, whose own Mr. Frank (Groundwood, 2014) introduced the illustrator’s collage artwork, complements that text with brilliant and bold art that bombards the senses.  The colours are lush, the textures surreal and the balance of characters and setting make Malaika’s Costume as much a place to visit as a story to be told.

From Malaika's Costume by Nadia L. Hohn, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

The Inn Between

by Marina Cohen

Roaring Brook Press

978-1-62672-202-6

208 pp.

Ages 8-12

For release March 2016

Don’t be deceived by the gold and green turquoise lightness of the cover of The Inn Between.  The story is nothing but dark and I believe that Marina Cohen has achieved her goal of a Stephen King novel for middle grade readers.

Eleven-year-old Quinn Martin is travelling by car with her best friend Kara Cawston and Kara’s family–parents and older brother Josh–to the family’s new home in Santa Monica.  The two girls had been inseparable in Denver and the linking of their two woven frienship bracelets, which seems to intrigue the non-Norm man running Norm’s Diner, shows how close the two really are.  After a weird bright light in the desert accosts the family car, they stop at the Inn Between, a gorgeous old-fashioned hotel straddling the border between California and Nevada, that promises “We’ve been expecting you.” (pg. 28)

As beautiful as the hotel is, the people within are very strange (and this is an operative word for everything at the Inn Between) and oddly overly hospitable.  There’s the desk clerk Persephone, the elevator operator Sharon (for the elevaor they are not allowed to use) and the valet-doorman, Aides.  And the guests are just as odd. From old Mr. Mirabelli who tells Quinn “They’re going to pull the plug” (pg. 34) to the little girl with the singed doll and Rico the guy who’d partied a little too hard and had come for a rest.  Most scary though is a tall, unshaven man in a black and yellow ball cap whom Quinn notices pursuing them.

After the first night, Kara’s parents are gone, apparently with the van that had to be towed for servicing, and the three kids spend the time swimming, enjoying the food and just hanging out.  But Quinn’s mind is perpetually troubled with memories of her little sister Emma and the guilt she harbours about her, and smells and sounds at the hotel continue to play on these memories.

When Josh goes awol too, Quinn and Kara go in search of Emma, convinced the crying Quinn hears is her young sister who had gone missing.  But what they find starts Quinn realizing who the guests at the Inn Between really are and why they must escape, without Kara’s parents and Josh.

The Inn Between is a mermerizing read of creepiness and suspense with a healthy dose of action and psychological tension.  Young readers who never get enough of spine-chilling drama (and it is very limited in youngCanLit) will be pleasantly disturbed by the eerie story, unnerving setting, and sinister atmosphere of The Inn Between.  Marina Cohen has done it.  She has written a spooky–but ghost-free–story about a place you wouldn’t want to visit and wrapped it in a cosy hotel robe of mystery and unsettling thoughts, without completely terrifying young readers, though there are some frightening scenes.  Best of all, Marina Cohen has something to say about friendship and grief and guilt but does so in a wonderfully unique and  horrific narrative.

Elliot

by Julie Pearson

Illustrated by Manon Gauthier

Translated by Erin Woods

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-85-9

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

For release March 2016

As soon as I read Elliot, I knew it was something very, very special.  And then I learned that Elliot was a translation (capably handled by Pajama Press' Managing Editor Erin Woods) of a 2014 French-language picture book from Les 400 coups that had already won Le Prix du livre jeunesse des Bibliothèques de Montréal for 2015.  Its subtlety and poignancy ensures its sure status as a winner in English as well!

Elliot is a young rabbit with lots of spirit.  But when he cries, or yells, or misbehaves, like all children are want to do at some point, his parents do not understand his needs.  They seek help as caring parents might and a social worker named Thomas comes and takes Elliot to live with another family “until his parents learned how to take better care of him.”

Everything is different with this new family but best of all they understand when Elliot is hungry, upset or needs attention.  And things are better when Elliot’s parents come to visit, so much so that eventually they are ready to take Elliot home again.  But, when things don’t change at home, Elliot is sent to another family.  Though he gets to visit with his parents, Elliot is told by Thomas that his “parents could never take care of him, because they did not know how.”

But Thomas helps find Elliot a “a forever, forever family”,  one that does more than just understand him, because they love him.

Elliot is a heartfelt story about finding one’s true family, the one that will love and care for you forever. It might be a foster family, it may be the family you’re born into, or it might be the one that ultimately adopts you, as Elliot is fortunate to find.  But Julie Pearson embues the story of Elliot with an underlying sadness, for Elliot who is being a child and for his parents who try to do the best they can for him but can't quite manage it.  And Manon Gauthier’s subtle collages of muted colours, save for Elliot’s red striped shirt, express that sadness and the grayness of tenuous family so movingly.  I defy anyone to read Elliot and not cry for the emotional hardships Elliot braves and cheer for the rosy blush of happiness (with a splash of red text) that comes when Elliot becomes part of a new family.

There are very few picture books that I want to clutch a little tighter and hold onto in my heart a little longer.  Elliot is one that has touched me so.

From Elliot (pg. 27) by Julie Pearson

Way Back Then

by Neil Christopher

Illustrated by Germaine Arnaktauyok

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-021-1

40 pp.

Ages 3-5

November 2015

Inhabit Media, an Inuit-owned publishing company that “aims to promote and preserve the stories, knowledge and spirit of northern Canada”, produces wonderful picture books many of which CanLit for LittleCanadians has had the pleasure of reviewing, including Games of Survival, Grandmother Ptarmigan, The Blind Boy and the Loon, The Legend of Lightning and Thunder, Lesson for the Wolf, Painted Skies, Sweetest Kulu, Kamik An Inuit Puppy Story, and Tuniit: Mysterious Folk of the Arctic.  Way Back Then continues that tradition by focusing on the Inuit oral tradition of a father, Kudlu, who begins to tell his sweet children, his “kuluit”, stories his grandparents told him about what things were like long ago.

There is the origin story of night and day, based on a fox who wanted darkness so that it could steal from others, and the one of how sea mammals arose from a woman tricked into marryng a bird spirit.  The myths about the origins of the caribou that fill the North and how the land populated itself with babies that were adoped by people of the North are also shared with Kudlu’s children.  And then there are the tales of magical igluit (pl. of iglu) that could travel through the air and of the nanurluk, the giant polar bear, which could be so large as to be mistaken for icebergs (see illustration below).

The stories, however, are short and not always complete, as Kudlu whispers to his sleeping children that “…when I was a child, I always fell asleep before my grandparents got to the end of each story, and I never heard the endings.” (pg. 33) Regardless, these stories are born of a time of magic and a place wholly arctic and lovingly illustrated by Inuit artist Germaine Arnaktauyok.  Germaine Arnaktauyok's illustrations, drawn meticulously with pen and coloured pencils, have a somewhat pointilistic flavour to them because of the visible dotting.  Yet, the artwork is easily identifiable (unlike much pointilism) and has an essence of ethereal realism to it, easily complementing the magic and natural world of Neil Christopher's stories and text.

Way Back Then may be short, incomplete myths told within the context of a bedtime story, but it is a larger-than-life (much like the lemming and giant polar bear within) story that celebrates oral storytelling, both in Inuktitut and English here, that will provide parents and educators with the seeds for expanding that storytelling practice to a new generation.

Girl on the Run

by B. R. Myers

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77108-352-2

332 pp.

Ages 12+

September 2015

I’m sorry I didn’t review this book sooner but I should have recalled how much I’d been impressed with B. R. Myers’ debut novel, Butterflies Don’t Lie (Nimbus, 2014).  But, here I am again, reviewing in winter a book that takes place during summer. Let’s look at it this way, though:  it’s that time of year when high school students are thinking about summer jobs and parents are anticipating signing up their children for summer camps.  So, it’s still all good: both Girl on the Run and reviewing Girl on the Run now.

Seventeen-year-old Jesse Collins used to be a runner and a very good one.  But that all changed four months ago when her father died suddenly.

I used to care about provincial records, and even the Olympics, but not anymore.  Those were things I no longer had, and no longer deserved.  I put my hand on my stomach, on the heaviness that was always there.  A reminder of what I’d done and what I’d lost. (pg. 49)

Now it’s all she can do to push forward through her days, convince her mother that she’s not depressed and give in to her BFF’s attempts to get her dating and meeting the right guy.  Jesse needs a fresh start and two months at Kamp Krystal Lake as a counsellor is what she plans to do.  What she doesn’t plan on is there being a mix-up with the camp thinking she was a male and entrusting her with Cabin 4A, a small makeshift cabin, and four twelve-year-old boys: the camp owner’s terror of a son, Spencer; twins Liam and Duff; and the kindest of all, Scotty.

While Jesse tries to make the best of things, which isn’t always easy, she does meet new people who don’t know about her past and she’s so good with that.  There’s Devin, another counsellor (or so she thinks) that is making the moves on her; Lewis, recent grad and part of the kitchen staff; Alicia, a friendly lifeguard; Lacey, the perfect counsellor to a cabin of pink cupettes, as Jesse calls them; and Kirk, the head counsellor who always seems to catch her at her worst but whose milk chocolate eyes consistently attract her notice.

But the pranks pulled by the boys, including a fake drowning that costs Jesse a special necklace from her parents, commemorating her first provincial running record, brings her to the attention of the camp director, Susan, who wonders, along with Kirk and Lacey, whether they should be looking for another counsellor for the boys.  And, though the camp is eager to have Jesse run for them in the annual lake triathlon against other camps, Jesse is adamant that she will not.

Still, guilt-ridden about her dad’s death, Jesse perseveres, through humiliation and misunderstandings and misplaced crushings and some kissing, to find that she has a lot more gumption than she first thought and is able to make Kamp Krystal Lake a positive experience for more than just herself.

B. R. Myers embeds a lot of constructive messages in this sweet volume of teen chicklit. Not only do readers get to share in a summer fling with Jesse and go through the full camp experience of  outdoor activities, dances, dining hall shenanigans and food, they will learn a lot about Jesse’s namesake, runner Jesse Owens, about working through guilt and grief, and about resiliency.  Lessons well learned and even enjoyed by Jesse herself, the Girl on the Run.