Finding Hope: Blog tour and online book launch

Written by Colleen Nelson

Dundurn Press

978-1-45973-245-2

224 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2016

I am so pleased to be part of Dundurn's blog tour for Colleen Nelson's newest young adult book, Finding Hope.  If you've followed CanLit for LittleCanadians, you'll know that I've previously reviewed her The Fall (Great Plains Teen Fiction, 2013) and 250 Hours (Coteau, 2015) and appreciated her compelling reads about tough issues like death, guilt, bullying and discrimination.  Finding Hope is no less than what I would expect from Colleen Nelson: a gripping novel about the tragedy of shame and the faith that somehow, some way things will right themselves.

Told in the alternating voices of fifteen-year-old Hope and her older brother Eric, Finding Hope examines the sibling relationship and the direction it takes when Eric becomes addicted to meth.  But the story is so much more than that because of a monumental concept called shame and all it entails for both young people.

The story starts in late August just as Hope learns she’ll be leaving their small town of Lumsville and heading to a private school named Ravenhurst School for Girls.  This is something her mother really wants for Hope; in fact, she wanted it for Eric too, pushing him to succeed in hockey, hopeful that it would be his ticket out of Lumsville.  He was good at hockey.  Very good.  So good that he became a “special” mentee for his coach, a relationship that leads to the shame that sets Eric on the meth-addled path to “make it all go away.” (pg. 10)

Shame isn’t a weight or something that gets worn.  It’s elastic, stretching and strangling anything in its reach. (pg. 222)

After Eric's progression through drugs leads him to stop going to school and start doing meth, his mom and step-dad, Hope’s father, kick him out of the house.  But that doesn’t stop Hope from leaving him money and food and whatever else he needs.  Sadly, because of his drug use and the paranoia and anxiety that results, their relationship becomes one of Hope enabling Eric: she feeling guilt for the life she has and he feeling that drugs is the only way to live with his secret shame of sexual abuse by his coach.

But after Eric breaks into a pharmacy, he’s on the run and heading to the same city where Hope is now going to school.  Both are now looking for the means to survive on their own in new environs where unexpected threats continue to arise and for which they are both unprepared.  For Eric, it’s finding the basics of life, like food and shelter, and feeding his addiction.  For Hope, it’s finding a friend, even a boyfriend, with whom she can be herself.  The saving grace for Eric is a discarded puppy he finds, whom he names Storm, and for Hope it’s her ability to put her feelings into poetry. Neither one really knows how to help themselves or each other but somehow that’s what they manage.

Finding Hope is a tragic story of looking for something better, and Colleen Nelson tells it with such beauty and poetry. For Eric and Hope, hope–the concept–is not wishful thinking.  It is an appropriate expectation that the world should right itself.

Broken,
My brother sits beside me
Twisted and used, both of us.
Tangled together
We will find a way
Jumping over
Remnants of our lives,
Making a new path
Together.
(pg. 219)

Online book launch

Tired of never being able to attend book launches?  

Then enjoy the online book launch for Finding Hope.

Visit Colleen Nelson's website at colleennelsonauthor.com to participate in the online book launch for Finding Hope.  If you purchase a copy of the book today from Amazon.ca, you can redeem bonus 'gifts' (all downloadable) including a $1 donation to Pink Shirt Day, an organization that raises funds to support anti-bullying initiatives and awareness.

Willow's Smile: Book launch (Burlington, ON)

Willow is back again!

The amazing girl of

Willow's Whispers

by Lana Button

Illustrated by Tania Howells 

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 3-7  

2010

and 

Willow Finds a Way

by Lana Button

Illustrated by Tania Howells 

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 3-7  

2013

is back in her newest

Willow's Smile

by Lana Button

Illustrated by Tania Howells 

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 3-7  

April 2016

Join

author

Lana Button

for the book launch 

of Willow's Smile

on Sunday, April 3, 2016

at

2:00-4:00 p.m.

at

A Different Drummer Books

513 Locust Street

Burlington, Ontario

Skunk on a String

by Thao Lam

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-131-2

40 pp.

Ages 4-7

March 2016

Wordless picture books have a nuance that takes them beyond texted children’s books.  It’s the distinction of stories told without the clues of text, stories told in whatever way the visual reader chooses to see the tale.  The possibilities are endless.  In this review, I will endeavour to share my own take on Skunk on a String.  It may not be what others see but it’s mine.

Amongst a colourful parade of costumed walkers clinging to massive balloons floats a skunk with a relatively plain red polka-dot balloon string wrapped around its back leg. How he got into this predicament is unknown.  What he sees and the reactions he generates are the basis for Thao Lam’s illustrations, both full page and panelled pages with multiple scenes.

From Skunk on a String by Thao Lam

From the city blocks of apartments with their multitude of residents–cooking, watching TV, doing laundry, reading–to the construction workers on top of unfinished buildings and the animals at the zoo, the skunk sees much, all the while trying to catch something to help bring him down.  Hope seems imminent with a foray on a garbage truck but our little guy is again set aloft and cruising over, and in, an ocean, a desert and finally an amusement park, where a ferris wheel gives him the opportunity to become unstrung.  But, with this new freedom, the little skunk gets a new perspective on his adventure and finds a way to get back the truly free experience of seeing the world.

Thao Lam uses collages of brightly coloured and textured papers to create the amazing worlds that our little skunk visits.  Both minimalist in some scenes (e.g., the zoo) and incredibly detailed in others (e.g., the apartment building), she fashions clever illustrations that depict a full range of landscapes, each with their own touches of life: fish, cacti, elephants, trees, plants, humans.  There’s both a depth and a lightness to her illustrations, not unlike the world that Skunk on a String gets to visit, ultimately cherishing the opportunity for adventure he’s been given.

Tokyo Digs a Garden

by Jon-Erik Lappano

Illustrated by Kellen Hatanaka

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-798-6

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2016

Imagine a small house that was once part of a countryside lush with forests and meadows and wildlife now dwarfed by skyscrapers and hidden among the overdeveloped city buildings and billboards.  This is the house of Tokyo and his parents and his grandfather, the original owner of the country home, and Kevin the cat.

When an elderly woman on a bicycle hands Tokyo three seeds, telling him “…they will grow into whatever you wish”, the boy removes a brick from their yard and plants them in the soil beneath. The next day, there are three small wildflowers. After breakfast, there is moss covering the bricks.  By dinner, there are trees and shrubs and more wildflowers. And by the next day, “the garden had grown up and over the buldings, across the streets, dwon the road, over the cars and into the expressway.” With time, the city is made over into a wild entity of rivers and forests and wildlife and the people adapt to these changes because “Gardens have to grow somewhere, after all.”

From Tokyo Digs a Garden
by Jon-Erik Lappano, illus. by Kellen Hatanaka

The message is clear.  Mother Nature will not be stopped and, no matter how much humans develop the land into unrecognizable entities, it will grow and become what it should.  Tokyo and his grandfather’s honest acceptance of this phenomenon is both educational and calming.  Jon-Erik Lappano gets the tone just right, never preachy, always intuitive, and even playful. (Kevin’s love of ice cream is quite clear.)  And Kellen Hatanaka, whose artwork first decorated Work: An Occupational ABC (Groundwood, 2014), dignifies that tone with his astute and beautiful illustrations.  Think of a Henri Rousseau jungle but with an art deco flair and you’ll get an idea of the lushness of Kellen Hatanaka’s garden in Tokyo Digs a Garden.  More brilliant in colour and stronger in line, the artwork carries the story from message to revelation.

Tokyo Digs a Garden plants the seeds for discussion of nature and land development and sows the dramatic beauty of transformation.

From Tokyo Digs a Garden by
Jon-Erik Lappano, illus. by Kellen Hatanaka

Going for a Sea Bath

by Andrée Poulin

Illustrated by Anne-Claire Delisle

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-92-7

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

March, 2016

What is it with so many kids and baths?  For Leanne, “It’s so boring! It’s annoying! It’s a pain!”  But her father has an idea (or more than several) how to make it more fun and it has him running back and forth to bring the sea in to her bathtub.

There’s one turtle, then two eels, three clown fish, and four seahorses.  At the four seahorses, Leanne is exclaiming, “Taking a bath is exciting! It’s the best!”  But her father, delighted in  making his daughter happy, continues to feed her requests for more or different with five shrimps, six hermit crabs, seven sea urchins, eight anemones, nine starfish and ten octopi.  Needless to say, that bathtub becomes a little crowded and they must find a solution to a new problem.

Taking a bath has never been so much fun!  The repartee between father and daughter is priceless. There is such warmth and affection that it’s easy to see why Leanne’s father would take such delight in his daughter’s joy.  He’s a little goofy, with his paunch, flat feet and receding hairline, but he’s all about being a good dad.  And little Leanne, with her head full of curls and splattering of freckles, is the quintessential inquisitive child with eyes and heart wide open.

Though Andrée Poulin’s text is based on counting, and would be a fun way for parents or teacher to help young children with numbers,  Going for a Sea Bath is so much more than that.  It’s a fun romp at bath time, with a tub full of different sea creatures, while looking at their behaviour and physical characteristics (though I didn’t know octopi knew how to use a toilet or that the hermit crab would enjoy playing with toilet paper!) Andrée Poulin, whose award-winning The Biggest Poutine in the World I recently reviewed here on CanLit for LittleCanadians, is staggerinly effective in her story-telling, whether for the very young or middle-grade.

From Going for a Sea Bath by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Anne-Claire Delisle

But the precious factor for Going for a Sea Bath goes beyond priceless because of Anne-Claire Delisle’s illustrations. The details in all the animals and in the scenes she composes of Leanne and her father amongst the backdrop of the bathroom are so full that I continue to look back on the book and find more and more features that delight.  From the shrimp draped in Leanne’s hair and the reclining turtle to the octopus squeezing shampoo from a bottle, Anne-Claire Delisle’s artwork is charming.

And, if there isn’t enough to love about this book, teachers will love talking synonyms with the adjectives, like magnificent, phenomenal and super-stupendous, that Leanne’s father uses to describe each new idea.  Going for a Sea Bath is  some kind of wonderful!

Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend: Book launch (Ottawa and Toronto)

Join 

award-winning author of

Tilt (Groundwood Books, 2011)
All Night (Grass Roots Press, 2013)
The Secret Life of Owen Skye (Groundwood, 2002)
After Sylvia (Groundwood, 2004)
Dear Sylvia (Groundwood, 2008)

Alan Cumyn

and

publisher

Simon & Schuster Canada

for the launch of his newest YA novel

Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend

by Alan Cumyn

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

978-1481439800

416 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2016

on

March 22, 2016

7 p.m.
Georgetown Sports Pub
1159 Bank St.
Ottawa

and

March 30, 2016

6 p.m.

Dora Keogh Irish Pub

141 Danforth Avenue

Toronto

The book is described on the Simon & Schuster website as follows :

Prepare to be blown away—or rather, carried away on huge muscular wings—by this blissfully outlandish, bracingly-smart, tour de force about a teen who has to come to terms with relinquishing control for the first time as she falls for the hot new…pterodactyl…at school. After all, everybody wants him! 

Shiels is very pleased with her perfectly controlled life (controlling others while she’s at it). She’s smart, powerful, the Student Body Chair, and she even has a loving boyfriend. What more could a girl ask for? 

But everything changes when the first-ever interspecies transfer student, a pterodactyl named Pyke, enrolls at her school. There’s something about him—something primal—that causes the students to lose control whenever he’s around. Even Shiels, the seemingly perfect self-confident girl that she is, can’t keep her mind off of him, despite her doting boyfriend and despite the fact that Pyke immediately starts dating Jocelyn, the school’s fastest runner who Shiels has always discounted as a nobody. 

Pyke, hugely popular in a school whose motto is to embrace differences, is asked to join a band, and when his band plays at the Autumn Whirl dance, his preternatural shrieking music sends everyone into a literal frenzy. No one can remember what happened the next day, but Shiels learns that she danced far too long with Pyke, her nose has turned purple, and she may have done something with her boyfriend that she shouldn’t have. Who’s in control now?

(Retrieved from http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Hot-Pterodactyl-Boyfriend/Alan-Cumyn/9781481439800 on March 9, 2016.) 

Tell me that doesn't sounding enticing.  I dare you.

Flashback

by Simon Rose
Tyche Books
978-1-928025-23-8
155 pp.
Ages 8-12
2015

Max seems like a typical fourteen-year-old boy: he hangs out with his friends; he has to endure parenting, or lack thereof, from his father; and he keeps secrets, especially the one that would make him look like he was going crazy.  You see, Max keeps seeing this boy, about his age, with a thick mop of black hair watching him and then disappearing.  And Max continues getting these bizarre images of being restrained on an operating table and a hypodermic needle and a girl with green hair.  It’s all very weird and frightening.

Since the images began at the cemetery when he’d stood beside the stones of Jonathan Dexter and his son David, Max does a little research.  He meets a man named John Carrington, a retired private investigator, who had been involved in a case twenty years earlier when the fourteen-year-old son, David, of politician Jonathan Dexter went missing.  With the tip from a psychic, the boy’s remains were found a few years later, just prior to Jonathan Dexter’s own death in a fire.  But just when Carrington found a connection to other missing persons’ cases, the whole investigation was shut down.

The next day, Max is shocked to learn that Carrington has been found dead in the park.  Slipping into the private investigator’s office while renovations are being done, Max uncovers documents and photos related to the Dexter case, including a connection to a researcher named Aleksander Kovac. Following the clues revealed within, Max makes the acquaintance of the psychic named Deanna Hastings and the teen bizarrely time slips into David’s life twenty years earlier.  And from there and then, Max tries to solve the mystery of David and Kovac and a weird headache-causing young man named Kane.

Flashback is an action-packed adventure perfect for middle grade readers.  Young readers will enjoy the plot-driven story rife with the supernatural, bad guys, evil experimentation, and time slip. While I found some of the plot progressions to be a little contrived, I think younger readers will appreciate the fast pace and suspenseful thrill of learning what really happened to David Dexter courtesy of a middle-grade sleuth.