Small Displays of Chaos: Book launch (Saskatoon)

Join 

Coteau Books

and 

debut YA author

Breanna Fischer

for the launch of

Small Displays of Chaos

by Breanna Fischer

Coteau Books

9781550506617

112 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2016

on 

Monday, May 2, 2016

at

7 p.m.

at

McNally Robinson Booksellers

3130 8th St. E.

Saskatoon, SK

A riveting, haunting novel about one teenager’s journey toward self-love and strength.

17-year-old Rayanne Timko is only a few months into her senior year of high school, and her biggest concern should be deciding on a university and career path. But while her classmates are filled with anticipation, nothing in her life seems to going smoothly, and Rayanne finds herself struggling to overcome anorexia. She has a new friend: Ed - the seductive and demanding presence in her head who insists she be as skinny as possible. With Ed around, Rayanne is blind to nearly everyone else in her life. But what happens when Ray begins to suspect she may be losing more than weight? Will she be able to save her family - and herself - before it’s too late?

Filled with complex relationships and realistic young adult tribulations, Small Displays of Chaos follows Rayanne as she struggles with the astonishingly common yet stigmatized disorder of anorexia nervosa. Throughout her story she fights to discover who she is despite her illness, and learns that by loving herself, she is better able to love those around her.

Retrieved from Coteau Books website at http://coteaubooks.com/index.php?id=1046 

on March 28, 2016.

Convictions: Book launch (Regina)

Join 

Coteau Books

and 

author of

The Secret of Sentinel Rock (Coteau Books, 2003)

The Secret of the Stone House (Coteau Books, 2005)

The Secret of the Stone Circle (Coteau Books, 2010)

Ghosts of Government House (Your Nickel's Worth Publishing, 2011)

Honouring the Buffalo with Ray Lavallee and Mike Keepness 

(Your Nickel's Worth Publishing, 2015)

Judith Silverthorne

for the release of her newest 

young adult historical fiction novel

Convictions

by Judith Silverthorne

Coteau Books

9781550506525

232 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2016

on

Saturday, May 14, 2016

at

1 p.m.

at

Sunrise Branch Library

Regina Public Library

3130 Woodhams Drive

Regina, SK

A gripping historical novel about believing in oneself and standing true to one’s convictions.

It’s 1842. 14-year-old Jennie Lawrence has been found guilty of stealing, and finds herself aboard one of the few women-only convict ships destined for Australia.

Jennie had been desperate – and, as she gets to know the other women on the convict ship – she realizes she’s not the only one. Many of the women she gets to know were trying to survive, and feed themselves and their families, before they were caught and sentenced to Australia.

It’s clear from the moment the ship sets sail that the conditions aboard are abhorrent – women are sea sick and ill from the lack of good food and water, they are beaten if they disobey orders, and sleep brings no reprieve – as bed bugs, rats, and other parasites attack them in the night.

The only way for the women to survive the boat ride is if they band together. And so, with the help of her new “family” - Sarah, Bridget, and Alice - and other convicts, Jennie battles the jailers, the ship, and the sea. But will it be enough to set them free?

Retrieved from Coteau Books website at http://coteaubooks.com/index.php?id=1047 

on March 28, 2016.

Everyday Hero

Written by Kathleen Cherry

Orca Book Publishers

9781459809826

168 pp.

Ages 8-11

March 15, 2016

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Everyday Hero is the story of thirteen-year-old narrator Alice who moves to Kitimat with Dad while Mom stays in Vancouver temporarily to assist her elderly parents.  Alice is very clear in her own mind about who she is, what she likes and dislikes, and what she can do and can’t and doesn’t want to do. But Dad refuses to tell the middle school of Alice’s Asperger’s, convinced she’ll have a chance to be a normal kid without the label.

This omission results in a series of detentions where Alice meets Megan, a goth-inspired teen who seems to attract negative attention but is also the only one who recognizes and helps Alice with her vulnerabilities in social situations, with distractions from routine, and with confusing verbal expressions.  While Alice is wondering whether she can be normal, “average in type, appearance, achievement, function and development” (pg. 54), Megan gives her opportunities to be so. But when Megan decides to get away from her mom’s abusive boyfriend and meet up with an online friend in Vancouver, Alice does what any normal friend would do: she tries to keep her friend safe.

Kathleen Cherry balances Alice’s story on our vague but overwhelmingly-supported ideas of normalcy by demonstrating that anyone can be normal, just as anyone can be a hero, in the right circumstances.  Don’t assume Alice’s thoughts, powerfully reflected in the seemingly erratic and tangential text, are evidence of anything but something normal, though they are manifestations of the syndrome with which she  is labelled. Kathleen Cherry, as a school counselor, get Alice’s voice just right.

Everyday Hero is heavily character-driven though it focuses on the issues of trust and responsibility.  But the message about the perils of labelling and trying to make everyone fit into one definition of normal is clear, and Everyday Hero helps the reader see into a very different but just as real one.



(A version of this review, in conjunction with one about Don't Tell, Don't Tell, Don't Tell by Liane Shaw, was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)



Kubiw, H. (2016, May). [Review of the book Everyday Hero by Kathleen Cherry]. Quill & Quire, 82 (4): 37.

Don't Tell, Don't Tell, Don't Tell

by Liane Shaw

Second Story Press

978-1-927583-95-1

272 pp.

Ages 12-16

April 2016

Frederick, 16, in Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, would loathe to be lumped into a group of individuals with Asperger’s syndrome or labelled with his “disorder”.

Giving me a label groups me together with many others who share a cerain number of common characteristics that would then define me as a syndrome or a disorder rather than a person with a mind of my own.  I don’t want to be a syndrome, and I am far too orderly to be a disorder.
     I just want to be me. (pg. 50)

Though Frederick is different from many of his peers in his love of numbers and math, of routines, and of the dictionary and in the difficulties he has interpreting idioms and slang with which he is unfamilia, he is relatively comfortable in his own skin, having developed some stellar coping strategies for dealing with verbal abuse,  and ensuring that he is able to meet his needs for quiet and routines.  But, when he is befriended by another awkward teen, his routine becomes far more  tenuous and Frederick is taken outside his comfort zone.

Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell begins with Frederick being questioned by the police about the disappearance of the teen who’d befriended him, Angel Martinez.  Though their friendship had been discreet and primarily involved Angel using Frederick as a sounding board, Frederick gets lassoed into keeping a secret for her.  Questioning by the police, however, has Frederick carefully choosing his words, always reminding himself “Don’t tell, don’t tell, don’t tell.” When it seems that Angel’s secret plan isn’t as perfect as anticipated, Frederick begins to rethink that promise and find a way to stay true to himself and bring order to a very disordered situation.

The mature situations that have Angel scrambling for a way out makes Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell more appropriate for a young adult audience but the issue of labelling and keeping secrets are far more universal.  Liane Shaw, whose previous books Fostergirls (Second Story Press, 2011) and The Color of Silence (Second Story Press, 2013) capably dealt with difficult issues of foster care and guilt, continues to demonstrate the empathy needed to understand and help teens with the emotional, behavioural and physical problems.  Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell, Don’t Tell takes us into the world of a boy with Asperger’s and a girl whose efforts to make friends take a bad turn and demonstrates that we all are looking to find a way to fit into the world, whether it’s a world we make for ourselves or one into which we try to insinuate ourselves.


(A version of this review, in conjunction with one about Everyday Hero by Kathleen Cherry, was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)



Kubiw, H. (2016, May). [Review of the book Don't Tell, Don't Tell, Don't Tell by Liane Shaw]. Quill & Quire, 82 (4): 37.

#CanLitChoices: Alternatives for Hatchet

Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
Bradbury Press
195 pp.
Ages 11+
RL 6.3
1987

Hatchet, recipient of the 1988 Newbery Honor Book and winner of the William Allen White Children's Book Award for 1990, as well as the basis for A Cry in the Wild film, is a favourite novel read by young people across Canada and the U.S. It is the story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson who must learn to survive in the northern Alberta wilderness after the pilot of his small plane has a heart attack and dies, crashing the plane.

Themes upon which teachers focus lessons include the following:
• survival (man vs. nature)
• perseverance
• attitude
• fear

But we have a plethora of youngCanLit that can fill the same novel study bill and, of course, I would like to promote them here.  Each one of these deals with the same themes but in different ways and are all the better for the variety of storylines covered.  This listing includes classics and hi-lo reads, as well as middle-grade and YA titles.  There’s something for every reader who wants an adventure story set in the wilderness, many in the wilds of Canada.

Camp Wild
by Pam Withers
Orca Book Publishers
104 pp.
Ages 10-14
RL 3.8
2005
Fourteen-year-old Wilf runs away from summer camp to stay alone in the woods but ends up with a couple of unwanted followers and a fight for survival.
Teachers guide available at http://digital.orcabook.com/teachersguides-campwild-teaching-strategies/

Chocolate River Rescue
by Jennifer Kent McGrath
Nimbus
122 pp.
Ages 8-12
RL 3.9
2007
Three boys rough housing on the ice of the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick face danger when the ice breaks away, sending them out towards the Atlantic.

Cut Off
by Jamie Bastedo
Red Deer Press
340 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 4.0
2015
Teen Indio McCracken is sent to a wilderness-based rehab camp, which includes a 50-day canoe trip, to help him with his tech addiction.



The Darwin Expedition
by Diane Tullson
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 2.5
2007
After going off run when snowboarding, two boys must deal with an accident, a bear tracking them, impending weather dangers and hunger to survive.

Frozen Fire: A tale of courage
by James Houston
Aladdin
139 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 5.9
1977/1992
Determined to find his father who has been lost in a storm, Mathew and his Inuit friend Kayak brave wind storms, starvation, wild animals, and wild men during their search in the Canadian Arctic.

The Hill
by Karen Bass
Pajama Press
256 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 4.1
March 2016
After a plane crash, a privileged teen is helped by a Cree young man when his decisions have the two pursued by Wîhtiko, the legendary Cree monster.

Island: Shipwreck, Survival, Escape
by Gordon Korman
Scholastic Canada
144 pp., 144 pp., 160 pp.
Ages 8-13
RL 4.6, 4.9, 4.8
2001
Six kids must survive after they are shipwrecked on a deserted island with no food and very few supplies.

Lost in the Barrens
by Farley Mowat
McLelland & Stewart
244 pp.
Ages 12-16
RL 7.1
1956
Jamie MacNair and his Cree friend Awasin are separated from others during a canoe trip to the remote barrens and must find the means to survive the winter in the harsh environment.

Timberwolf
by Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
206 pp.
Ages 11-14
RL 4.5
2011

In this historical fiction, a young man awakens in the snow, knowing neither his name nor his story but find his way back to himself and survive, with the help of a young Anishnaabeg man.

Being Me (A Rosie the Red Book)

by Rosemary McCarney

Illustrated by Yvonne Cathcart

Second Story Press

978-1-927583-93-7

24 pp.

Ages 4-8

April 2016

Still sporting the red cape from Tilt Your Head, Rosie the Red that helps empower and define her, Rosie the Red returns in her second story. This time she is thinking about what she should be when she grows up when she is realizes that that way of thinking negates any contribution she can make as a kid.  “That made Rosie feel unimportant…not very useful…a little smaller…as if she would only matter when she got big.”

A walk with her dad introduces Rosie to the local food bank where the manager, Mr. Santino, shows them around the busy warehouse and allows them to help pack cartons. While there, Rosie spots her friend Sam and his mother getting a box of food. Because he’s obviously embarrassed, Rosie spends the rest of the day thinking about how she could make him feel better.  With a tilt of her head–her standard thinking mode–Rosie comes up with a plan to help the food bank and Sam both.

Rosemary McCarney’s picture books consistently impart positive messages and, in Being Me, Rosie the Red is a great vehicle for teaching kids about food banks and that those who avail themselves of its offerings are no less than those who have enough food to eat without help.  By having Rosie acknowledging Sam’s artistic ability, she’s saying that everyone has strengths and everyone needs help with something, whether it is drawing a poster or getting enough food to eat.  That constructive and optimistic attitude is represented in Yvonne Cathcart’s cherry illustrations with their upbeat reds, greens, turquoise and golds.  The art is as sunny as Rosie’s approach to making life worthwhile and fair for all which is an important lesson to foster citizenship and community.

From Being Me
by Rosemary McCarney, illus. by Yvonne Cathcart

Kabungo

by Rolli

Illustrated by Milan Pavlović

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-804-4

173 pp.

Ages 7-10

April 2016

It’s a different world when your best friend is a cavegirl but Beverly is the very best of friends to Kabungo who lives in a cave on Main Street in Star City.  Beverly has learned much of Kabungo’s vocabulary–sungo for night, sunup for day, sniff for follow and Belly for Beverly–but she still wants to teach Kabungo about living in the “civilized” world. Whether it’s teaching Kabungo the alphabet, or that it’s wrong to steal, Beverly does her best, often with a grain of salt and a whole lot of sugary fun.

I would have told her that flea powder wasn’t for eating, but I never tell anyone anything more than a hundred times.  It’s my personal rule. (pg. 13)

Kabungo, the book, is divided into eight chapters with an odd assortment of titles–Shark Toofs, Targur, Vibbles, Fundersticks, Himplepotamus, Flimsy Tree, Hopping Bird Day and Trigger Cheats!–that play on Kabungo’s ability to anunciate English words because of a scarcity of teeth.  (For a bit of fun, say the chapter titles aloud and see if you can discern what Kabungo is really trying to say.) Each chapter is an anecdote in the story of Kabungo and Beverly’s friendship.  From Kabungo’s desire to make jewelry with teeth scavenged at a retirement home, to her struggling with certain letters of the alphabet Beverly is teaching her, her affection for her new kitten Bun, a visit to Miss VeDore’s mansion and pumpkin field, or Kabungo’s knack for creating a family from an odd assortment of people and branches she comes upon, it's all in day's friendship for these two.

Regardless of how much she seems to understand, Kabungo is an astute and absorbing young girl of ten, and a delight to meet in Rolli’s Kabungo (okay, maybe not in person, as she does have fleas and isn’t into personal hygiene or etiquette).  Same goes for Beverly whose perceptive observations, some via her Aunt Ev and Uncle George, will serve her well in life and her friendship with Kabungo, as well as others who heed her wisdom.

Apologies are heavy.  They’re boulders. It’s hard work pushing a boulder, even if it’s just across the room. A lot of people give up halfway and lose a friend forever. (pg. 85)

As my Uncle George always says, sooner or later, even impossible takes a nap. (pg. 27-8)

Very wise for a ten-year-old.

Rolli has written a witty story for the pre-middle grade reader for whom the early reader may be too easy and MG books too mature.  It’s comical in its word play, likeable in its characters–Kabungo, Beverly, Mr. and Mrs. Gobshaw, Miss VeDore, and more–and entertaining in its short stories. Having a best friend who’s a cavegirl makes for a world that is hardly boring. And, contrary to her teacher who thinks Beverly’s definition of boredom– “when everything turns out like you expected” (pg. 56)– to be incorrect, I think Beverly knows exactly what boring is and accurately recognizes that her friendship with Kabungo is anything but predictable.