A Little Taste of Poison

Written by R. J. Anderson

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

978-1-481437714

352 pp.

Ages 10+

September 2016

Move over Harry Potter (well, J. K. Rowling has sort of taken care of that now) because there's a new magic in town and Isaveth Breck, a Moshite girl from a commoner's family, is its champion.  If you've read Book 1 in this new middle-grade series by R. J. Anderson (and you should have!), A Pocket Full of Murder (Atheneum, 2015), you already know about this young girl whose father, a stonemason, was arrested for the murder by Common Magic, not by Sagery the magic of the nobles, of the head of Tarreton College, Governor Orien.  Only with the help of a street-boy named Quiz, who turns out to be the ruling Sagelord's youngest son, Esmond Lilord, and her own proficiency in Common Magic, does Isaveth discover the true culprits and gets her father freed.  Ah, it should be the end of the story, but it's only the beginning of a twisted conspiracy with Esmond's older brother, Eryx Lording, at its center.

Though her family continues to face the challenges of being practising Moshites, considered lawless and radical by much of society, and of Papa finding limited work and of the family struggling with finances, Isaveth has benefitted from her friendship with Esmond.  He introduced her to the charming president of Glow-Mor Light and Fire Company, J. J. Wregget, who purchased her magic-resistant paper and has offered her a scholarship to attend the excusive Tarreton College for nobility and the wealthy, which offers general and magical (i.e., Sagery) education.

It would appear that things are on the upswing for Isaveth and her family, but her attendance at Tarreton brings new incidents of discrimination and bullying against the thirteen-year-old girl.  Though Esmond, who is a year ahead of her, continues to communicate secretly with Isaveth in the hopes of a kiss (!) and of exposing the evil deeds of his cunning brother, the two try to keep their relationship a secret.  But Isaveth does make the acquaintance of the friendly and supportive, though still secretive, Eulalie Fairpont, daughter of the new Deputy Justice.

While Esmond searches for evidence of Eryx’s guilt, amidst party planning for his sister Civilla’s coming-of-age ball (depicted on the cover of A Little Taste of Poison), concern grows for the health of his bombastic father, Lord Arvis, the Sagelord.  But, the masked ball, to which Esmond arranges for Isaveth to attend, brings more mysterious circumstances, including a murder worthy of an Agatha Christie story.

A Little Taste of Poison, and its predecessor A Pocket Full of Murder, are no ordinary mysteries however.  R. J. Anderson creates a time and place of magic like no other.  The worlds in which these mysteries take place are complex and otherworldly, filled with spell-tablets and magic cookery, political and educational institutions ruled by sagelords, masters and mistresses, imperials for money, contraptions like crystal-sets, and a society of Arcans, Uniting folk and Moshites.   And all of it adds to the richness of the story, the characters and the messages against discrimination and greed and for equality, determination, and courage.  That’s an astounding accomplishment for a fantasy novel for middle-grade readers.  But, just as Dr. Seuss penned cheerful rhyming children’s books disguised as parables, R. J. Anderson writes extraordinary fantasies steeped in magic that have much to teach us about society.

“…just because you don’t have money doesn’t mean you’ve got no worth” (pg. 153)

By inviting us into Tarreton and environs, and a time of both a familiar past and unfamiliar age,  R. J. Anderson easily entertains, teaches and pleases the reader with her words and story.

Come and hear R. J. Anderson read, and perhaps get a book or two signed, at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival this September 18, 2016. Details here at CanLit for LittleCanadians.

Hat On, Hat Off: Book launch (Toronto)

Grab your hat 

and 

head on down to the book launch of

Hat On, Hat Off

by Theo Heras

Illustrated by Renné Benoit

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-34-7

24 pp.

Ages 1-3

September 2016

on

Sunday, September 18, 2016

4 - 6 p.m.

at

Another Story Bookshop

315 Roncesvalles Ave. (at Grenadier)

Toronto, ON

What a great chance to share 
this fun rhyming book 

with

author Theo Heras 

and

illustrator Renné Benoit

About the book:
It’s time for this little one to go out. But which hat will he choose? Red hat, blue hat, striped hat, penguin hat, teddy bear hat? Once that decision is made, that hat just doesn’t stay on, while shoes are tied and jacket is buttoned. One more visit to the potty. And once this child is in the stroller at last, will that hat be on his head?

Toddlers will delight in choosing their own hats after they see this charming story. A simple, rhythmic text that reflects the everyday challenge of getting a toddler ready to go out. 

(Retrieved from http://pajamapress.ca/book/hat_on_hat_off/ on September 4, 2016.)

Look for my review of this baby-toddler gem within the week here on CanLit for LittleCanadians!

Freedom's Just Another Word

by Caroline Stellings

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-011-7

232 pp.

Ages 12+

September 2016

From the title (taken from the song “Me and Bobby McGee”) to her unexpected stop in Saskatoon in 1970 and the journey Easy Merritt takes to meet up with her idol, Janis Joplin is the soundtrack for Caroline Stellings’ latest young adult novel, Freedom’s Just Another Word.  And what a soundtrack it is: earthy, guttural, soulful and rich with the blues.

But when she sang–oh, when she sang–that tempered-in-a-forge voice of hers was like a flame in this burned-out world.  You ’d have to be stone deaf or a cadaver not to be electrified by her; she could sound as smooth as the Southern Comfort that dribbled from the corners of her mouth, or as gritty as sandpaper.  And the way she clutched every stanza like it was her last made me shake with anticipation. (pg. 1)

Though her name might suggest otherwise, growing up half-black–the product of her black father’s affair with a white prostitute named Wendy Wood–in Saskatoon has not been comfortable for Easy (Louisiana) Merritt.   She may be good at car mechanics like her father but she wants to sing the blues, and the two venues in town, Saskatoon Blues and The Beehive are not willing to give her a chance.  So Easy saves her money from working at the garage and singing in front of the liquor store, playing her accordion and frottoir, for the chance to get out.  Her break comes after a fortuitous meeting with the great Janis Joplin when the Festival Express train stops for a booze run in Saskatoon and Easy helps the singer get a bottle of her much-loved Southern Comfort liqueur and earns an invitation to meet up with her in Austin, Texas the following week.  So, Easy begins her pilgrimage, accompanying two nuns, the upbeat Sister Beatrice and the sour postulant Marsha, whom she’d assisted in purchasing a used car, on their journey to a mission in Albuquerque from which Easy could head to Texas.

Like any road trip, Easy’s is a mixture of highs and lows, and more so in 1970 when the civil rights movement is struggling to get a foothold in both Canada and the US, and an eighteen-year-old girl of black and white parentage isn’t always tolerated, much less accepted.  And travelling the famous Route 66, a.k.a. The Mother Road, a road in the process of being retired for the faster, more direct I-40, foreshadows some mother issues with which Easy must grapple to understand herself and others better, if she is to make a success of herself.

Like her Geoffrey Bilson Award-nominated book The Manager (Cape Breton University Press, 2013), Freedom’s Just Another Word is a story based in the 1970s, a time often disregarded in much historical fiction.  But it’s an important time of change, with respect to civil rights and opportunities for women, and Caroline Stellings composes a story that is both embedded in the time yet universal in its themes of acceptance, tolerance, and family.  By taking Easy on a journey both spatially from Saskatoon to Albuquerque and Texas and back, and emotionally as she struggles with acknowledgement of her own family’s secrets and story, Caroline Stellings creates an alluring, cross-country excursion of the soul and heart which ends with finding enlightenment, sometimes closer to home than you might expect.

Gabby, Wonder Girl

Written by Joyce Grant

Illustrated by Jan Dolby

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-384-6

32 pp.

Ages 5-7

September 2016

Joyce Grant and Jan Dolby’s little Gabby, of earlier books Gabby (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013) and Gabby, Drama Queen (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013), is taking on the world again, this time to solve a mystery of a photograph through questioning.

When Gabby’s friend Roy becomes engulfed in a pile of question marks that he’s released from her magic book–the one that usually just releases a multitude of letters–the two characters become super sleuths, Wonder Girl and Super Roy, on the trail of the person in the black-and-white photograph Gabby discovers in her backyard.  Using letters from the book and the question marks, Gabby creates the wonder-ful “Who?” that helps them realize the girl in the photo is Mrs. Oldham, her neighbour.  But the two can’t find her and have to amalgamate a “w” (wafting in the wind), “h” (half-hidden in a hammock), “e” (in the electric car), “r” (resting on a race track), and another “e” (on Roy’s elbow) with one of the ubiquitous question marks to locate the older woman in the apple tree!  With some reorganization of letters and a slithery snake, the question of “how?” they can get her out of the tree and free her to make a proffered apple pie is solved!

From Gabby, Wonder Girl 

by Joyce Grant, illus. by Jan Dolby

Joyce Grant’s cutie pie shows off her inquisitiveness and invention with gusto and creativity.  Who knew learning to use questions could be so much fun?  With a simple story, Joyce Grant offers very young readers an introduction to letters of the alphabet while manipulating them into words that provide the basis for questions and simple words.  Those of us more proficient in reading know of the versatility of letters to create new words and worlds but, for the very young, Gabby, Wonder Girl will be a revelation in learning housed in an unassuming but entertaining format.  No need to learn about letters from a standard A-B-C book when you have Gabby.  And Jan Dolby makes sure that Gabby, Wonder Girl (as she did in the earlier Gabby books) is a fun read of bright colours and squiggly lines and quirky details like a garden gnome, hedgehogs, butterflies and yards of letters.  Gabby really is a red-haired wonder girl in both language and action, and Roy plays superbly as her masked sidekick.  

From Gabby, Wonder Girl 

by Joyce Grant, illus. by Jan Dolby

Chidlren will love Gabby Wonder Girl, as they have Gabby and Gabby, Drama Queen, but parents and teachers will enjoy helping them experience Gabby’s learning opportunities in the fun word activites and games as well as drawing lesson that Joyce Grant and Jan Dolby provide at the end of the book.  There’s even a Gabby teachers’ guide that can be accessed online at http://joycegrantauthor.com/free-teachers-guide-gabby.  Gabby, Wonder Girl is a big package of learning in a small but bright little marvel of a book.

Once, In a Town Called Moth: Book launch (Toronto)

Please join award-winning author of

Stones for my Father

(Tundra, 2011)

and

Medina Hill  

(Tundra, 2009)

Trilby Kent

in celebrating the launch of 

Once, in a Town Called Moth

by Trilby Kent

Tundra Books

978-1-10191-811-1

224 pp.

Ages 12+

September 2016 

on

Friday, September 16, 2016

7:00 pm

Type Books

883 Queen Street West, 

Toronto, ON

About the book:

Ana is not your typical teenager. She grew up in a tiny Mennonite colony in Bolivia, and her mother fled the colony when Ana was a young girl. Now Ana and her father have also fled, and Ana doesn't know why. She only knows that something was amiss in their tight-knit community. Arriving in Toronto, Ana has to fend for herself in this alien environment, completely isolated in a big city with no help and no idea where to even begin. But begin she does: she makes a friend, then two. She goes to school and tries to understand the myriad unspoken codes and rules. She is befriended by a teacher. She goes to the library, the mall, parties. And all the while, she searches for the mother who left so long ago, and tries to understand her father -- also a stranger in a strange land, with secrets of his own. 

This is a beautifully told story that will resonate with readers who have struggled with being new and unsure in a strange place, even if that place is in a classroom full of people they know. Ana's story is unique but universal; strange but familiar; extraordinary but ordinary: a fish out of water tale that speaks to us all.

(Retrieved from http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/532570/once-town-called-moth#9781101918111 on September 4, 2016.)

Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles

by Shari Green

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-007-9

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

September 2016

I’m trying to have faith
trying to believe everything
will be okay.
But what if things don’t work out?
What if Jasper leaves,
Daniel can’t breathe,
my parents aren’t in love?
What if my family falls apart,
and I have to choose a parent
and not
the other?
Then what good
 is faith? (pg. 145)

It must feel like the weight of the world is upon Bailey’s small eleven-year-old shoulders.  Being sent with her 8-year-old brother to stay with their hitherto-unknown grandmother, Nana Marie, at Felicity Bay on Arbutus Island on the west coast seems trepidatious enough but this strangeness is compounded by her concerns for her parents who are attending Marriage Repair camp.

My parents should be here.
We should be together
the four of us–
diamonds, clubs, spades, hearts,
Crazy Eights on a Sunday afternoon,
four quarters making a whole
like we always used to be
but might never be
again. (pg. 13)

Still Bailey has the joie de vivre to find adventures in everything from the pancakes in which she searches for the face of God–Aunt Debbie saw Tom Hanks’ face in her pancakes once– to a piece of driftwood that becomes a mermaid she christens “Our Lady of the Bay.”  And when the prophecy-delivering ice-cream man Jasper, a former preacher, foresees a stranger coming who will change everything, Bailey is hopeful that it’s Our Lady of the Bay who will bring about some good fortune.  With her parents’ marriage in need of repair, her friend and neighbour Daniel suffering with cystic fibrosis, a community divided and occasionally hostile, the compassionate Jasper being disgraced and driven out of town, and the church’s chalice missing, Bailey and Felicity Bay need a miracle or two.

But, even with these uncertainties and burdens, don’t ever think of Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles as anything but a story, told magnificently in verse form, of hope and courage and trust in the universe.  Good and bad may ebb and flow like the tides but that’s just the nature of  things.  In the end, it is what it is, and Bailey accepts it to be so.  Nonetheless it doesn’t stop her from making an all-out effort to help, whether it be her parents, Jasper, or a beached dolphin, and try to turn the tides of adversity.

Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles is Shari Green’s debut novel but it is an accomplished story in form and content worthy of a seasoned writer.  If you’ve enjoyed reviews on CanLit for LittleCanadians, you know that I am fond of novels in verse, but I fully comprehend the titanic challenge of writing one well.  Balancing structure with plot is complicated.  Yet Shari Green dives right in, creating characters and circumstances that effortlessly carry the reader from beginning to end on waves of sentiments, some fearful, most benevolent, all heartfelt.  Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles is in itself a miracle of a free verse of

“…moments
of significance,
ordinary things
that turned out to be
extraordinary.” (pg. 232)

Rhino Rumpus

Written by Victoria Allenby

Illustrated by Tara Anderson

Pajama Press

978-1-927-485-96-5

24 pp.

Ages 2-4

August 2016

Victoria Allenby and Tara Anderson, the author-illustrator duo who brought us Nat the Cat Can Sleep Like That (Pajama Press, 2013), have returned with another picture book for our littlest ones, this time focusing on the sibling antics of three rhinos as their mother attempts to bring them to some degree of harmony.

From Rhino Rumpus 

by Victoria Allenby, illus. by Tara Anderson

From page one, the three little rhinos are forever being unruly: rude, in a mood, tussling.  And Mama rhino has to interject and bring them in line.  Dinner time is not much different, and Mama sends them to get ready for bed.   Even bathtime (whose illustration is the “magic page” i.e., the cover art) involves a lot of pushing and boisterous escapades that Mama rhino rumbles to a stop with an emphatic “Quiet!”  Teeth brushing, a story and song, and a plea to “And when you wake, please get along!” signals the ultimate family hug and the blissful stillness that is sleep.

The text is perfect for toddlers who will delight in its simplicity and sounds, while those children who are just learning to read will be pleased to test themselves on the easy-to-read rhyming lines and repetition of numbers (e.g., One little rhino…, Two little rhinos…, Three little rhinos…).  I suspect that Victoria Allenby who dedicates the book to her nieces “who ALWAYS get along” has witnessed similar naughtiness but, by experiencing it with love and affection, she has given it a boisterous comic feel to it, something that will lighten the mood for any parent (or aunt!) who has to brave it and strive for calm.  Similarly, Tara Anderson, who dedicates the book to her own little one, animates the text with her coloured pencil illustrations that convey exuberance, joy, mischief and affection with each stroke.  Never is there anger or hostility between the siblings or directed at the little rhinos, and the message of patience in parenting is conveyed with fun and warmth and caring.

From Rhino Rumpus 

by Victoria Allenby, illus. by Tara Anderson

Rhino Rumpus will undoubtedly become the go-to book for families with young ones who get into squabbles, both for parents who need to recognize that children learn through play, even boisterous play, and for children who need to see that parental love is a gift that should not be overlooked, even if it does need a rest occasionally.

From Rhino Rumpus 

by Victoria Allenby, illus. by Tara Anderson