A Little Taste of...new youngCanLit: Multi-author book launch (Waterloo, ON)

Partake in a little taste of youngCanLit,

middle grade and young adult, 

at this multi-author book launch

for

A Little Taste of Poison

by R. J. Anderson

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

978-1-481437714

352 pp.

Ages 10+

September 2016

Reviewed here

The Swan Riders 

by Erin Bow

Margaret K. McElderry Books

978-1481442749

384 pp.

Ages 14+

September 2016

Icarus Down

by James Bow

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-3913-7

374 pp.

Ages 12+

August 2016

Howard Wallace, P.I.

by Casey Lyall

Sterling Children's Books

978-1454919490

272 pp.

Ages 8-12

September 2016

on

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

 at 7 p.m.

Words Worth Books

96 King St. S.

Waterloo ON

(519) 884-2665

Weerdest Day Ever!: Interview with author Richard Scrimger

Today I'm please to present, 

as part of Orca Book Publishers' blog tour for

  the Seven Prequels, 

my interview with 

the author of 

Weerdest Day Ever!

by Richard Scrimger

Orca Book Publishers

9781459811553

216 pp.

Ages 9-12

September 2016

Reviewed yesterday

Richard Scrimger

(looking very dapper in a hat)

Many thanks to Orca Book Publishers' publicist Melissa Shirley for arranging this blog tour and to author Richard Scrimger for answering my questions about Weerdest Day Ever!, Bunny and the writing process.

^^^

HK: Of the seven grandsons in the Seven series, Seven Sequels and now Seven Prequels, Bunny is my favourite (please don’t tell the others).  I don’t know if it’s his humility or his special learning needs–perhaps as a teacher I really want to “help” him–but I am consistently drawn to him and his stories and am never disappointed.  How did you ever find Bunny’s voice?

RS: Bunny’s is one of my favorite of my voices.  For all the things he doesn’t know, he knows himself.  And that’s the coolest knowledge of all.  Bunny goes his own way.  He doesn’t ‘fit in’ well – and he is totally ok with that.  Kind of like me.

^^^

HK: As Bunny will attest, his spelling is not always the best.  As an author whose vocation it is to write well, how difficult was it to write as Bunny, spelling and grammatical mistakes and all?

RS: Writing and spelling are different things. I care about writing well.  That is my vocation. I really don’t care about spelling.  My mom would tie herself into knots about the subjunctive mood or the misuse of an apostrophe, but I don’t give a donut. Because I can spell, it’s a bit tricky to write like Bunny.  I have to put myself into his mindset.  Once there, I rite like him.  As you see. Problem is I hav trouble turning him off.  So a letter to a friend mite sound like Bunny and shed rite back: Are you feeling OK?  What’s wrong?

^^^

HK: Readers learn so much from the way characters see and interpret and react but perspective is key.  However, Bunny is very much prone to misinterpret circumstances. Right from the onset of Weerdest Day Ever! Bunny witnesses a re-enactment and believes he’s in the middle of a war.  To what do you attribute his frequent misinterpretation: his naiveté, his inexperience, his gullibility, his benevolence, or something else entirely?

RS: On a human level, Bunny believes what people say. Whether that’s naivete or great wisdom is up to you.  In fact, nothing gives you away so clearly as the lie you tell.   Why are all my stories about people who don’t fit in? Why are they all funny? Why do they all have sadness or loss underneath the humour?  I am telling the truth while I am lying.  This is who I am.  In the same way, re-enactors are not really fighting, but the truth is that they are war-obsessed attention seekers playing dress up.  There is truth there.  And Bunny sees this truth – or some of it.

^^^

HK: Bunny may be a character in a book but, as I’ve read his stories, I’ve come to care what happens to him.  So, please tell me, what kind of a future do you foresee for him (and I’m not talking books here)?

RS: Bunny knows himself, and likes himself well enough. He gets along with his brother, makes new friends, and doesn’t mind risking his heart even though things don’t always work out.   In the long run, Bunny’s going to be fine. (Now if I could just believe that about myself!)

^^^

HK:  I’ve heard you and your collaborative team of Seven series authors discuss the writing process and how the series began.  It sounds very collegial.  Collaboration between two individuals can be tricky, balancing writing styles, egos and intent.  How do you manage it with a group of seven extraordinary writers, each with their own style and vision and probably egos as well?

RS: In fact all of us like each other and play off each other, and tours are a whole lot of fun.  This is good question to ask me specifically, because my and Ted Staunton’s books are probably the closest linked of any in the series.  The problem is to develop story lines that work together.  We want plots that dovetail but don’t give away each other’s endings. For the sequels, I wanted Bunny to be kidnapped. As soon as I said that Ted snapped his fingers and said, “And I know who kidnapped him!” The prequels are extra tightly linked since the brothers share a campsite for a couple days and keep just missing each other.  Ted’s and my plot conversations usually involve a bottle of something.  This conversation went from history to re-enactors to the War of 1812.  Then Ted smiled.  “I just saw Spencer in Laura Secord’s costume,” he said.  “Isn’t that funny,” I replied.  “Because I just saw Bunny as … “

^^^

HK:  Are the Seven Prequels the last of the Seven-based series or is there another in the plans?  Or do you anticipate any other multiple-author collaborations, similar to the Seven series books, with these same writers or others?

RS: As of now, there are no more ‘7’ plans. We’ll wait and see how this one does.  BUT it’s funny you should ask about other co-productions.  Ted and I were talking about how humour writing never gets a fair shake.  So we made some phone calls.  Scholastic jumped at our idea, and (drum roll!!) in two years Kevin Sylvester, Lesley Livingstone, Ted and I will put out 4 linked books starring teens with goofy superpowers.

^^^

Be sure to check out all the blog stops on the Seven Prequels tour, each highlighting one author:

• Norah McClintock at Lost in a Great Book

• Richard Scrimger here at CanLit for LittleCanadians

• Eric Walters at Literary Treats

• John Wilson at teenreads

• Ted Staunton at Young Adult Books Central

• Shane Peacock at MrsReadsBooks

• Sigmund Brouwer at Lost in a Great Book

^^^

Read the Seven Prequels in any order you want. 

But you'll want to read them all!

Weerdest Day Ever!

First there was the Seven Series.

Then came the Seven Sequels.

Today the long-awaited Seven Prequels launches! 

Get a taste for the Seven Prequels with my review of  

Richard Scrimger's contribution to the series here.

Written by Richard Scrimger

Orca Book Publishers

9781459811553

216 pp.

Ages 9-12

September 2016

Reviewed from advance reading copy

Weerdest Day Ever! is a story that Bunny (Bernard) is writing for his Grade 10 English class about a camping trip with his Grampa and brother Spencer.  It begins with an “Oops. Sorry.” that is pure Bunny.   But as weird as his tale might be, he makes a point of clarifying that it is essentially true, though knowing Bunny, he does tend to misinterpret much since he often takes things literally and at face value.

This story is true–mostly its true.  You wont think so but it is.  Like the war. Yah there reely was a war. Or the cow.  Or the hollow tree. Or what happened to the 1 arm man. (pg. 3)

Since I know he’s got you hooked with that beginning, his story is off to a great start.  And, if I were his teacher, I could easily disregard his spelling mistakes because the content of his story is so engaging.

Grampa doesn’t tell them much about the trip except that there will be surprises at the park that weekend.  His only rule is that, if they go out on their own, that they must stay close and check in.  When Spencer loses his new and distinctly yellow-cased smart phone, Bunny goes exploring by himself and discovers some guys in blue jackets and white pants and tall hats armed with guns that looked longer and fancier than rifles he knew.  He meets two kids, Beth and her quiet brother Tyler, both dressed in fringed leather clothing and with makeup, sneaking through the woods.  Beth tells them they are with the British and those men in blue are the Americans and there would be in battle tomorrow.  Beth then introduces Bunny to their father, Tecumseh, a general with an impressive sword, at a community of tents, wagons, horses and a log house in a large open area.

Most readers would get that what Bunny is witnessing is a re-enactment from the War of 1812 but Bunny truly believes a war is about take place and feels he must warn his Grampa.  But, Bunny knows how to recognize a bully and, when a blue-coated, one-armed man comes by and taunts Beth’s father and uses discriminatory and rude words like "savages" and "red skins", Bunny calls him out on it, making an enemy of the “reactor” (i.e., re-enactor) whom they learn is an American called Brasher.  Later when Bunny and the silent tracker Tyler go snooping and Bunny sees Brasher with Spencer’s distinctive cell phone, Bunny’s mission becomes two-fold: warn Grampa about the war, and get Spencer’s phone back.  Along the way, though, Bunny and his new friends have another mystery to solve, that of the theft of Tecumseh's sword, solved all the more easily because of Bunny's astute observations.

I can’t possible go into all the layers of Richard Scrimger’s plot but it does encompass a war, a one-armed man, a cow, as Bunny mentions at the onset, but also Laura Secord, a sword, a phone, horseback riding, a re-enactment, budding romances for all three campers, an elderly woman with hearing issues, antagonism with Americans, meaningful ice-cream, a hollow tree, a bully, and a familial rivalry.  It must have seemed like the “weerdest day ever!” for sweet and trusting Bunny who spends most of the weekend worried.  He’s worried about Spencer and his lost phone; about a war they may lose and who might get killed; about Beth and a horse-handler named Clod; about the mean bully named Brasher; and more. But even with all these worries, Bunny’s perspective allows him to see circumstances with wisdom and the humour with which Richard Scrimger’s writing is always imbued.

     “What if we lose?” I said. “What then?”
     Wuld we become American? And what would that mean–being American?
     If I was American Id have a different anthem. O say can you see.  I didnt know it all but I knew that part.  No more standing on gard.  If I was American Id have a president.  My capital city wuld be Washington.  Id have green money. (pg. 104)

How can you not love Bunny?  He may have spelling challenges and trust others too quickly, but he is wise beyond his years (he’s in Grade 6 when the camping trip takes place), recognizing that the only rule he needs to live by is you should do what you want unless it hurts somebody.  

It’s very satisfying to learn a bit about Bunny’s earlier story, as well as get hints of his grandfather David McLean’s covert and romantic entanglements, in this book of the Seven Prequels.  I suspect readers of the remaining Seven Prequels will feel the same after learning a bit more about Spencer, DJ, Webb, Adam, Rennie and Steve.  I can only reiterate what we have said all along about the Seven series, the Seven Sequels and now the Seven Prequels:  read them in any order, just read them.

Be sure to check out all the blog stops on the Seven Prequels tour to launch the series, starting today:

• Norah McClintock at Lost in a Great Book

• Richard Scrimger here at CanLit for LittleCanadians

• Eric Walters at Literary Treats

• John Wilson at teenreads

• Ted Staunton at Young Adult Books Central

• Shane Peacock at MrsReadsBooks

• Sigmund Brouwer at Lost in a Great Book

AND

Check back tomorrow for my own blog tour stop for the Seven Prequels, my interview with author Richard Scrimger.

As a Boy

by Plan International

Second Story Press

98-1-77260-016-2

24 pp.

Ages 5-9

September 2016

I don’t know why we always seem to set up competitions between boys and girls, or separate them into teams that are boys versus girls.  There may be pockets (sometimes very large ones) around the world that feel the need to treat boys and girls differently and separately, justifying that attitude with archaic ideas from religion or culture.  But As a Boy, which launches today, demonstrates that boys can be just as supportive of girls’ rights as girls have needed to be and the book does so in a superbly photographed fashion with simple but prophetic statements of encouragement and defense.

Beginning with a cheerful spread of a dozen photos of babies whose gender is impossible to discern, As a Boy recognizes that being a boy or a girl is simply a matter of chance.  For the boys, choices will be both presumed and provided as opportunities.  While there are opportunities that boys are very fortunate to have, like education, it’s not all glory as there are expectations to being a man.  However, the boys in these photographs from across the globe, photos of boys with other boys, with girls, as fathers, as brothers and sons, recognize that all children need “to be free to choose what they want to be” (pg. 17) and that “As boys, we can stand up for everyone” (pg. 23). What a powerful message of advocacy for the rights of all to choose.

Perhaps a companion book to Plan International’s earlier Because I am a Girl: I Can Change the World (Second Story Press, 2014) or Every Day is Malala Day (Second Story Press, 2014), As a Boy has its own lesson of advocacy to share.  The message is dominant but it wouldn’t have the impact it does if not for the diversity of photographs taken of babies, boys, girls, and families from around the world.  Every child is here, as they should be, given the opportunity to shine with life and chances and choices.  As a Boy lets the world know that this is the way it should be.

Lightning Lou: Book launch (Point-Claire, QB)

Just in time for hockey season!

Join author 

Lori Weber

for the launching 

of her newest 

middle grade historical fiction

Lightning Lou

by Lori Weber

Dancing Cat Books

9781770864627

206 pp.

Ages 9-12

May 2016

on

Sunday, October 2, 2016

2-4 p.m.

at

Livres Babar Books

46 Ave Sainte-Anne # 2

Pointe-Claire, Quebec 

Publisher Dancing Cat Books provides this blurb about the book:

When a team in an all-girls’ hockey league comes to recruit players, twelve-year-old Lou’s dreams seem to be coming true. But the dreams hinge on one thing: never letting on that Lou is a boy. But the road to stardom is not easy, as Lou discovers that the competition is fierce, and that he’s got a lot of work to do to match the skills of the league’s star player and his chief rival, Albertine Lepensée. All the while, he has to keep his secret, and wrestle with the moral dilemma of taking a place on the team away from a deserving girl. 

Loosely based on a true story, Lightning Lou is a riveting and thought-provoking story for middle-grade readers.

Retrieved from http://www.dancingcatbooks.com/9781770864627/ onSeptember 13, 2016.

Watching Traffic

by Jane Ozkowski

Groundwood Books

978-1-55409-843-3

186 pp.

Ages 14-18

August 2016

Reviewed from ebook

“There are so many directions you can go, and no matter what you choose it’s going to have an effect on everything else.” (pg. 151)

It’s the end of summer after finishing high school and eighteen-year-old Emily Robinson is anticipating the departure of best friends, Lincoln and Melissa, for new adventures and locales, Australia for travel and Halifax for school, respectively.  And what of Emily, the girl whom everyone, and I mean everyone, in their small town of Cavanaugh only thinks of as the three-year-old girl whose mother committed suicide in her presence and has had to overcome so much?

Though they’ve been friends since Grade 7 when they both were attending weekly counselling sessions, one to deal with her mother’s suicide and the other with anger issues, Melissa and Emily seem to be at odds this summer.  Emily thinks it’s because of Melissa’s relationship with boyfriend Dan but Emily, burdened by her lack of direction, just doesn’t have the time or make the effort to deal with her messed-up friend, though she’s encouraged by Lincoln and Melissa’s older brother Robert to make an effort.

But meeting Tyler, a new guy whom she meets at the pawn shop where she goes to sell the gold teeth her grandmother has gifted her–Grandma is a wonderful story in herself!–gives Emily the chance to take her life in a different direction, one where she has divorced parents and is someone she wants to be seen as.

Watching traffic from the three overpasses that cross the highway that divides Cavanaugh in two parts is a common past-time for Emily and her friends, but it’s a metaphor for divisions and acceptance, and the movement of people into, through and out of our lives.  Emily’s life may seem tenous to her, not knowing where she’s going, but it’s not unlike her friends who, though they have direction, are apprehensive about moving on, and Jane Ozkowski gets the tone right for these young people who want to move on but only know that from which they come.  Their words of wisdom are both an anathema and a propellant.

"There’s a highway cutting through the whole town, and they think if they follow it they’ll find somewhere better.  Nothing’s better, though.  You can be unhappy here or you can be unhappy somewhere else.  Being happy is more about how you see things.” (pg. 50)

Watching Traffic is Jane Ozkowski’s debut novel but her skill in giving voice to Emily, Melissa, Lincoln, Tyler and others in their perplexity and discomfiture about going forward in life demonstrates a raw understanding and proficiency at telling their stories.  Less about plot and more about characters and their development, Watching Traffic suggests that Jane Ozkowski is the one to watch and continue to read.  I look forward to see and read what’s coming round the bend from Jane Ozkowski.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I’m delighted to announce that author Jane Ozkowski is a last-minute addition to the impressive contingent of young adult authors reading at this weekend’s Eden Mills Writers’ Festival.  Come for the words!

Bear's Winter Party

by Deborah Hodge

Illustrated by Lisa Cinar

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-853-2

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2016

Bear has a sweet life of living in the forest on the side of a mountain.  He has trees, berries, water and fresh mountain air.  But he’s a little lonely. He is a bear, after all, and Deer, Beaver, Chickadee, Squirrel, Hare and Fox all run away when he’s around. Worse yet, he hears them talking about him and what made him so feared. With winter coming and his long hibernation sleep, he decides to take action, inviting the other members of his forest community to his Winter Party, depositing written invitations where they might find them.

Bear cleans and decorates and cooks and prepares for his guests.  Just when he thinks no one is coming, he sees them all peeking out from behind trees. It’s the brave Chickadee who scouts out the scene inside and encourages the rest to come forward.  Though still a little apprehensive being in bear’s lair, the animals are polite and they begin to enjoy themselves, first with the delicious food and drink, and then with a sing-along and dancing. Finally, Bear’s new friends depart, each with a parting gift, and he can rest knowing that he'll be able to welcome the spring with a forest full of friends.

From Bear's Winter Party

by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Lisa Cinar

Deborah Hodge, best known for her countless non-fiction books, has written a heart-warming story perfect for the onset of cold weather.  It’s a story of friendship and diversity and acceptance and risk-taking.  And, though the youngest may wonder why all the animals don’t just get along from the onset –and we as adults wonder this all the time about our own species–Bear’s Winter Party will open doors for discussion and repeated story-telling. Lisa Cinar, whose art portfolio is as varied as her lush illustrations for Bear’s Winter Party, uses watercolours to create colourfully textured animals and forest landscapes, as well as a finely-furnished home for Bear.  But it’s the style of Lisa Cinar’s watercolours that creates such movement and richness in her illustrations in which the characters are always ample and bold, not a shrinking violet amongst the group. By pairing Lisa Cinar’s art with Deborah Hodge’s story, Bear’s Winter Party becomes a party in itself, deep in colour and friendship.

From Bear's Winter Party 

by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Lisa Cinar

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Deborah Hodge is coming to the Eden Mills Writers' Festival this Sunday.  Come and meet her and get your copy of Bear's Winter Party signed, ready for reading when it's time to hibernate (or party with friends).