Sugar and Snails

Written by Sarah Tsiang

Illustrated by Sonja Wimmer

Annick Press

978-1-77321-005-6

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

March 2018

Though many nursery rhymes have some dark meaning behind them,  I like to think the old English nursery rhyme about boys being made of “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails” and girls being made of “sugar and spice and everything nice” was an innocent poem people may have used to poke fun at the differences between boys and girls.  Then again, maybe not.  But Sarah Tsiang takes the sexism out of that nursery rhyme and shows us that boys and girls can be just about anything they want to be.

From Sugar and Snails

by Sarah Tsiang 

illus. by Sonja Wimmer

Sugar and Snails begins with an embroidered piece of stitchery with the old rhyme on it, and then page by page a grandfather unravels that saying for his grandchildren after the boy wonders about sweet boys such as himself.  The elderly man suggests a myriad of things boys and girls could be as he pretends to recall how the rhyme goes.  But as he suggests things, the grandchildren recognize that they just don't fit.  She doesn't like dresses, and he doesn't like frogs.  There's rocks and butterfly socks, rain boots and whales, and even dirt and lemon dessert.  Any of these could be assigned to either child or both.  It's an equal opportunity rhyme of a menagerie of delights, which ends with the grandfather proclaiming to them, "Dangnamit, I give up.  What in the heck are you made of?" and the stitches of the embroidery being unravelled by little hands.

From Sugar and Snails

by Sarah Tsiang 

illus. by Sonja Wimmer

Sarah Tsiang makes Sugar and Snails a wacky speculative poem that attempts, amusingly though foolishly, to differentiate between boys and girls.  But it's German artist Sonja Wimmer's surreal illustrations that bring that outrageousness to the forefront.  Sonja Wimmer, who illustrated Belle DeMont's wonderful I Love My Purse (Annick, 2017), lends wonderful fluidity and connectedness between the children and that which might define either of them, with a frisson of humour and folly. 

From Sugar and Snails

by Sarah Tsiang 

illus. by Sonja Wimmer

If Sugar and Snails teaches us anything, it's that labelling is restrictive and inappropriate, and children, girls, boys or non-binary, should just be themselves, no matter what an old rhyme proposes.

Lucky Me

Written by Lora Rozler

Illustrated by Jan Dolby

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

9781554554102

32 pp.

Ages 8-12

February 2018

I always loved those posters that would communicate a single message in different languages, whether it be Welcome, Hello or Thank you.  Lucky Me is like an expanded and illustrated version of the Thank You poster, sharing the many events for which children might express gratitude in various languages.

The text of Lucky Me is a series of statements about experiences for which children in Canada might be  grateful, whether it be treasures big and small, being able to ask question, tasty pancakes , another candle on a birthday cake, playing in the snow, or having a friend by your side.  For each, the term for “thank you” is giving in another language, identifying how to pronounce it as well as the language used.  Lucky Me is like an international thesaurus of thanks.

From Lucky Me 

by Lora Rozler 

illus. by Jan Dolby

With 32 languages covered (English, Armenian, Romanian, Greek, Japanese, Tagalog, Hebrew, Cree, Spanish, Portuguese, Somali, Mandarin, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Arabic, Hindi, Swahili, Tamil, Vietnamese, Korean, Hungarian, Russian, Albanian, Italian, Persian, Cantonese, Punjabi, German, Turkish, Urdu and French), Lora Rozler has covered most continents and the children from the diverse cultures within though the children are very much ensconced in a Canadian setting.  Still children will see themselves outdoors, at home, at school and the many places they experience life.  Jan Dolby, whose gave life to Joyce Grant’s Gabby in Gabby (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013) and her follow up books (Gabby Drama Queen and Gabby Wonder Girl) energizes Lora Rozler’s text with children who are lively and effusive in their activities alone and with others.  They’re open to life and can see the worth in all their experiences.

From Lucky Me 

by Lora Rozler 

illus. by Jan Dolby

While I might have liked to have seen more children who appreciate the quiet of contemplation rather than always activity, the wide variety of experiences and ways of saying thank you demonstrate that we all have much for which we should be grateful and a single book would probably never be enough.  Fortunately, Lora Rozler and Jan Dolby have given children a very, very good start to seeing all for which they could be exclaiming “Lucky Me.”  

From Lucky Me 

by Lora Rozler 

illus. by Jan Dolby

Picture the Sky: Art show and sale (Toronto, ON)

Last August, 

author/illustrator Barbara Reid

the Queen of plasticine art

launched her newest picture book

Picture the Sky

Written and illustrated by Barbara Reid

Scholastic Canada

9781443163026

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

2017

Now youngCanLit readers and art enthusiasts can enjoy

  Picture the Sky

through Barbara Reid's amazing art 

in an Art Show and Sale

which runs from

  Saturday, March 3, 2018 - Thursday, April 12, 2018

with 

special events 

on the official launch day

Sunday, March 4, 2018

1 p.m.:  Launch of the Art Show and Sale

2 p.m.:  Story time

at

The Young Welcome Centre

Evergreen Brick Works

550 Bayview Avenue

Toronto, ON

Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me

Written by David Gutnick

Illustrated by Mathilde Cinq-Mars

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-059-9

32 pp.

Ages 7-10

Mach 2018

If this was June 21, Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me would be a valuable tome for International Music Day.  If it was December or March, we could acknowledge Beethoven’s birthday or death with this picture book.  But in February, this wonderful story about a music teacher and his student celebrates embracing one’s passion, here a love of music.

From Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me 

by David Gutnick 

illus. by Mathilde Cinq-Mars

This is the story, inspired by true events, of a young girl and her parents who have just immigrated to Canada from China.  While the child swings in the park, her father chats with an elderly man whom he introduces to his daughter as Mr. Daniel Mergler, a man who has taught piano to hundreds of children over more than fifty years.  Though the family obviously does not have money for extras such as piano lessons, Mr. Mergler sees something in the young girl who had taught herself sufficiently well to play for their church. 

Something tells me she understands the magic that music can bring to her life.  If she does, that is all the payment I will need.

From Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me 

by David Gutnick 

illus. by Mathilde Cinq-Mars

At Mr. Mergler’s studio, the child begins her lessons with the elderly man, while a bust of the stern-looking Beethoven looks down from his perch upon the piano.  Though she finds reading music and the lessons difficult at first, she progresses well and is the recipient of many gold stars from her teacher who shares with her the magic of the music. 

But her time with Mr. Mergler is cut short after "twenty-six magical lessons" when the man falls ill and pens a moving letter to his “star pupil” and bequeaths her his Beethoven bust. 

Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me has all the elements to inspire.  There is music, and passion, and determination and effort and empathy.  In less than a year, one man found a seed of music in a young girl and nurtured it into a skilled talent, demonstrating the ability of music to make time disappear and touch the heart, even making the cranky Beethoven happy. Author David Gutnick takes this story from a documentary he produced for CBC's The Sunday Edition called “Beethoven’s Bust” (listen to it here http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2501123338) based on the dying piano teacher’s need to speak about the best student he’d ever had.  Accompanied by Quebec artist Mathilde Cinq-Mars’s soft and harmonious illustrations of gentle pencil colours and line, Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me is a complete package of kindness and empathy: in actions, in the words and in the art.  Save it for International Piano Day (March 29) or maybe World Kindness Day (November 3). Or any day a little magic is needed.

From Mr. Mergler, Beethoven, and Me 

by David Gutnick 

illus. by Mathilde Cinq-Mars

Here So Far Away: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

Hadley Dyer

author of middle-grade and young adult novels and non-fiction

including the best-selling

Johnny Kellock Died Today

 is set to launch her newest YA

Here So Far Away

Written by Hadley Dyer

HarperTeen

9780062473172

368 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2018

on

  Wednesday, March 21, 2018

7:30 p.m.

at

TYPE Books

883 Queen St. W.

Toronto, ON

From HarperCollins Website:

Award-winning author Hadley Dyer’s YA debut is smart, snarky, and emotionally gripping, about a rebellious cop’s daughter who falls in love with an older man, loses her best friend, and battles depression, all while trying to survive her last year of high school. 

Feisty and fearless George Warren (given name: Frances, but no one calls her that) has never let life get too serious. Now that she’s about to be a senior, her plans include partying with her tight-knit group of friends and then getting the heck out of town after graduation.

But instead of owning her last year of high school, a fight with her best friend puts her on the outs of their social circle.  If that weren’t bad enough, George’s family has been facing hard times since her father, a police sergeant, got injured and might not be able to return to work, which puts George’s college plans in jeopardy.

So when George meets Francis, an older guy who shares her name and her affinity for sarcastic banter, she’s thrown. If she lets herself, she’ll fall recklessly, hopelessly in love. But because of Francis’s age, she tells no one—and ends up losing almost everything, including herself.

This is a gorgeous, atmospheric, and gut-wrenching novel that readers won’t soon forget.

Retrieved from https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062473172/here-so-far-away on February 22, 2018.

Tess of the Road: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

Rachel Hartman

who brought the world her award-winning book

Seraphina 

Written by Rachel Hartman

Doubleday Canada

9780385668392

480 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Reviewed here

and its sequel

Shadow Scale

Written by Rachel Hartman

Doubleday Canada

9780385668606

608 pp.

Ages 14+

2015

is back with a third book in her fantasy series!

Her new young adult fantasy novel

Tess of the Road

Written by Rachel Hartman

Penguin Teen

9780385685887

544 pp.

Ages 14+

February 27, 2018

launches

March 31, 2018

3-5 p.m.

at

Bakka-Phoenix

84 Harbord Street

Toronto, ON

From Penguin Random House Canada website:

In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can't make a scene at your sister's wedding and break a relative's nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.

Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it's a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl--a subspecies of dragon--who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she's tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.

Retrieved from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/253139/tess-of-the-road-by-rachel-hartman/9781101931288/ on February 21, 2018.

Ophelia

Written by Charlotte Gingras

Illustrated by Daniel Sylvestre

Translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou

Groundwood Books

264 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2018

Ophelia is what she calls herself, though her peers at high school have affixed the label of "rag girl" on her.  But Ophelia, like Shakespeare's tragic character, is much more than she appears.  She is a complex teen, overridden with fears and anger and anxiety and isolation that goes far beyond the teen angst label many use to underplay overwhelming personal issues.  

Ophelia's story, past and present, is told in letters to an author, Jeanne D'Amour, who visited Ophelia's school and gifted the teen with an ink-blue notebook. The unsent letters reveal Ophelia's crushing worries of abandoned children; of being seen as ugly; of her struggles at school; of being alone or of finding love; of a mother who had been undeclared unfit once, forcing Ophelia into foster care, and could be again; of never knowing her father; and of her sexuality, especially as she harbours trauma from an incident of childhood sexual abuse.  

I don't love anyone for real, Jeanne.  If I dive down, down to my very depths, all I find is dark and hard.  Nothing alive. (pg. 122)

But when Ophelia, a girl who goes out at night and tags walls with oil-pastel broken hearts, discovers an abandoned building with walls on which she might express herself artistically, everything changes.  She soon learns that her workshop had previously been discovered by another marginalized teen, a new student and fat young man who decides to call himself Ulysses.  The two work out a schedule so that they do not have to interact, and Ophelia can continue to work on her art–first an "upside-down girl" as a depiction of her namesake, then an empowered "right-side-up girl" and more–while Ulysses endeavours to dismantle an old van he has named Caboose, hopeful of setting it to rights so he could take it on a long journey. 

Ophelia is still overpowered by her anger and worries but the innocuous Ulysses subtly begins to share his own fears and pains and finds a way to connect with Ophelia.

He'd defused my suicide-bomber belt with his chocolate bars and calming voice. (pg. 86)

Similarly Ophelia's artwork begins to have a positive impact on the two teens, enabling them to become the warriors she creates on the walls.  But can those shifts in Ophelia and Ulysses be sustained and carry them through a violent invasion into their safe space as well as their emerging sexualities?

Ophelia is a powerful book of a teen's struggles, a deep and insightful introspection of her shattering anger and apprehension.  Though Ophelia writes with the chaotic musings of a young person in trauma, alternating recollections of the past, with current struggles and anticipation of the future, there is a lifeline of progression from out-of-control angst to increasing self-reflection and empathy to self-acceptance and empowerment that is so real that it is visceral.

From Ophelia 

by Charlotte Gingras 

illus. by Daniel Sylvestre

I am so pleased that Groundwood Books has brought Ophélie (Courte Echelle, 2008), the original French-language novel from Governor General-award winning author Charlotte Gingras, to English readers through this translation by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou.  Emboldened with the artwork of Montréaler Daniel Sylvestre, readers will catch glimpses of the fury and anxiety of Ophelia in her sketches and tags as they bear witness to her progress.  But it is the voice of Ophelia, heartfelt and agonized, as she verges on implosion and explosion, as well as that of Ulysses struggling with his own issues, that need to be heard and heeded by young readers and those who care for them.  There may not be a happy ending but there is hope for better.