2018 Governor General's Literary Awards: Finalists of books for young people

Yesterday, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the finalists for the highly prestigious Governor General's Literary Awards.

The seven categories of books, both in French and English, for which awards are given are:

• Fiction
• Non-Fiction
• Poetry
• Young People's Literature (Text)
• Young People's Literature (Illustration)
• Drama
• Translation

Congratulations to the finalists 

of all the awards
and I present here those nominees of

works for young people.

English-language: Young People's Literature (Text)

Ebb & Flow
Written by Heather Smith
Kids Can Press
Reviewed here

Learning to Breathe
Written by Janice Lynn Mather
Simon & Schuster

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster
Written by Jonathan Auxier
Puffin Canada

The Journey of Little Charlie
Written by Christopher Paul Curtis
Scholastic
Reviewed here

Winnie's Great War
Written by Lindsey Mallick and Josh Greenhut
Art by Sophie Blackall
HarperCollins

English-language:  Young People's Literature (Illustration)

Africville
Written by Shauntay Grant
Illustrated by Eva Campbell
Groundwood Books
Reviewed here

At the Pond
Written and illustrated by Werner Zimmermann
North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes
Written by Wab Kinew
Illustrated by Joe Morse
Tundra Books

Ocean Meets Sky
Written and illustrated by the Fan Brothers
Simon & Schuster Books for Young People

They Say Blue
Written and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books

 French-language: Young People's Literature (Text)

13000 ans et des poussières

par Camille Bouchard

Soulières éditeur

Ferdinand F., 81 ans, chenille
par Mario Brassard
Soulières éditeur

Les Marées
par Brigitte Vaillancourt
Les Éditions du Boréal

Maman veut partir
par Jonathan Bécotte
Leméac Éditeu

Un dernier songe avant le grande sommeil
par Jocelyn Boisvert
Soulières éditeur





French-language: Young People's Literature (Illustration)

Jules et Jim, frères d'armes
par Jacques Goldstyn
Bayard Canada








Le chemin de la montagne
par Marianne Dubuc
Comme des géants

 






Les mots d'Eunice

par Gabrielle Gendreau 

Illustré par Nahid Kazemi

Édtions de l'Isatis

Lili Macaroni: Je suir comme je suit

par Nicole Testa 

Illustré par Annie Boulanger

Dominique et compagnie

Une histoire de cancer qui finit bien

par Marianne Ferrer 

Illustré par India Desjardins

Les Éditions de la Pastèque




 

Winning titles will be announced 

on October 30, 2018

and 

presented on a later date at Rideau Hall.

Too Young to Escape: A Vietnamese Girl Waits to be Reunited with her Family

Written by Van Ho with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-066-6

152 pp.

Ages 8-12

November 2018

When Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch co-wrote Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival with Tuan Ho, she began a family's story of escape from Vietnam in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and taking of power by the communists. In that picture book, illustrated by Brian Deines, a mother and her two daughters, Loan and Lan, and six-year-old son Tuan escape Vietnam by boat, hopeful of joining father and the eldest daughter Linh in Canada. But there was another story. Because four-year-old Van is left behind.  Too Young to Escape is her story.

In May of 1981, four-year-old Van awakens at 5 a.m. in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to find her mother, older sisters Loan and Lan, and her six-year-old brother Tuan gone. Though it is unusual for Tuan to go with the women to do their early morning work, Van is distracted by her own chores. As guests of their aunt and uncle, Dì and Bác, since her own family lost everything when the communists took over, Van's pre-school work includes cleaning the house and spinning yarn for a weaver to later make the rice sacks Dì and Bác sold. But when her siblings don't show up to school, Van learns from her grandmother, Bà Ngoại, that her mother and siblings are gone. Van is devastated, wondering why she wasn't good enough to go with them, but Bà Ngoại reassures her that they've gone on a dangerous journey and Van's respiratory issues–she has difficulty breathing and often has to clear phlegm from her lungs–would have made it even more hazardous for her and the family.

Sometimes there are no perfect solutions. (pg. 31)

So begins a difficult chapter in little Van's life, slaving away at her aunt and uncle's home, tormented by a policeman's son at school, and feeling the loss of her family, particularly her mother who, she'd thought, should have been there to protect her. Still her Bà Ngoại, though seemingly insensitive to Van's struggles, tries to help Van understand.

Be thankful for what you do have, little one, instead of fretting about what you don't have. (pg. 64)

And Van learns to become "an expert at hiding my sadness" (pg. 67). Finally, they get a heartfelt letter and package from Saskatoon where her parents and four siblings have reunited. Along with some gifts, including clothes that growing Van desperately needs, Van learns that that her parents have submitted applications to bring Van and Bà Ngoại to join them.

It takes over four years before Van and her grandmother are reunited with her family in Canada, a family that "was like a storybook family" (pg. 87), and, though her life in Vietnam is difficult, it is a life with which she is familiar and leaving it is difficult.

Van Ho, who lived this story, tells it through Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's pen of extraordinary writing which reflects both Van's youthful point of view and her trauma. Her story is a disquieting but it's also uplifting, focusing on Van's resilience.  Told from her perspective, from Van explaining away her family's absence before she learns the reason to her obligation to completing chores many of our culture might deem inappropriate for one so young to finding a friend in a girl less fortunate than herself, Van's story of being left behind is heartbreaking.

Enhancing Van Ho's story with photographs and interviews with her father, Nam Ho, and mother, Phuoc Ho, Too Young to Escape gives a snapshot of a different time and place, one of upheaval and loss, perseverance and endurance, that ends with a reunion and a good life in Canada. It is a story of survival, even if Van Ho was Too Young to Escape.

Wicked Nix

Written by Lena Coakley

Illustrated by Jaime Zollars

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-443454698

163 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2018

Wicked Nix is the foulest of fairies who lives in the forest in a nest in the old oak tree, ever since the Good Queen and all the other fairies left last Midsummer's Eve for the Summer Country.  Wicked Nix has learned to survive through some help from Mr. Green, a forest entity (or a figment of Nix's imagination?) and a little girl-people, Rose the Wise, who is not repulsed by Nix's looks. The gifts the villagers leave out, like a bit of cheese or honeycomb, to appease the fairies also help.

But now a man-people has shown up at the cottage in the forest and Wicked Nix is not happy.

I can smell him, or at least I think I can. Like all peoples, he smells like soap and taking baths and eating with a fork. Horrible. (pg. 3)

Anticipating the return of the Good Queen and knowing the presence of the man-people will displease her, Wicked Nix looks for ways to frighten the man-people away. But, unlike the other fairies, Nix has no magic and the man-people figures out the tricks used to drive him away and uses his own, including salt, iron and daisies, to keep the fairies at bay. Will Wicked Nix be successful in getting rid of the intruder or will the intruder succeed in making a home of the abandoned cottage in the fairy wood?

Lena Coakley has always spun a great YA fantasy tale (Witchlanders, 2011; Worlds of Ink and Shadow, 2016) but, with Wicked Nix, she's proven that she can write really great middle grade fiction. While Wicked Nix does not contain the angst we anticipate in YA fiction–because life becomes more complicated as you get older, doesn't it?–it delves into the worries of young readers: freedom to choose, belonging, and being loved. Wicked Nix may well be a tale of fantasy with its fairies and magic but at its roots it's a story of abandonment, home and finding connectedness, sometimes where least expected. It's also about perspective, both Nix's and the reader's, and seeing beyond the established and being open to the unexpected. And Lena Coakley has such a gentle touch with the voice of Nix and Rose and others that it's easy to empathize with their plights.

I'm sure she did not forget me, though. I'm sure she loves me. She once pulled a star down from the sky for me–that's how I know. She must have left me here to protect the forest. She must have left me here because she trusts me more than all of the others. (pg. 32)

While I encourage all readers to take the path through Wicked Nix's woods (follow Jaime Zollars's map at the beginning of the book), be sure stick to the road meant for people. Otherwise, there may be some nasty surprises in store for you and you wouldn't want to be taken by the fairies, since Nix probably won't be able to help you out.

Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon: Book launch (Kelowna, BC)

Join

Karen Autio and Loraine Kemp

for the launch of their picture book

Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon

Written by Karen Autio

Illustrated by Loraine Kemp 

Crwth Press

978-1-7753319-0-2

48 pp.

Ages 7-10

October 2018

 on 

Saturday, October 20, 2018

from

2-4 p.m.

at

Okanagan Regional Library

Kelowna Branch

1380 Ellis Street

Kelowna, BC 

From Crwth Press's website:

In a hidden canyon in British Columbia’s Southern Interior, a ponderosa pine tree sprouts. Seasons pass as the tree grows, witness to generations of human history in the Okanagan Valley, from First Nations quests to fur brigades, horse wrangling, secret wartime commando training, to the firestorm of 2003. Richly illuminated by maps, illustrations, and historical images and informed by a timeline and historical notes, this fascinating book weaves First Nations history with European settlement and natural history. By following the thread of one tree growing in one sheltered and sacred space, award-winning author Karen Autio gently explores patterns of colonization that will resonate with readers all over North America. 

Enid Strange

Written by Meghan Rose Allen

DCB

978-1-770865259

240 pp.

Ages 10-13

May 2018 CAN / September 2018 US

Enid Strange is eleven years old and she is writing a book, How to See the Faeries. Of course, you can't just "see" faeries as they "work through non-anticipation" (pg. 8) but you can see their shadows in patches of sunlight viewed in your right periphery.  Spotting faeries and writing her book engross Enid whose life is far from normal.

She and her mother live in a semi-detached rental home next to Mrs. Delavecchio whom Enid treats as a grandmother and her mother treats as an unpaid babysitter. In fact, Enid's mother, Margery, who'd always believed in faeries and knew enough to create banishing powders and plant trees to protect their house, now seems almost angry to Enid's interests. In fact, Margery is downright nasty to her daughter.

"I just wonder why," her mother said, returning to whisking, "you didn't turn out differently." (pg. 35)

Ouch.

Enid begins to think that the faeries are up to mischief, knocking over trees in the garden, bewitching her mother whose behaviour is definitely becoming odder and manipulating Margery's relationship with Dr. Holden, a geriatric psychiatrist at the William O. Wistop Memorial Long Term Care Facility (which Enid calls the Will O'Wisp) where Margery works. This is worse still as Dr. Holden's seventeen-year-old daughter Amber is always getting up into Enid's business. It's up to Enid to make things right and she intends to do so by catching the faeries.

Enid Strange, the book, is as odd a little thing as Enid Strange the girl. After all, faeries aren't real, are they? Readers will start by wondering whether Enid is just imagining the little mischievous creatures or whether they truly exist. Weird things are definitely happening at home and at school and it's not surprising that a girl who is told to behave herself since "We don't want you to be someone who spoils other people's happiness" (pg. 82) would be looking to find a way to take some control over her own life in a world going wacko. And Enid is an astute little thing. She sees more than she lets on and comprehends beyond her eleven years of age. For example, she knows how important it would be for the lonely Mrs. Delavecchio to reconnect with her son in prison: "She told me you are broken. Well, fix yourself up and send her a letter." (pg. 73) She devises a hypothesis that "faeries are able to manipulate light's dual nature: using waves to propel themselves forward and using particles to hide behind when they wish to remain unseen" (pg. 136) and proposes an experiment to test it.

Author Meghan Rose Allen gives voice to middle graders who have lots of ideas about their parents, school, and home life but never seem to be heard. Enid has a lot going on in her life. Loads. And yet she seems to have no support system. She's out there on her own, trying to deal with nastiness from Amber Holden and being ignored by her mother who disregards her parenting responsibilities and chastizes Enid for her dramatics when learning who her father is. Meghan Rose Allen embeds Enid's story in a rich world of faeries, and not your sweet pink variety, and allows the child to take some control over her life, with a little help from some unexpected supports, and learning that there is magic around and even in her.

Africville: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

I am sorry I missed posting about the book launch earlier this month (September 13) at the Africville Museum in Halifax but here's hoping that this launch will be successful in making more people aware of this heritage site and take the trouble to learn more about its history.

 •••••••••••••••••••

Join author 

Shauntay Grant

for a celebration of her new picture book

Africville

Written by Shauntay Grant

Illustrated by Eva Campbell

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-043-9

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2018

on

Saturday, September 29, 2018

from

2 - 4:30 p.m.

at

A Different Booklist

777-779 Bathurst Street

Toronto, ON

Learn more about the book with my review posted here today.

Africville

Written by Shauntay Grant

Illustrated by Eva Campbell

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-043-9

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2018

Though Africville, a Nova Scotia community founded by former slaves and Black Loyalists in the 1800s, is sadly a legacy of racial discrimination and abandonment, Shauntay Grant chooses to tell the story of community and all the goodness one child sees in Africville.

Africville's story begins with a young girl looking at the community as an observer, seeing its location

at the end of the ocean
 where waves come to rest
 and hug the harbor stones

to its structures

and the houses lay out like a rainbow

From Africville by Shauntay Grant, illus. by Eva Campbell

and the activity of children at play and at home, relaxing and busy. There is fishing and football, rafting, skipping and fishing, food, family and church. This is the Africville of home.

From Africville by Shauntay Grant, illus. by Eva Campbell

Take me to where the pavement ends
and family begins

Though Shauntay Grant shares the girl's observations of Africville as if the child is of that place and time, it only becomes evident at the very end that the girl is visiting the current historic site, looking at the community from a contemporary setting, envisioning the children and families as their lives may have been lived and Africville may have been.

From Africville by Shauntay Grant, illus. by Eva Campbell

But, while Africville is a piece of history of which countless books have been written, including several of youngCanLit, Shauntay Grant's book is not a journalist piece about the community's evolution and tragedies. She has written a joyful account of a neighbourhood of people. The colour in their lives comes from where they are, what they do, and how they feel. There is a respect for the past and for the present, and anticipation for the future.

where memories turn to dreams,
and dreams turn to hope,
and hope never ends.

Shauntay Grant is a poet who brings that sweetness of time and place to her free verse, transporting all readers to the humanity of Africville. Likewise, BC painter Eva Campbell uses vivid colours of acrylic on canvas to bring out Africville's joys and its sense of kinship even with those who would be unrelated. In Africville, everyone belongs.

The legacy that is Africville will spark deep discussions of history and racism but Shauntay Grant and Eva Campbell's Africville will take those discussion sideways to celebrate the Africville that was home and life to so many for over a century.