A World Below

Written by Wesley King

A Paula Wiseman Book/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

978-1-4814-7822-9

261 pp.

Ages 8-14

2018

It's a dark, dark place in the caves and tunnels of New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns and Eric, Silvia and the other students of Mr. Baker's small advanced middle-school class are going to find out just how dark it can be when a field trip goes from scholarly to scary.

When an earthquake hits, sending rocks falling and splitting the ground beneath, teacher Mr. Baker disappears into one crack and the kids are dragged deep into the earth by currents of cold water. When thirteen-year-old Eric Johnson drags himself out of the water, he finds himself alone and determined to find his way out. The other students have travelled further down, unable to extricate themselves until they reach still waters. After reviving one student with CPR, Silvia Rodrigues who is desperately trying to keep her anxiety in check is unofficially designated their leader and suggests they find Eric. But, in addition to chapters focusing on Eric and Silvia's perspectives, there are those told of a boy of similar age, Carlos, the King of the Midnight Realm, who is determined to keep his underground community safe from the exiled traitors called Worms and the dangerous "surface humans."

In an adventure-survival story that feels a bit like a melding of Indiana Jones with The Lord of the Flies without the creepy parts, Wesley King, award-winning author of The Vindico (Penguin, 2012) and OCDaniel (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 2016) celebrates kids who may see themselves as different and even weak because of their mental health issues or personalities but who are strong and bright and resilient and the stuff of heroes. Silvia tries to hide the vulnerability she feels with her anxiety and panic attacks that keep her from sleeping well but her peers see her as brave and a true leader. Eric and Carlos are living with the reminders of their fathers' strengths or failings and judging themselves by those memories. Eric's father, before leaving to make a new family, was a jerk to Eric's mom and called Eric weird because he was a loner who liked to read. Carlos is trying to lead his people as his father before him did but sees his compassion and insight as contrary and consequently dangerous to those he is destined to rule.

"We shouldn't be spending our whole lives trying to be exactly like our parents. That won't work." (pg. 189)

In an extraordinary world of tree-like mushrooms, rats the size of beagles, spiders and catfish-like creatures as large as cars, and oppressive darkness only relieved by occasional bioluminescence and intermittent flashlight or cell phone light, these young people struggle through their fears, shared and not, to survive and even learn about others and themselves.

"But keeping my distance ... it's just ... easy."
"Stupid things usually are," she said simply. (pg. 215)

Like Jean Craighead George's book My Side of the Mountain, to which both Eric and Wesley King both reference, A World Below allows young people to see what separation from our peers and families can deliver. It gives us a chance to see ourselves as we are, not as others might see us or as we think we are seen. There's a clarity of perception that comes with focusing on what really matters–here, survival–and finding new realities, both within and externally. A World Below may be a coming-of-age story, based solely on the youth of the characters and their efforts to understand themselves and the world around them, but it goes beyond that, guiding readers through the darkness of twisted thinking and fears and into the light of understanding and empathy for self and others.

The Sound of Drowning: Book launch (St. John's, Newfoundland)

Because I failed to include this book in my post
about upcoming winter and spring releases of youngCanLit
(now amended),
let me promote the book launch for

Katherine Fleet

and 

her new young adult novel

The Sound of Drowning

Written by Katherine Fleet

Page Street Kids

978-1624147111

384 pp.

Ages 14-18

March 2019

on

 March 26, 2019

at

7 p.m.

at

Chapters

70 Kenmount Road

St. John's, Newfoundland

About the book:
Meredith Hall has a secret. Every night she takes the ferry to meet Ben, her best friend and first love. Though their relationship must remain a secret, they’ve been given a second chance, and Mer's determined to make it work. She lost Ben once before and discovered the awful reality: she doesn't know how to be happy without him…

Until Wyatt washes ashore―a brash new guy with a Texas twang and a personality bigger than his home state. He makes her feel reckless, excited, and alive in ways that cut through her perpetual gloom. The deeper they delve into each other’s pasts, the more Wyatt’s charms become impossible to ignore.

But a storm is brewing in the Outer Banks. When it hits, Mer finds her heart tearing in half and her carefully constructed reality slipping back into the surf. As she discovers that even the most deeply buried secrets have a way of surfacing, she’ll have to learn that nothing is forever―especially second chances.

Retrieved from Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40046016-the-sound-of-drowning on February 17, 2019.

2019 Forest Kid and Teen Committees: Applications due April 12, 2019

Do you ♡ reading?

Are you in Grades 4-8 or in high school?

Do you live in Ontario?

Do you want to help choose books that other kids will want to read?

Then

the Ontario Library Association's

Forest of Reading

has a committee for you!

Last year's Forest of Reading Kid and Teen Committees brought readers in Grades 4 through 12 together to talk books and produce exceptional summer reading lists for those readers of the Silver Birch, Red Maple and White Pine reading programs.

This year the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading program is again asking students to apply to be on the 2019 Forest Kid Committee and Forest Teen Committee.

Who can apply?
For the Forest Kid Committee: Ontario students in Grades 4-8 (homeschoolers too!)
For the Forest Teen Committee: Ontario high school students

What will you do?
Come together at the Ontario Library Association's offices in Toronto with other readers to select 10-20 titles for a summer reading list. (Check out last year's Kid Committee and Teen Committee reading lists.) It's a full day of talking books, special treats and making new friends. And it's all about the books!

When will we meet?
Tentatively May/June 2019

Applications are due April 12, 2019

and are available online here

Details about the program are found at the OLA website 

at http://www.accessola.org/web/OLA/Forest_of_Reading/Kid_Committee.aspx

Don't miss this great opportunity 

to share your ♡ of Canadian books!

The Forest Kid Committee and Teen Committee were a huge success.

Now it's your chance to become a committee member on the 

2019 Forest Kid Committee or Forest Teen Committee

and help your peers find great books to read.

Apply before the April 12th deadline 

for your chance 

to be part of something great! 

The Dog Who Wanted to Fly: Welcome Book Party (Rockwood, ON)

For a special March break activity

take in this special

Welcome Book Party

with

children's author

 Kathy Stinson

for 

her newest picture book

The Dog Who Wanted to Fly

Written by Kathy Stinson

Illustrated by Brandon James Scott

Annick Press
978-1-773212807
36 pp.
Ages 3-6
March 2019

on

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

10:30 -11:30 a.m.

at

Rockwood Branch

Wellington Country Library
121 Rockmosa Drive
Rockwood, ON
N0B 2K0 

From Annick Press's website:

Who says dogs can’t fly?

Meet Zora: a dog with a big dream and an even bigger personality. All Zora wants to do is learn how to fly so she can catch that pesky squirrel in her yard. But try as she might to prove to her friend Tully —a skeptical cat—that dogs truly can fly, nothing seems to work. Until Zora finds the right motivation, that is.

Kathy Stinson’s charming story of perseverance is beautifully brought to life by Brandon James Scott’s exuberant and wonderfully expressive illustrations. Touching on themes of optimism and determination in the face of failure, The Dog Who Wanted to Fly is a book anyone—even a cat—will love.

Retrieved from

 http://www.annickpress.com/Dog-Who-Wanted-to-Fly-The 

on February 13, 2019.

  • • • • • • •
More details about the event are posted at the library website at https://calendar.wellington.ca/library/Detail/2019-03-13-1030-Welcome-Book-Party-with-Kathy-Stinson
 

I Want My Hat Back

Written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

Candlewick Press

978-1-5362-0757-6

40 pp.

Ages 3-8

New edition for release March 2019

With the release of this new board book edition of Jon Klassen's award-winning I Want My Hat Back, I am pleased that I can review this gem and introduce new readers to this delightful story. Originally published in 2011, a year before I started this blog, I missed out on reviewing Jon Klassen's first picture book, though I remember well sharing it with little ones.

From I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

A bear has lost his hat and seeks it by asking a fox, a frog, a rabbit, a turtle, a snake, and an armadillo, "Have you seen my hat?" Their answers are varied, some confused, some preoccupied, and some defensive but all are negative. Ever polite, even helping a turtle to climb a rock, the bear often replies with a "Thank you anyway."

From I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

It's not until a deer asks the bear what the hat looks like that he realizes he did see his hat. Mystery solved but what will bear do to get his hat back?

From I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Those who've read this book will all remember the twist that I Want My Hat Back takes and those who have not are in for a surprise but one that requires little ones to read the clues. From a series of repetitive enquiries to the revelation of the theft and finally the bear's response, both evident and not, I Want My Hat Back propels the reader from beginning to end, with subtle but dark humour that suggests consequences for actions.

In I Want My Hat Back, as well as in its sequels This is Not My Hat (Candlewick, 2012) and We Found a Hat (Candlewick, 2016), Jon Klassen beguiles with his simple but characteristic illustrations of animals and their landscapes. But the simplicity is hardly unsophisticated. It may be more reminiscent of folk art with its clarity of line and austere backgrounds but the art is punchy, just like the story. Bear may get his hat back but it's not a happy ending for the rabbit. Be prepared. Life is like that. And isn't grand that there are those like Jon Klassen who recognize that children's books don't need to be sugar and unicorns to be exceptional and appreciated?

Jon Klassen's hat trilogy

Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijebà wìsiniyàn

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Jay Odjick

Translated by Joan Commanda Tenasco

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-7511-1

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

February 2019

Robert Munsch's picture books have become a staple of youngCanLit from the publication of his first book almost 40 years ago and, with Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijebà wìsiniyàn, Robert Munsch continues to provide diversity in his story-telling, always honouring young readers whose lives provide the basis for his tales.

After young Donovan bemoans that there is nothing to eat, much to his mother's surprise who has filled the refrigerator with her shopping, he is reminded of his grandfather telling him he used to eat bear for breakfast. So grabbing a rope, Donovan heads out to snag a bear for their breakfast.  With the "thump, thump, thump, thump, thump" of his feet, and calling out "Bear, bear, bear, bear, bear!" Donovan is often answered by a refrain of "Kid, kid, kid, kid, kid!" Spotting an ant or a squirrel or a dog, he shoos them away. But when a bear appears to his call and growls at the boy, Donovan starts to tiptoe away, before walking quickly with a pat, pat, pat and finally running with a whomp, whomp, whomp as fast as he can home, though with the bear following. It's only after Donovan's grandfather takes a frying pan to the bear who has crashed into the house that they are able to finally eat breakfast, and it is definitely not bear.

From Bear for Breakfast by Robert Munsch, illus. by Jay Odjick

Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijebà wìsiniyàn has all the trademark Robert Munsch elements of a child's bravado, humour in all the right places, and repetitive lines and action sounds that little ones will want to help read. Though many will not be familiar with eating bear for breakfast, those children for whom it is not unfamiliar will appreciate acknowledgement of their experiences. To help embed that experience, this edition is a dual-language one of English and Algonquin, translated by Joan Commanda Tenasco. Useful for children familiar with one language and learning a second, dual-language books have been suitable for English-language learners but recently they have become increasingly popular in Canada to help preserve Indigenous languages. Although I have seen Cree, Inuktitut, Michif and Mi'kmaq editions of dual language books, this is the first I've seen in Algonquin and, by providing a translation of a Robert Munsch story, Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijebà wìsiniyàn will win new readers across cultures.

From Bear for Breakfast by Robert Munsch, illus. by Jay Odjick

Moreover, with Anishinàbe artist Jay Odjick's illustrations to add veracity to Robert Munsch's words, Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijebà wìsiniyàn becomes more of an Indigenous cultural experience than a silly animal story. From the outdoor scenes of coniferous forests, typical of La Loche, Saskatchewan, the home of the Donovan who inspired the story, to the boy's home's decorations of a thunderbird and other Indigenous art, Jay Odjick ensures a genuineness to Donovan's story. Though young children will be able to see themselves and their family in Donovan and his mom and grandfather, little touches like Donovan's T-shirt with a feather and his grandfather's braids add a distinction that shows respect for another culture and its ways of living.

Whether you choose the English edition of Bear for Breakfast or the dual language edition of Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijebà wìsiniyàn (there are also French and French-Algonquin editions), there will be enlightening discussions about cultural meal choices along with animated story-telling. Clap, clap, clap.

The House of One Thousand Eyes

Written by Michelle Barker

Annick Press

978-1-77321-071-1

354 pp.

Ages 14+

2018

The House of One Thousand Eyes is a dark book but 1980s East Berlin was a dark time and place. It was a time of the Berlin Wall and the Stasi (the State Security Service) and repression of thought, opportunity and interaction. It was a time of oppression and control and secret-keeping. It was dark and even more so for seventeen-year-old Lena Altmann.

When she lost her parents in a factory explosion, Lena was sent to an asylum. After three years of treatment, she was released into the care of her aunt, a Party member, who treats Lena as a simpleton in need of direction to prevent her readmission to the hospital.

... but Auntie was a good citizen, and goodness was rewarded.
     Badness, however, got you a one-way ticket to smartening up ... (pg. 57)

Unfortunately, her Uncle Erich, whom she adores and visits weekly, is a writer and a man of opinions and insight. 

Paper could get a person in trouble. When you wrote something down, you gave it life and made it yours. (pg. 22)

When she witnesses the removal of his things from his flat and finds a new tenant in place who tells her he has lived there for five years, Lena wonders whether she is delusional. She is told by all that she has no uncle. She cannot locate any of his books at the bookstores or library (her own have disappeared as have her photos of him) and is told there is no birth record of such person.

Working as a night cleaner at Stasi headquarters, also know as the House of One Thousand Eyes, Lena tries to determine what happened to her uncle and cut through the deceit and illusion that all is right in the "Better Berlin." But will the wall she has built up in her own mind continue to protect her from harmful thoughts and brutality such as that she suffers nightly at the hands of one Stasi officer? Or is it like the real Berlin Wall, still in place in 1983, doing more harm than good or in danger of crumbling?

The House of One Thousand Eyes is a brilliant novel of historical fiction. The setting may only have been thirty-six years ago, still in my lifetime, but it's of a time and place so inaccessible, concealed in the propaganda disseminated by those in power and perpetuated by those choosing to survive at all costs, that it will seem far more distant.  It is a hard and dark time for East Berliners who had to choose whether to deceive themselves about the inequities perpetrated by a corrupt regime or to suffer the consequences, as does Lena's uncle, for free thought and disapproval. Just as Uncle Erich knows about veiling one story in another, Michelle Barker's subtext about mental health, social inequalities and the freedom of expression is never lost in the story of Lena as she searches for her uncle and tries to make sense of a world that often made no sense at all. But Michelle Barker builds up Lena's worlds, real and "schrullig," into a monument that honours lives lived with courage and conviction, never blocking the light of truth, and she does so with strength of words and greatness of style.