Moon Wishes: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

Join

authors

Patricia and Guy Storms

and

illustrator

Milan Pavlović

in celebrating the launch of 

Moon Wishes

Written by Guy and Patricia Storms
Illustrated by Milan Pavlović
Groundwood Books
978-1-77306-076-7
40 pp.
Ages 4-7
March 2019
Reviewed here

on

Sunday, March 10, 2019

10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

at

TYPE Books Junction

2887 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON

416-761-9973


This free event for all ages
promises

cookies, music and fun!

Moon Wishes

Written by Guy and Patricia Storms
Illustrated by Milan Pavlović
Groundwood Books
978-1-77306-076-7
40 pp.
Ages 4-7
March 2019

Everyone makes wishes to the light of the moon but what does the moon wish for? That’s the question Guy Storms and Patricia Storms answer in their first picture book collaboration with illustrator Milan Pavlović.

From Moon Wishes by Guy and Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

With a beginning that allows young readers to put themselves up in the night sky, Guy Storms and Patricia Storms introduce Moon Wishes with "If I were the moon ..." and then propose the loveliest of sentiments to brighten the world from the darkness that extends far beyond nightfall. There would be the creation of art by shimmering over waters teeming with fish and over "dreams of snow." It would "wax and wane over the Earth's troubles" to soothe and light the way for travellers including human, bird and marine and showcase those who play, sing and reside outside. And the moon would always shine with love and light.

From Moon Wishes by Guy and Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

In a series of glorious images, as iridescent with their glowing moons as the cover, Milan Pavlović gives these heartfelt moon wishes substance. They are no longer wishful thinking or dreams for something better. They are real. Readers can see the lustrous moon paving the way for lives to be lived. From refugees trekking across an expansive landscape to the trumpeter serenading delighted felines or the whales swimming in seafoam green waters, Milan Pavlović shows the smiling moon, serene in all its phases, making the world a brighter place for all.

From Moon Wishes by Guy and Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

I will be adding this book to my Read a Book of Bedtime booklist because it belongs among those titles that help ease little ones to slumber.  With its meaningful intentions and luminous illustrations, Moon Wishes will certainly hush children to sleep knowing that the moon is watching over all and wishing only goodness.

•••••••••••••••••••••
The book launches this Sunday (March 10, 2019) in Toronto. Details here.

The Triumphant: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

It's finally here!

The final book in

The Valiant Trilogy

Fallon's story began in

The Valiant

and her fight continued in

 The Defiant

Now

author

Lesley Livingston

completes Fallon's story with

the launch 

of

The Triumphant

Written by Lesley Livingston

Razorbill

9780451480682

416 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2019

on 

Thursday, March 7, 2019

(sorry for the short notice!)

7 -10 p.m. 

at

Dominion Pub and Kitchen

500 Queen St. E.

Toronto, ON

The event is open to all ages! 

(Don't let the pub in the venue name dissuade you from taking in this event.)

⚔⚔⚔⚔⚔⚔⚔⚔⚔

The following blurb about the book comes from Penguin Random House Canada at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/577072/the-triumphant-by-lesley-livingston/9780451480682:

The final book in the Valiant series takes Fallon and her warrior sisters on an epic journey from the corrupt Roman Republic to the wonder of the ancient world: Alexandria, Egypt.

In the wake of their victorious fight to win back the Ludus Achillea, Fallon and her gladiatrix sisters have become the toast of the Republic. However, as a consequence of his actions during the Ludus uprising, Fallon's love Cai has been stripped of his Decurion rank and cast down to serve as one of Caesar's gladiators.

Amid fighting for Cai's freedom, Fallon soon learns that Caesar's enemies are plotting against him and planning to get revenge on his fearsome gladiatrices. When Caesar is murdered by these conspirators, Fallon and the girls lose any sort of protection they once had. Fallon also realizes that the foreign queen Cleopatra is now in grave danger.

Fallon rallies her war band and Cai's friends to get Cleopatra out of the city, and the group heads to the safety of Cleo's homeland, Alexandria, Egypt. Once there, the gladiatrices are promised a place of honor in the queen's elite guard, but is that what any of them really want? 

Circle

Written by Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Candlewick Press

978-0-7636-9608-5

48 pp.

Ages 4-9

March 2019

Young readers met Circle and her friends Square and Triangle in Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's earlier books in the Shape trilogy, Triangle (Candlewick, 2017) and Square (Candlewick, 2018), but now it's Circle's turn to reveal herself. In each of the books, the shape at its centre have dealt with personal issues of trust and self-confidence and, above all, friendship, and now Circle finds herself similarly challenged in this final book in the Shape trilogy.

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Circle and her friends Square and Triangle are playing a game of hide-and-seek near Circle's waterfall but she insists that they cannot hide behind the waterfall. But Triangle chooses to do just that and Circle slips in behind the falls to find him.

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

It is very dark in the cavern behind the falls but, as Circle goes in farther, calling out to Triangle, it becomes pitch black. Only Circle's eyes are visible until a second pair appears. As Circle chastizes Triangle for his rule-breaking and disregard for his friends, the second pair of eyes remains silent. Finally Circle apologizes for her rant and tells Triangle that they love him, just as a third pair of eyes appear behind Circle with Triangle's voice thanking Circle for her declarations. Then things get a little harried as the two realize the third set of eyes does not belong to their friend, though in hindsight, Circle recognizes something highly relevant.

"You know," she said, "that shape in the dark might

not have been bad. It might have been a good shape.

We just could not see it."

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Let's talk about the subtlety of message which is perfectly understated for the very young for whom this board book was written. Kids will know about playing and rules and friends and getting frustrated and angry and then taking all back. They'll know about being afraid of the dark and confronting their fears. But, while Circle speaks to all that, in the hands of that dynamic duo of American Mac Barnett and Canadian Jon Klassen, it also speaks to larger issues of forgiveness and tolerance. Big concepts for a little book but presented in such a sophisticated way that it will permeate any barrier.

From Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

There is a quietness to Jon Klassen's earthy illustrations, created with a combination of coloured pencils, gouache and crayons, evoking the natural setting for the stories of the three shape friends. Like the rocks and the cavern and the shapes themselves, the illustrations have substance but are not oppressive, while giving hints of harmony and freshness with the touches of mint green for Circle's waterfall. It's so easy to fall into Jon Klassen's art and swim around, even if in the pitch darkness of the deepest depths of that cavern.

I am sorry to see this trilogy end but I am ever hopeful that the partnership of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen will continue, as it should, to add to the canon of picture books that tell powerful stories with distinction and without preaching.

Shape trilogy by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

What We Buried

Written by Kate A. Boorman

Henry Holt and Company

978-1-250-19167-0

320 pp.

Ages 14-18

February 2019

You created your reality; live with it. (pg. 260)

But the realities that have been created for eighteen-year-old Jory Brewer and his sixteen-year-old sister Lavinia (Liv) are only minimally their own doing. Jory, born with Moebius syndrome, has several paralyzed craniofacial nerves which affect his appearance, his speech and his eating. He may choose to say very little and be more socially withdrawn but how others respond to him is not on him. He'd had one corrective surgery as a child and doctors had recommended further intervention but his parents didn't think it was a good investment. On the other hand, what they thought was a good investment was putting Liv on the child beauty pageant circuit, including a stint on Darling Divas, the reality TV show about pageants and their contestants. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of that career, Liv is now suing her parents for "irreparable and lasting harm." (pg. 11)

On the day of the trial, their parents disappear from the courthouse. Liv returns to the house, for the first time in months, ostensibly to help Jory but more to learn what has happened to their parents whom she believes Jory is helping. When she thinks she knows where they've gone, the two siblings head out to an old cabin their mother had inherited and which their father had always wanted to sell. But in a chilling road trip during which the two are haunted by fleeting visions, possible déjà vu, recurrent memories and danger, Liv and Jory transform from squabbling sibs to something unexpected.

And there it was–an uncanny sense of temporality. Like my reaction to what was happening–the focus of my attention–was a better measure of time than the minutes clicking over on the digital clock.  Everything was beginning to feel malleable and unfixed, like if I looked hard enough at the road illuminated by our headlights, I'd see beyond it, or behind it, or something. (pg. 103)

Kate A. Boorman has written a thriller that is equal parts plot and character in which both are significant and extraordinary. As the reader struggles to sort out the plot including what happened to the teens' parents, how the repeating news story on the radio is important, and what is real and either supernatural or illusion, Jory and Liv are exploring who they were, who they are and who they want to be.

Book jacket of What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman

The front cover of What We Buried may look like the story is about Liv and her perceptions but the back cover reveals that Jory's perspective is just as important. It's the way the two siblings see things about themselves, each other, their parents and the outside world and how it sees them that makes What We Buried intense and emotional.

You know the saying "Seeing is believing"? It's a problem, when you think about it. I mean, it's reasonable for people to want proof before they accept something they've been told. I do. I'm a fan of logic and demonstrable facts. But the idea inherent: that you can believe what you see? That's majorly flawed, because people usually have no idea what they're looking at. It's why people think my sister is a lovely, tragic victim. It's why they so often assume I can't tie my own shoes. (pg. 6)

The contrast of reality and illusion is a complex one in What We Buried and that's because Kate A. Boorman draws us in but doesn't join us for the journey. It's up to the reader to determine what might be real and what might be memory or what might be something else entirely. See if you can see beyond the masks of Liv's beauty and Jory's disorder and look deeper into their stories to find what may be buried, both literally and figuratively.

Dodger Boy

Written by Sarah Ellis

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-072-9

176 pp.

Ages 10-14

September 2018

Most people would not think of the 1970s as the setting for historical fiction but, at 40 plus years ago, it definitely qualifies, and it was a time rampant with fodder for fiction writers. From Apollo 13 to the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, the pioneering of in vitro fertilization and, of course, Watergate, the 1970s rolled through on a plethora of highs and lows. But for many it will be the decade during which the Vietnam War finally ended. Before that end, however, lives were being shaped by either going to war, protesting it or dodging the call to military service, and those who met those individuals were likewise forever changed. Such are the circumstances of Sarah Ellis's newest middle grade novel, Dodger Boy.

Vancouverites Charlotte Quinlan and her best friend Dawn Novak, both 13, attend a hippie event called an Easter Human Be-In. There, amidst the music and dance and fun, they meet Tom Ed, a draft dodger from Texas, who is invited to stay with Charlotte's Quaker family while he tries sort out his plans. When Tom Ed gets a job as a car jockey and has to drive a car up to 100 Mile House, Charlotte and Dawn accompany him. But while, Charlotte appreciates how Tom Ed talks to her like an adult, Dawn sees the trip as something else.

Meanwhile there is a war against the girls' teacher, who is affectionately known as O.O., from a parent seeking her firing for including the book The Catcher in the Rye in her classroom library.  Even within the context of a greater conflict, Charlotte is compelled to protest the censorship and the attack on her teacher, learning about civil disobedience and taking herself out from Dawn's shadow to find her own voice.

Dodger Boy piggybacks on an era of free love and peace but is embedded in a time of conflict. Sarah Ellis may use the Vietnam War as the big conflict, one between nations, but by including those involved with censorship  and between friends, she makes it personal. There may be discussions about pacifism and Nixon and the war but there is also much learning about differences and similarities between Americans and Canadians, about growing up and being an Unteen or a teenager, and about having a friend and being one.  It's a comprehensive look at the 1970s while still being selective about where Charlotte's focus is. Sarah Ellis, in her crafty subtlety, takes a massive picture of life in the 1970s and angles it at the individual, acknowledging what is important to Charlotte: her family, her friends, her school and the freedom to be her best human "be-in."

Celebrating author Jan Andrews and To See the Stars

Celebrate the life of author and storyteller

Jan Andrews

and her final young adult novel

To See the Stars

Written by Jan Andrews
with drawings by Tara Bryan

Running the Goat Books & Broadsides

978-1-927917176
156 pp.
Ages 13+
February 2019

on

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

5 - 7 p.m.

at

A Different Booklist

 Cultural Centre  

779 Bathurst Street

Toronto, ON

There will be tributes, readings, and refreshments

Presented by Toronto Storytelling Festival,

A Different Booklist and CANSCAIP

This event is a celebration of Jan Andrews but, as readers will certainly want to pick up a copy of her final book, here is the blurb about To See the Stars:

In her deeply affecting final novel, acclaimed children's writer and storyteller Jan Andrews gives us Edie Murphy, an indomitable and engaging heroine on the cusp of womanhood. The novel moves from Edie's remote Newfoundland outport to St. John's, and finally to New York City's Lower East Side. Against the backdrop of the history-making "Uprising" of 1909, when 20,000 garment workers went on strike for better working conditions, and the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911), Edie begins to find her own voice, hone her already-strong will, and learn about the true nature of home. A celebration of the strength of women and the power of community. 

Retrieved from http://runningthegoat.com/to-see-the-stars/ on February 26, 2019.