Shout Out

Written by Joamette Gil, CJ Walker, Day Irwin, Kieron Gillen, Marie Anello, Andrew Wheeler, Elodie Chen, Nichole Robinson, Sunny Ôchumuk, Nicholai Farber, Anthony Oliveira, Angela Cole, Crystal Frasier, Derrick Chow, H. Pueyo, B.C. Holmes, Lindsay Smith and Ashley Gallagher

Illustrated by Kelly & Nichole Matthews, CJ Walker, Vivian Ng, V. Gagnon, Liz Parlett, Michelle Dix, Elodie Chen, Anika Granillo, Shaina Lu, Nicholai Farber, Josh McKenzie, Cheryl Young, Molly James, Derrick Chow, Dante Luiz, Alex Moore, Adrienne Valdes, Helen Robinson, Amara Sherm, Hien Pham, Maia Kobabe, Pez Moreno and Kristina Luu

Colors and Letters by Joamette Gil and Nichole Matthews

Edited by Andrew Wheeler

TO Comix Press

978-0-994937476

198 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2019

I love a good anthology.  It offers an opportunity to provide a medley of stories with different settings and characters and plots. Shout Out may be founded on a theme of diverse queer stories, but it roars beyond that, telling stories of Vikings, fairies, virtual reality, superheroes and humans whose stories need to be shared. They are fantasy and legend, reality and historical. And, with a diverse list of contributors, from Canada to the US, Chile to Northern Island, Shout Out becomes a global compilation of stories, providing readers with a little something for everyone.

From Sunlight (in Shout Out), written by Anthony Oliveira, illus. by Josh McKenzie, color by Nichole Matthews

Many of the eighteen graphic short stories in Shout Out include an element of the supernatural.  Some include spirits or fair folk like Amaranthine which tells of a fairy protecting a garden of flowers that can restore life. The Name of the Forest by Toronto-based Day Irwin and Vivian Ng has a character seeking their heart's desire from a forest spirit only to be impeded by not know their own true name.

I guess I don't know who I am either, though. Sorry, I only know who I'm not. (pg. 23)

In Curio by Andrew Wheeler and Michelle Dix, a young man picking gooseberries makes the acquaintance of Curio, the warden of the beasts, with whom he shares a kiss that is both surprising and scary.

From Love in the Cloud (in Shout Out) by Derrick Chow

Technology comes into play in several stories including Glitches Get it Done, a sci-fi story in which a space traveller learns from a hologram of a sociologist about past supports to help those in transition, and Love in the Cloud, the story by Torontonian Derrick Chow, in which two different teens in the virtual world of Polyberg become separated on the cusp of its dissolution.

Warriors, both historical and supernatural, stay true to themselves in three different stories. In Ergi, Aric is desperate to reunite with his love Eldan who has reached Valhalla, whereas there is a secret crush happening between Louis and superhero Vigil who is adept at rescuing everyone from evil villains in Sunlight written by Anthony Oliveira.  Sidekicks and Allies written by Toronto's B. C. Holmes reveals the quandary for Liv who identifies as female but for whom entry through a portal prohibited to males could thwart her plans to enter the Under Realm to stop the destruction of the world.

I'm feeling..like the universe keeps finding new ways to ask me to prove my gender, and the stakes are completely over the top. (pg. 164)

From Sidekicks and Allies (in Shout Out) written by B.C. Holmes, illus. by Alex Moore

There are so many stories, including of finding love at a speakeasy (Shine So Bright), a young man learning How to Summon a Demon to see if he really likes boys, and two Indigenous girls who are drawn to each other in The Fisher and the Jeweler.

From Torontovka (in Shout Out) by Nicholai Farber

In addition to the eighteen stories, there are five single-page illustrations that support Shout Out's mandate of inviting young readers to see themselves–gay, trans, non-binary, asexual and more–as individuals with their own stories.  Even with supernatural elements, these characters are real. They have questions, show integrity, and feel anger, compassion, and love. Their connections with others make them heroes, as they should be, battling conventions, discrimination, villains and ignorance.

Ghosts: Book launch (Winnipeg, MB)

The final book in David A. Robertson's 

The Reckoner Trilogy 

is set to be released!

•••••••••

First came

Strangers

  Written by David A. Robertson
HighWater Press
978-1-55379-676-3
216 pp.
Ages 14+2017

Reviewed here

then 

Monsters

 Written by David A. Robertson
HighWater Press
978-1-55379-748-7
246 pp.
Ages 14+

2018 

Reviewed here

and now

Ghosts

 The Reckoner Trilogy, Book 3

Written by David A. Robertson

HighWater Press

978-1-55379-762-3

241 pp.

Ages 14+

May 2019 

which launches

Thursday, May 30, 2019

at

7 p.m.

McNally Robinson Booksellers

Grant Park in the Atrium

Winnipeg, MB

Author David A. Robertson 

will be in attendance at this event

hosted by CBC's Shelagh Rogers

with

special guest writer Warren Cariou

The Mesdames of Mystery & Mayhem: Book event (Burlington, ON)

Authors

Sylvia McNicoll

children's author of the Great Mistakes Mysteries series

and

Melodie Campbell

author of adult fiction Gina Gallo Mystery series

are launching new books in their mystery series!

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖

Join them for this event to celebrate their newest books

The Diamond Mistake Mystery

(The Great Mistake Mystery, #4)

 

Written by Sylvia McNicoll

Dundurn

224 pp.

Ages 9-12

May 2019

and

The Goddaughter Does Vegas

(A Gina Gallo Mystery, #6)

Written by Melodie Campbell

Orca Book Publishers

144 pp.

Adult

January 2019

on

Sunday, May 19, 2019

2-5 p.m.

at

A Different Drummer Books

Burlington, ON

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ 

We Contain Multitudes

Written by Sarah Henstra

Penguin Teen

978-0-735264212

384 pp.

Ages 14+

May 2019

We might as well take advantage of the fact that we don't owe each other anything, that no one else is ever going to read what we're writing, that it's just me and you and whatever we feel like saying. (pg. 19)

When Adam Kurlansky and Jonathan Hopkirk begin their correspondence, it's as an assignment for Ms. Khang's English classes. Kurl, as he is widely known from excelling at football and basketball, is repeating his senior year while Jo is a Grade 10 Walt Whitman aficionado. Though their first letters follow their teacher's directives to introduce themselves and discuss topics like their heroes, Jonathan really gets into the writing, sharing about his father Lyle and sister Shayna, his passion for poetry and folk and bluegrass music, and what is happening around school, including the bullying he endures at the hands of a group of students he calls the "butcherboys." His narratives are generally observational, always poetic and often psychologically astute, though it takes some time for Kurl to begin to share his secrets including of physical abuse and his take on his own life and the people in it, as well as what he sees happening to "Little Jo."

I mean weird kids do have this aura to them.  It's like a smell almost. They're stuck somewhere in their heads, in some kind of a bubble. People can't really help themselves: They see a bubble, they want to pop it. (pg. 12)

But as they continue to correspond, now beyond the assignment's scope, Jo and Kurl develop a relationship on paper and in person, and one that brings emotional and physical support and finally love.  We Contain Multitudes may be an examination of how we present a multitude of selves to ourselves, our families, our peers and strangers but We Contain Multitudes is a love story. It's about finding love through words and sharing those multitudes of ourselves and developing new selves with others.  Jonathan is a son of a single dad and a dead mother with a fuzzy history, a brother, a poetry lover, a musician, a victim, and an aesthete while Kurl is a brother, a punching bag, an athlete, a thinker, a cook, a hard worker, and a secret-keeper. But with others, they are more because we are all combinations and permutations of our selves, depending on others in or not in our lives and on the events that change us. Our identities are sweeping and dynamic, and we all contain multitudes. And isn't it wonderful when two become even more because of love?

I am completely, one hundred percent of the time filled up with you. (pg. 189)

Sarah Henstra may have won last year's Governor General Literature Award for her adult novel The Red Word (ECW, 2018) but I'm gratified that she has returned to her YA roots. (I reviewed her first book Mad Miss Mimic (Razorbill, 2015) and interviewed Sarah Henstra too.) The writing is exquisite, the voices of Jonathan and Adam deep and sorrowful and passionate, and the convergence of their stories creates something bigger than the parts.

As I finished this novel of letters, a book I didn't want to leave, hopeful of the many multitudes of Jonathan and Kurl still to come, I'm overwhelmed with the infinitude of these young men and of Sarah Henstra's story. They and it know to  "Be real and be true" (pg. 9) and are, and I want more.

In the Key of Nira Ghani & Trail of Crumbs: Book launches (Edmonton, AB)

Join authors

Natasha Deen

and 

Lisa J. Lawrence 

for the launch of their new YA novels

In the Key of Nira Ghani

Written by Natasha Deen

Running Press Kids

9780762465477

304 pp.

Ages 12+

April 2019

 and

 Trail of Crumbs

Written by Lisa J. Lawrence

Orca Book Publishers

9781459821217

256 pp.

Ages 12+

March 2019

on 

Saturday, May 11, 2019

 2-4 p.m.

at

Audrey's Books

Edmonton, AB

 •••••••••••••••••••

Here's a little bit about each book from the publisher's or distributor's website:

In the Key of Nira Ghani

Nira Ghani has always dreamed of becoming a musician. Her Guyanese parents, however, have big plans for her to become a scientist or doctor. Nira’s grandmother and her best friend, Emily, are the only people who seem to truly understand her desire to establish an identity outside of the one imposed on Nira by her parents. When auditions for jazz band are announced, Nira realizes it’s now or never to convince her parents that she deserves a chance to pursue her passion.

As if fighting with her parents weren’t bad enough, Nira finds herself navigating a new friendship dynamic when her crush, Noah, and notorious mean-girl, McKenzie “Mac,” take a sudden interest in her and Emily, inserting themselves into the fold. So, too, does Nira’s much cooler (and very competitive) cousin Farah. Is she trying to wiggle her way into the new group to get closer to Noah? Is McKenzie trying to steal Emily’s attention away from her? As Farah and Noah grow closer and Emily begins to pull away, Nira’s trusted trumpet “George” remains her constant, offering her an escape from family and school drama.

But it isn’t until Nira takes a step back that she realizes she’s not the only one struggling to find her place in the world. As painful truths about her family are revealed, Nira learns to accept people for who they are and to open herself in ways she never thought possible.

Retrieved from https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/natasha-deen/in-the-key-of-nira-ghani/9780762465477/ on May 2, 2019.

Trail of Crumbs

After moving into a dank and drafty basement suite in West Edmonton with her truck- driving father, nasty stepmother and taciturn twin brother, Ash, seventeen-year-old Greta doesn't have high expectations for her last year of high school. When she blacks out at a party and is told the next day that she's had sex, she thinks things can't get any worse. She's wrong.

While Greta deals with the confusion and shame of that night, her stepmother and father choose that moment to disappear, abandoning Ash and Greta to the mercy of their peculiar landlord, Elgin, who lives upstairs. Even as Greta struggles to make sense of what happened to her, she finds herself enjoying her new and very eccentric family, who provide the shelter and support that has long been absent from her life. Much to Greta's surprise, she realizes there is still kindness in the world—and hope.  

Retrieved from https://www.orcabook.com/Trail-of-Crumbs-P4003.aspx on May 2, 2019.

 

Orca Book Publishers: Multi-author book launches (Victoria BC)

Orca Book Publishers

will be launching their newest spring books

on

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

at

7:00 p.m.

(doors open at 6:30 p.m.)

at

Munro's Books

1108 Government Street

Victoria, BC

Books being launched include:

Pride Colors

Written by Robin Stevenson

Concept board book about LGBTQ+, colors, acceptance

On the Internet

Our First Talk About Online Safety

Written by Dr. Jillian Roberts

Illustrated by Jane Heinrichs

32 pp.

Ages 6-8

Non-fiction

On the Playground

Our First Talk About Prejudice

Written by Dr. Jillian Roberts

Illustrated by Jane Heinrichs

32 pp.

Ages 6-8

Non-fiction

Tick Tock Terror

Written by Melanie Jackson

144 pp.

Ages 9-12

Middle-grade mystery

The Bodyguard

Written by Sean Rodman

128 pp.

Ages 12+ 

Hi-lo YA

Great Bear Rainforest

A Giant-Screen Adventure in the Land of the Spirit Bear 

Written by Ian McAllister and Alex Van Tol

96 pp.

Ages 8-13

Non-fiction picture book

My Body, My Choice

The Fight for Abortion Rights

Written by Robin Stevenson

176 pp.

Ages 12+

Non-fiction YA

Peg Bearskin: A traditional Newfoundland folktale

As told by Mrs. Elizabeth Brewer

Adapted by Philip Dinn and Andy Jones

Illustrated by Denise Gallagher

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides

978-1-927917-19-0

44 pp.

All ages

February 2019

Peg Bearskin may be big and ugly and hairy but she's clever and that gumption and canniness make all the difference to her life and those of others.

From Peg Bearskin, illus. by Denise Gallagher

Peg Bearskin is one of three daughters but, alas, her sisters are "pretty as ever the sun shined on" and Peg Bearskin is not. As they grow older, her sisters, like many people, want nothing to do with Peg but she persists in following them. It's lucky for them that she does as, when they spend the night at the home of an old woman, Peg's instincts and exploration lead her to discover the woman to be a witch who possesses a decanter that never empties, a lantern that shines for half a mile without fuel, and a swift horse with magic bells for wishing. Realizing that the witch intends to kill her sisters, Peg tricks the old woman and the three escape. 

When the three siblings get older, Peg goes to see a king with three marriageable sons. She promises the decanter to him if he'd allow her oldest sister to marry his oldest son. She only asks for a handful of pepper to achieve her task of acquiring the decanter for him. While the witch's old man uses the decanter, Peg throws the pepper at him and grabs the pitcher.  Similarly, she steals the lantern to secure a husband for her other sister. Finally, she does the same for herself, using a knife and saw to steal the horse with its magical bells.

From Peg Bearskin, illus. by Denise Gallagher

But, the third son is distraught to be married to Peg. Recognizing that perhaps making a wish on a bell might give him what he wants, Peg shares with him the secret of the bells, upon which he wishes for Peg to be beautiful. And, though the reader will see that Peg does not appear to be any different, the prince, who has turned big, ugly and hairy himself, sees Peg as "the most beautiful woman that water ever wet or the sun ever shined on."

Peg Bearskin may focus on Peg's appearance as defining how she is seen but it supersedes that characterization by showcasing how clever she is. She doesn't need to be beautiful in the same terms of her sisters, and Peg Bearskin justifies the phrase that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder because Peg is beautiful by her astuteness. Even in the end, when her husband wishes her to be beautiful, it's not her that must change. 

From Peg Bearskin, illus. by Denise Gallagher

This traditional Newfoundland folktale is derived from Mrs. Elizabeth Brewer's story told to a folklore student in 1976 and is part of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA) and shared in multiple editions of books on the folktales of Newfoundland. Philip Dinn and Andy Jones adapted it for a storytelling play in the late 1990s and several versions have been published over the years. This edition, illustrated by Louisiana artist Denise Gallagher, lends a folk art feel to the story. With its earthy green tones and beet red touches, Peg Bearskin becomes a true reflection of the folklife of Newfoundland while continuing to focus on the message that beauty should be accepted in its different manifestations. It's storytelling that can be heard in the Newfoundland vernacular of "mudder" and "et" and "spose" and in the supernatural elements of wishing for children, an evil witch, and magical phenomena. There is beauty in all of it and most of all in Peg Bearskin herself.