Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths

Written and illustrated by Graham Annable

First Second

978-1-62672-572-0

128 pp.

Ages 6-10

April 2019

The sloths from Graham Annable's first graphic novel in this charming series, Peter & Ernesto: A Tale of Two Sloths (First Second, 2018), have returned with a greater problem than managing their differences. Ernesto, the beige-coloured sloth, is filled with

From Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths by Graham Annable

music and joie de vivre and lots of optimism compared to his friend Peter, the grey sloth who is more cautious and realistic and certainly a homebody. But when a hurricane hits and their home tree, along with many in the area, is destroyed, the two and their sloth friends must search beyond their comfort zone and familiar grounds for a new home. Of course, Ernesto leads the way.

From Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths by Graham Annable

But the world outside of their own area has many unknowns and the group of six come across peccaries shouting about a jaguar, tree vines that are actually snakes, biting ants, a cave full of bats, and a river of crocodiles. But they also make friends of some armadillos, have a fun mud fight with an anteater and find a new home and roommate.

From Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths by Graham Annable

I was captivated by these two unlikely friends and their search for a new home. They might handle each new set of circumstances differently, one ready to plunge right in and sing his way through while the other focuses on logistics and making good choices, but they are together all the way.  And, as they find that new tree and tree-mate, everyone is reminded that communities are built with unity and support.

From Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths by Graham Annable

While animation and film fans may be more familiar with Graham Annable as one of the directors of the Academy Award-nominated animated film The Boxtrolls, I think the Peter & Ernesto graphic novel series will win him new fans, middle grade ones, who will appreciate the humour, the graphics and the relationship between the two lovable sloths. Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths has the right blend of those important story elements for this age group: uncluttered artwork, unambiguous dialogue, and a linear story line with the perfect balance of surprise bumps and hilarity along the journey. (The jaguar is not what is expected!) There are life lessons about friendship and acceptance and finding strength from others. Enjoy to your new home, Peter & Ernesto, and I hope to visit with you again.

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