Meet Elsie MacGill (Scholastic Canada Biography)

Written by Elizabeth MacLeod
Illustrated by Mike Deas
Scholastic Canada
978-1-4431-7020-8
32 pp.
Ages 6-10
July 2019

Book 4 in the illustrated biography series Scholastic Canada Biography written by Elizabeth MacLeod and illustrated by Mike Deas focuses on Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill, an aeronautical engineer–in fact, the first woman in the world to earn a master's degree in aeronautical engineering–and a staunch fighter for women's rights in Canada.

From Meet Elsie MacGill by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas

Though born in 1905, when many girls did not have the same schooling opportunities as boys, Elsie was encouraged, like her siblings, to study hard and get a good education. She became the first woman in Canada to graduate with a degree in electrical engineering, before becoming enamoured with aeronautics. Though stricken with polio, she earned her master's degree in aeronautical engineering and worked hard to recover and pursue her interest in planes. She tested airplanes and their designs before accepting the position as chief aeronautical engineer at the Canadian Car and Foundry Company.

From Meet Elsie MacGill by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas

Now Elsie MacGill was designing planes and helping to build the Hawker Hurricanes which were needed for the war effort, as well as helping train women in the job of manufacturing parts and assembling them into the fighter planes.

From Meet Elsie MacGill by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas

After World War II, Elsie continued to place her mark in history, working for women's rights in Canada, advising the UN International Civil Aviation Organization and earning numerous accolades and awards.

There is so much to recognize in Elsie MacGill's accomplishments to science and engineering and women's rights that author Elizabeth MacLeod might have been challenged where to focus her story. However, she captures the big picture that is Elsie MacGill, from her family's push for education and women's rights–her trail-blazing mother, Helen Gregory MacGill, was one of Canada's first woman judges and a suffragette–to her education, illness, employment and push for equality. Elsie MacGill's life was extraordinary, as was she, and her accomplishments are featured fittingly in Meet Elsie MacGill without excessive text, the downfall of many biographies for young readers. With Mike Deas's illustrations, a blending of gouache, watercolours and ink media and digital tools, Elsie MacGill's story is given colour and form. The aeronautical engineer, determined to follow her engineering dreams into the skies, regardless of her need for a cane, goes to work on every page, whether repairing a lamp, creating blueprints for planes or shouting down a male chauvinist to help ensure equal rights for women.

It's sad that almost 40 years after Elsie MacGill's death in 1980, we are still trying to promote women in the sciences and engineering and fighting for equality in the world, just as Elsie MacGill had in the mid-20th century. But, with Elizabeth MacLeod and Mike Deas's story of this exceptional woman, girls and young women will know about Elsie MacGill's accomplishments which were all based on her determination to make the world a better place through hard work and egalitarianism.

Check out the earlier volumes in the Scholastic Canada Biography series written by Elizabeth MacLeod and illustrated by Mike Deas:

• Meet Viola Desmond (2018)
  
• Meet Chris Hadfield (2018)
• Meet Tom Longboat (2019)

Lili Macaroni

Written by Nicole Testa

Illustrated by Annie Boulanger

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-093-2

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

August 2019

It's too bad that school, a place of opportunity and learning, can be such a stressful experience for some young children. In fact, it can cause so much anxiety that they need to develop coping strategies to get through. That's a problem with the system, not the child, though it is difficult to see the troubles as anything but internal and very personal. Fortunately for Lili, she learns something about making things tolerable for herself and helps out others in the process.

From Lili Macaroni by Nicole Testa, illus. by Annie Boulanger

Lili can see her family in her hair, in her freckles, her eyes and her laughter. Her joie de vivre fills her days with love and imaginative play. When Lili is old enough to go to school, she looks forward to learning and meeting new friends. She does learn much, including about butterflies and moths. But when her new friends make fun of her last name, calling her Lili Macaroni-and-cheese, and her hair, eyes, freckles and laugh, Lili's joy begins to leak from her.

Why didn't Mom, Dad, Grandma, or Grandpa tell me that it wasn't good to be Lili Macaroni?

From Lili Macaroni by Nicole Testa, illus. by Annie Boulanger

Though she'd always said "I am the way I am," Lili is now envisioning herself as a dark-haired girl with no freckles. But Sophia is not her.

From Lili Macaroni by Nicole Testa, illus. by Annie Boulanger

Her dad suggests she draw one of her lovely polka-dotted butterflies to "help fly the heartache away." Clipping it to her shoulder, Lili feels the weight of the teasing leave her. It's a strategy she shares with her teacher who in turn shares Lili's butterfly solution with all her students.

From Lili Macaroni by Nicole Testa, illus. by Annie Boulanger

Teasing can be playful but it can also be bullying and very young children don't always know when one has become the other. In the mean while, there are little ones like Lili who must endure humiliating comments about their physical appearance and then wish they were anyone other than themselves. Fortunately, author Nicole Testa surrounds Lili with some very astute adults who recognize the little girl's need to feel good about being herself. Without hoovering up her bad feelings or demanding the school take action, they allow Lili to make her coping strategy work for her.  It's positive and it's empowering.

Quebec illustrator Annie Boulanger, who illustrated Nicole Testa's French-language Lili Macaroni: Je suis comme je suis! (Dominique et compagnie, 2017), gives Lili all the attributes the text imbues her with. She's a little wild, a lot of fun, and a whole lot of smart. She's colourful and inquisitive and enthusiastic. But when she' sad, the light is gone from her eyes and her clothing and the page.

From Lili Macaroni by Nicole Testa, illus. by Annie Boulanger

For young children going off to school for the first time, Lili Macaroni will help prepare them to recognize teasing that is insensitive and harmful and help them handle it for themselves as well as for others.

Paint the Town Pink

Written and illustrated by Lori Doody

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides

978-1-927917213

44 pp.

Ages 3-8

July 2019

Lori Doody is very good about bringing stories from Newfoundland to the bright illustrations of her picture books. In The Puffin Problem (2017), Capelin Weather (2017) and Mallard, Mallard, Moose (2018), she takes odd kernels of truth and germinates them into radiant stories of importance. She does the same in Paint the Town Pink by taking the true story of an accidental flamingo and creates a book about finding one's tribe and acceptance.

Once, on a particularly windy day,
a stranger arrived in town.

From Paint the Town Pink by Lori Doody

So begins the tale of Rose, the flamingo, who arrives in town and tickles the locals into thinking and living pink.

From Paint the Town Pink by Lori Doody

As she searches for a flock of her own, among pink-dressed bridesmaids at the Colonial Building, flamenco dancers, pink poodles, yoga enthusiasts and "a funny bunch of small flamingos who liked to visit a new lawn every day," the town begins to transform. The vehicles become pink, there is a rise in pink foods like ice cream, lemonade, macarons and cotton candy, and everyone starts wearing pink clothing. They even start painting their buildings because "Everyone did their best to make her feel like she belonged." Rose had found her new home.

From Paint the Town Pink by Lori Doody

There really have been pink flamingos that have flown off-course and ended up in Newfoundland, though their tales are not as inspired as Rose's in Paint the Town Pink.  But Lori Doody's story is not really about them. It is instead a story about being a stranger in a strange place and finding a way to make it home but only with the assistance of those who have come before. I know Rose is a flamingo but her story is a universal one of being out of place, feeling isolated, looking for commonalities, and finding acceptance from those who make an effort to embrace diversity as important.

It's lovely that Lori Doody's story is based on the flamingo and the colour pink. To be "in the pink" or "tickled pink" or having things "coming up roses" are all positive sentiments and the tints and shades with which she paints the town are similarly cheerful. Against a blue-grey sky, the streetscapes are bright and lively. Though Lori Doody's illustrations are generally uncomplicated in their design, they hold details that will delight. From the many cats in the windows and playing with yarn, to the names of businesses and music albums that highlight the colour pink, there is so much to observe and consider. Moreover, with her folk art approach to her illustrations, Lori Doody firmly plants Rose and her readers into a Newfoundland of colour and vivacity. It's no wonder that, with a town invigorated with pink from inside and out, Rose would find it a welcoming place.

From Paint the Town Pink by Lori Doody

The Heir of Ariad: Book launch (Aberfoyle, ON)

I am delighted to share his very special book launch. 

A former student of mine, Niki Florica, 

has just published her first book.

Five years ago, when she was only 12 years old, 

she was writing guest reviews for me on CanLit for LittleCanadians.  

Now, at 17, she is a published author.

Please join Niki Florica for the launch of Book 1 in her Christian YA fantasy

The Heir Of Ariad

Written by Niki Florica

Elm Hill

978-0-310101888

412 pp.

Ages 13-18

August 2019

on 

Saturday, August 24, 2019

1:30-3:30 p.m.

at

Puslinch Public Library

29 Brock Road South

Aberfoyle, ON

(One exit west of Guelph Line, north of 401)

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

This book launch will include:

• refreshments

• contests

• book sales

• author signing

and

• words from the author.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

From the author's website, here is a bit about The Heir of Ariad: 

The Skies seem a strange place to die of thirst. But four years of drought and twenty beneath the phantom king who designed it have brought all of Ariad–even the Rain Realm–to its knees.

Kyrian would be proud to die among Skyads. The weight of a vanished father's legacy and the secrets of the past have forced him to carve a place among his people at the price of his own sweat and blood. Ariad is withering, and Kyrian knows it. But no one can fetch the Rains against the tyrant's will, and no one but the Creator who has vanished into legend can kill an invisible king.

But there are forces at work beyond Kyrian's sight. A powerful, masterful Will.

Suddenly, there is blood on his hands. The Skies are filled with enemies, and the only way to escape a dark end is to flee the clouds forever. But there in the Lands waits a powerful prophecy, along with a powerful weapon, and now as Ariad withers to dust, all hope may rest with the one young mortal who fled his home a fugitive, and must return to it a king. 

Retrieved from 

https://www.nikiflorica.com/post/the-heir-of-ariad-book-one-first-peek 

on July 5, 2019.

Aunt Pearl

Written by Monica Kulling

Illustrated by Irene Luxbacher

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-153-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

August 2019

Six-year-old Marta's mother has decided that her Aunt Pearl should come and live with them rather than living on the street or couch surfing. Not only does Pearl bring her shopping cart loaded with her "worldly goods" but a man in an old van brings more boxes and bags with the same miscellany. While Marta and Dan's mother tries to keep their home tidy and organized as she prefers it to be, Aunt Pearl fills her room, as well as the garage and basement, with her stuff, and the clash of sensibilities begins.

From Aunt Pearl by Monica Kulling, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

Marta is quite fascinated with Aunt Pearl who is respectful of her new surroundings and family though she still feels the need to be true to herself.  Soon Marta is emulating Aunt Pearl, from her eclectic clothing choices to joining her on her forays to scour the neighbourhood’s garbage for treasures, always asking questions of Pearl and how she lived. Marta loves the drama of Aunt Pearl and always finds opportunities to role-play something she hears or sees associated with Aunt Pearl which unpredictably the older woman thinks strange.

From Aunt Pearl by Monica Kulling, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

But things are very different for Aunt Pearl now and over the summer and into the fall, she becomes more and more reserved, “staring into the ravine at the bottom of the yard where the trees grew tangled and green” and, with her mental health affected, she leaves.

From Aunt Pearl by Monica Kulling, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

Aunt Pearl is a tough story about family and love and appreciation and authenticity.  Author Monica Kulling makes it clear that Marta’s mother wants to do what’s best for her aunt but it might not actually be what’s right for Pearl. Many would think it generous and appropriate to give Pearl shelter in the family home but it’s obviously not what’s best in the long run for Pearl. Whatever the reason for Aunt Pearl choosing to return to the streets, and there are those who do, she was still able to make a connection with Marta, to learn that she had a place she could go, and that there were still choices within her control.

Monica Kulling's words never criticize either Aunt Pearl or Marta and Dan's mother for their living choices. She is an observer not a judge, seeing the circumstances as a clash of two worlds in which all try to accept their differences with open hearts. Irene Luxbacher's rich collage illustrations, a mixture of pencil, watercolour and acrylics finished with found papers and gouache, push that same idea. While Irene Luxbacher makes Aunt Pearl a sympathetic character with her soft eyes and quiet smile, Pearl's clothes are usually loud and her presence larger than life. In the words and the art, Aunt Pearl is both subtle and bold, trying to fit her world into someone else's and ultimately that just doesn't work.

Aunt Pearl is a bittersweet story about homelessness and the power of family to love and accept and let go. It teaches compassion and urges us all to better understand what it means to be homeless and to love those who are.

From Aunt Pearl by Monica Kulling, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

Level 13

Written by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Press

978-1-338-28620-5

241 pp.

Ages 8-12

July 2019

Cameron Boxer is a middle-grade slacker. He acknowledges this and is happy with a life style that allows him to play video games, hang with his friends Chuck and Pavel, and eat junk food. Of course, most parents and schools aren't supportive of slackers and so Cam has had to find a way to appease them with a façade of effort (see Slacker by Gordon Korman; Scholastic 2016) and he's done this by establishing P.A.G. a.k.a. Positive Action Group. But things tend to get out of hand when Cam is involved and his community service club has ballooned to 874 kids who think Cam, president of P.A.G., is a stand-up kind of guy who wants to do good work. So while all the paggers are working on a fundraiser for the public library, Cam is trying to avoid getting involved in anything that would take him away from his gaming and potential money-making endeavour as a live streamer.

Being the slacker he is, Cam comes up with a plan that would give him all the time needed for gaming and still look good. He lies to all, except Pavel and Chuck, that he's failing in his schoolwork because of his commitment to P.A.G. and allows Chuck's new girlfriend Daphne to take over as an interim president. To cover up his gaming, Cam creates a new account as GameFox229 and wears a disguise of an old Zorro mask and stuffs gummy worms in his mouth. When Chuck brings Elvis, the beaver the kids helped out in Slacker, over to Cam's house–Daphne is worried how thin he is–the number of followers and subscribers watching Cam explodes. Seems the rodent is mesmerized watching Cam play, getting into the game with sounds and expressions that suggest he knows exactly what's going on. Moreover, when Cam discovers an old version of the Guardians of Geldorf game with a banned Level 13 and is determined to make history with it, Elvis is all in.

But the Awesome Threesome, Cam, Pavel and Chuck, are struggling to stay a cohesive group while Chuck tries to balance his commitment to Daphne and Pavel struggles to keep up his stellar grades while always helping to transport Elvis to join Cam for his streaming sessions.

You know things have to go wrong. Soon all the paggers, without letting anyone else know, are taking over Cam's schoolwork to ensure that his marks improve so he can once again lead them in P.A.G. Elvis is not getting any fatter and Daphne is starting to worry about his health and the frequency of his absences from his habitat. Chuck and Pavel, knowing the truth of Cam's successes, are dismayed to see him held up as a hero of good works and marks. Even Cam's sister Melody gets into things by blackmailing him. Cam and his schemes are a runaway train and he has to get things back on track before he loses everything: his reputation, his friends, and even his health.

When he got mixed up in things–even dumb things–they could balloon to Hindenburg size in the blink of an eye.

     Then again, remember what happened to the Hindenburg. (pg. 122)

Gordon Korman gives kids a story they'll laugh at while envying Cam. Think about how many children would admire Cam for his artful scheming, continued luck, and ability to avoid scandal. He may call himself a slacker but he puts so much effort into his plans and their realization that he becomes a slave to his hobby. Level 13 could be considered a cautionary tale about the dangers of addictive behaviour and taking advantage of others but it's more a laugh on how the best laid plans can go wrong, even for those like Cam who were born under a lucky star. Regardless of the glitch in Cam's plan to becoming a professional gamer, he keeps leveling up, learning more about himself and others and appreciating a life beyond that of a slacker. For the Win!

Still More YoungCanLit Illustrators: R-Z, List IV

....and now our final grouping of illustrators in this Who's Who of youngCanLit illustrators. Do check out all the lists from 2013, 2015 and 2017. (Details at https://canlitforlittlecanadians.blogspot.com/2019/07/still-more-youngcanlit-illustrators.html)



Kass Reich

Richard Rudnicki 

Kari Rust 

Drew Shannon

Kim Smith

Lori Joy Smith 

Jan Thornhill 

Veselina Tomova

Noel Tuazon 

Geraldo Valério

Roy Henry Vickers 

Joe Weissmann

Britt Wilson

📕📕📕📕📕