Tanna's Owl

Written by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley

Illustrated by Yong Ling Kang

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-250-5

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

January 2020

In "A Greeting from Rachel" as the preface to the book, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley recounts how all animals were important and considered family. When her father brings home an orphaned baby snowy owl, she learns an important lesson about caring and ownership.

I don't think you can really own an animal. Or a piece of Land. Or anything, actually. You can only bring things together. Learn to help. To care.

The little grey and brown owl with the big eyes that Tanna thought to be ugly at first needs lots of care. They house the little bird whom they called Ukpik (Inuktut for owl) in her father's workshop. It needs to eat several times a day and that means Tanna and her siblings must go out to catch lemmings. When Ukpik does not get her food right away, she stomps and sways and chomps in her demanding way.

From Tanna's Owl by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, illus. by Yong Ling Kang

As Ukpik grows, becoming both bigger, less cute and more dangerous with her sharp beak, Tanna continues to feed her, now giving her any kind of meat or fish. When Tanna takes her outside, Ukpik looks interested in flying, flapping her wings, but she is too young to fly yet. After Tanna goes away to school and returns the following summer, she learns that Ukpik is gone.

"It was grown," Father told her. "The owl didn't belong to us. It had to fly free."

From Tanna's Owl by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, illus. by Yong Ling Kang

Though the child had felt burdened taking care of the little owl, she missed Ukpik. So when she spots a fully grown snowy owl, Tanna hopes that maybe it was the owl she'd cared for.

From Tanna's Owl by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, illus. by Yong Ling Kang

Though many a child will bring home an animal for which to care, Tanna's Owl is a unique tale of the far north and embedded in a culture and heritage that respects its animals as part of the Land or Water or Sky. Tanna's father is very matter-of-fact about her need to care for the orphaned bird but also for its need to leave when ready. Staying as a family pet was not respectable nor natural. Tanna knows this in her heart but she obviously comes to care for the animal who may not have seen the little girl as more than a food source. Fortunately, her father's wisdom is subtly shared with the child about what she needs to do, positive or sad.

Nunavut's Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley's stories always bring readers to an Inuit world of place, people and experience. I've reviewed a variety of their tales from origin stories in How Things Came To Be: Inuit Stories of Creation (Inhabit Media, 2016) to history in Tuniit: Mysterious Folk of the Arctic (Inhabit Media, 2015) or picture books like Lesson for the Wolf (Inhabit Media, 2015). They provide a real glimpse into life in the Arctic for the Inuit people and a reminder that they reside in a natural world that is vast and complex. With their stories, we learn more each time. Accompanied by the simple and informative illustrations by Toronto's Yong Ling Kang, children will see what a baby owl and a full-grown snowy look like as well as how an Inuit family may live. The art depicts a modesty of life with a practicality of wisdom and pleasures while still representing familial and natural connections.

Inviting us in to learn the story of Tanna's Owl, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley with Yong Ling Kang have taught us more bout compassion, responsibility and respect, as well as cultural experience, than any school lesson might.

From Tanna's Owl by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, illus. by Yong Ling Kang

What If Bunny's Not a Bully?: Book launch (Burlington, ON)

Join author

 Lana Button 

for story time fun at the book launch 

of her latest picture book

What If Bunny's Not a Bully?

Written by Lana Button

Illustrated by Christine Battuz

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0055-4

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2020

on

Sunday, March 1, 2020

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

at

A Different Drummer Books
513 Locust St.
Burlington, ON
L7S 1V3

From publisher Kids Can Press: 

Ideas about bullies (and how we define people) are turned on their heads in this playful rhyming story that questions why a child is being labeled a bully.

Gertie the elephant says everyone on the playground should stay far away from Bunny because she's super mean. But Kitty has questions: How did Bunny become a bully? Was she born that way? Was she stung by a bullybug? Or maybe she caught the bully flu? Wait, does that mean bullying is contagious? And if it is, couldn't the other animals catch it, too? But ... then no one would play with them either, and that doesn't seem fair. Is it possible that Bunny is sorry? Should they give her a second chance?

Not your typical bullying story, Lana Button's fresh take flips the focus from the child being bullied to the one being called a bully. In cadenced rhyming text, the compassionate and insightful Kitty leads children through a series of questions that get at the core of the assumptions we make about others and how it feels to be on the other side of name-calling. Christine Battuz's expressive illustrations use tenderness and a touch of humor to complement the emotional level of the text. Altogether, this is a perfect child-level exploration of empathy. It would be an excellent choice for discussions about bullying, or more broad issues of social development. It also works for character education lessons on empathy, compassion, fairness and inclusiveness.

Retrieved from https://www.kidscanpress.com/products/what-if-bunnys-not-bully on February 10, 2020.

Kid Coach

Written and illustrated by Rob Justus

Page Street Kids

978-1-62414-886-6

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

February 2020

For children who feel that their parents and teachers and other adults are always dragging them to do things they'd rather not, Kid Coach will offer them a funny flip-flop of circumstances and some valuable lessons on sportsmanship and competition.

From Kid Coach by Rob Justus

Dad who is a "couch potato extraordinaire" loves his wrestling, watching it on all his devices. But his son is determined to make him into a champion. Through small challenges in lifting weights and eating healthily, Kid Coach gets his dad to the Wrestle-Rumble Mania Kingdom Tournament of Champions to take on an assortment of colourful wrestlers like the Flamingo and the Cheetah, using his signature move, the Tater Tangler.

From Kid Coach by Rob Justus

But as Dad piles up win after win, his ego gets the better of him and his over-the-top celebrations show his lack of good sportsmanship. Kid Coach knows that "A true champion is about more than just being number one."

From Kid Coach by Rob Justus

When Dad realizes how alone he is, Kid Coach teaches him another lesson, one about sincere apologies for bad behaviour and sharing some potato treats with his competitors.

From couch potato to true champion, Dad's finally earned these friend chips.

From Kid Coach by Rob Justus

This may be Ottawa author-illustrator Rob Justus's debut book, but I suspect we'll be seeing more of his work soon enough. (He has a 2021 graphic novel coming out called Death & Sparkles that is described as a cross between "Adventure Time" and "The Good Place.") The cartooning is dauntless in its bold colours that often spotlight pink, purple and yellow and in the weird and wacky shapes of the wrestlers in costume and in action.  Dad, with his long and chiselled face and front-curl pompadour, wearing a red wrestling singlet and head- and wrist-bands, cuts an interesting figure, even more so when covered up in his lime green-printed robe with yellow faux fur trim. Between his off-the-wall wrestling characters, the role reversal of father and son, and text peppered with clever spud puns, Rob Justus will make children laugh and learn about healthy living and sportsmanship.

Even if this Kid Coach had never spurred his couch-potato dad into wrestling greatness, he would still be a winner in our books for his attitude and determination. Without a doubt, he is the greatest Kid Coach around. Get this kid a trophy of his own!🏆

Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color

Written by Andrée Poulin

Illustrated by Lucile Danis Drouot

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-104-5

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

February 2020 

I'm tickled pink by any book that supports diversity and acceptance of differences as the norm so I'm especially thrilled about a picture book that supports this message in as subtle and eloquent a way, as well as playful, as Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color.

When Zac the zebra and Poncho the panda are playing and Filippo the flamingo asks if he can join them, he is told that he is too pink, a colour which gives Poncho a headache. But when Filippa asks his parents, they tell him pink is the colour of kindness and happiness. So Filippo tries again.

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

Zac and Poncho are now rude to Filippo, telling him they don't want him to play and that "Pink doesn't mix with black and white." His grandmother shows him with her paints how wrong that idea is. So Filippo adds some black and white paint to his body and asks politely again. But, of course, Zac and Poncho continue to make excuses, about pink being the colour for babies who cry and princesses who are fussy.

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

Though Filippo gets support from his family, it's input from his shy peer, Ludo the lemur, that makes things right for Filippo.  Ludo recounts to Filippo all the wonderful things that come in pink: shrimp, salmon, bubble gum, cherry blossoms, begonias, peonies, petunias, and roses. And Ludo, who is black and white, says he would be pleased to play with Filippo. That play includes adding a little pink paint to the sleeping zebra and panda, who are not pleased, but also to other animals who are "tickled pink to go pink."

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

The story in Tickled Pink is far from black and white. It goes beyond a story of excluding those who are different. It demonstrates how much we all want to be included.  Filippo could have thrown up his wings and said, "Fine, I don't want to play with you, Zak and Poncho" but he didn't. He questioned his parents and his grandmother and his sister, all to help him grasp what being pink meant. But bullying and intolerance are incomprehensible, especially when "reasons" are given to explain the intolerance. I'm glad Andrée Poulin gave Filippo a quiet and insightful friend in Ludo who proves that it's not the black-and-white animals that lack understanding, but just one zebra and one panda. (Okay, there may be others out there, there always are, but it's clear that it's not all black-and-white animals.) For intolerance to be eliminated, everyone needed to see beyond the colours.

Artist Lucile Danis Drouot keeps her palette, until the very end, black, white, gray and pinks to emphasize the separation that Zak and Poncho highlight but she adds a playfulness in her animals' activities–vine-climbing, soccer, volleyball, and badminton–that embeds the message in gentleness and whimsy. A final spread resplendent in pinks brightens the world in happiness and friendship.

Like any racism or discrimination, the zebra and the panda could have arbitrarily chosen an attribute other than colour, such as non-feathered vs. feathered, or four-legged vs. two-legged.  But, like so many who discriminate, they chose colour. Fortunately, there are so many who don't see the colour, only the substance, and infuse our world with goodness and acceptance.

My Best Friend and Other Illusions

Written by Suri Rosen

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4682-1

240 pp.

Ages 9-12

February 2020

When life becomes difficult, returning to the positive memories of childhood can soothe, invigorate and even stamp out worries. For young children, an imaginary friend can be part of that repertoire of comfort. It allows them to be imaginative, learn how to interact with others, allay fears and explore. But what happens when your imaginary friend reappears in physical form for all can see when you're a young teen?

Thirteen-year-old Charlie Green has a dream and a goal: she wants to attend a gymnastics camp with Coach Mikhailov in Montreal so that she might ultimately join his travelling circus, Circo Circo. But her efforts to raise the money needed have become more difficult. She had been partnering with best friend Holly to perform at parties, doing acrobatics, juggling and walking on stilts but, with Holly's move to Chicago, Charlie is on her own and making a mess of things. Her mother works tirelessly as a music teacher but just doesn't have the extra money for the camp. Her younger brother, Miles, is willing to help through his online poker, but it may get him put in foster care. 

Then Miles discovers someone advertising as Cirkus Celebrations and gets in touch, hoping to find a new partner for Charlie. A boy, who introduces himself as Rudy Jellen, attends a party and works so well shadowing her that it's as if he were a clone of Charlie herself. When it becomes evident that Rudy is homeless and knows everything about her dolls and what she liked to eat when she was little and stories she was told, Charlie realizes Rudy is her imaginary friend from ten years earlier.

Rudy was an archive of joy. (pg. 144)

But as Charlie continues to try to find a way to earn the money she needs, she must also look after Rudy and keep her mother from freaking out, while putting together the pieces of her life that she had forgotten. With Rudy, all things become possible.

Though My Best Friend and Other Illusions is solidly a middle-grade novel in terms of characters, plot and vocabulary, Suri Rosen has extended the story into a more mature one in which children have real worries with money, family, grief, social nastiness and self-confidence. As funny as the premise is with an imaginary friend coming to life, Charlie and Miles' story is a tough one as they attempt to reconcile what their lives are and what could have been.

Everything was so shattered. We'd all lost what we'd wanted and were also so lost ourselves that we couldn't find a way to each other. There ought to be a playbook about the right way to love people. Because sometimes hurting and helping them were all tangled up together. (pg. 136)

Suri Rosen may tie up her story well but it's not the obvious happy ending. Life just isn't like that. Even with an imaginary friend that comes to life, My Best Friend and Other Illusions is definitely real.  And reality sometimes falls short of the illusion of what could be. 

Black History Month: The newest update to a youngCanLit book list

In February 2014, I first posted a list (Black History Month: Book list) of youngCanLit that would help young people recognize the significance of Black History Month.  In February 2016, I updated that list as Black History Month: An updated youngCanLit booklist. In 2018, I added more titles (Black History Month: Additional titles). Now two years later, it is incumbent upon me to update this list yet again. As the listing continues to grow (there were 98 titles before today), I will simply add those titles that did not appear on the earlier lists. I encourage young readers and the adults in their lives who want to visit relevant titles for Black History Month to check out those earlier posts in addition to this one to get a fuller picture of the wonderful titles by Canadian creators that celebrate the lives and experiences and accomplishments of many African Canadians, African Americans and others of African ancestry while also giving voice to struggles and history that should not be forgotten.

List 1: Black History Month: Book list (February 10, 2014)

List 2: Black History Month: An updated youngCanLit booklist (February 3, 2016) 

List 3: Black History Month: Additional titles (February 9, 2018)
(With today's list, that's 109 titles!)


PICTURE BOOKS

An African Alphabet
Written by Eric Walters
Illustrated by Sue Todd
Orca Book Publishers
28 pp.
Ages 1-5
2017

Africville
Written by Shauntay Grant
Illustrated by Eva Campbell
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-7
2018
Reviewed here 

A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice
Written by Nadia L. Hohn
Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Owlkids Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2019

FICTION

One Thing That's True
Written by Cheryl Foggo
Kids Can Press
128 pp.
Ages 10-14
1997

YOUNG ADULT

Blue Gold
Written by Elizabeth Stewart
Annick Press
304 pp.
Ages 12+
2014

Freedom's Just Another Word
Written by Caroline Stellings
Second Story Press
232 pp.
Ages 12+
2016
Reviewed here

NON-FICTION

Africville: An African Nova Scotian Community Is Demolished — and Fights Back (Righting Canada's Wrongs)
Written by Gloria Ann Wesley
Lorimer
96 pp.
Ages 9-14
2019

John Ware (The Canadians)
Written by Ian Hundey
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
64 pp.
Ages 9-14
2005

Meet Viola Desmond (Scholastic Canada Biography)
Written by Elizabeth McLeod
Illustrated by Mike Deas
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 6-9
2018
Reviewed here

Meet Willie O'Ree (Scholastic Canada Biography)
Written by Elizabeth McLeod
Illustrated by Mike Deas
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 6-9
2020

P.K. Subban: Fighting racism to become a hockey superstar and role model for athletes of colour (Recordbooks)
Written by Catherine Rondina
Lorimer
160 pp.
Ages 9-14
2020

What's Up, Maloo?

Written and illustrated by Geneviève Godbout

Tundra Books

978-0-7352-6664-3

40 pp.

Ages 3-7

January 2020

Tackling issues of mental health in picture books requires a special touch. You can be neither silly about it nor aggressive while still getting the message out that there is help. Geneviève Godbout's text and art, always thoughtful and serene in soft pastels and coloured pencils, meets the challenge with style and compassion.

From What's Up, Maloo? by Geneviève Godhout

When kangaroo Maloo is happy and hopping, she is on top of the world. Life is a bed of roses, pink ones in fact. But when she's not, the hop goes out of her and a grey cloud envelopes her thinking. She walks to her friends who all ask, "What's up, Maloo?" and all she knows is that she's not hopping. There's the baking wombat, the swimming crocodile, and the koala, all who want to help. They attempt to lull her into play with balls in the water, and levitate her with the air from fans but the black cloud around Maloo does not dissipate and she isn't hopping.

From What's Up, Maloo? by Geneviève Godhout

The friends continue on their walking journey until they find a sail-like sheeting which they spread out and upon which Maloo bounces, hoping for her hop to come back. A bit of fun, a lot of friendship and a little time and Maloo is hopping again, now with her friends in tow!

From What's Up, Maloo? by Geneviève Godhout

Geneviève Godbout's illustrations are so serene and thoughtful, emphasizing a tenderness to Maloo's plight and the compassion of her friends. But still Geneviève Godbout's story stays inspirited, playing with graphic idioms such as Maloo's lack of a spring, or hop, in her step, the black cloud around her as an analogy for depression, and the bed of roses that make up her landscape when she is happy. Geneviève Godbout's What's Up, Maloo? makes me hopeful that, with a little help from friends who are supportive without being controlling or taking charge of her feelings, Maloo can get her hop back whenever the dark cloud descends again.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

It seems highly appropriate that I review What's Up, Maloo? on January 29th which is Bell's Let's Talk Day.  This is the day when media corporation Bell Canada contributes 5¢ to mental health initiatives in Canada for every applicable text, call, tweet, or social media video view in support of Bell Let's Talk.  So let's talk about What's Up, Maloo? to get our own conversation going about using Canadian picture books to support mental health. You'll find me on social media doing just this and I hope you'll do the same.