The Old Woman

Written by Joanne Schwartz

Illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-211-2

36 pp.

Ages 5-9

September 2020

 

As fall will soon blend into winter, The Old Woman seems a perfect read. Just as a calendar year trudges onto its end, an elderly woman and her equally-aged dog plod on in their lives, albeit in good company, never hurrying, getting where they will when they do.

From The Old Woman by Joanne Schwartz, illus. by Nahid Kazemi

When the old woman and the dog head out into the hills for a walk because she "wanted to hear the crunch of dry leaves under her feet and the wind whispering through the trees," she remembers the trees, boulder and rocks and "when she used to play outside for hours, never wanting to go in." They walk, they play–well, she tosses sticks and the dog chases them– and they rest and they appreciate what is.

From The Old Woman by Joanne Schwartz, illus. by Nahid Kazemi

It's hard to identify the mood of Joanne Schwartz and Nahid Kazemi's picture book The Old Woman.  Both the text and the art whisper of a melancholic story of an elderly woman and her vigilant canine companion. But it's not. This is a story of serenity and memory and togetherness. It has the heart that comes from many years of living, alone and together, of caring for others and contemplating the vastness of the world while appreciating the small domain created through companionship.

 

The Old Woman is not a story of loneliness, though some may see it that way, especially through the lens of a COVID19-inflicted society.  But it is not. The woman may be appear to be lonesome but the story is more about living each day as possible with an occasional look back to what was. It's this wistfulness that touched me. Between Joanne Schwartz's words evoking such emotional tranquility and Nahid Kazemi's ethereal illustrations of filmy chalk pastels and coloured pencils that give The Old Woman such solemnity, I cried each time I read The Old Woman.

 

I hope that when we all pass from fall to winter that we all have the companionship of a loyal friend and the will to appreciate what we had and have, even if more slowly.

From The Old Woman by Joanne Schwartz, illus. by Nahid Kazemi

 

Screech! Ghost Stories from Old Newfoundland: Virtual book launch and storytelling event

Author Charis Cotter

 

who has brought young readers creepy stories, true and imagined, in her numerous books

 

is getting everyone ready for Halloween with

 TWO spooky events.

 

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

First,

 

she is launching her latest book

 

Screech! Ghost Stories from Old Newfoundland

Written by Charis Cotter

Illustrated by Genevieve Simms

Nimbus

978-1771089067

156 pp.

Ages 8-12

August 2020

 

on Tuesday, October 27, 2020

at

8 PM NL (6:30 PM EDT)

 

with

• a reading from the story "The Ghosts of Pushthrough"

• a chat with artist Genevieve Simms about her illustrations in the books

and

• signed book giveaways

 

Although the event is free, you will need to sign up at
https://www.facebook.com/events/763834864396397

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

 

Second,

Charis Cotter will be telling a story from

Screech! Ghost Stories from Old Newfoundland

 

at the St. John's Storytelling Festival, 

Mythic Beasts
Virtual Storytelling on YouTube

on

 

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

at

7:30 PM NL (6 PM EDT)

You will also need to sign up for this free event at
https://www.facebook.com/events/1260137937677869/

(Note: Although these events are organized on Facebook, you don't have to be on Facebook to sign up! Just follow the links.)

 

 

Happy Halloween

courtesy of Charis Cotter!

 

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

2021 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Canadian nominees announced

 

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (named for the beloved author of Pippi Longstocking) is the world's largest prize (SEK 5 million; about $578,000US)  for children's and young adult literature.  Even more mind-boggling is the fact that the Swedish government fully funds this award which is administered by the Swedish Arts Council.

Yesterday, the 263 nominees from 69 countries were announced online at https://alma.se/en/nomination/candidates/. 

Congratulations to the following Canadian authors and illustrators on their nominations!

 

 

 

Isabelle Arsenault

Author/Illustrator 

Deborah Ellis

Author

 

Sarah Ellis

Author

 

Jacques Goldstyn

Author/Illustrator

 

Uma Krishnaswami

Author

 

Eric Walters

Author

 

Nahid Kazemi

Illustrator

Jon Klassen
Author/Illustrator 

We look forward to the announcement of the 2021 Award recipient(s) on April 13, 2021.

A Family for Faru

Written by Anitha Rao-Robinson

Illustrated by Karen Patkau

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-096-3

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

October 2020

 

After Tetenya and his mother discover a young rhino alone on the savannah, the young boy helps search for other rhinos to be family for the orphaned Faru. As they trek past giraffes and vervet monkeys, guinea fowl and more, "the entire savannah spreads out below in greens, golds, and browns" and the two companions call and listen and search. But after a cool off in a pond of mud and waterberries for lunch, the two settle down for a nap in the shade of a jackalberry tree.

 

From A Family for Faru by Anitha Rao-Robinson, illus. by Karen Patkau

But when they are awakened by hunters, nay poachers, Tetenya's quick thinking and liberal application of the red-staining waterberries to Fatu's horn saves the little rhino from attack. Even better is the sound of other rhinos to which Fatu is drawn. Though the adult rhinos are safely enjoying a drink at a watering hold under the protection of armed soldiers, it is hard for the two friends, almost brothers, to part company.

 

From A Family for Faru by Anitha Rao-Robinson, illus. by Karen Patkau

Anitha Rao-Robinson's story is one of friendship and compassion but also conservation as her final note about "Rhinos" elucidates. I don't want to know what really happened to Faru's mother but, judging by the machete in the poacher's hands, it was potentially tragic. It's reassuring not only that Faru was found and offered security with Tetenya and his mother but that they were able to protect him from dangerous hunters while they searched together for a rhino family with whom he might belong.

Anitha Rao-Robinson's text evokes the camaraderie of rhino and boy in their companionable activities, whether it be collecting waterberries or hiking or resting and it's Karen Patkau's extraordinary digitally-rendered art that takes us to the savannah. Whether conjuring the acacia and jackalberry trees or the wildlife of Fatu and Tetenya's home or the warmth of the grasslands habitat with her organic shapes and earthy colours, Karen Patkau's illustrations take young readers to a land where a rhino can be protected by a boy and the bad guys can be thwarted by a clever child and a handful of berries.

From A Family for Faru by Anitha Rao-Robinson, illus. by Karen Patkau

Trapped in Hitler's Web

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic

978-1-338-67258-9

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2020

 

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch first addressed the impact of World War II on Ukraine and its people by the Soviets and then the Nazis in her series which included Stolen Child, Making Bombs for Hitler and Underground Soldier. With Don't Tell the Enemy (alternate title Don't Tell the Nazis), she began a different story, one of protecting Jewish friends in the Ukrainian village of Viteretz after the Nazis began to show their true colours. In Trapped in Hitler's Web, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch takes us beyond Viteretz, following Maria and Nathan after they've run away in the effort to keep Nathan's Jewish identity hidden and survive.

When the occupying Nazis started killing Jews in their village, eleven-year-old Maria Fediuk leaves her mother and older sister Krystia, whose story is told in Don't Tell the Enemy, to save her friend Nathan Segal from imminent death. Using the identity papers of a boy killed by the Soviets, Nathan becomes Bohdan Sawchuk, and the two sign up for work in the Reich, believing the promises of pay, food and shelter. Heading to Austria with others who'd been captured as slave labourers, their hope for safety is shattered when the two are separated in Salzburg, Nathan taken for bridge building while Maria is sent to the Huber farm near Innsbruck. 

The Huber farm is currently run by Frau Huber and her parents, Frau and Herr Lang. Frau Huber's husband and son are both fighting for the Reich and her fourteen-year-old daughter Sophie is a staunch Hitler Girl. Soon enough Maria learns that she and Bianka, a Polish girl captured two years earlier, are little more than slave labourers, sleeping in the barn and allotted minimal food, though not as badly off as the Ukrainians labelled as Ostarbeiters who return to a slave camp nightly. Though Frau Huber and her parents show kindness when they can, they are very cautious as their harvest is monitored, their actions are regularly scrutinized by Blockleiter Doris Schutt and they fear that the inexorable Sophie might betray them.

Realizing that her plan to help Nathan escape and to send money home to her mother and sister has failed, Maria does what she must to survive, knowing that she may be better off than some, but that she must find a way to make things right for Nathan and her family. Coming to realize that there are many trapped in Hitler's organization of cruelty and propaganda, from the Jewish people, to slave labourers, farmers, and even soldiers, Marie watches and listens and learns what she must to persevere and help those she cares about do the same.

As historical fiction, Trapped in Hitler's Web, like its companion novel Don't Tell the Enemy, is tragically honest and heartbreaking. The story is even more anguished as it is inspired by real events and people. But it is a telling story, from the perspective of a brave child who endured excruciating physical and emotional hardship, driven by hope to help those dear to her. It's also revelatory about the many victims of the Reich, borne in a manufactured hierarchy of discrimination. Hearing Maria and others referred to as "subhumans" and starved and abused is crushing. Still Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch writes to reveal another story of WWII, specifically about Ukrainians, and she does so with much heart and compassion, reminding us that there are sometimes more than two sides to a story and to war itself.

 

• • • • • • • 

Don't forget the virtual book launch coming up for Trapped in Hitler's Web.  Teachers and their classes are encouraged to attend for an opportunity to listen to Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch speak about her newest book of historical fiction. Register for this free event at the Brantford Public Library.

Trapped in Hitler's Web: Book launch (Online)

Join award-winning writer  

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

for the virtual book launch of

 

the companion book to

 Don't Tell the Enemy (Don't Tell the Nazis)

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic Canada
978-1-4431-2839-1
184 pp.

Ages 10-14

2018

Reviewed here

Trapped in Hitler's Web

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic
978-1-338-67258-9
240 pp.
Ages 8-12
October 2020

Review to follow

 

 on

 

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

at

1-2 p.m. EST

 

Presented through the Brantford Public Library, 

register for this free event 

at the library's calendar of events here 

 
Everyone is welcome. Teachers are especially encouraged to sign up their classes to hear Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch speak about her newest book of historical fiction and engage in a discussion about the book.

2021 Forest of Reading® nominees announced

Yesterday, the Ontario Library Association announced its 2021 nominated titles for the Forest of Reading book award programs.  For months, teachers and librarians on selection committees have been reading submitted books by Canadian creators to compile these exceptional lists from which young readers will select winners next spring. With ninety titles nominated, I've broken them down into three posts on CanLit for LittleCanadians Awards page (links provided below) or you can visit the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading page with its nominees. Also, check out how to register for this fabulous reading program. All young readers are welcome. Just select the right program for your young readers.  

Congratulations to all nominees

and

Happy reading to Forest of Reading participants!

🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲

Blue Spruce Award™
(JK-Grade 2, English-language picture books)
 Current nominees posted here

Silver Birch Express Award®
(Grades 3-4, English-language fiction and non-fiction)
Current nominees posted here

Silver Birch Fiction Award®
(Grades 3-6, English-language fiction)
Current nominees posted here

Yellow Cedar Award
(Grades 4-8, English-language non-fiction)
Current nominees posted here
   

Red Maple Award™
(Grades 7-8, English-language fiction)
Current nominees posted here

White Pine Award™
(Grades 9-12, English-language fiction)
Current nominees posted here

Le prix Peuplier
(French-language picture books, less text, simpler subject matters, perfect for read alouds)
Current nominees posted here
   

Le prix Mélèze
(shorter French-language chapter books maximum 100 pages or more mature picture books, larger text with pictures, simpler vocabulary and verb tenses)
Current nominees posted here
 

Le prix Tamarac
(French-language chapter books from 100 to 250 pages, smaller text with little or no illustrations, more complicated verb tenses and vocabulary)
Current nominees posted here

Let the Forest begin!