Our Little Kitchen

Written and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-262-4

40 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2020

 

The community kitchen in Our Little Kitchen may be small in size but it's big in heart and because of a mixture of compassion, courage and perseverance, it feeds the world with goodness.

From Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki

 In Our Little Kitchen, author-illustrator Jillian Tamaki takes us into a community kitchen like the one at which she regularly volunteered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Through rhyming verse, we are invited into the kitchen as a mother and her child arrive to lend their hands.

Tie on your apron!

Roll up your sleeves!

 

Pans are out, oven is hot.

The kitchen's all ready,

 

where do we start?

A wonderful assortment of individuals begin the process of deciding on the day's meal, looking at what they've grown in their garden and preserved, as well as what has been donated to or purchased for their pantry. Though rotting food is discarded, almost everything can be used. Day-old bread is refreshed in the oven, bruised apples cleaned up for apple crumble (recipe provided in the end papers) and a plethora of canned beans offer an opportunity to brainstorm meal choices.

From Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki

Beyond the kitchen, a community starts coming together to catch up on life. So as the hall fills with chatting neighbours, the kitchen staff is frantically bringing food stuffs together into a meal. There's humour ("Those who don't cook don't get to complain!") and panicking ("Just one more sec, please?") but soon a multi-coursed meal with protein-rich chilli, veggies and salad is delivered to an appreciative crowd.

From Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki

There's so much life in Our Little Kitchen, in the kitchen, in the eating hall and in Jillian Tamaki's telling of the story. Though community kitchens vary in their scope, whether helping to alleviate hunger or supporting marginalized groups, there is a boisterous togetherness that comes from working collectively for a common goal. In the dialogue of her characters, the liveliness of her rhyming text, or the bold colours and dynamism of her scenes, Jillian Tamaki lets young readers participate in the worthwhile endeavour of these food gatherings.

From Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki

Start your own discussion about community kitchens with little ones–why they are important and how to get involved– and join Jillian Tamaki's neighbours as they work together to cook and confer, share and nourish. Use their recipes for vegetable soup and apple crumble or use your own to cultivate and nurture a sense of fellowship.

111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl (Citizen Kid)

Written by Rina Singh

Illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0120-9

36 pp.

Ages 5-8

October 2020

 

In a poignant preface, author Rina Singh introduces an Indian village's ancient custom of celebrating the birth of boys with boisterous noise and sweets, and the birth of girls with silence. 111 Trees is the story of how that tradition was changed.

From 111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

As a child growing up in his Indian village, Sundar loved his mother and relished his alone-time with her each day on the long walk to fetch water from the well. In a small mud house with a family of eleven and insufficient food, his mother weeps at night. When his mother dies from a poisonous snake bite, Sundar shares hugs with the trees to remember his mother.

When Sundar grows up and has daughters and a son of his own, he "guides them to embrace all forms of life." So, working in the local marble industry, Sundar tries to encourage the factory owners to replace trees on land devastated by the mining and processing of the marble. When they refuse, he leaves his job.

From 111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

But Sundar is determined to make a difference in his community and wins an election to be sarpanch, the village head. A year after, his eldest daughter dies and in his grief he plants some saplings, hopeful that they will grow "into magnificent trees that will live for hundreds of years. And with them will live the memory of his daughter." With that as catalyst, Sundar declares that every girl born into their village would be celebrated with the planting of 111 trees. Of course, the villagers think he is crazy and reject his idea. But Sundar is determined.

With time, he teaches them about treating the boys and girls equally, about the environmental impacts of the marble industry on their land, and how they might make a better world, with water, electricity, education and equality.

From 111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

111 Trees is a lovely story about a community that is able to benefit itself by helping others and the environment. With compassion and through education, and by placing trust in Sundar, girls are celebrated with mango, papaya, neem, sheesham and amia trees, which they honour annually with sacred threads to renew their bonds, and now go to school along with the boys. Moreover, there is enough water for everyone and no one goes hungry. Rina Singh not only shares the extraordinary transformation of the village of Piplantri in her expressive text but enlightens young readers in her notes about Sundar's story, about gender inequality and about how the forest was nourished and grew.

From 111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

But with Marianne Ferrer's watercolour, gouache and graphite illustrations, readers are taken to a community hurting with poverty, hunger and environmental devastation and able to witness its glorious transformation to one of life and greenery and water in which girls and women share importance for the first time.

 

🌏 🌏 🌏 🌏 🌏 

 

For more social justice books, check out all the Citizen Kid books.

Citizen Kid series

The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

English text by Dina Ginzburg

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-8271-3

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

October 2020 

 

Tia's nervousness at attending a new school, Pleasant Valley Elementary, is not assuaged when she meets a red-haired boy in braces who makes her the butt of his jokes in multiple classes. But when the opportunity comes to work together, it's nice to have a cheeky friend to help you save the world from an alien.

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

Unbeknownst to Tia and Leo, the night before she arrives at the school, a turnip-shaped space craft lands near the school and a green-tentacled creature begins controlling the custodian, Mr. Bob. His strange behaviour is first noted by the kids at lunch the next day when they both end up in a room labelled "Philately Club" supervised by a nerdy man who sleeps most of the time. Tia, looking for some peace, and Leo, writing lines for poor behaviour, observe Mr. Bob collecting food scraps and saving them in his mop bucket while muttering gobbledygook.

 

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

 

Following the custodian, the two discover a moustached and tentacled green creature consuming all the food scraps. When they seek the help of the Philately Club's supervisor, they learn that Mr. Peabody is the official guardian of the club that was created hundreds of years ago to fight the forces of darkness. Oh, and collect stamps.

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

Sleuthing around the school, Tia and Leo discover the creature, now intelligible after devouring an English dictionary, intends to conquer the school, and take over the world as Emperor Zaralgax the First. When they witness it plopping out a number of colourful eggs, the two know they need to act fast. Armed with a weird assortment of gadgets, from a slingshot and flashlight, magnifier and shield, Tia and Leo, with a little help from Mr. Peabody, take on the green menace and thwart its evil plan.

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

Kids will laugh themselves silly over The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement. They'll know a sweet Tia with her unicorn shirt and funny guy Leo who'll do anything for a laugh. (Eating glue sticks is what got him assigned to writing lines.) And they'll know about fitting in and being brave and scared and why peanut butter isn't allowed in schools. Between the laughs in Dom Pelletier's words ("We're in a bad dream!" "Well, we are in school..."), including a commercial break for organic turnips, and the hilarious cartoons, this middle-grade graphic novel will have them snorting and whooping with every page. 

I'm delighted that Dom Pelletier's French-language graphic novels Les Timbrés will now be available to English readers. As of this month, there will be three French-language titles in the series (see below) and but I think young English readers thirsty for a good laugh and irreverent humour, which is what they'll get with this series, will eagerly await the next titles. (The Curse of the Scarewolf is hinted to be coming soon.)

The 2020 CCBC Book Awards: English-language Winners announced

Tonight, the Canadian Children's Book Centre, in partnership with the Toronto International Festival of Authors, broadcast its awards ceremony live from the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. From impressive shortlists–see the website announcement here with pdf–the following books have been selected by juries as this year's winners.

Congratulations to all nominees and most especially tonight's winners!

Here are the six English-language awards given out tonight with details of the prize money and sponsors. (Winners of the two French-language awards will be announced on November 13.)

• TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award ($50,000) Sponsored by TD Bank Group;
• Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award ($20,000) Sponsored by A. Charles Baillie;
• Norma Fleck Award For Canadian Children's Non-Fiction ($10,000) Sponsored by the Fleck Family Foundation;
• Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People ($5,000) Sponsored by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Bilson Endowment Fund;
• John Spray Mystery Award ($5,000) Sponsored by John Spray of Mantis Investigation Agency;
• Amy Mathers Teen Book Award ($5,000) Sponsored by Amy Mathers' Marathon of Books.

TD Canadian Children's Literature Award: WINNER

Birdsong

Written and illustrated by Julie Flett 

Greystone Kids

Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award: WINNER 

Small in the City

Written by Sydney Smith 

Groundwood Books

Reviewed here

Norma Fleck Award For Canadian Children's Non-Fiction: WINNER

Killer Style: How Fashion Has Injured, Maimed, & Murdered Through History

Written by Serah-Marie McMahon and Alison Matthews David 

Illustrated by Gillian Wilson 

Owlkids Books

Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People: WINNER

Orange for the Sunsets

Written by Tina Athaide 

Katherine Tegen Books

John Spray Mystery Award: WINNER

The Starlight Claim
Written by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick
Reviewed here

Amy Mathers Teen Book Award: WINNER

In the Key of Nira Ghani

Written by Natasha Deen 

Running Press Teens

Congratulations to all winners and nominees!

Poesy the Monster Slayer

Written by Cory Doctorow

Illustrated by Matt Rockefeller

First Second

978-1-62672-362-7

40 pp.

Ages 4-7

July 2020

 

Her parents may be typical in their frustration with a little girl who just won't go to sleep but her reason is very atypical: she has monsters to slay.

From Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow, illus. by Matt Rockefeller

With Halloween only days away, there may be much talk of monsters and creatures of the night. Some children will be frightened just as many already are of those horrors that tend to come out when the lights are dimmed. But for Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Russell Schnegg, whose parents use her full name the more frustrated they become with her, it's her parents who frustrate her. 

"Parents! Always with the bedtimes!"

From Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow, illus. by Matt Rockefeller

After her father finally leaves with a "PLEASE stay in bed tonight" Poesy is ready. She's been reading her monster book and she knows about all of their weaknesses. When the werewolf appears, she's ready with her wand and Princess Frillypants silver tiara. Of course, her father hears and chastizes her for playing with her toys. (She doesn't explain about the werewolf.)

Then there's the Great Old One who "made a noise like a frightened teakettle in a blender rolling down a hill" which she swiftly dispatches with her bubblegum perfume in its eye. This time it's her tired mom yelling at her to get back to bed.

From Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow, illus. by Matt Rockefeller

Kindly Poesy realizes she must "take care of the rest of the monsters more quietly" though, of course, her parents hear her as she disposes of a vampire and Frankenstein's monster. When morning finally comes around, it's her parents who look the worse-for-wear.

A prolific writer, Toronto-born Cory Doctorow is better known for his science fiction and tech non-fiction writing. Though he has written for YA readers, this is his first picture book and I suspect the premise of getting a child to bed, especially one whose name is almost identical to that of his own daughter, may be a very personal one. But with much humour, about how Poesy sees her parents–"He was so tired that he stepped on a Harry the Hare block and said some swears. Poor Daddy! Rotten monsters!– and how she slays the monsters, Cory Doctorow takes something from the scary side to the funny side. Matt Rockefeller's illustrations, rendered in pencil, graphite powder and coloured digitally, have a cheekiness to them, surprising because of the dark nature of the story. But together, words and art suggest that those monsters in the dark can be handily taken care of by a child.

Poesy the Monster Slayer will empower your little ones if they have any fears about the monsters that may lurk in their rooms after dark, though it might not hurt to ask them politely to keep the noise down so their hard-working caregivers can get some well-earned sleep.

 

From Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow, illus. by Matt Rockefeller

The Fabled Stables: Willa the Wisp

Written by Jonathan Auxier

Illustrated by Olga Demidova

Puffin Canada

978-0-735267725

96 pp.

Ages 6-9

October 2020

 

Eight-year-old Auggie lives on an island at the top of the world and has a very important job: he tends to the one-of-a-kind creatures that reside in the Fabled Stables. There's the Hippopotomouse, the Gargantula, the Long-Beaked Curmudgeon, the Yawning Abyss, and his friend Fen, a shape-shifting Stick-in-the-Mud, among others.

From Willa the Wisp by Jonathan Auxier, illus. by Olga Demidova

When the stable shakes with a "Boom" and a new stall labelled "Wisp" appears, Fen encourages Auggie to enter the moonlit swamp that stretches out into the stall and help the creature which must be in trouble. Borrowing some thread from the Gargantula's web to help him find his way back, Auggie cautiously enters the dark swamp.

 

Here Auggie discovers three hunters and their hounds pursuing a giggling creature with long ears, big eyes and a body that changes like the mist. She tells Auggie that she was just born that night and the people and their puppies were just playing tag with her. Sadly, she is wrong, and the hunters capture both Willa and Auggie and demand she tell them where her treasure is.

From Willa the Wisp by Jonathan Auxier, illus. by Olga Demidova

Clever Auggie is able to save Willa, though not free her from the fraught iron collar the nasty hunters placed around her neck, and returns with her to the Fabled Stables where he learns from Miss Bundt (there's also a Professor Cake who owns the island) more about the hunters and the dark group to which they belong.

From Willa the Wisp by Jonathan Auxier, illus. by Olga Demidova

Though Jonathan Auxier is better known for his weightier tomes like The Night Gardener and Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster, I think he's found a new niche to which his writing will make a valuable contribution. For readers just on the younger side of middle grade, Willa the Wisp and undoubtedly the series The Fabled Stables will bridge their reading from the picture book genre into more challenging chapter books with its age-appropriate vocabulary and plentiful illustrations from Olga Demidova on every page. But it's really the telling of the story and its illustrated format that makes it such a charm to read. Jonathan Auxier has made Auggie a normal kid in a very unusual job who shows extraordinary compassion while just wanting to be a boy with friends his own age. Beyond the menagerie of remarkable animals and the magic of Auggie's world–you'll like the hanging of a ladder to the moon–Jonathan Auxier has given us a story of a boy and made us feel for him and his noteworthy endeavours.

Willa the Wisp is only the first in the new The Fabled Stables series but its ending leaves us with many questions. Who is Professor Cake and how did he know that Miss Bundt needed to make an extraordinarily long ladder? Who are the Rooks? Are more one-of-a-kind creatures in danger from them? Are the Fabled Stables in danger? Will Auggie ever find a friend his age? With the second book in the series, Trouble with Tattle-Tails, slated for release in May 2021, we may get some answers and definitely more fantastical adventure.

 

Underland: Book launch and Twitter takeover (Online)

 

We 💖 Pulse Point

(See my review and Q & A with the authors)

 

which was Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack's first collaborative YA novel of a dystopian world in which Citizens under a dome are monitored via an implanted microchip in a forefinger and kept separate from the Primitives beyond the protective shell.

 

Written by Colleen Nelson with Nancy Chappell-Pollack
Yellow Dog (Great Plains Publications)
978-1-927855-97-3
192 pp.
Ages 12-15

2018 

Reviewed here

 Now their sequel is launching!

Underland

Written by Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack

Yellow Dog (An imprint of Great Plains)

978-1-77337-052-1

192 pp.

Ages 12-15

October 2020

To celebrate the book's release, co-authors

 Colleen Nelson and Nancy Chappell-Pollack 

will be taking over their publisher's Twitter account

 (@Great PlainsPub) 

to answer questions and 

share details about the writing of their latest book

on

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

             6-8 PM (Central Time Zone)

 

 

PLUS

You have time (until this online launch) to enter 

to win a signed copy of Underland

(Entrant must be 13 years of age or older)

Enter to win at https://www.greatplains.mb.ca/product/underland/

 

 

See you at the launch!