Forest Kid and Teen Committees 2021

It's that time again for Canadian young readers to apply for the Forest Kid and Teen Committees to develop summer reading lists for their peers. 

 

The Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading has put out the call for readers to apply for one of the three committees:

• Silver Birch (Gr. 3-6)
• Red Maple (Gr. 7-8) 
• White Pine (Gr. 9-12) 

Each committee, which will comprise of 8-10 selected individuals, will meet via Zoom in May to develop a summer reading list of recommended Canadian books for their peers to enjoy. Scheduled dates for meetings are as follows:

• Silver Birch: Tuesday, May 4, 2021
• Red Maple: Wednesday, May 5, 2021
• White Pine: Thursday, May 6, 2021

If you or a young person you know is enthusiastic, well read, and familiar with Canadian authors and their books, especially those published in the last few years, then the Forest Kid and Teen Committees offer a great opportunity to meet (virtually) with like-minded young readers and help recommend great titles of youngCanLit to others of their age group. 

 

The application, which takes between 10-15 minutes to complete online, is due April 1, 2021 and can be accessed at https://forms.gle/UxGm6wBsWkAeJVtG9.

 

Complete details, as well as links to past summer reading lists, are posted at https://accessola.com/forest/kid-teen-committees/ 

 

Second Story Press Indigenous Writing Contest

Publisher Second Story Press is holding its third annual contest for unpublished works for young people by Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) writers who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

 

Previous winners include:

 

Jodie Callaghan for The Train

 and

Michael Hutchinson for The Mighty Muskrats Mystery series

 

Here are most of the details you'll need to submit a manuscript:

 

What?  

• A previously unpublished, original manuscript of fiction or non-fiction which cannot be under consideration for publication by another publisher.        

• Submission must be written for young readers ages 5 to 18.          

• The jury will be particularly looking for stories with an urban setting. (Not looking for stories that rhyme or stories with anthropomorphized animals.)

• Send the complete manuscript but, if submitting a picture book manuscript, illustrations need not be provided.

• Submissions must be in English, or provide an English translation.

 

 

Who?

• Writers must be Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents, 18 years of age or older and living in Canada. (Unfortunately, due to contest regulations, residents of Quebec are excluded.)

 

 

When?

• Submitted digitally (email or Google form) or postmarked by May 14, 2021.

(Deadline was previously April 16 before it was extended.)

• Winner will be announced on  June 24, 2021.

How to submit?

• Copy of manuscript by post with entry form (link here) to 

Second Story Press
20 Maud Street, Suite 401
Toronto, ON, M5V 2M5
Attn: Indigenous Writing Contest

or

• By email to contest@secondstorypress.ca with entry form (link here)

or

• By Google form (link here)

Prize?

• A publishing contract from Second Story Press

 

 

Selection?

By jury of Jodie Callaghan, Nancy Cooper and Margie Wolfe

Details about this year's contest are posted at www.secondstorypress.ca/indigenous-contest

 

Good luck!

Nothing But Life

Written by Brent van Staalduinen

Dundurn 

978-1-45974-618-3

304 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2021

Fifteen-year-old Wendell (Dills) Sims's story in Nothing But Life begins with his juvenile sentencing after attacking a classmate, Patrick (Pat) Schultz, with box cutters. But this isn't the real start of his story because it's his backstory, about what happened before he and his mother moved back to Hamilton from Windsor, that overwhelms his present.

Now tracked with an ankle monitor by his probation officer Sean, Dills begins his community service picking up garbage at Churchill Park and environs. Under the casual direction of the park manager Gal, a scarred man who smells of pot, Dills toils away in the heat, trying to keep his head down and avoid trouble, even when his bully Pat comes around to provoke him. But Dills constantly hears his stepdad Jesse's voice in his head, remembering the advice he often shared, especially from his time in the military, to help Dills understand and make good choices.

"Own your own shit, kid," Jesse says. "One, no one can shoulder it for you. Two, it feels good to be responsible." (pg. 167)

Now, though, Jesse is also beckoning him to visit him. "I'm here. Come see me." Over and over again, Dills hears Jesse begging him to visit him in the hospital where he lies in a vegetative state, neither dead nor living. But Dills is torn between his love for the only father he has ever known and the horrors of a shooting at his school for which Jesse was responsible. Troubled by his confusion of feelings and tethered by his probation, with neither the money nor the physical means to get to Windsor, Dills is stymied. When he becomes acquainted through Gal with Mia Al-Ansour, a classmate and competitive wrestler, things take a different turn, and Dills make a decision to make the impossible possible, albeit with much deception, some hacking, and a lot of support from Mia, Gal and his Aunt Viv.

Though Nothing But Life is based on how Dills has coped in the aftermath of a school shooting by his stepdad, it's not about a school shooting. In fact, Hamilton author Brent van Staalduinen provides very few details of what actually happened at Wendell's school. What's more, though Dills finds a way to visit Jesse in Windsor, it's less about reconnecting and more about finding closure so that there is nothing but life ahead for Dills. Still, by writing with much seriousness, Brent van Staalduinen makes the reader realize that a story about a young man reclaiming his life rather than living it as the legacy of his stepdad's military PTSD or his own trauma associated with the shooting is sombre and requires thoughtfulness and compassion. The dying happened and that would never change. But Dills finds a way to ultimately end things with Jesse so that he might go beyond the kid whose stepfather perpetrated a school shooting and become the kid who is taking responsibility for his actions, and, even better, being open to friendships and more. It's nothing but life and, as Jesse would say, "Clear as mud."

13 Moons 13 Reads: GoodMinds video podcast series

 

Over the next thirteen months, GoodMinds, a First Nations family owned business, located on the Six Nations of the Grand River, will present a series of video podcasts of interviews with Indigenous authors and illustrators. Using the creation story of 13 Moons on Turtle's Back as the basis, GoodMinds has scheduled different guests for each of the 13 moons. Young readers, their teachers and parents, and everyone is invited to subscribe to the GoodMinds channel and enjoy these video podcasts. As an added bonus, GoodMinds is offering free downloads of the pdfs of 13 Moons on Turtle's Back Lunar (Cut-Outs) Calendar and Info Book to accompany the cultural teaching of 13 Moons on Turtle's Back.

GoodMinds YouTube Channel is located at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA8VGqqpPOeKzsHXhzZXf1w/featured

 

🌒 🌒 🌒 🌒 🌒 🌒 🌒

Here is the schedule of guests by date and moon:

February 27, 2021            EAGLE MOON

Author/illustrator Jay Odjick (Algonquin) and host David Bouchard

March 28, 2021                GOOSE MOON 

Authors Katherena Vermette (Métis) and Nicola Campbell (Nłeʔkepmx, Syilx and Métis)

 

 

April 27, 2021                   FROG MOON                 

Author/Illustrator Lisa Boivin (Dene) and Poet Circle with authors Joseph Dandurand (Xalatsep), Rebecca Thomas (Mi’kmaw) and Rosanna Deerchild (Cree)

 

May 26, 2021                    BUDDING MOON

Authors Tanya Talaga (Ojibwe) and David A. Robertson (Cree)

June 24, 2021                    BLOSSOM MOON

Author Wilfred Buck (Cree) and Author/Illustrator Sara Davidson and Robert Davidson (Haida)

July 24, 2021                     BERRY MOON

Authors Lee Maracle (Cree) and Cindy Blackstock (Gitxsan)

 

August 22, 2021                HARVEST MOON

Authors Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe) and Sean Lyons (Algonquin)

 

September 20, 2021          FALL MOON

Authors Waubgeshig Rice (Ojibwe) and Brett Huson (Gitxsan)

October 20, 2021              MIGRATING MOON

Authors Jesse Thistle (Metis/Cree) and Dr. Betty Lynxleg (Ojibwe)

 

 

November 19, 2021          FROST MOON

Authors Wab Kinew (Saulteaux) and KC Adams (Ojibwe- Cree)

December 19, 2021           FROZEN MOON

Author Michael Hutchinson (Cree)

January 17, 2022               SPIRIT MOON

Author Nancy Cooper (Ojibwe)

 

 

Do check out GoodMinds for its impressive collection of books by Indigenous authors and illustrators at its website at https://www.goodminds.com

 

The Project

Written by Courtney Summers

Wednesday Books (St. Martin's Press)

978-1-250-10573-8

352 pp.

Ages 12+

February 2021

 

In 2011, when Lo is just 13 years of age, she is critically injured in a car crash that kills her parents. Her 19-year-old sister Bea is called to the hospital and, in the chapel, begs for a miracle and Lev Warren appears. The miracle happens for Lo but Bea disappears from her life, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt Patty.

Six years later, Lo knows Bea has joined Lev Warren's The Unity Project, an organization whose mission is to do good works to atone for all sins and bring salvation. After an earlier exposé investigating The Project as a cult, Lev has tried to keep The Project out of the media, focusing on their community work and annual public sermon. But, now working for SOV magazine, Lo is drawn to look into the organization again. While she has tried numerous times to reconnect with Bea, she is always kept away by Casey Byers, The Project's spokesperson and Lev's right hand. But Lo's interest is piqued by the death of a young man, Jeremy Lewis, whose father Arthur had been trying to save his son from The Unity Project. When Lo sees Bea in the photos Arthur's private investigator took of Jeremy, coupled with numerous voiceless calls she receives, Lo is determined to find Bea and learn more about The Project.

Alternating between the past and the present, primarily over seven years, Lo and Bea's stories unfold with Bea looking to prove herself worthy of a miracle she believes Lev performed and Lo looking for her sister. Their stories are eerily parallel, especially under the charismatic Lev who has become father, friend, therapist and even saviour to members of The Project. Both sisters are bereft because of their losses of family but each feels compelled to action because of The Project. But, it would seem, The Project has other things in mind.

Everyone should be prepared for an unnerving read in The Project. By balancing family and everyday living with the extremes of manipulation and doctrine, it's Courtney Summers at her best. Like her award-winning Sadie (2018), The Project is chilling in its possibilities because this could be someone's reality. A tragic accident, absolute faith in an irresistible leader, family estrangement, a compelling mission and the need for connection could all be elements of any of our lives and with her storytelling Courtney Summers will disquiet readers with the possibilities.

While her plotting is always sophisticated and involved, never leading the reader to a predictable ending, it's Courtney Summers's atmospheric writing that is most captivating. There's a perennial sense of foreboding, even with the most mundane of circumstances, like grabbing a cab or working in an office. Courtney Summers never lets the reader relax and maybe we shouldn't because bad things happen, even if dressed up as good.

 

Lo, the writer, tells Lev that...

If you tell a story–something real, something true–you get to be alive in other people. (pg. 251)

Thankfully Courtney Summers is alive and well by virtue of The Project and all her other stories. She tells the truth, even if it's unsettling.

Stand Like a Cedar

Written by Nicola I. Campbell

Illustrated by Carrielynn Victor

HighWater Press

978-1-553799214

40 pp.

Ages 6-9

February 2021 

 

Let's take a walk, a canoe ride and more with these children of the Pacific Northwest as they honour their ancestors and show respect for the land and its living things. With occasional words in Halq’emeylem and Nłeʔkepmxcín (an extensive glossary is provided), two languages of the Coastal and Interior Salish, Nicola I. Campbell invites us all to join them to understand the importance of sustainability and gratitude as they experience life through the seasons.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Stand Like a Cedar begins in the spring with a canoe ride in the rain, accompanied by ísweł (the loon).  Spring is also the time to forage for shoots and roots with the child's Yéye (grandmother) but summer arrives, warming the earth (tmíxw) and bringing out a snake (sméyxł) to sun. With late summer comes berry picking in alpine areas, fishing and hiking with the telling of stories.

We listened as our elders shared a song about our ancestors
when they traveled by horse and wagon,
and before that by travois and on moccasin-covered foot,
in search of traditional foods to nourish our families.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Autumn brings hunting, handled delicately and solemnly.

Grandfather smíyc (deer) visited us. His summer coat was turning greyish-brown.
He shared a story about his descendants and family.
He explained that death is part of our life cycle.
He said to honour our tears as though they were stars in the sky.
He reminded us to take care of the land.

Winter arrives and the bears go into hibernation and the raven and eagle dance in the sky. With each endeavour, the children and their caregivers show gratitude: for the land, for the animals, for their ancestors, for all life.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Nicola I. Campbell., a Nłeʔkepmx, Syilx, and Métis author whose book Shin-chi's Canoe won the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s literature award and the 2008 Governor General's Award for Illustration, imbues her words with the gravitas of life in the natural world of the Pacific Northwest. There is a sense of dignity and solemnity in seasonal activities of berry picking and fishing, canoeing and hiking, with a recognition of the history of those who came before and those who tell the stories and teach. Her words are transportive to place and times both past and present.

Five kinds of salmon came to visit us.
They shared a story of when our great river was clean.
We could walk on the backs of a million spawning salmon.
Our nets were always full and our children never hungry.

But it's Nicola I. Campbell's final words that are most soulful, filled with gratitude and tribute.

We are Indigenous.
We love to run, paddle our canoes, dance, and play.
When we need to remember our promises,
we stand like cedar trees
hands raised to the sky.

Stó:lō artist Carrielynn Victor may illustrate Nicola I. Campbell's words, as an illustrator is directed to do, but her sense of place and atmosphere add more story. Read between the lines to see the joy of a child running up a trail, or a blueberry-covered face or a boy proud of his catch. There's the cool rain as the group canoes, the overcast skies and brilliant sunrises, and–look closely–the spirits of deer long gone but always honoured. Carrielynn Victor's art which is primarily digitally created gives us more, enlightening and celebrating too.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Stand Like a Cedar is a strong song of peoples and place. It's emotive and instructive and begs us all to be attentive to how we interact with the land and its life. Gratitude should be the default, not the afterthought.

Firefly: Virtual Book Launch

 

Join author

  

 Philippa Dowding

 

Photo by Andrea Gutsche

 

for the launch 

 

of her newest middle grade novel

Firefly

Written by Philippa Dowding
DCB
978-1-77086-598-3
200 pp.
Ages 9-12
February 2021

Reviewed here
 

on

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

 

6-7 p.m. (EST)

 

via Zoom

 

 

Register for this free online event

at

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/virtual-launch-firefly-by-philippa-dowding-tickets-140871330943

 

 

 I'm pleased to announce 

that I will be interviewing Philippa Dowding about Firefly 

so please come and check out the launch

• • •

This event is sponsored by 

 

publisher DCB/Cormorant Books

 

and

 

Another Story Bookshop

 

with 

 

Thunder Thighs Costumes

 (***There's a chance to win a few costume rental!!!***) 

• • • • • • • 

 

For a taste of Firefly, do check out Philippa Dowding's book trailer and reading of an excerpt from the book for a taste of what the book launch will offer.

 

Firefly Book Trailer

Uploaded to YouTube by Philippa Dowding on October 7, 2020.

 

 

Philippa Dowding Reads from FIREFLY, about a carrot costume ...

Uploaded to YouTube by Philippa Dowding on February 10, 2021.