International Day of the Girl: BookList 2

This second book list, to support the UN's International Day of the Girl on October 11, provides but a small sampling of chapter books and middle grade fiction that lets us...

...stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

From http://litworld.org/standupforgirls 

on October 3, 2012.

n.b. While several of the books listed (e.g., The Breadwinner, The Third Eye and Greener Grass) are part of series with strong female protagonists, only a single book is listed here.  Readers are encouraged to check out sequels to get a more complete story of the amazing fortitude of the girls in these books.

Fiction

Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery
Image of 100th Anniversary Edition
Penguin Group Canada
Ages 8-12
2008
Story of Anne Shirley and the new home she makes with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert on Prince Edward Island.

Before Green Gables
by Budge Wilson
Penguin Canada
447 pp.
Ages 10+
2008
Anne's story from birth to arrival on Prince Edward Island.

The Breadwinner
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
170 pp.
Ages 10-14
2000
Parvana disguises herself as a boy to feed her family in war-torn Afghanistan. 

Catla and the Vikings

by Mary Elizabeth Nelson

Orca Book Publishers

191 pp.

Ages 9-13

2012 

Catla seeks help after her Northumbrian village is attacked by Vikings.

The Crazy Man 
by Pamela Porter
Groundwood Books
214 pp.
Ages 8-12
2005
A farm accident leaves Emmaline disabled and the family farm in need of help.

Going Places
by Fran Hurcomb
Orca Book Publishers
122 pp.
Ages 8-11
2008
Jess and her friends work against the odds to start a girls hockey team in their small town in the NWT.

The Glory Wind
by Valerie Sherrard
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
222 pp.
Ages 11+
2010
In 1946 Manitoba, new girl Gracie must endure the gossip and ignorance simply because of the job her mother takes. 

Greener Grass
by Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
276 pp.
Ages 11-14
2008
Kathleen Byrne’s Irish family deals with life as poor potato farmers until the Great Famine turns things from bad to worse.

Home is Beyond the Mountains 
by Celia Barker Lottridge
Groundwood Books
224 pp.
Ages 10+
2010
Based on the true journey of Assyrian refugee children fleeing from the invading Turkish army in the 1920's. 
 

Looking for X 
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
132 pp.
Ages 11-13
1999
Khyber endures a life of poverty and taunting because of her mother and brothers but an accusation of vandalism compels her to stand up for herself.

Lost Goat Lane
by Rosa Jordan
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
197 pp.
Ages 9-12
2005
In rural Florida, two girls, one black and the other white, find a way to overcome suspicions and work together. 

Making Bombs for Hitler
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic Canada
186 pp.
Ages 8-12
2012
Lida and other Ukrainian children are sent to Germany to work as slave labourers for the Nazis.

Mella and the N'anga
by Gail Nyoka
Sumach Press
160 pp.
Ages 8-12
2005
To restore her father's health, Mella must face the Python Healer.

No Ordinary Day 
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
159 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011
Orphaned and mistreated, Lalli finds a richer life on the streets.

The Orphan Rescue
by Anne Dublin
Illustrated by Qin Leng
Second Story Press
124 pp.
Ages 9-12
2010
Miriam aims to rescue her brother from an orphanage where children must do dangerous work.

The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy
by Jill MacLean
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
160 pp.
Ages 10-13
2009
--> Prinny's life is immersed in dealing with her alcoholic mother, evading a team of bullies, and facing her reading challenges. 

The Shepherd's Granddaughter 
by Anne Laurel Carter
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi
222 pp.
Ages 11+
2008
A young Muslim girl, Amani, learns shepherding from her grandfather, while her family deals with the escalating encroachment of Israeli settlement.

The Third Eye
by Mahtab Narsimhan
Dundurn Press
240 pp.
Ages 10-14
2007
When her village succumbs to the mesmerizing but evil new healer, Zarku, clever Tara courageously takes it upon herself to save the villagers.

Wanting Mor 
by Rukhsana Khan
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi
190 pp.
Ages 10-14
2009
After the death of her mother (Mor), Jameela follows her father who is looking for a new life, ultimately without her.

Watching Jimmy 
by Nancy Hartry
Tundra Books
144 pp.
Ages 11-13
2009
With courage and compassion, Caroline does all she can for her friend and neighbour Jimmy after an accident leaves him brain-damaged.

When the Bough Breaks
by Irene N. Watts
Tundra Books
145 pp.
Ages 9-15
2007
After her mother's death in childbirth, Millie has to balance housework, schoolwork, caring for her siblings and a part-time job during the Depression.

   Help girls be   
    Fierce       Fearless      Free     

International Day of the Girl BookList 1: Picture Books can be accessed here.

Jump Cut: Seven the Series

by Ted Staunton

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-55469-947-6

220 pp.

Ages 9-12

Release date October 10, 2012

While his 15-year-old brother Bunny is getting tattooed to fulfill his grandfather's last wishes (Ink Me by Richard Scrimger), Spencer O'Toole (17) is off to Buffalo with his dad, Jer, to film his kiss from the aging film star, Gloria Lorraine.  While his dad waits outside her retirement home, the tiny elderly woman, still platinum blonde and with heavy make-up, sunglasses, red fingernails and posing with a cigarette, insists that Spencer work for that kiss by helping her run "a few errands." With that, somewhere a director would be shouting, "Action!"

Starting in the fall, Spencer would be starting film studies at Humber College and he sees everything in terms of a script or lighting or scenery or direction.  And with her seemingly simple demand, Miss Lorraine, or GL to her friends, takes Spencer on an adventure that even he can't believe is real.

Stealing a white Cadillac convertible at the retirement home and picking up GL's granddaughter, AmberLea, GL has them heading to Canada.  Of course, there is the complication of the large man and chihuahua they find bound in the trunk of the car, with clear packages of white powder.  He's Al Capoli, a baker known as the King of Cannoli, and his dog, Mister Bones, and Al claims that another resident at the retirement home, Rocco Wings, wants to kill him for allegedly double-crossing him on a deal.  So, with Rocco and his sons in pursuit, the unlikely cast of characters heads for Torrance, Ontario so that GL can share a few secrets with AmberLea before it's too late and Spencer can just fulfill what seemed like a simple request from his grandfather, David McLean.  Unbeknownst to Spencer, though, his grandfather has an important role in GL's secrets, and their telling will help explain all.

Spencer realizes that GL is treating the adventure as if it were a movie in the making and, in fact, is trying to make her life into a movie.  After all, Miss Lorraine claims,

"Life is a movie with no jump cuts.  It's the cutting that makes the movie." (pg. 82)

 If Jump Cut were a movie, and it would make a fantastic film, it would an action thriller with a quirky cast and many surprises, and the audience would be relentlessly sitting on the edge of their seats and falling back with belly laughs.  Ted Staunton's sense of humour is divine, especially when verbalized by the indomitable Gloria Lorraine.  From continually getting Spencer's name wrong (is it Spanky, Spritzer, Skinner or Spunky?) and running into Tim Horton's and other places to change her Dependables (adult diapers) and shooting off a gun she believes is fake, GL is is larger than life.  Ted Staunton has enriched her with the voice of age, experience, compassion and life.  She has it all.  Luckily, Spencer, in a perennial state of disbelief, sees her and their story as a great epic, needing to be told.

Like Kill Bill, the movie Spencer is watching for the fifteenth time at the beginning of the book, Jump Cut has the eccentric elements of a cult classic.  But, I suspect, that Jump Cut and all the other books in Orca's Seven The Series will definitely stay in the mainstream for a long time with their popularity ensuring their status as classics.

UN's International Day of the Girl: October 11, 2012

Salute, applaud and stand up for girls with LitWorld's Stand Up for Girls campaign.

Let us stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

From http://litworld.org/standupforgirls 

on October 3, 2012. 

In aid of the United Nation's International Day of the Girl, October 11, support the goal of literacy for girls world-wide with phenomenal reads from Canadian authors.  In a series of posts for International Day of the Girl, I will focus on picture books, fiction, young adult, non-fiction and series that send the message, "You go, Girl!" Help all children understand the inequities and hardships experienced by many girls solely because of their gender by exposing our Canadian children to the rich CanLit that advocates for girls to be...

   Fierce       Fearless      Free   

Picture Books

The Boy Who Ate the World (and the Girl Who Saved It)
by Don Gillmor
Illustrated by Pierre  Pratt
North Winds Press
2008 

Earth to Audrey
by Susan Hughes
Illustrated by Stéphane Poulin
Kids Can Press
2007

My Name is Elizabeth!
by Annika Dunklee
Illustrated by Matthew Forsythe
Kids Can Press
2011

The Paper Bag Princess
by Robert Munsch
Illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Annick Press
1999

The Remarkable Maria
by Patti McIntosh
Illustrated by Tara Langlois
Maggie and Pierrot
2005

Splinters
by Kevin Sylvester
Tundra Books
2010






Suki's Kimono
by Chieri Uegaki
Illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch
Kids Can Press
2005






Virginia Wolf
by Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Kids Can Press
2012






Willow's Whispers
by Lana Button
Illustrated by Tania Howells
Kids Can Press
2010

When Stella Was Very, Very Small
by Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books
2009

Vikki VanSickle's Book Trailer Contest now open!

To herald the February release of her newest book

Days That End in Y

Scholastic Canada

978-1443124324

240 pp.

Ages 10-14

February 1, 2013

Vikki VanSickle

author of  

Words That Start with B (Scholastic Canada, 2010) and

 Love is a Four-Letter Word (Scholastic Canada, 2011)

has announced a

 BOOK TRAILER CONTEST

 Just create a fun video, no longer than two minutes in length, 

celebrating the Clarissa and Benji book series

Grand Prize

• your video posted to the author's and Scholastic Canada websites

• a school visit from the author, including a fun writing workshop

• a library of Scholastic books, valued at $100.00, for yourself

• signed sets of the series for your classroom and school library

Three Runners Up

• video posted on the author's website

• prize pack from Scholastic Canada, valued at $25.00

Contest runs from October 1 to January 15

Winners announced on February 1, 2013

For rules and regulations and 

information about submitting your video,

contact Vikki VanSickle at Vikki.vansickle@gmail.com

More details can be found at author Vikki VanSickle's blog at http://vikkivansickle.wordpress.com/book-trailer-contest/

Governor General's Literary Awards 2012: Finalists

The Governor General's Literary Awards were announced today on the Canada Council for the Arts' website.  Of the seven awards, the two related to children's book text and illustration are described here on the CanLit for LittleCanadians Awards site.

#CanLit Choices: "Maniac Magee" Alternatives

Maniac Magee

by Jerry Spinelli

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

978-0316807227

184 pp.

Ages 8-12

RL 5.2

1990

Typically read in Grade 5, Maniac Magee, winner of the 1990 Newbery Medal, tells the story of Jeffrey Lionel Magee.  Orphaned at the age of three and enduring misery with his aunt and uncle until he runs away, Jeffrey "settles" in the town of Two Mills, a town racially divided between the predominantly black East End and the white West End.  By virtue of his incredible athleticism and extraordinary feats of compassion and bravery, Jeffrey makes both friends and enemies, earning himself the moniker of "Maniac." Always looking for a place to call home, Jeffrey bounces from one temporary home to another, on both sides of town, trying to keep the part of him that is Jeffrey Magee. 

Two prevalent themes in Maniac Magee are:

• homelessness; and
• discrimination.

 

The following youngCanLit all include storylines involving homeless persons and discrimination, based on race or other attributes.  Each would serve well as updated and alternative novels to Maniac Magee.  For each, I have looked at the two themes emphasized in Maniac Magee in terms of the youngCanLit selections.

Heck, Superhero
by Martine Leavitt
Red Deer Press
144 pp.
Ages 9-13
2004

• Homelessness: Thirteen-year-old Heck finds himself alone on the street after he and his mom are evicted from their apartment and she takes off.

• Discrimination: Heck denies to himself that his mother has a mental illness, instead pretending that he is a superhero and that all is well.  Heck's subsequent friendship with Marion, a mentally-ill boy, makes him realize that he cannot and must not ignore the nature of his mother's illness.


I Am a Taxi
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
205 pp.
Ages 10-13
2006

• Homelessness: Twelve-year-old Diego lives with his Mamá and 3-year-old sister Corina in the San Sebastian Jail for Women in Cochabamba, Bolivia after coca paste, used to make cocaine, was found under their seats on a public bus.  Diego runs away with the aim of making money for his family but ends up homeless and far away from them.
 
• Discrimination: The people of Bolivia who consider the leaves of the coca as having cultural and sacred importance are discriminated against by the authorities who criminalize all those involved with the coca plants. 

I'll Be Home Soon
by Luanne Armstrong
Ronsdale Press
200 pp.
Ages 10+
September, 2012

• Homelessness: When her mother goes missing, Regan finds herself scrounging for food and staying under the radar of the authorities.  She finds help amongst the homeless in a tent city and a street busker who looks out for her, sharing his squat and limited resources.

• Discrimination: Though apprehensive of the homeless, Regan finds herself leaning on them for help and seeing beyond their lack of houses.

Looking for X
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
132 pp.
Ages 11-13
1999

• Homelessness: Eleven-year-old Khyber who lives with her mom and autistic twin brothers in Toronto's Regent Park befriends a homeless woman, X, who becomes her alibi.

• Discrimination: As Khyber lives in poverty with her mother, a former stripper, and her two autistic brothers, she has had to endure much taunting, but being accused of vandalism forces her to stand up for herself and look for a way to clear her name.

The Maestro
by Tim Wynne-Jones
Groundwood Books
223 pp.
Ages 10+
1995, 2004

• Homelessness:  After running away from his abusive father, Burl heads to the wilderness for relief and a home.  Ultimately though, he needs shelter and food and finds it with an eccentric maestro.  Even after the Maestro returns to the city, Burl looks for a way to keep himself from becoming homeless again.

• Discrimination:  Although the discrimination in The Maestro is not significant, seen only in the Maestro's reluctance to take Burl in, preferring his solitude, and Burl unable to trust anyone with his secrets, the perceived inadequacies of the characters' by others could be seen as discriminatory.  And I really wanted to include this award-winning book (Governor General's Award for Children's Literature; Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award) in this list!

The Royal Woods
by Matt Duggan
Key Porter Books
218 pp.
Ages 9-12
2007

• Homelessness: When Sydney, 12, and her brother Turk, 9, find the farm they've run away to gone and replaced by a housing development, the Royal Woods, they find innovative ways to meet their needs for shelter, food and such.

• Discrimination:  Although they find friendship and assistance from Shep McPharlain, an unusual homeless man, and Kumar, a kind illegal immigrant, not everyone sees the goodness in the group, including some locals and the Royal Woods Love, Friendship and Improvement committee!

Sketches
by Eric Walters
Puffin Canada
226 pp.
Ages 12-16
2007

• Homelessness: Fourteen-year-old Dana leaves an abusive home situation and ends up on the streets of Toronto, eventually teaming up with other homeless youths and finding some safety at Sketches, an art drop-in centre.

• Discrimination:  The street youth are often "seen" in terms of their homelessness, even by Dana at first, instead of their capabilities or intentions.


A Tinfoil Sky
by Cyndi Sand-Eveland
Tundra Books
216 pp.
Ages 11-14
2012

• Homelessness: Mel is only twelve but she has endured an entire life of bouncing from homelessness to minimal housing, and even the promise by her mother that they are finally going home proves uncertain when Mel's grandmother refuses to take them in and Mel's mother leaves.

• Discrimination:  Regardless of Mel's mature and caring nature with regards to their situation, her grandmother judges her daughter and granddaughter through her anger and disappointment, rather than what is in evidence.

Additional books that may be used, depending on your students' reading and interest levels, include:

Libertad
by Alma Fullerton
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
215 pp.
Ages 10+
2008

No Ordinary Day
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-108-3
159 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011




Secret Signs
by Jacqueline Guest
Orca Book Publishers
140 pp.
Ages 9-11
2006

Theories of Relativity
by Barbara Haworth-Attard
HarperCollins
199 pp.
Ages 14+
2003