2024 Lane Anderson Award: Winner announced

The Lane Anderson Award for excellence in Canadian science writing was awarded this week. The award created and sponsored by the Fitzhenry Family Foundation, is given in two categories, one for adults and the other for young readers with each winner receiving a generous $10,000.

 

 

  • • • • • • •

Congratulations to this year's winner

in the Young Reader category

 

 

 

Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth
Written by L. E. Carmichael
Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
Kids Can Press
48 pp.
Ages 7-11
2023

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Look for my interview with L. E. Carmichael and Byron Eggenschwiler soon for some insights into writing non-fiction and their award-winning book.

The Pony and the Starling

 

Written by Jennifer McGrath

Illustrated by Kristina Jones

Groundwood Books

978-1-773069791

36 pp.

Ages 3-6

February 2025

 

Once you start reading The Pony and the Starling, you'll realize that this story is very personal for author Jennifer McGrath. While her earlier books–I've reviewed The Snow Knows, Pugs Cause Traffic Jams, and highly recommend her middle grade novels Chocolate River Rescue and White Cave Escape–have all suggested personal connections to places and characters, this one seems to have been written from the heart where I suspect the pony and a little starling still live.

From The Pony and the Starling, written by Jennifer McGrath, illustrated by Kristina Jones

A beautiful gray pony lives in a green pasture. A little girl cares for it, providing food and water, shelter and love, as well as visiting with the dog. 

From The Pony and the Starling, written by Jennifer McGrath, illustrated by Kristina Jones

When the fall comes, mother and child admire a murmuration of starlings as they create clouds of shapes that twist and turn. The starlings who enjoyed the fall bounty of peaches, grapes and tomatoes stay only for a few days before they take off. That is, all but one. One starling hangs around. Day after day it accompanies the pony as it snoozes and drinks water and enjoys the last of the autumnal warmth.

From The Pony and the Starling, written by Jennifer McGrath, illustrated by Kristina Jones

When a snowstorm hits and the pony is safely ushered into its small red barn, the child who had always encouraged the starling to seek out its "crowd" tries to get it to go inside with the pony. But the starling will not come down from the big old maple. When winter is finally fully upon them, blanketing the pasture and land with snow and frost, the pony is alone. 

 

When a new murmuration of starlings appears in the spring, they do not just grace the skies above. They sweep over the fields and engage the pony in their murmuration and leave a new friend–or is it an old friend?–behind.

 

Jennifer McGrath's own pony was the basis for this lovely picture book and you can tell the affection with which the story is told. But beyond her personal connection, Jennifer McGrath makes sure the story is infused with a sweet friendship, albeit an unusual one, and one that reminds us to see beyond the obvious. The child's mother is busy, with household chores, chopping wood, etc. and notices the little starling hanging out far later than the girl who observes the animals' connection and tries to help when the weather turns and puts the starling in danger. Her connection with her pony who is befriended by a starling encompasses both of them, extending her compassion and establishing a closeness beyond species.

I think you can tell from the illustrations and even the title that there is a tenderness to this picture book. BC's Kristina Jones's artwork, hand drawn and painted digitally, lends a warmth and sensitivity that verges on sadness. Her landscapes of expansive green pastures and stark winter scenes give us a sense of place through the seasons. But it's her characters that have the life. There's spirited movement and quiet togetherness, and that's just the pony and the starling. But Kristina Jones's illustrations of murmurations are fervent and evocative of the grandeur of nature.

The title of The Pony and the Starling suggests an innocent story but it's more than that. Jennifer McGrath and Kristina Jones have made us look at how animals can connect with each other and amaze us with their alliances and even bonds. I don't know how the true story of Jennifer McGrath's story resolved but I'm hopeful, as this fictionalized is, that there was a happy ending.

The Kids Book of Black History in Canada

Written by Rosemary Sadlier

Illustrated by Arden Taylor

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0737-9

64 pp.

Ages 8-12

June 2024

 

I know that The Kids Book of Black History in Canada came out last year but with February being Black History Month, it seems appropriate to review this stellar book on the cusp of next month.

 

While a book on Black history in Canada could never be complete, The Kids Book of Black History in Canada does a commendable job of focusing on the history of Black Canadians across the country and from the time of slavery in New France to key events like the arrival of Black Loyalists and the Underground Railway. The book also talks about the civil rights movement and representation.

From The Kids Book of Black History in Canada, written by Rosemary Sadlier, illustrated by Arden Taylor

The book starts with an explanation of what Black Canadian history is, including who are Black Canadians, terminology used, their diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and more. The section on African beginnings is comprehensive, including discussions about trade routes and the slave trade, leading to the arrival of the Loyalists, the formation of the Colored Corps and more. While many are familiar with the Underground Railroad, Africville and contemporary events like the Black Lives Matter movement, there are many, many parts of history with which readers may be unfamiliar. There are the Jamaican Maroons, the Black Californians, and the Exodusters. There are waves of migration to Canada and from Canada. And they're all part of this history.

From The Kids Book of Black History in Canada, written by Rosemary Sadlier, illustrated by Arden Taylor

Throughout, the profiles of important Black Canadians are highlighted from those who are well-known like Viola Desmond and Mary Ann Shadd to Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott, the first Black graduate of Toronto's Medical College, and Stanley G. Grizzle, the first Black judge in Ontario's Citizenship Court. And because there isn't enough room to recognize all the accomplishments of Black Canadians, Dr. Rosemary Sadlier appends her book with pages of profiles of athletes, broadcasters, musicians, writers, dancers, scientists, and more who've made extraordinary contributions to Canadian society.

From The Kids Book of Black History in Canada, written by Rosemary Sadlier, illustrated by Arden Taylor

While the book is organized along a timeline, reaching from the beginning through the American Civil War, World War I and II, and the civil rights movements to the celebration of Black heritage with Lincoln Alexander Day (January 21) and the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, it is never cemented in only timely events. Dr. Rosemary Sadlier, who instrumental in establishing Black History Month and Emancipation Day in Canada, ensures there is a rich discussion about everything from segregation to the "roots of racism" and the dangers of stereotyping. The Kids Book of Black History in Canada covers everything that young people would need to know for a broad introduction to Black history while giving them opportunities to learn more and think about what it means to be a Black Canadian. 

 

Illustrated by Toronto artist Arden Taylor, The Kids Book of Black History in Canada is presented in a colourful and organized manner. Whether providing historical background images or profiles of important Black Canadians, Arden Taylor's digital artwork is well defined and personal.

 

This book will be useful for teaching and learning throughout the year, but with February, Black History Month in Canada, just around the corner, I recommend picking up this updated edition of Rosemary Sadlier's 2003 book, The Kids Book of Black Canadian History, to ensure an inclusive and timely address of a significant history.

Life in the Wild: The Collected Adventures of the Bear, the Moose and the Beaver

Written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1292-2

200 pp.

Ages 4-8

September 2024

Nicholas Oldland's Bear, Moose and Beaver have returned and they're in an amazing collection of six previously published books so young readers won't just be introduced to these characters but really get to know them.

The six stories included in this collection are Big Bear Hug, Making the Moose Out of Life, The Busy Beaver, Up the Creek, Walk on the Wild Side, and Hockey in the Wild. Playing up some fun puns, Nicholas Oldland truly takes us into the wild lives of his trio of friends.

From Life in the Wild, written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland

Big Bear Hug is a story of how a bear loves to give hugs to everyone and everything but most especially trees. But when a man with an axe arrives to chop down one of the most beautiful trees, the bear has other ideas.

From Life in the Wild, written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland

Making the Moose Out of Life has a moose who starts to wonder if he's missing out on life and decides "to take life by the antlers." (p. 49) Instead, a sailing misadventure leads to new experiences, a new friend, and the catalyst for courage to try new things.

 

A very busy but careless beaver learns the error of his ways when hospitalized after a tree-felling mishap in The Busy Beaver. However, his rehabilitation for his injuries gives him the opportunity to make right his mistakes.

From Life in the Wild, written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland

Up the Creek's tale focuses on the three friends learning to cooperate on a canoeing trip filled with disasters and bickering. It is only through teamwork that the bear, moose and beaver can survive.

 

The theme of cooperation is revisited in Walk on the Wild Side when a mountain hike becomes a competition that becomes dangerous.

From Life in the Wild, written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland

Finally, in Hockey in the Wild (reviewed here in 2020), the trio anticipate the start to their hockey season on the ice but patience is necessary to keep themselves safe to enjoy their winter pastime.

 

In all these stories, Nicolas Oldland infuses his characters with honest friendships while they learn lessons in patience, cooperation, teamwork, compassion and more. And he does so by example, not by preaching. Nicholas Oldland ensures that each animal is unique, quirky in their own ways, and yet willing to change when needed to help others and help themselves grow as individuals.

From Life in the Wild, written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland

Teachers and parents may love the stories for the important lessons Nicholas Oldland imparts but kids will adore them for the silliness of these very realistic stories–who hasn't had a competition with a peer or sibling that ended in disaster?–and Nicholas Oldland's digital art. The simplicity of the shape and lines of his characters and settings make everything easily recognizable but it's the details in the expressiveness of his characters' faces and gestures that will be more relatable and still very cute. Whether chagrined at a capsized canoe or standing in a bathing suit on an ice-covered lake, the bear, moose and beaver emote according to all life's circumstances and tell children that they know how they feel.

 

Nicholas Oldland offers readers a great opportunity to take a comprehensive walk on the wild side with the bear, the moose and the beaver in Life in the Wild because whether it's winter or summer, spring or fall, there's always something happening, including ways to live in the not-so-wild.

Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu

Retold by Annie Picard

Illustrated by Elizabeth Jancewicz

Translated into Innu-aimun (Mushuau dialect) by Penash Rich

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides, Inc.

Mamu Tishishkutamashutau Innu Education

978-1-998802210

48 pp.

Ages 4-8

October 2024

 

This Innu creation story is one that the author, Annie Picard, heard from her grandmother. Isn't this how these traditional stories were lovingly passed along through the generations? And isn't it wonderful that a new generation of children, Innu and others, will hear this story again, now with illustrations by Elizabeth Jancewicz.

From Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, retold by Annie Picard, trans. by Penash Rich, illus. by Elizabeth Jancewicz

This story begins when the whole world was covered in water due to a great flood. Some animals survived the flood in a big canoe. Kuekuatsheu (Wolverine in Innu-aimun) suggests that he could create land for them if given some earth, so the different animals offer to dive deep into the water to grab some. First, Amishkᵘ (Beaver) attempts to fetch some from the bottom but it is too deep. Nitshikᵘ (Otter) and Muakᵘ (Loon) also try but are unsuccessful. Finally, the littlest animal, Utshashkᵘ (Muskrat), offers and, after diving deep into the water, is gone a long time. When they discover his body nearby, he still clutches a piece of earth.

From Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, retold by Annie Picard, trans. by Penash Rich, illus. by Elizabeth Jancewicz

Kuekuatsheu blows on the earth, watching it grow, until it is so big that Missinakᵘ (Turtle) carries it away on its back. Kuekuatsheu creates a land so big that all life could live there.

This is a story of how we came to be but it is also a reminder that we must respect all animals, including the smallest, for it was Utshashkᵘ who was able to help create the land though he did not survive his ordeal. 

From Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, retold by Annie Picard, trans. by Penash Rich, illus. by Elizabeth Jancewicz

This creation story has the elements that are often featured in Indigenous origin stories: animals working together, a turtle who carries the land on its back (hence Turtle Island), and a planet covered in water.  But Annie Picard makes the story more personal, relating how she heard these stories from her grandparents when she lived with them in Sheshatshiu Innu Nation in Labrador. The first image of a child at the knees of her grandmother shows the tender bond from which the story arose. And with each scene described by Annie Picard, as she heard it, there is the nuance of connection, compassion, and collaboration. The story is gently captured in the watercolour and ink artwork of Elizabeth Jancewicz who provides both realism and the fantastic. The animals are recognizable and realistic in their forms and sizes but Elizabeth Jancewicz also creates illustrations such as where Kuekuatsheu blows the clod of earth into a land mass that seem both natural and extraordinary. And that is just what it should be in a creation story that tells a traditional tale of what might have happened long ago but maybe not exactly that way. 

I'm so pleased to review Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka ushitat assinu, an Innu origin story, particularly one that is available in English and Innu-aimun, both in Mushuau dialect, translated by Penash Rich for the review copy I read, and Sheshatshiu dialect, another edition but translated by Anne Nuna (Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka tutak assinu). By providing multi-language editions, the author and publishers have opened up opportunities to a broader audience, both non-Indigenous who may not know the story and the Indigenous communities from which the stories originated, and that can only cultivate deeper inclusion. 

• • • • • •

 

This is the Sheshatshiu dialect edition:

 

Kuekuatsheu Creates the World / Kuekuatsheu ka tutak assinu

Retold by Annie Picard

Illustrated by Elizabeth Jancewicz

Translated into Innu-aimun (Sheshatshiu dialect) by Anna Nuna

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides, Inc.

Mamu Tishishkutamashutau Innu Education

978-1-998802203

48 pp.

Ages 4-8

October 2024

 

Recommended Reading

Written by Paul Coccia

Zando Young Readers

978-1-63893-149-2

320 pp.

Ages 12-17

January 2025

 

Seventeen-year-old Bobby Ashton has got a plan for the perfect summer before college. He's got plans for a perfect job, the perfect boyfriend, and more. The problems with planning everything down to the last second is that "it only takes one second to throw it all off." (p. vii)

 

All goes amiss when Bobby's big-gesture proclamation of love for his crush Truman becomes a streamed fiasco of broken glass and more, landing Bobby and his mother Cass in the office of Little Elm College's Dean Perez. Bobby loses his job at Campus Books, is removed from his freshman liaison gig for the Big Summer Reading Festival, and he could lose his scholarship and even his admission. His grand gesture was an epic fail, but Bobby is nothing except determined and resilient. His mother, a renowned but retired artist, makes a deal with the Dean to create a sculpture for the college out of the broken glass, and Bobby promises to stay out of trouble.

 

First thing Bobby does is get his Uncle Andy, a friend of Cass's, to let him work at his bookstore Corner Books, a  run-down bookstore that mostly carries used books. And with that new endeavour, the plan for The Summer of Bobby (AKA Bobby Ashton's Plan for the Perfect Summer Before College) begins to transform. Everything Bobby thought he needed for the perfect summer, from the job and the boyfriend to his fashion and achievements, start to change. His tasks may start off as seemingly manageable, like playing nice with crotchety Gladys at the bookstore to overhauling Corner Books to bring in more customers, but Bobby is nothing but persistent. And his new reputation as the Book Whisperer, the young man who knows just the right book for each person, helps make things happen.

 

One of the bookstore visitors Bobby meets is Luke, a college student, with whom he becomes friends. But Bobby knows that after his romantic fiasco, Dean Perez had warned him off of boys, telling him that, "Adolescent crushes will still be there after you graduate." (p. 10) That doesn't stop Bobby from doing a little matchmaking with others, like Luke's roommate Jerome and Mya, the coffee shop girl, his mom and Andy, and even best friend Wanda and a gamer called chickn-backflip. Will it be enough romance for Bobby, affectionately called Casanova by Luke a.k.a. the love Grinch, or will Bobby find himself falling for the least romantic guy around?

 

If you're a book lover, you'll adore Recommended Reading for its literary references and bookshop character. If you're a romantic, you'll fall in love with the dreamy Bobby and his efforts to help others connect, and find his own true love, albeit circuitously. If you appreciate reading about characters that are real, dealing with issues of missteps that need to be corrected and of body image and self-acceptance, while being fanciful and hopeful, then Paul Coccia's Recommended Reading is recommended for you. Paul Coccia, whose earlier books include I Got You Babe, Leon Levels Up, On the Line (co-written with Eric Walters) and The Player, gives us teens who are authentic in their feelings, whether it be their fears or loves, relationships or insecurities. These teens haven't got it all figured out, yet, but they are looking for ways to understand themselves and how they fit in with others. There are no easy fixes–are there any in life for anyone?–but they're trying. Bobby is looking for love and to have a positive impact on his community. He makes mistakes but he connects with people, whether through his book recommendations or through his sensitivity. And he does so with personality–and lots of book and movie references–and an awesome fashion sense.

 

Bobby may be the Book Whisperer but he's also the guy you want to have in your corner to cheer you on, help you find love, and to appreciate yourself. And with Recommended Reading, Paul Coccia gives readers the opportunity to fall in love with Bobby.

Playdate Surprise

Written by Karen Autio

Illustrated by Laura Watson

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-9981-0

24 pp.

Ages 3-7

September 2024

 

Remember the two friends Kayla and Piper from I Can, Too!? Karen Autio and Laura Watson have brought the two little girls, one with mobility issues, together again in a story of friendship and accommodation.

From Playdate Surprise, written by Karen Autio, illustrated by Laura Watson

Being a friend and having a friend are great opportunities for growing as a person with the fun and understanding that comes from being together. No wonder Kayla is so excited when Piper is able to come over to her house for a playdate. Although there are lots of accommodations that have been made for Kayla to get around outside and in her house, these are not the focus as the two girls play with Kayla's dog Roscoe, who is very well trained, and just having fun.

From Playdate Surprise, written by Karen Autio, illustrated by Laura Watson

But when it's time for Piper to leave and she wants to invite Kayla to their house the next day, Piper's mom realizes that their front step would be an obstacle to Kayla. So, the girls must wait until the weekend when Kayla's dad can help her get into Piper's house.

From Playdate Surprise, written by Karen Autio, illustrated by Laura Watson

Their next playdate is just as much fun. No wonder that the girls want to continue having playdates and Piper's family finds a way to help that happen with an unexpected surprise of accessibility.

 

Karen Autio's first story of Kayla focused on the different modes of mobility available to a child in a wheelchair, allowing her to do many of the same activities as her wheel-less peers. In Playdate Surprise, that same message of positivity is pervasive, with Kayla and Piper smiling with joy for their friendship and time to be spent together. And even though a concrete step is a real impediment to Kayla's visiting Piper's house, both families find a way or two to accommodate her wheelchair and support the girls' friendship. 

 

Laura Watson, who also illustrated I Can, Too!, uses her digital art to keep the story light and yet meaningful. Her bold colours and joyous characters make a story a positive one of camaraderie and reassurance, demonstrating that at its heart, Playdate Surprise is a story of two friends, one of whom just happens to be in a wheelchair.

 

Karen Autio's dedication suggests that there was such a family that modified their home to allow her daughter accessibility, for which she was very thankful, so she speaks from experience in Playdate Surprise. That alone makes this picture book special. But it's also a reminder to everyone that accessibility doesn't just happen. We have to make it happen, whether through policy or protest, training or grassroots actions at home. Because when everyone is included, there's a lot more smiling that happens for everyone.