My Big “Celebrity” Moment June 18, 2009

Sometime back in 2007 I was at Mabel’s Fables bookstore in Toronto browsing for an interesting book. There was only one other customer in the store who also appeared to be browsing and the owner of the shop, who approached me to ask if I needed help choosing something to read. She indicated the stack of Kit Pearson novels and asked if I had ever read any of them. Of course, I had read all of them multiple times as a child and loved every single one of them so I gushed a little bit about how much I loved them and about how my husband had just bought me the only one I hadn’t read as a child and that I always recommended them to kids who asked me what they should read next. To all this gushing the store owner replied “Well in that case I’d like you to meet someone…” Of course the other shopper in the store was actually Kit Pearson!!! She happened to be in town signing copies of her newest work A Perfect Gentle Knight and she had just heard me gush all about her writing. Teehee. I’m sure I turned a lovely shade of red and babbled incoherently. There is just something about meeting an author whose books fed your childhood imagination that is so exciting.

Kit Pearson’s novels are absolutely timeless and A Perfect Gentle Knight is no exception. Set in the late 1950s, it is the story of Corrie and her family as they struggle to achieve some sense of normalcy after the death of their mother in a car accident. Corrie and her siblings have immersed themselves in a game of knights and King Arthur’s Round Table but at 14, Corrie’s older brother Sebastian should be losing interest in childish games and moving on to pursue new interests in high school. Instead he seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into the game. In this work Pearson has examined mental illness in an extremely effective and sensitive manner that is accessible to younger readers without being overwhelming or scary. In a world where more and more people, especially young people, seem to be grappling with mental illness I think that a story like this one is an important tool for opening up discussions about the topic and for reassurance that there is nothing to be ashamed of in mental illness.

Even though this work, as well as most of Pearson’s other works, are set in the past, the story does not seem dated at all. Despite the numerous references to events and phenomenons from the ’50s, there is no sense that the story is “old” at all. I loaned my copy to a 12-year-old girl at the school where I work and she absolutely adored it. She is now in the process of seeking out and reading all of Pearson’s other work. Apparently I’ve become a Kit Pearson “pusher”…look out…I’ll convert you all!

Oops! May 2, 2009

Okay, I promised myself that I’d post two reviews in April to make up for being so very behind on my reviews but I didn’t do it. I only posted one review in April and I forgot to let John know so it doesn’t appear in the 10th Book Challenge update! Should I try for three reviews in May? I will finally be graduating (June 30th) and my courses finish May 20th so it’s a busy month but I guess all I can do is try.

This Book is Peanut Free April 15, 2009

That is the claim on the cover of Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen but it’s not entirely accurate since in the very first chapter we witness three bullies slip a peanut into Ambrose’s sandwich and nearly kill him. A severe peanut allergy and the fact that his father died before he was even born mean that twelve-year-old Ambrose has to move whenever his mother gets a new teaching job, that he never really has any friends, and that he never gets to eat out at a restaurant. Things start to look up when his landlords’ son Cosmo moves home after being in prison. Unfortunately, Ambrose’s over-protective mother does not approve of Cosmo at all. Much sneaking around and hilarity ensues and Ambrose manages to make his mother see that she may just need to learn to relax.

I really enjoyed this novel and I think that kids will too. Ambrose is hopelessly nerdy, so much so that you groan at the situations he gets himself into. With a neighbour and friend like Cosmo, however, there is hope that Ambrose can reduce the number of groan-out-loud situations.

Canadian Book Challenge Review #3 January 22, 2009

I have to say that I’m pretty terrible at keeping up with my reviews for this challenge! It’s not that I’m not reading, it’s just that I’m not writing about what I read. Also, I was planning to review only Canadian children’s literature but I seem to have veered off into some young adult titles so I’ll have to amend my challenge to Canadian children’s and young adult literature.

The book I just finished is Janet McNaughton’s An Earthly Knight. It is a book based on two ballads, the ballad of Tam Lin and the ballad Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight, and it is set in Scotland in 1162. McNaughton tells the story of sixteen-year-old Lady Jeanette Avenel who is struggling to fill the role of eldest daughter after her sister Isabel’s disgrace. The story is rich with detail about medieval life and the plot is subtly moved along, drawing the reader right into the story. Even though the story comes to a satisfying conclusion I found myself missing the characters and wanting to know more about them when I finished the book. The details of Isabel’s disgrace are not revealed in the beginning and emerge slowly and in pieces throughout the novel.

With elements of romance, drama, and adventure, this novel is one I would recommend to any teen and I’m glad I had the chance to read it now since I missed out in my own teenage years.

The Canadian Book Challenge review #2! November 24, 2008

Holy Cow! It’s nearly December and up to this point I’ve only posted one review for this year’s Canadian Book Challenge. I definitely need to pull up my socks! Since I’ve had no classes (because my professors are on strike) I’ve had lots of time to read so I will hopefully be posting some more reviews.

When I was a kid I read O.R. Melling’s The Hunter’s Moon and I absolutely loved it. I wanted to be Gwen, one of the main characters, and I was absolutely fascinated by the Irish folklore that Melling wove into her story. I didn’t find out about the rest of Melling’s books until I was an adult and I have to admit that I’m not quite as thrilled with the rest of them. I just finished reading The Singing Stone, which I began reading in August. I just wasn’t drawn into the story and so I hardly ever picked it up. The book is a slim volume and it tells the story of Kay, an orphan, who has been sent some mysterious books full of Celtic legends and who is transported to another time in order to accompany a girl named Aherne on a quest to locate four treasures and answer the question of who Kay and Aherne actually are. Melling has done what she always does, which is take Irish folklore and history and weave them into a story that involves modern day girls who are experiencing some sort of turmoil in their lives. Of course, there is also always a romance element and the girl always gets the guy in the end. I think the reason that I didn’t enjoy this one is that the book was too short to contain the story. Melling is tackling a huge part of Irish history – the debate about whether the Tuatha De Danaan actually existed or whether they are simply legend. Unfortunately, she crams this story into 205 pages, which is not enough to really get to know the characters or develop the plot. I didn’t feel like I really knew Kay and Aherne, I found their relationship unbelievable, and I often felt like the description and plot were rushed and confusing. I will admit, though, that I started to get into the story and enjoy it more in the last ten chapters, and I suspect that holding this work up to The Hunter’s Moon was unfair of me. I think that if I had read this book at the same time as I had read my first Melling book I would have enjoyed it much more than I did this time around.

Oh boy. I don’t think I’ve ever written an unfavourable review before. I do hope that O.R. Melling never reads this post because I still like her other writing and I will still be seeking out some of her other works which I haven’t read yet because I really am fascinated by the Celtic lore that she brings to her books and I also really enjoy the way she writes about Canadian locales that are familiar to me as well as these supernatural faery worlds that exist in the Irish countryside.

And the winner is… November 9, 2008

I attended my very first Canadian Children’s Literature Awards on Thursday night where Christopher Paul Curtis took home both the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for his novel Elijah of Buxton. The Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award went to author Frieda Wishinsky and illustrator Marie-Louise Gay for their work on Please, Louise!, and the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction went to Hugh Brewster for At Vimy Ridge: Canada’s Greatest World War I Victory. The event was put on by TD Bank at the Carlu in Toronto and it was all very swanky. The excitement in the air was palpable and it just made me itch to finish with school and get to work in a school or a library somewhere sharing fabulous literature with children!
Unfortunately, the TAs, contract faculty and graduate students at York University are on strike right now so I am rather worried about what will happen to my year. I should be graduating in the spring and I will be so disappointed and angry if I end up losing my year over this strike. On the plus side of the strike, it will give me time to do more reading! I haven’t been keeping up with the Canadian Book Challenge at all and I’d like to take the time to post some reviews in the coming weeks. Of course, my reading list for the challenge may be completely changed now that I’m dying to read all of the nominees and winners of the four awards presented on Thursday night. I’ll be starting with Elijah of Buxton and Too Many Books since they were both sent home with me in a lovely goody bag at the end of the evening.

The Challenge Begins July 2, 2008

“…in third grade. My art teacher, Mr. B., failed me on an art project. I could not draw a perfectly symmetrical flower vase. “If you can’t draw a perfectly symmetrical flower vase,” Mr. B. said, “you’ll never learn to draw.” Discouraged, I gave up drawing for the next ten years.” This quotation, taken from the Groundwood Books website reminds me very much of the story of the Little Prince. Personally, I never would have guessed that anyone could have anything bad to say about Marie-Louise Gay’s artistic abilities since that is the part of her books that I like best! I would love to have pictures of the forest in Stella Fairy of the Forest to put on the wall close to my desk.

How do you become invisible? You think of invisible things, like wind or music. What do fairies look like? They’re tiny and beautiful and they fly very fast. Do butterflies eat butter? Yellow ones do. These are just some of the wisdoms that Stella imparts on her little brother Sam as they spend an afternoon in the fields and forest looking for fairies and building a fort out of ferns to protect them from the giant who is watering his rocks. Marie-Louise has perfectly captured the relationship between an older sister and younger brother in this and in her other Stella and Sam books. Stella loves to teach Sam about the world around them, Sam is always bursting with questions, and often with insights of his own (blue butterflies must eat pieces of sky).

I’m afraid I don’t know anything about illustration techniques but to me the illustrations look like they are done with ink, watercolours and maybe even some tissue paper. In any case, the beautiful illustrations are slightly ethereal and they lend a sort of dreamlike quality to the story. When I read this story I get the sensation of a really hot, breezy and sunny summer day spent outdoors exploring.

I would recommend this or any of Marie-Louise Gay’s other books to grownups and children alike.

The List June 16, 2008

Since I’m very busy procrastinating and not working on the take-home midterm exam that is due tomorrow at 11:55pm, I thought I’d come up with a list of the books I would like to read for the second Canadian Book Challenge. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it through the first challenge because I started so late and had too much school reading to do. My theme for the first challenge was Canadian Children’s Literature and since I now have many sad children’s books calling to me from the shelf I’m going to stick with that theme for the second challenge.

Here’s the list:

• Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
• Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel
• A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson
• The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton
• The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
• Stella Fairy of the Forest by Marie Louise Gay
• Some of the Kinder Planets by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler
• Owls in the Family by Farley Mowatt
• The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch
• An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton
• The Singing Stone by O.R. Melling
• Death Over Montreal by Geoffrey Bilson

Okay, so some of them may be crossing over into Young Adult fiction instead of staying in the Children’s fiction genre, but I think that they’ll all prove to be fantastic reads.

Bowing Out June 12, 2008

Sadly, I’m going to have to bow out of the Canadian Book Challenge this year. I am so swamped with reading for my two summer courses that I just can’t seem to find the time to do any extra reading for myself. I will definitely be back to participate in the next Canadian Book Challenge, and I think I’ll stick to the same theme of children’s books, although I won’t cheat! The books I have already read for this year’s challenge don’t count..I’ll have to read more.

Although I’m kind of bummed about not having time for the challenge this year I’m really enjoying all the reading I am doing. I am taking Fiction of the Fantastic, a third year university course where we are exploring elements of the fantastic in books like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Harry Potter, The Shining, The Castle of Otranto, and numerous others. I am also taking Genre Fiction and Readers’ Advisory, which will count towards my Library Technician’s diploma. In this course we are exploring a few different genres (western, romance, science fiction, historical fiction, crime/mystery, horror, suspence, and fantasy) and instead of following a set reading list we are making up our own reading lists and choosing our own books from the different genres to complete the assignments. Both courses are a lot of fun and incredibly interesting but the amount of reading I am doing right now is unbelievable. Good thing I like to read!

Of course, just to make sure I’m not bored, on top of my summer courses I am planning and running two different summer camps this year. The first is a month-long literacy program for kids from an inner-city school. The focus is media literacy and I am in charge of the “camp” activities such as games and visual arts while the three teachers I am working with are in charge of the classroom part of the camp. The second is a two-week residential French camp that I run with my best friend. This year I am in charge of the CIT program as well as being the program director for the entire camp. Wow! Just rereading all of that is freaking me out. I had better get to work.

Back to the Challenge April 30, 2008

It’s been a while but I’m back to the challenge! I have the tiniest reprieve between my fall/winter courses and my summer courses in which I’ve had the time to do a bit of reading. One of the books I read was Jeffrey and Sloth by Kari-Lynn Winters and illustrated by Ben Hodson. I went to the bookstore to buy this book and when I was standing in line a little boy behind me said “I know that book! It was part of Blue Spruce!” so I asked him if he liked it and he said yes but that he voted for a different one. I think the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading program is a great idea because it allows kids like that little boy at the bookstore to choose the books that they think deserve awards instead of having grownups do the choosing for them.

This book really spoke to me because although I’ve always wanted to write and I have a bit of a creative streak, sitting down with a blank page/computer screen to write something has always been a huge challenge for me. The task seems so enormous that I can’t get started and end up distracting myself with other things.

Jeffrey’s character is a believable and realistic one and his conversations with a sloth, who wants to do nothing but nap in a comfy chair with a puffy pillow and a perfect blanket, are filled with humour and references to the Canadian landscape. The group of girls in my after school program were giggling at the ordeals Jeffrey puts poor sloth through. This really is a cute new addition to Canadian children’s literature.