May 8, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
Christophe Bernard’s epic debut novel opens with what under any other circumstances would sound like a tall tale. In the last moments of the annual Gaspé diocese junior hockey tournament’s final game, the underdogs, a ... Read More »
When we have 1,001 tasks to do every day, it’s easy to fall into the trap of racing through it all. Sometimes we don’t even notice how fast we’ve been moving until bedtime, when there’s ... Read More »
May 8, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
If you lived in or near Toronto in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you probably have some recollection of the Scarborough Rapist’s reign of terror. If you are a woman, its impact is likely ... Read More »
May 7, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
Myriam J.A. Chancy’s Village Weavers captures the origins, intersections, and ruptures of a lifelong friendship between Simone (Sisi) Val and Gertude (Gertie) Alcindor. The novel’s scope is ambitious, as it leaps between 1940s Port-au-Prince, 1970s ... Read More »
May 1, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
A Planet Is a Poem intertwines the worlds of poetry and science in 14 poems. Written by Amanda West Lewis and illustrated by Oliver Averill, each poem pairs a planetary body with a poetic form: ... Read More »
May 1, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
“The most interesting part of architecture is the non-functioning,” writes Cassidy McFadzean in “Pier Evil,” one of the poems in her third collection. In a later poem, McFadzean clarifies this observation: “Fluting’s the only feature ... Read More »
Author Christine Read shines a light on the thoughts and feelings of kids with ADHD in her debut middle-grade novel, Queenie Jean Is in Trouble Again. Queenie is a Grade 5 student who gets herself ... Read More »
April 24, 2024 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Even as she grieves the death of her father, 8-year-old Abioye finds herself leading her small West African community. (In many Yoruba communities, when the king dies without a son, his daughter rules the community ... Read More »
April 17, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
Dallas Hunt’s Teeth is a stirring follow-up to Creeland, his first book of poetry. In “Cree Dictionary,” from his debut collection, Hunt begins with a witty redefinition of terms: “the translation for joy / in ... Read More »
April 10, 2024 | Filed under: Indigenous Peoples, Poetry, Reviews
In Li Charmaine Anne’s debut, Crash Landing, high school senior Jay Wong finds herself re-evaluating her life after meeting Ash Chan. On discovering a passion for video-editing, Jay’s focus shifts from academics to making skateboarding ... Read More »
April 10, 2024 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books