Spring preview 2012: books for young people

In the January/February issue, Q&Q looks ahead at the spring season’s new books.

FICTION

Spring sees the Canadian launch of Penguin Canada’s Razorbill imprint for young readers, and the publishing house is banking on a couple of high-profile releases to set the ball in motion. The follow-up to Hiromi Goto’s Sunburst Award–winning Half World is Darkest Light ($21 cl., Feb.), in which 16-year-old orphan Gee embarks on a dark journey of discovery. Jillian Tamaki again lends her considerable talent to the illustrations. • Vancouver paramedic turned scribe Carrie Mac explores what happens when the messy life of 15-year-old Junie is further complicated by her mother’s compulsive hoarding in The Opposite of Tidy ($16 pa., April).

In Toronto author Helaine Becker’s How to Survive Absolutely Anything (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, $9.95 pa., April), Bonnie and her best friend, Jen, start an advice blog for the middle-school set. But can Bonnie’s wise ways prevail when it comes to her troublesome new stepbrother, Carter? • Alice Kuipers’ debut, Life on the Refrigerator Door, was published in 29 countries. In her third novel, 40 Things I Want to Tell You (HarperCollins Canada, $14.99 pa., Feb.), Amy (a.k.a. Bird) is another advice-doling teen who has trouble practicing what she preaches when a new “bad boy” shows up at school and threatens her relationship with her long-time steady. • Pajama Press has Nova Scotian Sylvia Gunnery’s new novel, Emily for Real ($14.95 pa., March), which revolves around a 17-year-old girl who, after a bad breakup and the revelation of some scandalous family secrets, finds solace in an unlikely friendship with a troubled classmate. • Eileen Cook has a reputation for writing funny, realistic junior chick-lit with a twist. Her latest, Unraveling Isobel (Simon & Schuster, $18.99 cl., Jan.) follows a similar path, with the titular character facing the challenges of her dippy mother’s hasty marriage to an Internet beau, her relocation to a remote small town, her dreamy stepbrother, and the possibility that she just might be losing her mind.

Teresa Toten, of the witty Blonde series, has teamed up with the unstoppable Eric Walters for The Taming (Doubleday Canada, $14.95 pa., Jan.), which bills itself as a cross between Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and The Taming of the Shrew. • Debut novelist Leah Bobet creates a safe haven for outsiders and shape-shifters under the streets of Toronto in her dystopian romance Above (Scholastic Canada, $19.99 cl., March). • Degrassi Junior High scriptwriter Kathryn Ellis makes her YA debut with Home in Time for Dinner (Red Deer Press, $12.95 pa., May), in which a boy discovers he was the victim of parental abduction when he spots a digitally aged picture of himself on the news.

There is no denying the immense popularity of Kelley Armstrong’s sexy, dark teen fantasy novels. The Calling (Doubleday Canada, $19.99 cl., April) is the second instalment in her Darkness Rising trilogy. In it, Maya’s small Vancouver Island town is threatened by an arsonist’s forest fire. Her affinity with wild animals in the surrounding woods may be her only hope for survival. • From Great Plains Teen Fiction comes Jocelyn Shipley’s How to Tend a Grave ($14.95 pa., April), a story about a chance meeting in a cemetery between a teenaged boy who has lost his mother and a girl who has lost her baby.

Best known for her Stella and Sam series of picture books, Marie-Louise Gay once again teams up with husband David Homel for a sequel to their two previous travelogues. This time Charlie and his family explore their own metropolis of Montreal in Summer in the City (Groundwood Books, $15.95 cl., April). • Fourteen-year-old Johanna longs to see what life is like outside of the Jewish quarter in Anne Dublin’s 18th-century historical novel The Baby Experiment (Dundurn Press, $9.99 pa., May). When she discovers that babies in the Hamburg orphanage where she works are being used for experiments, she is forced to grow up quickly. • A Jewish girl and a Christian boy find friendship and hope together in pre-revolutionary Russia in Rachel’s Secret (Second Story Press, $12.95 pa., April) by first-time novelist Shelly Sanders.

Getting some boys to read can be a perennial challenge, so it’s a good thing Redcoats and Renegades (Thistledown Press, $15.95 pa., March) by B.C. journalist Barry McDivitt is aimed squarely at reluctant readers. McDivitt’s tale centres on a young malcontent from New York who gains the dubious distinction of being the first person arrested by the new North-West Mounted Police and is forced to endure the long, difficult trek to Fort Whoop-Up. • Jean Rae Baxter’s The Way Lies North told the story of Charlotte, a young Loyalist, and her family as they travelled north to Canada during the American Revolution; it was followed by a sequel, Broken Trail. Baxter wraps up the trilogy in Freedom Bound (Ronsdale Press, $11.95 pa., Feb.), in which Charlotte, now 18, ventures to Charleston, South Carolina, to find her new husband, Nick, and help a couple of runaway slaves as they try to survive the waning days of the revolution.

Governor General’s Literary Award winner Michael Bedard showcases his love of poetry in his latest novel for young readers, The Green Man (Tundra Books, $21.99 cl., April). The tragically monikered Ophelia (known only by her first initial) agrees to spend the summer helping her Aunt Emily recover from a heart attack, managing both the elder woman’s home and her chaotic antiquarian bookshop. But O gets more than she bargained for when she unearths a long-buried mystery. • After an auspicious start to his career writing adult fiction, Alberta’s Thomas Wharton has found success in the YA market as well. The Fathomless Fire (Doubleday Canada, $19.95 cl., Jan.), the second instalment of his Perilous Realm trilogy, continues the story of young Will, who returns to the land of Fable and learns that his beloved Rowen is missing. • Red Deer Press is set to publish a debut novel by Alberta’s Amy Bright. Before We Go ($12.95 pa., May) describes a New Year’s Eve like no other when teens Emily and Alex meet at the hospital where Emily is visiting her dying grandmother.

Actor, stable owner, and wife of former Ontario Premier David Peterson, Shelley Peterson showcases her love of horses in the Saddle Creek series for young readers. The sixth novel, Dark Days at Saddle Creek (Dancing Cat Books, $12.95 pa., March) once again features Bird, a girl who is able to communicate with animals. • Vancouver journalist John Lekich is set to publish his third YA novel, The Prisoner of Snowflake Falls (Orca Book Publishers, $12.95 pa., March), in which a 15-year-old burglar is sent to live with a strange family in a small town. When his uncle is sprung from the big house and comes up with a scheme to rob the town’s residents, he must choose between family loyalty and doing the right thing.

Lorimer has tapped sports fanatic Lorna Schultz Nicholson for its new six-book Podium Sports Academy series, the first of which, Rookie ($9.95 pa., March), tells the story of newbie hockey player Aaron Wong, whose team captain seems to have it in for him. • Métis writer Jacqueline Guest is known for her sports-themed and historical YA novels featuring native Canadian protagonists. Her latest, Outcasts of River Falls (Coteau Books, $8.95 pa., April), is a sequel to 2004’s Belle of Batoche. Belle is all grown up, and this time it’s her niece, a young Victorian lady named Kathryn from Toronto, who is in for a bit of culture shock when she arrives in Buffalo Hills, Alberta, and has to come to terms with a heritage she didn’t know about.

Apparently, Q&Q is a fan of Montreal illustrator and graphic novelist Matthew Forsythe. He illustrated My Name Is Elizabeth by Annika Dunklee, which was a 2011 Book of the Year. His debut graphic novel, Ojingogo, was a pick in 2008. The sequel, Jinchalo (Drawn & Quarterly, $19.95 pa., Feb.), follows the pint-sized heroine of Ojingogo on another adventure through Forsythe’s Miyazaki-esque world.

PICTURE BOOKS

Laurel and Hardy, Holmes and Watson, peanut butter and jam – some things just go better together. Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko figured that out a number of years ago, and have been teaming up to produce silly, insanely popular books ever since. Their latest effort is It’s My Room! (Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa., $19.99 cl., Feb.), in which Matthew has to battle his relatives and friends for space in the family trailer. • Vicky Metcalf Award winner Sheree Fitch’s latest picture book, Night Sky Wheel Ride (Tradewind Books, $16.95 cl., May) follows the same path as her previous works, with tongue-twisting lines and nonsense words describing a brother and sister as they explore a nighttime fair and embark on a Ferris wheel adventure. Boldly hued illustrations by Quebec artist and author Yayo accompany Fitch’s text.

Following her adorable and clever picture-book debut, Giraffe and Bird, author, illustrator, and designer Rebecca Bender returns with Don’t Laugh at Giraffe (Pajama, $19.95 cl., May), in which Giraffe’s awkward attempt at graceful rehydration is met with laughter from other animals on the savannah. • Canadian Jeremy Tankard (of Boo Hoo Bird and Grumpy Bird fame) illustrates New Yorker Rachel Vail’s story about Liam the pig, who just wants to rock a bunny suit and learn how to hop in Piggy Bunny (Feiwel & Friends/Raincoast Books, $16.99 cl., Feb.). • Nominated in its original French for a 2011 Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse, Martine Audet’s Martin on the Moon ($16.95 cl., April), translated by Sarah Quinn, is set to be published in English by Owlkids. Luc Melanson illustrates the story, about a boy whose imagination first gets him into trouble, then endears him to his classmates.

Simply Read Books is offering Wild Berries ($18.95 cl., April) by Métis and Cree multimedia artist and illustrator Julie Flett. The book, in which a young boy learns to pick wild blueberries with his grandmother on a sunny summer day, includes some words in Cree. • Find Scruncheon and Touton 2: All Around Newfoundland (Creative Book Publishing, $10.95 pa., May) is the sequel to the Where’s Waldo-esque 2011 effort about two dogs on the loose by mother-daughter illustrators Nancy and Laurel Keating.

Known for her adult fiction, Donna Morrissey makes her kidlit debut with Cross Katie Kross (Puffin Canada, $18 cl., Feb.), about a persnickety old woman who goes in search of a personal nirvana free of chores, animals, and bothersome people. Artist Bridgette Morrissey helps out her mom with illustrations. • It’s not all ogres and underwater monsters in the Arctic; there are dwarves too! CBC Radio personality Alan Neal and author Neil Christopher team up to tell the story of Ava and the Little Folk (Inhabit Media, $13.95 cl., March), in which an orphan left on her own by village elders stumbles upon a group of magical munchkins. Iqaluit resident Jonathan Wright’s illustrations offer instant visual appeal.

NON-FICTION

Deborah Ellis continues to do what she does best, chronicling the lives of children in war-torn and Third World countries in stories that resonate with First World readers. In Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Neverending War (Groundwood, $15.95 cl., April), she revisits the kids who inspired the Breadwinner trilogy 11 years ago to find out what their lives are like now. • Former Chickadee magazine editor Catherine Ripley teams up with illustrator Scot Ritchie on another fact book in the same format as their classic Why? series. How? The Most Awesome Question and Answer Book about Nature, Animals, People, Places – and You! (Owlkids, $19.95 cl.) appears in May. • Combining narrative, photos, comics, maps, and even fake tweets, Hey Canada! (Tundra Books, $21.99 cl., May) by former Vancouver educator Vivien Bowers (with illustrations by Milan Pavlovic) uses a fictional grandma and two grandkids to explore the country from coast to coast, relaying tidbits of history and geography along the way.

A science book with an environmental bent, The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea (Kids Can Press, $10.95 pa., $16.95 cl., April) by Helaine Becker, with illustrations by Willow Dawson, uses experiments with everyday objects to teach kids about oceanic ecosystems and the effects of pollution. • Junior CSI fans might enjoy Seeing Red: The True Story of Blood (Annick Press, $14.95 pa., $22.95 cl., Feb.) by Vancouver author Tanya Lloyd Kyi, who informs readers about all things sanguineous, from sacrifices to forensics. One hopes accompanying illustrations by graphic novelist Steve Rolston only required a bit of sweat and tears.

It’s a favourite kindergarten class project, and now there’s a handy guide from Carol Pasternak. How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids (Firefly Books, $8.95 pa., $19.95 cl.) appears in April. • Literature for LGBT teens can be hard to come by, so Ivan E. Coyote’s collection of stories about her own experiences growing up queer, and of others who have inspired her, One in Every Crowd (Arsenal Pulp Press, $17.95 pa., March), is a welcome arrival.

INTERNATIONAL

In The Rumour (Tundra, $19.99 cl., May), Indian nonsense poet Anushka Ravishankar crafts a story about the village of Baddpaddpur, where telling tales is an art form. Kanyika Kini provides vivid illustrations. • It’s been 65 years since the Moomins first appeared in a Finnish-Swedish newspaper, but people just can’t get enough of those hippo-esque creatures. Drawn & Quarterly releases Moomin Book 7: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip ($19.95 cl.) in March.

Was Precious precocious? Alexander McCall Smith answers that question when he takes readers back to his beloved character’s childhood in The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe’s Very First Case (Anchor Canada, $7.99 pa., April), a YA addition to his Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. • In Adrian Fogelin’s Summer on the Moon (Peachtree/Fitz & Whits, $15.95 cl., April), Socko’s mom just wants to get him out of their crummy neighbourhood and away from the threat of the local gang. When they move to a new community, he realizes he isn’t the only one with problems.

William Joyce may win the prize for lengthiest title for his E. Aster Bunnymund and the Battle of the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core! (S&S, $16.99 cl., Feb.), a picture book in which the Easter bunny is much more than just a fuzzy, cotton-tailed source of chocolate eggs. • Katherine Applegate gives us Ivan the gorilla, who thinks he has it pretty good living in a glass cage at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. At least until Ruby the baby elephant arrives and enlightens him. The One and Only Ivan (HarperCollins, $10.99 pa.) appears in January. • A deadly plague, alien invaders, androids, and even a prince feature in Marissa Meyer’s debut sci-fi novel, Cinder (Feiwel & Friends/Raincoast, $19.99 cl., Jan.), in which the titular character is a girl on a mission to save the world. (Did we mention she’s a cyborg?)

The fine print: Q&Q’s spring preview covers books published between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2012. All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time. • Titles that have been listed in previous previews do not appear here.

Spring preview 2012: Canadian non-fiction

In the January/February issue, Q&Q looks ahead at the spring season’s new books.

MEMOIR AND BIOGRAPHY

Revolutionary activity in the Middle East and North Africa has created an appetite for stories about life in these regions. Among them is the story of CBC News foreign correspondent Nahlah Ayed. In A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter’s Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring (Penguin Canada, $32 cl., April), the Winnipeg-born journalist traces her passion for reporting on the Middle East to her Palestinian roots and the time she spent in a Jordanian refugee camp as a child. • When Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a Vancouver-raised beauty queen, first heard of Nazanin Fatehi, a teen on death row in Tehran for the murder of her would-be rapist, the two young women had only a name and their Iranian heritage in common. The Tale of Two Nazanins (HarperCollins Canada, $31.99 cl., May), co-written with Susan McClelland, is the story of how the women found common ground in the struggle for Fatehi’s freedom.

While on a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006, reservist Trevor Greene had an axe plunged into his skull and lived to tell the tale. Read it for yourself in March Forth: The Inspiring True Story of a Canadian Soldier’s Journey of Love, Hope and Survival (HarperCollins Canada, $29.99 cl., Feb.), co-written with his wife, Debbie Greene.

A pair of memoirs out this spring feature sons coming to terms with their late fathers’ true identities. Deni Béchard follows his fictitious family saga, Vandal Love, with a personal story. Cures for Hunger (Goose Lane Editions, $29.95 cl., May) finds the novelist dealing with the fallout from discovering his dad’s criminal past. • In Cold Comfort: Growing Up Cold War (Talonbooks, $18.95 pa., May), poet Gil McElroy writes about discovering his father’s hidden past working on the controversial Distant Early Warning Line.

In The Many Voyages of Arthur Wellington Clah: A Tsimshian Man on the Pacific Northwest Coast (UBC Press, $29.95 pa., Jan.), historian Peggy Brock creates a portrait of Arthur Wellington Clah, a Hudson’s Bay Company employee who left one of the few first-hand accounts of colonization in Western Canada written from an aboriginal perspective. • In 2008, the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria commissioned a chronicle of the globetrotting life and unconventional work of artist and printmaker Pat Martin Bates. The result is Balancing on a Thread (Frontenac House Media, $49.95 cl., April), a biography and critical analysis by Pat Bovey, former director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Internationally renowned composer and music educator R. Murray Schafer recounts personal and artistic growth in My Life on Earth and Elsewhere (The Porcupine’s Quill, $27.95 pa., May), which follows his journey from aspiring painter to sailor to vagabond before deciding to dedicate his life to music. • As an octogenarian, Naomi Beth Wakan considers herself somewhere between old and “old-old,” and thus amply qualified to comment on retirement homes, elder abuse, death, and the disconnect between self-image and society’s perception of seniors. Liquorice and Lavender: Some Thoughts on Roller-coasting into Old Age (Wolsak & Wynn, $19 pa.) appears in April.

William Stevenson may be best known for his book A Man Called Intrepid, about the similarly named British spy William Stephenson, often considered the real-life model for James Bond. Stevenson tells his own life story, touching on his career as a war reporter, in Past to Present: A Reporter’s Story of War, Spies, People, and Politics (Lyons Press/Canadian Manda Group, $28.95 cl., June). • B.C. cowboy and rodeo regular Bruce Watt spins a few yarns about the good, the bad, and the ugly of ranching in Chilcotin Yarns (Heritage House, $16.95 pa., May).

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS

As the Canadian government works toward repatriating child soldier Omar Khadr, McGill-Queen’s University Press is set to publish a timely anthology exploring the Canadian-born man’s background, his incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, his treatment at the hands of Canadian authorities, and the implications raised by his legal case. Omar Khadr, Oh Canada ($24.95 pa., May), edited by Janice Williamson, includes contributions from Sherene Razack, Roméo Dallaire, Charles Foran, Judith Thompson, George Elliott Clarke, and Maher Arar.

Nora Young, host of CBC Radio’s Spark, explores issues such as the real-world impact of online communities and why it’s essential to ensure digital privacy in The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us (McClelland & Stewart, $29.99 cl., April). • Some form of monarchy has ruled Canada since the start of the nation’s recorded history. The Secret of the Crown: Canada’s Long Affair with Royalty (House of Anansi Press, $29.95 cl., March) by John Fraser is a witty look at our country’s enduring appetite for all things regal.

HISTORY

A number of titles this season take an unflinching look at Canada’s history of racism. In Orienting Canada: Race, Empire, and the Transpacific (UBC Press, $34.95 pa., Jan.), John Price, associate professor of history at the University of Victoria, exposes anti-Asian racism at home and in foreign policy through examples such as the 1907 Vancouver race riots and Canada’s early intervention in the Vietnam War. • Canada’s Forgotten Slaves: Two Centuries of Bondage (Véhicule Press, $27.95 pa., May), George Tombs’ English-language translation of the late Marcel Trudel’s groundbreaking work on the history of slavery in colonial Canada, identifies Canadian slave owners and reveals the extent to which national leaders tried to cover up this unsavoury past. • Bryan Prince looks at slavery in One More River to Cross (Dundurn Press, $24.99 pa., Jan.), which tells the real-life story of Isaac Brown, a slave who was falsely accused of murder and made a daring escape from New Orleans before coming to Canada.

Educator Paul Keery and illustrator Michael Wyatt borrow from the graphic novel tradition to make Canada’s military history accessible in Canada at War: An Illustrated History of Canada in the Second World War (Douglas & McIntyre, $24.95 pa., May). • Originally published in Italian in 2003, Pietro Corsi’s Halifax: The Other Door to America (Guernica Editions, $15 pa., March), translated by Antonio D’Alfonso, explores the city’s role in the immigrant experience through a first-hand account.

POP CULTURE

In The Weakerthans: Watermark ($12.95 pa., April), the second instalment in Invisible Publishing’s Bibliophonic music series, author Dave Jaffer makes the case that the Winnipeg indie rockers are among the country’s best musical acts.

SPORTS

Hockey-shmockey. This season’s ice sport of choice is Arctic aviation. Based on the Canadian TV series of the same name, The Ice Pilots: Flying with the Mavericks of the Great White North (Douglas & McIntyre, $21.95 pa., Jan.), by Survivorman series co-author Michael Vlessides, follows pilots at Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife as they haul supplies and passengers in their Second World War–era propeller planes to remote Arctic outposts. • Frontenac House Media is set to publish Yukon Wings ($59.95 cl., May), an illustrated history of the territory’s aviation sector by industry veteran Bob Cameron.

Much has been written about Leanne Shapton’s quirky style and seemingly charmed career. Swimming Studies (Penguin Canada, $26.50 cl., June) dives into new territory: the illustrator’s lifelong passion for swimming, and her former dream of making it to the Olympics. • Speaking of the Olympics, a former athlete and coach have authored a pair of books on leadership. In The Power of More: Achieving Your Goals in Sport and Life (Greystone Books, $22.95 pa., May), three-time Olympic gold-medal rower Marnie McBean explains how to break down big tasks, set goals, strive for more, and recognize success. • In Leave No Doubt: A Credo for Changing Your Dreams (McGill-Queen’s University Press, $19.95 cl., March), NHL coach Mike Babstock (with co-writer Rick Larsen) expands on a pep talk originally intended for Team Canada, whom he coached at the 2010 Winter Games. • Start your own journey from novice to Olympian with Paddle Your Own Kayak (Boston Mills Press/Firefly Books, $29.95 pa., March), a fully illustrated guide by longtime paddlers Gary and Joanie McGuffin.

Vancouver writer Kevin Chong recounts how he unexpectedly found a new life direction as part-owner of a horse in My Year of the Racehorse: Falling in Love With the Sport of Kings (Greystone, $22.95 pa., April), a look into the tradition and faded elegance of the horse-racing scene.

GARDENING

When friends Rachel Fisher, Heather Stretch, and Robin Tunnicliffe ventured into business together they came up with Saanich Organics, a co-operative of small organic farms around greater Victoria. They’ve teamed up again for All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming (TouchWood Editions, $29.95 pa., Feb.), in part a personal reflection on food entrepreneurship, in part a how-to for small-scale organic farming. • Get growing with Canadian Gardener’s Guide (Dorling Kindersley/Tourmaline Editions, $30 cl., March), an illustrated handbook by prolific food writer and urban gardening guru Lorraine Johnson.

FOOD AND DRINK

In 2009, Lynn Crawford resigned as executive chef at Four Seasons New York to launch a restaurant in Toronto and kick off a new travel series for Canada’s Food Network. The spin-off book, Lynn Crawford’s Pitchin’ In: 100 Great Recipes from Simple Ingredients (Penguin Canada, $37 cl., Jan.), includes recipes the chef acquired in her travels across North America. • While Crawford peddles local foods, University of Toronto geography professor Pierre Desrochers and economist Hiroko Shimizu suggest a different approach in The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet (Public Affairs/Perseus Books Group, $30 cl., June). The duo argues the locavore ethos is little more than a well-meaning marketing strategy that distracts from global food problems.

A perfect counterpoint to last season’s roster of meat-heavy cookbooks, Eleanor Boyle’s High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat (New Society Publishers, $17.95 pa., June) investigates the ecological, health, and social problems caused by conventional meat production, and offers guidance on supporting sustainable livestock practices. • University of Toronto Press’s Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History ($34.95 pa., May), edited by Franca Iacovetta, Valerie J. Korinek, and Marlene Epp, is a rare scholarly examination of food culture and traditions from a Canadian point of view. • For nearly three decades, Toronto’s FoodShare has fought to make healthy eating possible for everyone. Share: Delicious Dishes from FoodShare and Friends (Between the Lines, $24.95 pa., May), by Adrienne De Francesco with Marion Kane, brings together favourite recipes from the FoodShare community that emphasize healthy, affordable, culturally diverse, and seasonal meals.

BUSINESS, FINANCE, AND ECONOMICS

Economist Jeff Rubin follows up his bestselling Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller with The End of Growth (Random House Canada, $29.95 cl., May). This time, Rubin posits that the tendency for governments to tie economic well-being to population growth will ultimately lead to disaster. • Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty tread similar territory but offer a solutions-based approach in The Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy (New Society, $26.95 pa., June), about shifting from growth to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Rob Carrick, a columnist at The Globe and Mail, has written a personal finance guide for the Boomerang Generation. How Not to Move Back in with Your Parents: The Young Person’s Guide to Financial Empowerment (Doubleday Canada, $22.95 pa.) comes out in March, just in time for the end of the academic year. • Toronto ad man Rick Padulo – the brains behind the slogans “Leon’s Don’t Pay a Cent Event” and “Black’s Is Photography” – shares the story of his climb up the agency ladder, and spills a few trade secrets, in I Can Get It for You Retail: Down and Dirty Tales from a Canadian Ad Man (Dundurn, $29.99 cl., March).

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

It seems a new health and fitness fad springs up every week. Timothy Caulfield, director at the Health Law and Science Policy Group at the University of Alberta, has tried some of them so the rest of us don’t have to. Through first-hand research and analysis, Caulfield’s The Cure for Everything! Untangling the Twisted Messages About Health, Fitness, and Happiness (Penguin, $32 cl., Jan.) exposes the special interests behind many scientific claims in the health industries, and suggests getting healthy is not as complicated as it seems. • In Thinking Women and Health Care Reform in Canada (Canadian Scholars’ Press, $39.95 pa., Feb.), the Women and Health Care Reform working group sets out its argument for why changes to Canada’s health care sector are women’s issues. Researchers raise the issue of gender in such areas as privatization, home care, medical insurance, access to treatment, and maternity care. • When a group of women in Parry Sound, Ontario, decided to raise money for a new mammogram machine at their local hospital, they opted for a fundraising project that was fun, creative, and cheeky. Compiled by the West Parry Sound Health Foundation, Support the Girls: Bra Art for Breast Health (Second Story Press, $21.95 pa., April) features the personal stories and bra-based artwork of breast cancer sufferers and survivors, their loved ones, and health-care workers. A portion of proceeds will go to breast cancer research.

Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Nancy Reeves has travelled throughout North America facilitating workshops on grief, trauma, spirituality, and art therapy. A Path Through Loss: A Guide to Writing Your Healing and Growth (Woodlake Books, $19.95 pa., Feb.) contains self-guided journalling exercises Reeves has employed and honed over the years.

ENVIRONMENT

David Suzuki is back with another collection of thoughts on the environment. The aptly titled Everything Under the Sun: Toward a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet (Greystone, $24.95 pa., June), co-written with Ian Hannington, broaches topics such as solar-energy dependence, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the difference between human hunters and other predators. • Documentarian Amy Miller investigates the effects of carbon-emissions trading and carbon credit–funded projects in Carbon Rush (Red Deer Press, $24.95 pa., June), a scathing exposé of a system that bankrolls large-scale industrial operations and endangers all manner of life.

Cameron Dueck’s The New Northwest Passage: A Voyage to the Front Lines of Climate Change (Great Plains Publications, $24.95 pa., April) recalls the journalist’s trip through one of the least accessible places on the planet to encounter the effects of climate change on Arctic life. • In Save the Humans (Random House Canada, $29.95 cl., April), Rob Stewart, the filmmaker behind Sharkwater, turns his attention from marine life to the human cost of environmental carelessness. • Couched in tales of hard-living fishermen and the history of the West Coast fishing industry, Bluebacks and Silver Brights: A Lifetime in the B.C. Fisheries from Bounty to Plunder (ECW Press, $22.95 pa., May), by Norman and Allan Safarik, presents a dire ecological outlook for the Pacific Coast thanks to government mismanagement and overfishing. • In Nevermore: A Book of Hours ($20 pa., April), the third title published by Quattro Books’ non-fiction imprint, Fourfront Editions, David Day elegizes species that are long extinct, with illustrations by Maurice Wilson.

SCIENCE

Carolyn Abraham travels around the world, DNA kits at the ready, to probe the genetic background of her spotty family tree. Along the way, she struggles with the ethics behind using genetic tests to trace bloodlines. The Juggler’s Children: Family, Myth and a Tale of Two Chromosomes (Random House Canada, $32 cl.) lands on bookshelves in April. • In developing neurological exercises to overcome her own severe learning disabilities, Barbara Arrowsmith Young pioneered a cognitive training program that demonstrated the possibility for neuroplasticity – the notion that behaviour and training can alter brain function. The Woman Who Changed Her Brain: Stories of Transformation from the Frontier of Brain Science (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, $29.99 cl., May) recounts Arrowsmith’s story and sets out her methodology.

ESSAYS

Author and writing teacher Douglas Glover shares the finer points of the writing life, as well as a few exercises to get scribbling, in The Attack of the Copula Spiders and Other Essays on Writing (Biblioasis, $21.95 pa., April). • Thirty-three writers with ties to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, including Michael Turner, Madeleine Thien, and Wayde Compton, recast the maligned neighbourhood as a hub of creativity and humanity in V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (Arsenal Pulp Press, $19.95 pa., April), edited by Elee Kraljii Gardiner and John Mikhail Asfour. • Edited by Kathy Page and Lynne Van Luven, In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body (Brindle & Glass, $24.95 pa., April) contains essays by André Alexis, Trevor Cole, Lorna Crozier, Candace Fertile, Kate Pullinger, and Brian Brett that explore aging, illness, and insecurity through a specific body part.

FINE ART AND GRAPHICA

Canadian cities provide a rich source of inspiration for a number of fine art and non-fiction graphica titles this season. Dave Lapp combines new and previously published comics about encounters and conversations on the streets of Toronto in People Around Here (Conundrum Press, $17 pa., April), a follow-up to 2008’s Drop-in. • Toronto streets are brought to the fore in Full Frontal T.O. (Coach House Books, $24.95 pa., May), a chronicle of the Big Smoke’s ever-changing streetscapes by photographer Patrick Cummins and Stroll author Shawn Micallef. • Meanwhile, illustrator Michael Cho wanders Toronto’s backstreets for Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes (Drawn & Quarterly, $19.95 pa., May), a collection of vibrant illustrations of the city’s hidden streetscapes.

Heading West, Michael Kluckner’s Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 20 Years (Whitecap Books, $35 pa., April) updates the artist’s classic book of the same name two decades after its initial release. The new edition documents the city’s rapid development and features more than 200 images, including the author’s own watercolours and brush-and-ink drawings. • Rocky Mountain Books celebrates 100 years of the Calgary Stampede with Cowboy Wild ($39.95 cl., May), a photo book by David Campion chronicling a decade of the greatest show on earth, with text by Samantha Shields.

The latest from D&Q’s Petit Livre art book imprint is Idyll: Dream-filled Landscapes, Portraits, and Abstracts in Beautiful Detail ($19.95 cl., March) by Amber Albrecht. Inspired by the dreaminess of childhood, Albrecht’s paintings, screen prints, and drawings employ folklore and female iconography to address loneliness and loss.

HUMOUR

Just in time for summer break, Thomas Allen Publishers will release Almost There: The Family Vacation Then and Now ($24.95 pa., May), Curtis Gillespie’s take on family travel. • A “good mommy” is as real as a unicorn or Bigfoot, argues Willow Yamauchi in Bad Mommy (Insomniac Press, $19.95 pa., April), which celebrates the kind of parenting that falls somewhere between Joan Crawford and June Cleaver.

RELIGION

Conservative commentator and Sun News Network host Michael Coren’s latest book, Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity (Signal/M&S, $29.99 cl., April) picks up where 2011’s Why Catholics Are Right left off, challenging popular assumptions about Christianity regarding issues such as homophobia, sexism, and racism. • To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Roman Catholic Church updated its practices for an increasingly secular world, Novalis will publish Vatican II: Fifty Years of Evolution and Revolution in the Catholic Church ($18.95 pa., May) by Margaret Lavin, associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Regis College.

The fine print: Q&Q’s spring preview covers books published between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2012. All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time. • Titles that have been listed in previous previews do not appear here.

Toronto’s Dragon Lady Comics to close its doors

Just days after Quillblog reported on the troubles facing two Toronto independent bookstores comes word that Little Italy’s Dragon Lady Comics is closing its doors.

Torontoist writes:

According to manager Joe Kilmartin, a combination of factors led to the store’s demise, including a drop in foot traffic after repairs to the College Street streetcar tracks, an industry in flux, declining sales, and most directly, a recent increase in the store’s rent.

As of July 2011, rent was raised about 25%, meaning they’re now paying $5,200 a month.

Kevin Boyd, who broke the story on the Joe Shuster Awards website, writes that “Dragon Lady’s closing definitely affects most of us in the Toronto comics community because the store and the people [who] work there have had an impact on collectors, readers, creators, and even other retailers for over 30 years.”

A closure date hasn’t been announced, but Kilmartin says owner John Biernat hopes to move his business online instead of having a massive sale.

Book links round-up: reviewing The Hobbit trailer, Atwood is a 2011 hero, and more

• The Telegraph reviews trailer for The Hobbit
• Torontoist names Margaret Atwood one of 2011’s heroes
• Jonathan Ames contemplates writing book or comic to continue his cancelled HBO comedy, Bored to Death
• Publishers lament the titles that got away in 2011
• NPR names Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant one of the top comics of 2011.

VIDEO:

Do literary critics have what it takes to review comics?

We’ve given a fair bit of space in Q&Q to conversations about literary criticism, but we’ve heard relatively little about what it means to be a critic of comics. Considering how significant graphic novels have become in Canadian literature and publishing, perhaps it’s time to address the question.

Where better to start the conversation than the comics scene itself. Michael May, writer of Kill All Monsters! Webcomic, sparked an interesting conversation about comics criticism over on the Robot 6 blog at Comic Book Resources. In his first post in a series dedicated to sketching out some basic guidelines for engaging in comics criticism, May suggests all comics are not created equally and encourages critics to take their cues from “authorial intent”:

By “author” I don’t mean just the writer, but everyone involved in the creative process. In comics that might only be one person or it could be a huge team. The point is that the people who make the comics have something that they’re trying to accomplish and good criticism of the book should take that into account. It’s not fair for me to open Dan Clowes’ Death Ray expecting it to be like Fantastic Four…. [T]o judge [a work] correctly, critics need to focus on what it is they think that [the authors] are trying to accomplish and whether or not it succeeds on that level.

In his second post, May tackles the issue of amateur criticism versus professional criticism, and suggests a critics’ credentials matter only insofar as they help a reader get what she needs out of the review, whether it be reading recommendations, a deeper understanding of the craft, or both.

The latest post by May offers tips to readers for evaluating a review based again on authorial intent: was the point of the review to entertain? To provide a product review? To contribute to the development of the craft? To curate a canon?

These aren’t new concepts or questions by any means, but May (unintentionally) raises another issue. Is comics criticism the same as literary criticism, and do literary critics who aren’t well-versed in the world of comics have the chops to write an informed review of a graphic novel?

Slideshow: Toronto comics artists pay homage to Tintin

Roughly 70 comics artists and illustrators will participate in an art show this month that honours French Belgian comic book creator Hergé and his intrepid reporter. Toronto Draws Tintin, a “celebration of all things Tintin and his creator Hergé,” features original artistic interpretations of the series by artists such as Chester Brown, Joe Ollmann, Marta Chudolinska, and Britt Wilson.

The show opens Wednesday with the launch party for The Adventures of Hergé by authors José-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromental, and illustrator Stanislas Barthélémy, published by Drawn & Quarterly.

Toronto’s Beguiling Books & Art has teamed up with Steamwhistle Brewery and the French consulate in Toronto to put on the show, which doubles as a fundraiser for the Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund. All 80 pieces will go up for bid in a silent auction on Nov. 27, closing night, with proceeds going to the fund.

The launch happens Wednesday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Steamwhistle Gallery in Toronto. In the meantime, check out a sampling of the exhibit in our slideshow or visit torontodrawstintin.com.

Seth wins Harbourfront Festival Prize

Organizers at the International Festival of Authors have named cartoonist and graphic novelist Seth the winner of the 2011 Harbourfront Festival Prize. The $10,000 prize honours an individual whose work has substantially contributed to the state of literature and books.

According to a press release issued by the Harbourfront Centre, the jury — John van Driel, vice-president of programming and operations at Classical 96.3FM; Denise Donlon, former executive director at CBC Radio; and Geoffrey Taylor, director at IFOA — selected Seth based on the “diversity and range of his illustrations and designs” throughout his career.

In the statement, Seth says a few decades ago he couldn’t have envisioned the acceptance of comics in the literary world, that “the idea of winning something like this was not within the realm of possibilities,” and so “it goes without saying that I am deeply honoured.” Past winners of the prize include Dionne Brand, Wayson Choy, Paul Quarrington, Jane Urquhart, and recent Q&Q cover profile Guy Vanderhaeghe.

Seth will receive the prize at an IFOA event in Toronto on Oct. 29.

Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund reforms to help U.S. man charged with child pornography

Here’s some friendly advice for Canadians returning from the U.S. after the July 4th festivities: be careful what reading material you bring back across the border.

Last year, a U.S. man was charged with possession and importation of child pornography after customs officials discovered explicit manga images on his laptop. Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, told the website Comic Book Resources:

My understanding with regard to the material at issue is that it includes fantasy comics drawn in a variety of manga styles. One of the items is believed to be a doujinshi, or fan-made comic, of the mainstream manga series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Another is believed to be a comic in the original Japanese, depicting stick figure-like [characters] in various sexual positions. In all cases, the authorities are targeting expressive art and not any photographic evidence of a crime.

As the case moves closer to court (no date is scheduled yet), last week the CBLDF announced it is forming a coalition to financially and legally assist the man, who faces up to a year in prison and the addition of his name to Canada’s sex offender registry. The like-minded Canadian organization, The Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund, is also reforming to help raise his estimated $150,000 in legal fees. Largely dormant since the 1990s, the ad hoc fund was established in 1987 to help the owners of Calgary comic shop Comic Legends, who were charged with distributing obscene materials.

Though serious obscenity cases are increasingly rare, back in early May, Q&Q reported on a Canada Customs seizure of comics heading to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. On May 6, TCAF participants Tom Neely and Dylan Williams were stopped at the Buffalo, N.Y., border, and had copies of Blaise Larmee’s graphic novel Young Lions and black-humour anthology BLACK EYE 1: Graphic Transmissions to Cause Ocular Hypertension confiscated by customs officers.

Book links round-up: Bloomsday celebrations, Asterix headaches, and more

• Celebrate Bloomsday in eight different ways
• Asterix books contain over 700 traumatic brain injury victims
• T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land beats out Marvel comics and the Bible as the week’s top-grossing iPad app
• Worldwide launch of Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table scheduled for the Edinburgh International Book Festival
• Veteran news anchor Lloyd Robertson to pen memoir for HarperCollins Canada

Book links round-up: Slave Lake book auction, fiction for men, and more

• Today’s Slave Lake daily book auction features a signed copy of Angie Abdou’s The Bone Cage
• Plan your summer reading with Joyland’s list of 250 books by women all men should read
• U.K. plans its largest-ever poetry festival around the 2012 Olympics
• Comics artist David Collier pays tribute to Al Purdy
• While music fans mourn the death of Gil Scott-Heron, don’t forget he was a poet and novelist, too