“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
Faith Arkorful’s debut book, The Seventh Town of Ghosts, is a collection of lyric poems suffused with a heart-centred intelligence. These poems move through grief, memory, and joy with the insight of “a black girl ... Read More »
In his genre-bending debut novel, Dayspring, Toronto writer Anthony Oliveira has crafted a truly one-of-a-kind depiction of the life of Jesus Christ – reimagined from the perspective of the apostle John, described in the Bible ... Read More »
April 3, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
The Lantern and the Night Moths is an exceptional book of translations and literary criticism by poet-translator Yilin Wang. Wang’s original translations of five Chinese poets and her accompanying essays (one per poet) make for ... Read More »
Trees are treated with reverence in many world religions. In Islam, planting trees, which provide shelter and food to all living beings, is seen as an act of charity. In Hinduism and Buddhism, trees are ... Read More »
March 27, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
To explain the plot of Elaine McCluskey’s The Gift Child is both to give everything away and to reveal nothing important. Although the novel does, in the words of its narrator Harriett Swim, take us ... Read More »
March 20, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews