BOOK REVIEWS

The Little Regent

By Yewande Daniel-Ayoade and Ken Daley (ill.)

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

★ Teeth

By Dallas Hunt

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

Crash Landing

By Li Charmaine Anne

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

★ The Seventh Town of Ghosts

By Faith Arkorful

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 »

April 3, 2024 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

Dayspring

By Anthony Oliveira

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: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets Selected and Translated by Yilin Wang

By Yilin Wang

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 »

March 27, 2024 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

★ Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak

By Danielle Daniel and Jackie Traverse (ill.)

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

The Gift Child

By Elaine McCluskey

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

★ Night of the Living Zed

By Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester

Writing duo Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester return with more adventures featuring nonbinary tween Zed and their best friend Gabe in Night of the Living Zed, a companion novel to the well-received The Fabulous Zed ... Read More »

March 20, 2024 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ A Year of Last Things

By Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje’s latest collection is impossibly good. It is the work of a mature poet at the zenith of his talent. T. S. Eliot wrote, “The mature poet, in the operations of his mind, works ... Read More »

March 13, 2024 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

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