First Friday Poetry June 2025

 I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

"This month we will be writing about the influences in our life. Poet James Crew has posted the poem “I’d Rather Be Influenced” by Patrick Ramsay, and that’s the poem we will take inspiration from in June."

May was a hard month. 

Each May, for the last 39 years, I've headed off for a long weekend with a diverse group of women friends. The Saturday before I left, I called my cousin Laura, the woman through whom the rest of us met, to sort out a few details as to who was coming, where we were all sleeping, and what to remember. The next morning I got a message that she had died in her sleep. After a lot of phone calls, four of us decided we needed to go to our cabin on the beach even if she wouldn't be there. 

Ever since I got that terrible news, I been thinking about how much she, and being part of this group of friends, have influenced me. I've also been thinking that I need to be more like Laura: a down to earth woman of compassion, love, and laughter. She was the kind of person you felt safe around. She brought out the best in those of us who knew her. She was the closest thing to a big sister I ever had. My heart aches with missing her. 

I started this poem while I was away, and then worked on it after returning home, Then I forgot all about it. I've been working like crazy in the garden and only realized it was Friday when I received notification of Linda's blog post! 

Todays poem is dedicated to my beautiful cousin who leaves a huge hole in many hearts.


I’d Rather Be Influenced by Laura

to giggle more
letting myself be me
finding comfort
in my aging body
laughing uproariously
in the face of what’s to come

I’d rather be influenced
by inclusivity
celebrating difference
and finding common ground
not only with my fellow homo sapiens
but also with
with each and every being on this planet

to find holiness in
rocks and dirt,
birds, flowers, marmots, trees,
cacti, spiders,
even the invasive mallow,
whose roots I rip out with distressing regularity

I’d rather be influenced
to take time to listen to morning warblers
and evening frog song
to cherish the rhythm of crickets
and live each moment in joy











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First Friday Poetry May 2025

I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

This month we are on our own to choose our own mentor text poem.

I recently read an article about Janis Ian's first song, written and recorded in 1965 when she was only 14. I had never heard of Society's Child until then. The song of hers that resonated most with me is At Seventeen. I'm using it for my inspiration this month.

When I was in grade ten, I went off to a Catholic Youth Conference one weekend, and returned home with Hepatitis A. While at home, too sick and exhausted to read, I listened to CBC radio's Cross Country Checkup with Peter Gzowsky. He was interviewing national and international feminists. It was a revelation for me. I experienced a paradigm shift in my world view and returned to my small town high school a very different person than the one I was before.


At Seventeen

I learned the truth at seventeen
That boys should never fill girls dreams
That equal rights and equal pay
Would prove to be the only way
To control our bodies and our minds
According to our own designs
It isn’t what it seems
At seventeen

My mother’s life made clear to me
that a husband and a family
Was no guarantee
of equanimity
that education was the key
to choice and opportunity
it was clear to me
at seventeen

Those of us who dared to venture
Into a new kind of future
Someday, if we found love true
there never would be payment due
for independent girls like me and you
Life's different than it seems
At seventeen

Decades have past and much has changed
We’ve lost much that we once gained.
I ache for girls still in their teens
And hope that boys don’t fill their dreams
It isn’t all it seems
At seventeen


Here's Janice Ian singing her Grammy award winning song. 

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#IMWAYR April 14, 2025

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


I've been sewing up a storm and managed to finsh my granddaughter's birthday dress. She came up with the design, and when she was last here, picked the dark blue patterned fabric. Here's what I've come up with. I'll send it, along with a little capybara wall hanging, off to her later this week. 

front

back

The original design:
some day I will recreate this. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.


This book is a celebration of who and what a baby could someday become, as well as a reminder of how perfect they already are. This is an important message for all of us, no matter our ages. 
I might purchase this for someone I know who is expecting a baby. 
Shar Tuiasoa's art work is gorgeous! I wanted to dig out my scraps and embroidery floss to try and recreate it in fabric!

Piper loves to sing. She sings everywhere and all the time. She especially enjoys singing in her school choir, but when she is asked to sing a solo, she ends up getting anxious and feeling butterflies in her tummy. 
At home she talks to Nai Nai, her grandmother, about her feelings. Nai Nai helps her change the way she thinks about those butterflies and instead of fearing them, learns to see them as a reminder that something exciting is about to happen. 
I love a lot about this book. First, I adore Qin Leng's illustrations. I love Piper's relationship with her grandmother. I love that they are both musically creative and that it's who Piper goes to for help. I love that while Nai Nai tells Piper about her butterflies, we also get a glimpse into her background story. The music teacher, Mr Harris, is pretty cool too when he tells Piper she can sing with the rest of the class instead of soloing if that's what she wants.  
I wish this book had been around when I was still teaching. It's a great resource for students like Piper who get anxious when they have to do anything in front of a crowd. 

GRAPHIC NOVELS


Momo lives in Town 99. Her favourite restaurant is Noodle and Bau. Bau is also her best friend. When the building is sold and they are evicted, they struggle to make ends meet by selling their food from a cart parked across from their former restaurant. It now houses a high end cafe run by Ms. Jujube. None of the residents of Town 99 could afford to eat there.
Momo is determined to help Noodle and Bau get their restaurant back. Meanwhile, the community is changing. Rent is increasing, people are moving out, and new shiny shops are moving in. Even Momo's parents are having trouble dealing with the high cost of housing. 
At one point in the story, it looks like Noodle and Bau will succeed at getting their place back, but it turns out that Ms. Jujube has plans that will destroy their community even more.
Momo is determined to do everything to save their neighbourhood and stop the gentrification. She starts out working on her own, but it isn't until the whole community gets involved, that they can be successful. The importance of collective effort is a message we need now more than ever. 
Town 99 is populated by a collection of human and anthropomorphized animals. I thought they might represent the diversity of the population, but am not sure since Momo, who is shown as human, has two animal parents. Perhaps the animal people represent first generation immigrants and the more human looking ones are those who were born there.  Even the text, written in both English and Cantonese characters, highlights the complexity of the residents.  I was fascinated by the character of Ms. Jujube. On the one hand, she seems to be evil incarnate, but on the other, she is very supportive of Bau, and even pays for him to go to cooking school. 
If you want to read a much more thorough and considered review of this book, I encourage you to check out Max @ Completely Full Bookshelf's post from last week. 
 
ADULT NON FICTION


Joan Didion was the same age as my mother. I've been a fan ever since reading The Year of Magical Thinking. It helped me understand what my mother's life was like after my father died. I had never even heard of Eve Babitz until this book. 
When Babitz died, a box of her letters was discovered. This book, chronicling Eve's perspective of her relationship with Joan, as wall as many other aspects of her life, arose from them. 
I really enjoyed this book. A number of reviewers on Goodreads complained that the book was all gossip. I believe that our lives are made up of all kinds of stories and this book highlights the glory of these little vignettes. 
In many ways the two women seem to be competing opposites, but I agree with the author, that they are more like two sides of the same coin. "Yes their sensibilities were polarized, their styles clashing, their intentions though, were identical, to make literature that exploited what was novel and expose what was familiar in a city, a society, and an epic under convulsive pressure. Joan and Eve are the two halves of American womanhood representing forces that are, on the surface, in conflict, yet secretly align."

CURRENTLY 

Hell and Gone by Sam Wiebe October 23, 2021 🍁

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin May 1, 2012

Fantastic Lou: Little Comics from Real Life by Qin Leng January 28, 2025 🍁

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong November 5, 2024

A Two Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby & Mary Louisa Plummer May 3, 2016 🍁

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 10/25  one on the go

NonFiction 14/30

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 24/50  two on the go

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 54/200

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#IMWAYR April 7, 2025

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


I had sinus surgery last Tuesday. It went well, but the surgeon did much more work than I thought he was going to do. When I read his report, I realized he had essentially restructured my sinuses. I thought I would finish reading and responding to blog posts on Wednesday. I thought wrong. I couldn't read with my eyes or concentrate on much of anything. My head is finally starting to feel like it belongs to me again, but I expect it will be at least another week before the merogel packing disintegrates and I can breathe freely.
 
On a positive note, my husband has learned how to make really good home made chicken soup.
 
Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

YA/ADULT FICTION


I first read this book driving back and forth to visit my mother who lay in palliative care dying. When I got to the part where Granny Weatherwax dies, I pulled over to the side of the road and wept. I wept for her, for my mother, and for Terry Pratchett. 
I didn't have such an emotional response this time, but reading the book did take me back to those final days with my mom.
Pratchett's witches are community health nurses who have the capacity to use magic, but they use it sparingly because it's dangerous and difficult to control. When Granny Weatherwax dies, she leaves her stead and her role of first among equals of the witches to Tiffany Aching. Tiffany soon discovers that looking after two steadings is overwhelming and that she needs an assistant, so when Geoffrey, an educated son of a Lord, tells her he wants to be a witch, she takes him on. 
Granny Weatherwax's passing weakened the barriers between the Elf and  Discworld realms. Nightshade, the Elf Queen, whose power was diminished in her previous interaction with Tiffany, is in trouble. A few of the stronger elves begin making incursions on their own into Tiffany's world and wreaking havoc. Eventually, Peasbottom, another elf, usurps Niteshade's reign, has her wings torn off, and throws her out of the elf realm. When the Feegles find her, Tiffany befriends her and attempts to rehabilitate her by teaching her kindness and what it means to be human. 
When the elves, en masse, finally enter the Discworld, they attack on two fronts. The whole community: Tiffany, Nightshade, the witches, the Feegles, and Geoffrey and his old men, are waiting for them. It looks like they will be overpowered until Tiffany calls on the magic of the chalk, her grandmother's sheepdogs, and the King of the Elves for help.
There is a lot going on in this book. It examines the difference between good and evil, (this is a common theme in all Pratchett's books) between duty and selfishness, and between courage and humility. These are ideas we need to look at more closely in our Roundworld. It addresses death and grief at the same time as it deals with the future. Tiffany comes to understand that whatever the future holds, she must deal with it on her terms. There are hints about what the future might hold and what stories might be told if Pratchett's time had not run out. We can only wonder what will happen between Tiffany and Preston and what will become of Tiffany's namesake and Eskarina's son? 
In this, his last novel, Pratchett referenced multiple characters and books from his Discworld collection. I especially appreciate his connections between fairytales and reality. I'm sure I will never get all his sly jokes. 
Parts of this would have been more fully developed had he lived a bit longer, but it is still deeply satisfying. I am left feeling his loss all over again. 
I wrote about Invisible Dead, the first in this mystery series, a couple of weeks ago. In this, the second book, Vancouver PI, David Wakeland, takes on a couple of mysteries. In the first case, Professor Dana Essex hires him to find Tabitha Sorenson, a missing university student. The day after he finds her and informs Essex, Tabitha is murdered and Essex has disappeared.
In the second case, Wakeland's ex girlfriend, police officer Sonia Drego, asks him for help investigating her VPD partner who she suspects is corrupt. 
Wakeland is a complex character. A review I read recently called him a "disappointed romantic." That's part of his appeal, but this former Vancouver police officer simmers with anger and at times, struggles to hold on to his self control. He's a representation of the dark underbelly of the city of Vancouver itself. 
If you are a fan of noir thriller detective novels like those written by Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Dashiell Hammett, I encourage you to read this.
I am mostly a cozy mystery fan, so these books take me way out of my comfort zone. I had to skip over pages that were too scary for me. That said, just like last time, as soon as I finished this, I put a hold on the next book. 
 
ADULT NON FICTION


If you ever wonder, “Why do we remember some events, but forget others?” then this book is for you.
I should probably start it all over again since I mostly listened to it those first few days after my surgery. I couldn't focus enough to read with my eyes, so I lay around listening to this. I'm not sure how much I really took in.
It's an important book for many reasons. It's not a 'how to book' for improving your memory. It's more of an overview of what memory might be and how it might work (the author contends that he's still doesn't understand it.) What it shows us about the power of "error driven learning," makes it a must read for everyone involved in the arena of education. 
I listened to the last chapter a couple of times because it seemed most critical for our times. In it, Ranganath addresses how our memories are shaped in the context of social interactions. This is especially significant with respect to how lies and misinformation are spread, and what we can do to protect ourselves from them. 

CURRENTLY 

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik November 12, 2024

Noodle and Bao by Shaina Lu October 15, 2024

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Hell and Gone by Sam Wiebe October 23, 2021  🍁

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong November 5, 2024

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 10/25

NonFiction 13/30  one on the go

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 23/50

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 51/200

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#IMWAYR March 31st, 2025

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


I managed to get a lot accomplished in the last few weeks. I didn't finish everything that was on my list, but I did complete things that were not on it.

Last Sunday one set of grandkids arrived, and then Monday I was at a quilt workshop. The children and their father left Thursday and I headed off to a quilting retreat. I really enjoyed the retreat and managed to get the quilt I started Monday finished. I also made headway with another project that I started about 1 1/2 years ago. 

Here's the top that I finished. Lydia, my four year old granddaughter, has claimed it as her own. 

Her seven year old brother had a pile of books that he brought with him. I had hoped to sneak a look at some of them, but after they went to bed, I was too exhausted. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS

Usborne Beginners

5 stars

Dangerous Animals by Rebecca Gilpin & Catriona Clarke July 01, 2008



My four year old granddaughter and I had a grand time reading these while she was here.
I used these nonfiction titles all the time when I was teaching. They are chock full of information. I love the pairing of one line of text with an image. These books were perfect for my ESL learners as well as primary students. When my husband and I were last visiting the Mosaic Bookstore in Kelowna, BC, I found some on sale for $1.99. I grabbed a copy of as many as I could find.


This book is a perfect example of why I read middle grade novels. Olivetti, a typewriter, is one of the main characters. Olivetti lived with the Brindle family for years. Before the introduction of personal computers, it was a valued member. Then it was mostly forgotten until one day, their mother, Beatrice, packed it up and took it to a pawnshop where she pawned it for $126. Then she disappeared. 
When the family are putting up missing posters for her, Quinn, the pawnshop owner's daughter, recognizes Beatrice, and connects with Ernest, her twelve year old son. Soon afterwards, Ernest discovers the door to the shop is open after hours, and steals Olivetti. As a way of helping the family find Mrs Brindle, Olivetti begins typing out the memories she once typed into it. 
I really appreciated that we never really understand out what is happening with Ernest until the mystery is solved and the connection is revealed. 
I adored this book. It packs an emotional wallop. Olivetti is a delightfully quirky character. I cared for Quinn, Ernest, and the rest of his family. 
Last summer, my seven year old granddaughter purchased a typewriter at a garage sale. I can't wait to share this novel with her. 

YA/ADULT NON FICTION


This Japanese mystery novel is both fascinating and creepy. When Yasuko Hanaoka’s abusive ex husband finds her and her daughter, they end up murdering him. It’s the only way they will ever be safe. Unexpectedly, their neighbour, Tetsuya Ishigami, a brilliant mathematician, comes to their rescue to help them get rid of the body.
He creates an elaborate plan telling them what to do and what to say should the police come knocking on their door.
Detective Kusanagi does eventually find the body and comes to interview the mother and daughter. They have a water tight alibi for where they were the night of the murder but the inspector feels that something isn’t quite right. When he talks about the case with his physicist friend, Dr. Manabu Yukawa, it turns out Yukawa is a friend of the mathematician. In the end, it’s the physicist who unravels what actually happened. I did not expect the convolutions that are revealed.

ADULT NON FICTION


The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jen Gunter  May 25, 2021 🍁

Since I first read Dr. jen Gunter’s book, The Vagina Bible, I’ve been a fan of her work. I plan to purchase copies of Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation as a reference book for my grandchildren and their families. The latter is a book I really wish had been around when I was young. 
I am post menopausal, so I didn’t really think this book would have a whole lot to teach me. But then, it's Jen Gunter, so of course it did.
Jen Gunter's writing is full of empathy, but it's also straight up and no nonsense. These are the facts. This is the research. Here’s what to look out for so you aren't sucked into purchasing from corporations selling snake oil. Not only do we readers learn about history of menopause through a feminist lens, we learn what to look out for to ensure that we are truly taking care of our own health.

CURRENTLY 

Cut You Down by Sam Wiebe February 13, 2018 🍁

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett August 27, 2015

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters by Charan Ranganath January 1, 2024

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong November 5, 2024

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 10/25

NonFiction 12/30 

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 22/50 one on the go

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 48/200

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#IMWAYR March 17, 2025

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


Hurrah Hurrah! Spring break is here. I have plans for getting a lot accomplished in the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow, right after reading and responding to blog posts, I plan to get my tomato seeds potted! I've already got the dirt and the pots are clean. I also plan to clean out the garden and cut back the raspberry canes. In addition to that I hope to get caught up on my reading with my eyes and finishing up a couple of sewing/quilting projects I've started. I can't help but wonder how successful I will be. Probably not very.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book

This gorgeous picture book takes readers back in time to Tokyo in the early 1970's. The lyrical prose shows us demae (deliverymen) on bikes carrying towering trays of ceramic bowls filled with soba noodles to different places around the city. 

4 stars

My Sister, Daisy by Adria Karlsson & Linus Curci (Illustrator) September 1, 2021

This book is written from the perspective of a loving older brother.  When his younger brother informs the family she is a girl, he does his best to accept this change in their family. In spite of the many positive things that happen, he still experiences jealousy and anger at the special treatment she receives. 
I suspect this kind of reaction is probably common in any family with a child who, for whatever reason, requires extra parental attention. 
In the author's note in the back matter she explains that this book was written for her older child who went through this experience without the support of a book like this. 

"This beautifully illustrated graphic novel is an exploration of grief, love, and finding magic in the wilderness – and in ourselves."
Poppy and her mother are grieving the loss of grandmother and mother. While her mother remains almost immobilized by grief, Poppy is forced to leave the house to take their dog, Pepper, for walks. On one of these outings, Pepper drags her through a hole in a fence into a forest. In the forest she makes a new friend who helps her discover the healing power of wild spaces. It takes a while, but eventually she persuades her mother to join her. 
I especially appreciate that Poppy starts out completely glued to her phone, but eventually doesn't even bother to bring it with her. (I confess that I bring mine with me on hikes, but only to take photos and identify plants.)
The black and white illustrations in this book are jawdroppingly gorgeous. 
It was my mother who introduced me to the beauty and magical power of wilderness. I wish she was still here so I could share this book with her. 

Kiela and her assistant, Caz, a sentient talking spider plant, are forced to flee the Great Library of Alyssium when revolutionary forces set the building on fire. After escaping with a few crate loads of precious spellbooks, they end up on a remote island where Kiela was born and raised.
In the world of this novel, magic has been hoarded by the elite and the rest of the inhabitants suffer. When she settles into her family home, Kiela discovers this means crop failures, record breaking storms, and a decline in magical species.
With the help of a good looking neighbour and a few spells purloined from the books, she sets up a Jam and Remedy shop. Her new life is suddenly endangered when the person rescued during the last storm claims to be a government inspector searching for illegal magic.
I'm not really a huge romance fan, but this book had enough other stuff going on to delight me.


This book is a cross between hard boiled detective novel and noir thriller. I added it to my reading list because Sam Wiebe is a Canadian author, and his protagonist, Dave Wakeland, is a twenty nine year old former cop turned PI who lives and works in Vancouver BC. It's an intimate reading experience when my home, or even a place I know well, is the setting for the novel I'm into. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. 
In this debut novel, Wakeland takes on the eleven year old case of a missing woman, Chelsea Loam. Chelsea's dying mother wants to know what happened to her adopted daughter.
Here in Canada the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls is a huge problem. This book is a fictional exploration into the life of one of them. 
Fans of Dashiell Hammett and Ross MacDonald will enjoy it. 
Even though I'm much more of a cosy mystery fan, I liked this so much that I immediately downloaded the next in the series. 

CURRENTLY 

Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters by Marlene Zuk August 9, 2022

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jen Gunter  May 25, 2021 🍁

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew 🍁

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 10/25

NonFiction 11/30 two on the go

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 21/50 one on the go

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 43/200

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#IMWAYR March 10, 2025

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.


Some day I will write reviews of books as soon as I finish reading them, or at the very least, make notes, but the truth is, I don't. If I had done this the week before last, the unexpected visit from my grandkids wouldn't have interfered with getting in a blog post. I didn't though, and so when I had to choose between writing or spending time with my darling ones, it was a no brainer. 

We probably read more picture books than the one's I'm sharing here, but I can't remember them if we did.

After they left to go home I finished this little wall hanging/placemat for the youngest one who is mad about capybaras these days. The pattern is designed by Kimberley Arnold. The background is more blue green than it appears here.


Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book

PREVIOUS BLOG POST

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Knight Owl and Early Bird by Christopher Denise (October 15, 2024)

Early Bird might not be able to guard the castle during the night, but that doesn't mean, they don't have many other talents.
This book is a celebration of individual differences and strengths. At the same time, in the end, it's also about the power of many. 
Be warned that this tale can get pretty scary. My seven year old granddaughter was terrified, even though I reminded her it would have a happy ending. 

This is an alphabet book showing creatures that are a combination of two different animals.  The illustrations are delightfully imaginative. It is, ultimately, a book that highlights and celebrates mixed race identity. The author is of European and Japanese descent. 

3.5 stars

Nori and His Delicious Dreams by Jeff Chiba Stearns March 1, 2020 🍁

Nori goes to bed each night dreaming of sleeping with food. What I liked most about this book is that it takes the reader on a multicultural culinary journey. A double page spread in the back of the book explains where all the dishes come from.

My grandkids brought these Jeff Chiba Stearns books with them last weekend. They were excited to share them with me. It's a testimony to the power of having author visits. Ada, the eldest of the girls, arranged to have these two signed for her younger sister. 

Jeff Chiba Stearns is an animator as well as an author. I hope you make time for, and enjoy his animated memoir here. 

   


Elise Gravel is a Canadian treasure. She writes fabulous books, both fiction and nonfiction, for the younger crowd. This is one of them. In here, her charming little little monsters explain quite brilliantly the basics of how our brains work. 


This is a book that would work well as an introduction to a more in depth conversation about gender expectations, stereotypes, and social justice. 

This book won the Andre Norton Award in 2011.
Amid a climate of suspicion and prejudice, Tiffany, now fifteen, is fully immersed in her role as witch of the chalk. It turns out that the Cunning Man, a demonic spirit, is spreading hatred of witches in general, and is coming for Tiffany in particular. Even when she identifies who is responsible, and learns how it all began, it doesn't stop the monster. In the end, Tiffany, like many witches before her, has to figure out how to deal with him herself.
I loved that Eskarina Smith, the witch/wizard from Equal Rites, shows up to offer her guidance.
I appreciate that Pratchett shows us how rumour, hatred, racism and bigotry work in our world. While I value the importance of an individual speaking up, I wish that he had shown a group of individuals working together to overcome this evil, instead of the trope of the lone heroine saving the day. Tiffany might have had only one Cunning Man to deal with, but there are many Cunning Men stoking hatred and division among us today. It is going to take a massive amount of collective effort to defeat it.


Listening to this felt like immersing myself in a dream. It has a mythic quality. The characters are like fleshed out archetypes living a world of magical realism.  
It's a book about relationships, connections and love. It begins with the ill fated romance and marriage of teens, Kismet Poe and Gary Geist, and Kismet's relationship with the brilliant Hugo. We see what love looks like over time through both their parent's partnerships. Because it is also about connections, it's less about romantic love than it is about mother and daughter love, love for family, love for community and love for the land. I suppose it might sound strange given that it seems to focus on the ill fated marriage, yet the marriage feels like a kind of catalyst. It's through that union that we come to understand and connect with the other characters and their motivations. 
It's also a book about tragedy and trauma and how all these people cope with it. 

YA NON FICTION


Like Medicine Wheel for the Planet by Jennifer Grenz, a book I talked about a few weeks ago, this book is all about forging a new kind of relationship with the natural world.
Our world needs this kind of perspective now more than ever. 

CURRENTLY 

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst July 9, 2024

Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters by Marlene Zuk August 9, 2022

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew 🍁

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 9/25

NonFiction 11/30 

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 19/50

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 38/200


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