Poetry Friday September 27, 2019

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink. Although retired, Carol continues to be actively involved in literacy development in multiple ways - writing poetry being only one of them. At her site today she is embracing summer in images and poems from around the world. Go over there and check it out. Don't forget to check out the links to other participants sharing poetry today.



In 1958, the year I turned five, my family joined other relatives on a logging and homesteading adventure into the Pine River region of Northern British Columbia. I've been writing bits about that experience off and on for ages, but needed motivation to become truly focused. I committed to sharing a bit publicly every week so that I wouldn't give up. This is the last poem in these drafts for now. I have appreciated all the feedback, questions, and advice I have received from all of the Poetry Friday community.

Now it's time to make use your gifts and advice and start reworking it all.

When I started thinking about where I might send this off to in order to publish it, I discovered that many people don't want to look at work if any version of it has been published in any format, including on a blog. I wish I had known this before I started. Is there a way around this?

ENDING

Just like that,
it was over.

unlike that of
a perfectly hewn tree,
our family’s trajectory
had not fallen true

Daddy survived,
but had to use a wheelchair
for what remained of his life

never accepted it
just got better at coping

the future our family faced
would prove to be
more challenging than
those few months in the north

the horrors ahead
made those hardships
seem idyllic

shaped us all up
into different kinds of people

but we would survive

there really wasn’t any other option

Here are links to previous poems in this collection.

Leaving
Characters
Journey
Arrival
Preparedness
Ready and Willing
Larder
Laundry
Diaper Duty
Skunk Trouble
Working
Pawns
Crossing
Bath Time
invincible 
Explorer
Time For Fun
First Snow
Miserable Physics
Difficult Decision
Return

#IMWAYR Septermber 23, 2019

#IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

I am trying hard to get on top of all the Netgalley titles I signed up to read and review. When I go to the site I am like a kid in a toy store at Christmas time. I want to read scores of them so I sign up for too many. I'm left trying to figure out how I am ever going to get to all of them. On top of this, a couple of days ago I got an email that Gae Polisner's new book, Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me, is available to read. Of course I squealed in delight and added it to my list. 

We are here at our Oliver home to attend the funeral of one of my Uncles today. It's a sad, but wonderful time as he had a rich and rewarding life. I am looking forward to connecting with my cousins and other family friends. I will do my best to respond to everyone's blog posts this week, but can't guarantee how that will work out. We are heading home on Tuesday to celebrate my son's birthday and then I work the rest of the week. 

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

The House at the End of the Road by Kari Rust

Just Lucky by Melanie Florence

Poetry Friday September 20, 2019

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

The Toy Brother by William Steig

I needed a picture book to teach the basics of a story - setting, characters, and problem. (The classroom teacher had left one of those paper cubes to fill out.) The gender norms in this are a bit dated, but it’s still a classic full of all kinds of weirdness and humour. It fit my need perfectly. Magnus Bede is an apothecary. When he and his wife, Eutilda, are away, his older son, Yorick, ends up disobeying him and while experimenting in the lab, shrinks himself. The younger son, Charles, finally has Yorick’s undivided attention, but It looks like Yorrick might be stuck that way forever! Don't you just adore these names!

4 stars

The Bus Ride by Marianne Dubuc

Marianne Dubuc is brilliant. Her books make me think hard, but this one was uniquely intriguing. A lot is going on in this little girl's journey to her grandmother's house. I loved that she ended up making friends with the wolf. I must have gone through the book four times before making the connection between the newspaper and and what was happening on the bus.
Marianne Dubuc is Canadian. 🍁

4 stars

Lucy and Company by Marianne Dubuc

I’m automatically hooked by any book that has a map on the opening pages, so I was already disposed to love this one. It turned out to be enchanting even without the map.
It's composed of three short stories perfect for beginning readers.
In the first we are introduced to the characters. Lucy climbs a tree to have her snack. She is soon joined by Marcel, the mouse, Henry, a rabbit, Dot, the turtle, and Adrian, a snail. They discover that sharing snacks is fun.
The Treasure Map ends up in with a birthday party for Henry.
In The Hatchlings, Adrian discovers eggs. When they hatch into little chicks, they follow him but when he can’t keep them warm, the group snuggle the little chicks into Anton the bear’s fur.
Marianne Dubuc is Canadian. 🍁

5 stars

The House at the End of the Road by Kari Rust

Old people are pretty cool characters in Kari Rust's The House at the End of the Road. Some of us already know this, but you can't have too many reminders of how important relationships between the oldest and the youngest of us are. This book is a hybrid - a cross between a graphic novel and a picture book. 
Kari Rust is a Canadian author from my city. 🍁

GRAPHIC NOVELS

4 stars

Operatic by Kyo Maclear

I sure wish I had had a music teacher like Mr. K. He introduces his students to a gamut of musical genres and encourages them to find a song that is them - one they feel at home in. His room has an empty desk. In other classrooms the desk would have been removed but in here it is moved to a corner, but still there reminding students of Luka and what happened to him.
Charlie (Charlotte), the protagonist, has some solid friends and a crush on one of her classmates, Emile. She wonders and worries about Luka. When she is exposed to the art of Maria Callas, Charlie discovers the song and music that becomes 'home' to her. Inspired by Callas' story, she begins to make changes in her own life.
The art is gorgeous. Different time periods and different places are offset in different colours. The yellowish background is connected to school and home. The blue background refers to the past. The sections in red deal with the life and times of Maria Callas.
I appreciate the diversity in this book. It's there in the ethnicity and gender norms of the students and in the music. I love that Maria Callas is featured in a graphic novel for teens. I learned a lot about her and so will middle grade and high school readers.
Kyo Maclear is Canadian. 🍁

4 stars

Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer

I wish I hadn’t waited so long to get to this book, but at least I don’t have to wait forever for the sequel.
I appreciate that the book begins with a quick graphic recap of The Lunar Chronicles so I was reminded of the backstory.
At this time, Iko is now on earth tracking down and rounding up renegade Lunar wolf soldiers who are wreaking havoc on Earth. One of them has become an alpha leader and plans to force Queen Cinder to return them to their previous state.
I appreciated the tension between Kinney and Iko and can hardly wait to find out what happens next!

NOVELS

4 stars

Just Lucky by Melanie Florence

Just Lucky is a brilliant book that looks at the life of an indigenous teen who has to cope with a grandmother with Alzheimers and a series of foster homes. I cried, more than once.
Melanie Florence is Indigenous Canadian. 🍁

5 stars

Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt

Cricket comes to America in this book. It comes by way of August Paul Bowles-Fitzpatrick, Butler extraordinaire, to Marysville, New York and the family of Carter Jones. Butler is there for them when the family need him most. This is especially true for Carter, who is coming of age against a backdrop of all kinds of family hardships.
I laughed. I cried. I loved this book.

"Make good decisions and remember who loves you."
I looked at him. "I thought it was 'remember who you are.'"
The Butler looked back at me. "It is the very same thing," he said...
"We are what we love, young Master Carter."

4 stars

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Gamache is now head of the Sûreté du Québec.  Acknowledging that they have lost the war on drugs, Gamache and a few trusted senior officers come up with a plan to take on the main crime syndicate in that province. It doesn't take long for them to realize that the murder of the cobrador visiting Three Pines intersects with their plans.
If you read this, make sure to read the author notes at the end of the book.
Louise Penny is Canadian. 🍁

POETRY

4 stars

Our Familiar Hunger by Laisha Rosnau

These profound poems provide an overview of immigration from the Ukraine area to Canada. The poems from earlier times tell of the hardships women endured and how those experiences are manifest in later generations. They connected me to my ethnically German great grandmothers who also immigrated to the Canadian prairies from the Odessa region in the early 1900's. The poems of recent emigration from the area are heartbreaking stories of desperation and different variations of sexual slavery. I can't help but acknowledge that had my ancestors not made that journey, I could have been one of them.
Laisha Rosnau is Canadian. 🍁

CURRENTLY

On my device I'm reading Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo and The Squatchicorns by Ellen Potter. I'm still reading This Was Logging by Ralph W. Andrews, and have started The Creativity Project by Colby Sharp. The poetry I'm in the middle of is Rooster Summer by Robert Heidbreder. I've just started Strangers by David Robertson. I'm listening to The Next Great Paulie Fink.

UP NEXT

I plan to get to more of my Netgalley titles but also have a pile of books from my local library. I'm hoping to read The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-el, What the Eagle Sees by Eldon Yellowhorn and After Life: Ways We Think About Death by Merrie-Ellen Wilcox.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2018 22/25 - one in progress

#MustReadNFIn2018 11/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 19/25 - one in progress

25 books by Canadian Authors 58/25

Big Book Reading Challenge 10/4

Goodreads Reading Challenge 299/333

The House at the End of the Road by Kari Rust

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was published September 17, 2019, by Owl Kids.

A young girl and her brother, Patrick, come to stay with their grandmother for the summer. Robert, their cousin, is there already. Right from the start, it was Robert who most fascinated me. He still does. There’s just something about him that tells you he’s a unique character who is full of all kinds of surprises.

The trio of cousins decide to visit the rickety old house at the end of the road. When Robert throws a rock at the window, a face appears. Certain it is a ghost, they run away leaving one of their bikes behind.

After they tell their grandmother, she drags them off to the house to apologize to  Mr. Peterson, her favourite teacher and owner of the house. He’s quite the character with a delightfully wacky sense of humour as you can see below as he greets his visitors for the first time.

Over time they visit with Mr. Peterson numerous times. He gives them gifts that are perfect for each of them. This relationship benefits all of them, but it seems that it is most important for Robert who is most devastated when they discover their elderly friend is gone. 

The House at the end of the road is a hybrid – part picture book and part graphic novel. There is much I love about it, but mostly it’s the characters. The adults are responsible, but kind and loving. The children are authentic. I’ve had a few Roberts in my teaching life and wish all of them could have significant role models like Mr. Peterson and Grandma.

I adore the art in this book. It’s gorgeously detailed. So much is revealed about the countryside where this takes place and about the characters and their emotions. There is a seamless union of image and words. Separating one from the other in this book is impossible. 

This book confirmed for me the importance of acceptance for all children. It reminded me of the special relationships I am lucky enough to have with my own grandchildren and of how important relationships between the oldest and the youngest of us are.

My only quibble with this book is the APPEARANCES ARE DECEIVING message at the end of it. Not only is it not necessary, it simplifies all the important nuances of meaning the book holds.

Your school library should have a copy of this one. 

Just Lucky by Melanie Florence

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was published September 17, 2019, by Second Story Press.

My parents, who had five children of their own, took in one of my brother's teen friends, Bobby, as a foster kid. That boy was broken. My father was a stay at home Dad after an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.  Someone was always there if you needed help. We offered Bobby as much love as we could. It wasn't enough.

In my twenties I worked with teens who were in care. Most of them were girls who had been sexually abused in their homes, and for some, the abuse continued in foster homes.

There is a shortage of good foster homes, especially for teens. I have known this since then. I wish that we had opened up our home up for kids who needed them. But my partner and I both worked full time. I worked with children all day, and felt I couldn't deal with more our own two when I got home.

My cousin and his partner, two of the people I admire most in the world, have fostered over 30 children. They make a commitment to those kids and make them part of their family forever. Family get togethers are quite the event.

You are probably wondering why I'm going on about foster care here. It's because of this book. It's because I know the truth in Melanie Florence's novel.

Lucky is a smart young teen who lives with her Cree grandparents. Her mother, an addict, is incapable of taking care of her, but she has a good life. Her best friend, Ryan, lives nearby. Grandma has been getting more and more forgetful, but Grandpa is there to help out and look after her. When he dies unexpectedly, Lucky tries to take care of her, but then Grandma almost burns the house down and is diagnosed with Alzheimers. Grandma ends up in a home and Lucky ends up in the foster system.

As soon as Lucky landed in her first placement, I had to put the book down. I needed to prepare myself for what was about to happen. Unfortunately she ends up in four homes before finally ending up in a place that works for her.

In spite of the difficulties Lucky has to endure, she is blessed with a good friend in Ryan who she has known since they were little. While in care Lucky manages to befriend many other children. I loved that it was often through a shared love of graphic novels and comic books. Through them we come to know the gamut of experiences that land kids in care in the first place.

I appreciate the diverse characters in this book. I appreciate that Florence shows us the racism that Lucky has to endure and how many adults just don't understand it.

While I think this book is appropriate for students aged twelve and up, my wish is that teachers and other adults will read it. At the least they will understand what it means for the children they work with who are in care. At best, maybe they will decide to open up their own homes.

Poetry Friday September 20, 2019

Poetry Friday is hosted today by retired teacher, poet, and volunteer coordinator at a local used bookstore, Linda Bai at TeacherDance. Today she is showing off Dictionary for a Better World - Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z, an exciting new book by Irene Latham and Charles Waters with illustrations by Mehrdokht Amini. Go over there and read about it. Don't forget to check out the links to other participants sharing poetry today.

Just a reminder that Carol Varsalona and I have switched hosting dates. Carol will be hosting September 27, 2019 at Beyond LiteracyLink, and I will take on her date, October 4, 2019, here at Library Matters.

In 1958, I was five when my family joined other relatives on a logging and homesteading adventure into the Pine River region of Northern British Columbia.
I'm committed to sharing a bit every week so that I don't give up. (with time out for camping and canning of course) I appreciate feedback on the construction of the poetry and ideas and questions about what information might be missing. 

I am almost done. This one here is long. I am sure that by the time I am done it will end up being a number of poems. 

RETURN

neighbours,
understanding the
somber significance
of Uncle Wilf’s
afternoon visit,
dropped in,
wept with my mother,
and offered comfort
with action

supplied supper
and breakfast
minded the baby and kids
helped pack up essentials

------

Mary and Adam Weichel,
my paternal grandparents,
drove through the night,
arrived early the next morning
in their Nash Statesman

Uncle Cliff,
one of Daddy’s little brother’s
just sixteen
with a brand new driver’s license
arrived with them
to drive us and our rambler south

trimmed down to
fundamentals
everything and everybody
was packed into the two vehicles

barely four months
after our arrival,
we began the journey
back the way we had come

------

Mother Nature offered
what comfort she could

ghost white landscapes
monitored our departure

evergreens shrouded in snow
and bare branched aspens
solemnly guided and guarded
our procession south

storm clouds parted
left sanded dirt roads
temporarily alone

sunshine blessed us
as best it could
Lord knows,
     we had rain enough
     inside us

------

at Clinton, we overnighted
with Peggy and Maurice

Gramma and Grampa 
took no break,
continued on southwest
towards Vancouver,
towards Daddy,

still hanging on.

----

early the next day
Uncle Cliff returned us 
to our home town

Mommy dropped us off
with Aunty Dorothy and Uncle Bob
kept Timmy, who was still nursing,

Her folks, 
Isobel and Walter
drove them west
towards Vancouver,
towards Daddy,

in critical condition,

but still alive.


Here are links to previous poems in this collection.

Leaving
Characters
Journey
Arrival
Preparedness
Ready and Willing
Larder
Laundry
Diaper Duty
Skunk Trouble
Working
Pawns
Crossing
Bath Time
invincible 
Explorer
Time For Fun
First Snow
Miserable Physics
Difficult Decision