#IMWAYR November 25, 2024

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!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and family!

Thanks for all your kind words. I am mostly recovered from Covid - just dealing with the leftover exhaustion and asthma that the disease has triggered.

This coming Wednesday we are planning on heading off to Vancouver, BC to visit our sons, their partners, and the grandkids. I'm looking forward to getting together in person with my bookclub people and to meeting with other good friends. I will most likely visit one of my favourite fabric stores and get my hair cut by the person who has been cutting it for the last 40 years. We will return home the following Tuesday. I doubt I will have time to get in a blog post next weekend!

I'm looking for suggestions for books for 4 1/2 year olds. I've got their older siblings covered, but need to figure out what to get for my two youngest grandkids. Both of these two are crazy about dinosaurs, bugs and princesses. I'd like to get them some kind of nonfiction. I'd be really happy if it is a Canadian author, but a good book is the key. Does anyone have any recommendations? 

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.

Speaking many languages is a super power!
This is a gorgeous book that celebrates multilingual speakers and honours the author's mother. Uma Menon drafted it when she was only 16! Her mother, who didn't learn to speak English until she was 12, ended up speaking English, Malayalam, and sometimes both of these languages intermixed. Menon learned both languages from her birth and is now fluent in both. 
"Every person has their own accent, but no matter how they speak, every person's voice is unique and important."

5 stars

When We Gather (Ostadahlisiha): A Cherokee Tribal Feast by Andrea L. Rogers & Madelyn Goodnight (Illustrator) May 7, 2024

This book begins with cosy images of people preparing for spring hunting and gathering. Then the narrator and her family head off to their secret spot to harvest wild onions. When the harvest is complete, they all work together to clean and cook these wild onions to take to a community celebration of the coming of spring. 
I liked the ecological focus on not over harvesting so as to leave some for other creatures and to ensure there are onions again the following year. I appreciate that this is an ongoing practice. In the author's note she states that "Churches and community centers host wild onion dinners as fund  raisers and reasons to gather." 
I was excited to find recipes for some of the different foods mentioned in the celebration and would love to try Cherokee eggs and wild onions. I might have to satisfy myself using scallions, but next spring I know of a hike where I can find some wild ones. 

GRAPHIC NOVELS


This graphic novel series is targeted for readers from grade two to grade four. It tells the adventures of Ollie, Jenna, Sleeves and Kay, a diverse group of children who live on an island off the coast of Vancouver. When Ollie's grandfather becomes ill and is sent by ambulance to the mainland, the children go in search of a mythical crystal that is supposed to have healing powers. The series is loaded with humour, magic, a collection of delightful characters and intergenerational friendships. Some parts of this one are so suspenseful that I was creeped out a bit. The west coast northern rain forest setting is absolutely gorgeously illustrated.
I'm wondering if my seven year old grandson has read this series yet. If not, the first couple will be going into his Christmas stocking this year.

I adore this book. It’s beautiful, zany, and chock full of all kinds of information about color. The narrator/author comes across as a little bit hyperactive, but also screamingly hilarious and brilliant as he breaks through the fourth wall.
Right from the start, you know things are going to be interesting when you see this.

Then instead of having a table of contents it has a wheel of contents representing the colour wheel. The first chapter is a basic introduction to color. Each following chapter highlights a specific color. These include the primary and secondary colors, white, black, and pink. Within each chapter, we learn how different colours are made, important artists who used these different pigments, and a lot of science behind behind them. The final chapter has directions for how you can create your own pigments as well as other activities for messing around with color.
The book is loaded loaded with text features. Yellow text boxes highlight additional information connected to the main content of the page. Speech bubbles and cartoonish illustrations add a graphic novel/comic book quality. There are charts and maps. There are images of important paintings and even pages where the background is itself a painting. At the end of each chapter, Weinberg asks a big question connected to art. He begins with what is art? and ends with Does art last forever?
The back matter contains a color toolbox that has directions for how to make different kinds of colors, what plants to plant in a garden to create your own pigments, a map of the world showing where all the different colors in the books come from, a Periodic table of elements, a recommended reading list, a bibliography, a glossary, an index and acknowledgments.The end papers have brief biographies of all the artists mentioned in the book. 
The target audience for this book is children and teens. If I was still working in my elementary library, I’d buy at least two copies. I'm certain that adults (especially artists) will enjoy it too. I sure did! If you’re wondering what to buy for that creative friend of yours for Christmas, this would make a great gift! Heck it would make a great gift for just about anyone of any age.


This is the sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea. If you've read it, and are like me, you have been wondering how Arthur Parnassus, Linus Baker, and their magical children are faring. That first book gave us Linus' perspective. This one gives us Arthur's. We learn about his early life and abuse in an orphanage run by DICOMY ( The Department In Charge of Magical Youth.) 
It begins with Arthur and Linus heading off to a hearing about the upper management of DICOMY. The investigation was co-opted by an anti-magical people faction. Even though they were warned prior to entering, it was intense, and despite Arthur's attempt to control the narrative, the negative faction achieved their goal. When the two of them return home to Marsyas Island, things seem to return to normal, but everyone, maybe even the children, know it's just a matter of time before danger arrives at their door. Soon a new inspector from the department shows up. She arrives with an agenda to find fault with them and remove the children from Arthur and Linus' care. When Arthur overhears her in a zoom call with her boss, he discovers that they have even more nefarious plans. 
This is fiction, but it's an allegory for how all kinds of people are "othered" by power hungry politicians the world round. It's really about accepting and celebrating our differences. Occasionally it felt a bit didactic, but it is still a delightful cosy fantasy.

I usually have a fiction and nonfiction book on the go at the same time. It was serendipitous that I was reading this at the same time as I was reading the following memoir, which is essentially about the reality of living in a world where you are hated, feared, and shunned for being who you are. 


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ADULT/YA NON FICTION


I was a fan of Danny Ramadan even before I read his memoir. Now I adore him. He is the author of adult and children's fiction. I have read almost all of his Salma books, but none of his adult work. Reading his memoir has been like getting to know a friend even better. Sometimes I had to put the book down because I was terrified of what was going to happen to him next. 
Reading this helped me understand the importance of found family and finding belonging in safe spaces. I'm thankful Danny Ramadan made it to Canada and has become a citizen. We are very lucky to have him.

CURRENTLY 

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver January 1, 1994

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo, Júlia Sardà (Illustrator) & Allan Corduner (Narrator) October 1, 2024

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny 

Homelands by Timothy Garton Ash

READING GOALS 

#MustRead2024 18/25 

NonFiction 35/24

Canadian Authors 68/50

Indigenous Authors 29/25 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 198/200    

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#IMWAYR November 18, 2024

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. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next!

I had planned to get a post in last Monday, but Covid 19 dropped in for a visit. I suspect I picked up the virus when I was a substitute teacher the previous Thursday. I had been feeling invincible since I had my vaccine just over a month ago. Apparently when you are over 65, you are never really invincible. Even my poor husband has come down with it. I'm still testing positive, but this go round is nothing compared to the first time I had it.
Despite that, I managed to get some mice sent off to the local craft fair to try and sell them. I will know on Wednesday how many, if any, have sold. Since I'm having so much fun creating them, I really need to figure out how to sell some before they overwhelm my shelves. I'm still working on cowboy boots, but I've got the shirt figured out. These are a couple of my recent creations. 

Here's a slide show of more of them. 

Last week I quit X and joined Bluesky! It's a fabulous place that feels like a reunion with old friends and new! You can connect with me @cherieeweichel.bsky.social.

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.

In the last year I've read many novels about immigration to Canada. This graphic memoir shows what its like for a young girl when her family decide to return to their country of origin. 
Ruth Chan had a wonderful life in Toronto Canada. She had lots of good friends and did well in school. Then her father got a new job and the family returned to live in Hong Kong. It was a traumatic move for her. She understood some Cantonese, but spoke almost nothing. Still, she managed to learn how to navigate a new culture, a new school system, a new city, make friends, and eventually, feel like she belonged. 

MG NOVELS


I didn't love this book at first. I even contemplated abandoning it, but then before I knew it, I was invested in the characters and the mystery! 
Four children and one grandfather decide to spend the summer solving the mystery of what happened to Al Capone's long lost treasure. In the middle of searching an island in the middle of the Everglades, they come across dead animals and a toxic waste dump. In their search for the criminals they have to jump off a burning boat, nearly drown, and almost end up in jail. 

5+ stars

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell & Samuel West (Narrator) September 14, 2023

As glorious as the cover of this book is, it doesn't compare with the story inside its pages. Right off the bat we meet two remarkable children, Christopher and Mal. Animals of all kinds are just attracted to Christopher. Mal has a cloak that enables her to fly. The two of them live in different realms on the same planet. When Christopher rescues a drowning griffin, his grandfather tells him that he is a guardian of the Archipelago, a group of islands inhabited by magical creatures. Soon afterwards he meets Mal, on the run from the Archipelago and a murderer. The two of them set out on a wild adventure to find out who wants Mal dead, and what is endangering the magical creatures.
I adored this book and can't wait for the next one.

ADULT/YA FICTION


"Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by." Unfortunately, Gram has died, and Molly is on her own struggling to get by. She's behind in her rent and barely surviving. The one thing Molly loves is her job as a maid at The Grand Regency Hotel. It's perfect for her since she is obsessive about cleanliness. 
Her life is upended when she discovers a dead body in one of her rooms. 
The next thing Molly knows, she's arrested for the man's murder. Luckily, she has friends with friends in high places. The only way to clear her name is to find out who the real murderer is and figure out what nefarious activity has been going on at the Grand. She and her new friends come up with a plan to uncover the truth. The problem is that Molly will have to lie convincingly for it to succeed. Molly never lies.
I was hooked from the first few pages of this book. It's hilarious and heartwarming with just the right amount of tension to keep flipping the pages. I adore Molly and think, if you haven't already met her, that you will too!
The best thing about discovering this a few years after publication, is that I was able to download the next one right away!


I was delighted to find out what Flavia de Luce has been up to. It turns out she has been mentoring her younger cousin, Undine, who is a terror on her own terms. Luckily Undine idolizes Flavia.
When a local villager is poisoned and their cook is suspected of murdering him, Flavia, with the help of Dogger, the butler, and Undine, set out to identify the culprit.
Aside from revealing the murderer, Flavia discovers a shocking family secret that I was not expecting!
If you like cosy historical mysteries and haven't yet discovered Flavia, you have a treat in store.
 
ADULT/YA GRAPHIC NON FICTION 

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What do you do when everything is not ok? In this memoir,  Debbie Tung shares her story of being overwhelmed by depression and anxiety, and then, with the help of a good therapist, finding a way out of it. I think this is a helpful book for people going through similar issues, because it's shines a beacon of light. I really like that coming out the other side of her mental health crisis didn't mean returning to who she had been before, but rather, figuring out who she really is, and learning to deal with her demons before they got out of control. I have been contemplating giving this to a young man I know who is the middle of his own mental health crisis, but will recommend it to his parents instead, and let them make that decision. 

ADULT/YA NON FICTION


In 1915 Ada Annie Rae-Arthur and her first husband came to the west coast of Vancouver Island as settlers. Over time they cleared approximately 5 acres of land along the northern shore of Clayoquot Sound. 
"She ran a successful nursery, post office and general store from her homestead. There, she birthed 11 children, outlived four husbands and became known for allegedly shooting and killing about 70 cougars in her lifetime. Today, Cougar Annie’s Garden is owned and operated by the Boat Basin Foundation to preserve her legacy and promote natural history."
I took my time with this book - reading it in bits and pieces. I skimmed or skipped some sections that felt not relevant to Annie's life, but mostly I ended up appreciating that this biography puts her life into historical and geographical context. 
Annie, who was about the same age as my maternal grandmother, was a truly remarkable woman, even if she wasn't always likeable. I couldn't help but make connections between the challenges each of them faced. My grandfather, unlike Willie Rae-Arthur, was a hard working, steadfast man, but my grandmother still ended up cooking for his crew in logging camps while birthing child after child. I can't even imagine living either of their lives.
You can read more about Annie here. 

CURRENTLY 

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver January 1, 1994

Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir by Danny Ramadan May 28, 2024 🍁

Crystal Cave by Nancy Deas &  Mike Deas (illustrator) August 13, 2024 🍁

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune September 10, 2024

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny 

Homelands by Timothy Garton Ash

READING GOALS 

#MustRead2024 18/25 one on the go

NonFiction 33/24 one on the go

Canadian Authors 66/50 two on the go

Indigenous Authors 28/25 

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 192/200    





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