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.
It's been a strange week. Last weekend we had a houseful of people because it looked like my 94 year old aunt was about to shuffle off this mortal coil. She was taken off all her regular medication and given hydromorphone. Our tough old Auntie surprised everyone by rallying! We wait and wonder what will happen next.
Speaking of waiting and wondering what will happen next, continental politics are also pretty strange these days. Here in Canada, partisan politics had started to divide us, but with the recent election in the USA and subsequent threats, including tariffs that will hurt ordinary people on both sides of the border, we are coming together across provincial and partisan boundaries. I like to think we are also coming together across international borders too. Times are going to be hard for all of us, but I have hope that love and activism in its many formats will get us through this.
In the last couple of days I've been working on some Valentine's day hearts for my family. I have plans for them to become fridge magnets. Since I took this picture I've created a few more and been attempting to embellish them using gold thread on my sewing machine. It hasn't been as successful as I would like, but I'm sure I'll end up with a few that I can live with.
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.
PICTURE BOOKS
This Is a Tiny Fragile Snake by Nicholas Ruddock & Ashley Barron (Illustrator) 🍁
In fifteen illustrated poems, tenderness is shown for different kinds of animals. It is all about letting animals we live in proximity with, just be. I get it. When our neighbours discovered a six foot long bull snake curled up in their garden, they waited a few days for it to leave on its own, but it seemed to be content to remain in their rock garden. I said I would take it off their hands and put it in mine where it would keep pests under control, but then I learned that if it was a female, she would make a nest and lay up to twenty eggs, I wasn't sure if I wanted that many baby snakes roaming around in our 1/4 acre plot of land. In the end, the snake was moved to a better home in the wild.
So, while I understand most of this, I am not so sure about letting those squirrels proliferate. I know a number of people who have had to come up with a lot of money to repair the damage squirrels have caused in their homes. Still, I enjoyed the poems and delighted in reading them out loud to myself. Ashley Barron's cut paper collage illustrations are drop dead gorgeous!
Inside Cat by Brendan Wenzel October 12, 2021
This begins as a fun rhyming picture book showing an inside cat and its world. It lives in a place with lots of windows and that's all it knows about outside. Then we start to see how the cat imagines what's in the spaces between the windows.
I ended up reading this twice. By the time I got to the last page the first time round, I had to go back and focus on the illustrations. It turns out this is a profound book about perspective, assumption, and lack of background knowledge.
MG/YA GRAPHIC
The Ribbon Skirt: A Graphic Novel by Cameron Mukwa November 12, 2024
This is the story of Anang, a young Anishinaabe two spirit preteen. At the same time as they want to own and wear their own ribbon skirt, they worry about what other people will think and say. With some friends, and help from the spirit world, they manage to collect the materials needed for a skirt.
I appreciated the use of Ojibwe in the text with English subtitles at the bottom of the pages. I also like the additional information in the back matter of this book. It includes a glossary, a history of the ribbon skirt and of powwows, and an explanation of what it means to be two spirit. Also included is a recipe for Manoomin, (wild rice and berry salad) and a bibliography if readers want to learn more about the ideas in this graphic novel.
My only problem with this book was the finding of enough thread in the wild to sew a skirt. I know it's a gift from the spirit world, but coming from my experience as a fabric artist, sewing with that tangled up mess just didn't make sense to me.
It was interesting to be reading this at the same time as my nonfiction title, Wînipêk, (see below), where Niigaan Sinclair tells us that two spirit people existed traditionally in Indigenous culture, but that it was colonialism and residential schools that changed this.
MG/YA FICTION
The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown & Kathleen Mclnerney (Narrator) September 26, 2023
Roz and her animal friends are living their best lives on their remote island. Brightbill and his new mate, Glimmerwing, are setting up their own nest and laying eggs. Then they get news that a deadly poison is sweeping through the ocean killing everything in its path. When it reaches Roz' home, she tries to help her animal friends remain calm, but as resources dwindle, eventually their small community begins to fall apart.
Then Roz discovers that she is water proof and further testing shows she is also poison proof. She decides to head off into the world to find and stop whatever is causing the toxin. The creatures she meet along the way help her find the Ancient Shark, who tells her it is coming from a huge mining station situated in the ocean. He wants a war to stop the mining, but Roz convinces him to first give her a chance to settle the problem peacefully.
What struck me most about this book was the environmental degradation Roz encounters on her journey. It's a story showing the future reality of climate change as well as humankind's propensity to ignore the consequences of our industrial activity.
I admit to connecting deeply to Roz' instant, deep attachment to her grandgoslings.
Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz, Jeff Ebner (Narrator) & Emily Eiden (Narrator) October 31, 2023Dani and Eric have been best friends since they were in second grade. Then when they are on an end of summer camping trip, their camper catches on fire with Dani still in it. While Eric risks his own life to save her, Dani is still badly injured. Prior to the accident, Dani had just made it onto an all boys baseball team as their pitcher. Her injuries make this now impossible.
Eric fears that he might have forgotten to turn off the gas in the camper and be responsible for the accident. In the hospital Dani becomes friends with Meadow, one of the popular girls at school. When Eric shares his worries with Dani, Meadow uses it to drive a wedge between the two friends.
Even when Eric is exonerated and the blame is shown to be a faulty battery in a remote controlled vehicle, it looks like their friendship can't be mended, and Meadow manages to further divide them.
It seemed obvious to me that Eric, who had a tendency to forget things, probably had ADHD. I liked that this didn't distract him from accomplishing important things, and in the end, was acknowledged as also a source of strength for him. I liked the strong supportive parents. I appreciated that Elly Swartz gives us enough glimpses into the life of Eric's bully, to enable us to see him as a more dimensional character.
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga, Matt Rockefeller (Illustrator) & Michael Crouch (Narrator) September 10, 2024
A painting has gone missing from the art gallery where Rami Ahmed's mother works as a cleaner. Even though both of them are considered suspects, for a while he is still permitted to hang out when she works. When Rami sees a floating girl roaming the halls, he realizes she is the person in the missing artwork.
Rami and new his friend, Veda, who can also see the girl, decide to solve the mystery of the missing painting. It involves breaking a lot of family rules and trusting an artistic turtle before they get to the bottom of the crime.
There is a lot in this book about being abandoned by long time friends and what it feels like to lose one's sense of belonging. It's also about building new relationships and finding yourself and your voice.
A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching, #2) by Terry Pratchett & Stephan Briggs (Narrator) April 29, 2004
One of my goals for this year is to reread all of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series. An important aspect of Tiffany's personality is her ability to see beyond her first impressions by engaging in different levels of thought. It's this profound level of critical thinking that characterizes a witch. It's also something we need more of in our world.
Three years after The Wee Free Men, Tiffany sets off to be an apprentice to the older witch, Miss Level. In this coming of age tale she starts to come to grips with who she will become. She struggles to fit in with the coven of younger witches led by the bullying leadership of Annagramma Hawkin, and ends up being laughed at. Tiffany had already learned the trick of stepping outside of her own body to see herself. While doing this, she attracted the attention of a Hiver, a being with no body, who takes over the mind of powerful people. It manages to take control of her body and abuses her power. With the help of the Nac Mac Feegles and Miss Level, they manage to drive the Hiver off.
Afterwards the most powerful witch, Granny Weatherwax, helps her sort herself out but both know that it's not enough. Tiffany realizes that she has to deal with the Hiver on her own. In the end, using compassion and understanding, she is able to help it get what it needs.
This is a book about finding out who you are. It's about taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. It's also about finding fulfillment through helping others.
The Nac Mac Feegles are important characters in these books. These blue, tattooed, six inch tall, red haired men (pictsies) are a kind of fairy men who consider Tiffany their wee big hag. When they are not looking out for Tiffany, and sometimes even when they are, they spend their time drinking, fighting and stealing.
Terry Pratchett's fantasy novels are full of comic satire. They are also loaded with advice on how to live a rich and meaningful life.
"Learnin' how not to do things is as hard as learning how to do them. Harder maybe."
ADULT NON FICTION
Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre by Niigaan Sinclair (Author & Narrator) May 28, 2024 🍁
Niigaan Sinclair is is an Anishinaabe writer, editor, and activist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the son of the late and former Canadian Senator Murray Sinclair and and Jeanette Warren.
"In his debut collection of stories, observations, and thoughts about Winnipeg, the place he calls "ground zero" of Canada's future, read about the complex history and contributions of this place alongside the radical solutions to injustice and violence found here, presenting solutions for a country that has forgotten principles of treaty and inclusivity."
This collection of essays will stay with me for a while. Even though I've read a lot of Canadian history with regards to our Indigenous peoples, I still learned more. The essay titled Landfill, is especially poignant as he compares the 'cost and feasibility' of searching the landfill for two murdered Indigenous women to the price of searching for the Titan, an uncertified transport vehicle with white millionaire tourists. "What’s been made evident by this incident though is that some lives are clearly more valuable than others."On a positive note, since the election of Manitoba's Indigenous premier, Wab Kinew, the Manitoba government is now searching the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, two victims of a convicted serial killer.
CURRENTLY
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett September 21, 2006
How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger & Tillie Walden August 6, 2024
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond & Dion Graham (narrator) March 1, 2016
Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari September 10, 2024
We Are the Medicine (Surviving the City) by Tasha Spillett & Natasha Donovan (illustrator) August 20, 2024 🍁
2025 READING GOALS
#MustRead2025 8/25
NonFiction 6/30
Poetry 1/12
Canadian Authors 12/50
Indigenous Authors 2/25
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 23/200
In January I read 20 different titles. These included:
5 picture books
5 graphic novels
6 1/2 nonfiction titles
8 novels
7 audiobooks
The numbers don't jive because there are crossovers in some of the books. The 1/2 is for a novel that included an integrated nonfiction graphic novel written by the fictional character.
