Showing posts with label Residential Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Residential Schools. Show all posts

#IMWAYR December 12th, 2022


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. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

I didn't get a chance to respond to everyone's blog posts last week, but I did read almost all of them! I will try to do better this week. 

Although I am still fighting an infection, we are starting to get into the winter festival spirit. My partner and I are excited that our boys and their families are planning to be here for Christmas. We have picked out our tree and will probably collect it the end of this week or the beginning of next. I am also beginning to panic a wee bit thinking about everything that I think needs to be accomplished before then. On my agenda for this week is making a master list. Once I've got this under control I will feel better. 

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

5 stars

Forever Home: A Dog and Boy Love Story by Henry Cole August 16th 2022

This wordless book will steal your heart. 
First we see a stray dog no one wants. Then we are introduced to a boy who wants a dog. While we might anticipate the ending where the two are united, the boy has a lot to go through to prove to his fathers that he can be responsible enough to look after a pet. This entails keeping his room clean and going on regular walks with an empty leash. He even makes a connection to the stray dog while out and about. Eventually there is a happy ending for both of them.
Henry Cole's detailed black and white artwork is just stunning. I really appreciate that the the boy's gay parents are incidental to the story.

MG NOVELS


Four children, (one of them a ghost) end up in a battle with a massive, monster ghost who's ultimate goal is control over both the worlds of the living and the dead.
This is a little bit ghostbusters and a lot Lockwood & Co. It's chock full of action, chunks of hair raising terror, and a bit of romance. The friendship between them, especially the two boys, is delightful.
I'm hoping there will be a sequel.


Answers in the Pages by David Levithan, Christopher Gebauer (Narrator),
Vikas Adam (Narrator) & Oliver Wyman (Narrator) May 10th 2022

Donovan's mother gets her knickers in a knot when she reads the end of The Adventurers, a novel Donovan is reading with his class. One boy acknowledges that he loves another boy, but whether or not this means the boys are gay is never made explicit. His mother claims that it is not appropriate for grade five students. Donovan disagrees with her, but she never even talks to him about it.
On the one hand the book takes us through the process of what happens when a book is challenged and how different people react to it.
On the other hand we see Donovan becoming friends with, and developing a romantic relationship with a new boy in his class.
I have been a fan of Levithan's work since reading Boy Meets Boy. I fell in love with the world of possibility and acceptance he creates.
Listening to the Author's Note in the back matter of this book brought back lots of memories for me about how I went about introducing books with queer characters into our school library. David Levithan's book, Boy Meets Boy, and James Howe's Totally Joe, are two of them. Luckily, I got no flack from parents or administration.
Thanks to Jennifer Sniadeck for the heads up about this book.

MG NON FICTION


This illustrated short memoir tells of the author's life before he was taken from his home and community to attend residential school. In his last summer of freedom we see a boy learning to become a man within an extended loving family. There is no doubt that he belongs here.
Heather D. Holmlund's artwork is absolutely stunning. https://www.hdholmlund.com/new-page-1
An epilogue in the back matter talks more about Lawrence's and other children's experiences in these so called schools. Many could not read or write when they left. This section also includes photographs of the authors family and his time at the institution.

I wish I had this book when I was introducing readers to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.
Until I read this biography, other than that she had worked with primates, I knew very little about Dian Fossey. I was fascinated to learn more about her work to save mountain gorillas. I loved reading about the relationships she formed with many of them. At times I was brought near to tears. 
Dian Fossey was a complex, difficult, and at times troubled soul. She made a lot of enemies including people who also wanted to protect these magnificent creatures. The list of suspects for who might have murdered her is very long.  
I am especially impressed by the caliber of this nonfiction book. It is chock full of all kinds of text features: a table of contents, captioned photographs, maps, headings, bold words, sidebars, glossary, index, and where to go for additional information. 
This is really a book for people of all ages. If I was working in a high school library I would make sure I had all of Anita Silvey books in this series. I'll try to find the rest of them to read. 

I adore this series. The Thursday Murder Club is made of four aging pensioners, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim, who meet at least once a week to try and solve cold case murders. In this book they try to find out who murdered Bethany Waites, a TV journalist. At the same time, Elizabeth is coerced into murdering an old friend or Joyce will get killed. 
Not only are these books full of adventure and suspense, they are absolutely hilarious. I appreciate how much Richard Osman, in creating such rich characters, shatters stereotypes of older people. In this case we see that Stephen, Elizabeth's partner, might have some kind of dementia, but that doesn't mean that he still isn't capable of some brilliant deduction of his own. I like the bits of romance too. 

CURRENTLY

A Green Velvet Secret by Vicki Grant 🍁
A Sorrowful Sanctuary (Lane Winslow #5) by Iona Whishaw 🍁
Narwhalicorn and Jelly (A Narwhal and Jelly Book #7) by Ben Clanton 🍁
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

UP NEXT - HOPEFULLY/MAYBE?

The Line in the Sand by Thao Lam 🍁
The Song That Called Them Home by David Alexander Robertson & Maya McKibbin (Illustrations) 🍁
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
On Animals by Susan Orlean
READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 24/24

#MustReadNonFiction 17/18

Canadian Authors 78/100 three in progress

Indigenous Authors 19/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 272/250

2022 Big Book Summer Challenge 7
Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

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#IMWAYR May 16, 2022

Welcome readers! 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. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next. 

It's been three weeks since my last update. In the middle of that time I ended up getting my heart fixed. I had paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (electrical issues). I went into the hospital at 11 am for a heart ablation and my husband picked me up at 6 pm to take me home. Isn't modern medicine amazing! 

Has it been as cold a spring where you are as it is here? Temperatures are below average and the forecast is for more of this. In spite of the chill we are thankful for the rain. I did get some tomatoes in the ground and hope to get the rest of the garden planted this week no matter what!

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 

5 stars

I Am You: A Book about Ubuntu by Refiloe Moahloli & Zinelda McDonald (Illustrator) February 1, 2022

This book makes me happy. I would purchase at least 2 copies if I was still working in the library. This unifying idea is one whose time has come! Thanks to Myra at Gathering Books for introducing it to us. 
"Ubuntu means "I am, because you are". In fact, the word ubuntu is just part of the Zulu phrase "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which literally means that a person is a person through other people. Ubuntu has its roots in humanist African philosophy, where the idea of community is one of the building blocks of society. Ubuntu is that nebulous concept of common humanity, oneness: humanity, you and me both."

5 stars

Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl September 21, 2021

I loved this book so much I read it twice. Little Witch Hazel is a witch in manner of Terry Pratchett's witches. She is a kind of community health nurse who looks after the inhabitants of the forest where she lives. This collection of four stories to match the seasons are full of humour, delight, wonder and courage.

4 stars

Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero February 8, 2022

In an effort to avoid conflict and trouble, Llewellyn puts all their emotions into jars. When excitement and joy end up in jars, Llewellyn has to find a way to deal with all their emotions in healthy ways.

4 stars

Daddy Speaks Love by Leah Henderson & E.B. Lewis (Illustrations) January 4, 2022

This book shows diverse groups of fathers showing love to their children in many different ways. What they all have in common is their support for love, for diversity, and their kids.

Unfortunately this book was not translated into English.
My granddaughter and I still enjoyed looking at the images and trying to figure out what the story might be all about.
I had fun reading this book with my two year old granddaughter. After admiring the endpapers full of mother and baby animals, she looked at the pages just long enough to see what the action was and proceeded to show me how she could do it.
Each two page spread shows an infant animal doing something beside a human child doing the same action. Each spread has two words like, Calves swim, Porcupines nibble.
We both enjoyed this book a lot, but I would suggest you don't try reading it just before bed.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS 


This is an introduction to the life of Mary Anning, the Mother of Palaeontology. Maris Wicks artwork is just perfect. My almost 5 year old granddaughter was fascinated by the end papers. The ones in the front of the book are skeletons while the ones at the back are the artists rendition of what they might have looked like in life.
I thought the main part of the book was a bit short on details. Still, the back matter contains extra information about her and the different animals she found.

NON FICTION GRAPHIC


"Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War."
A number of years ago my Korean daughter in law and I went to a documentary on the Comfort Women. Her grandmother had told her about them. In the documentary, some were Korean, but others were from China. Wherever the Japanese invaded, young girls were kidnapped and turned into sex slaves. They are still waiting for an apology from the Japanese government. 
As Suk Gendry-Kim gives voice to one woman's experience, she validates the reality of the other women who experienced those horrors.  
 
While this is an adult book, I would purchase it for my high school library. 



This is the perfect example of how the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts. It's poetry, painting, and collage integrated in a way that becomes a new hybrid of artistic expression. On the surface it's the story of a black family living through the Covid pandemic. It goes much deeper than this.
I tried it as an audiobook ages ago, but abandoned it because, even without having seen the book, the words alone were not enough. Without the synthesis of the words and visual art, it just doesn't work. While there really are not that many words, it still took me a couple of days of picking the book up, reading some, letting it percolate, then reading a bit more and letting it percolate, before finally finishing it.
I would like to have a digital version where the text is read by the authors as you turn the pages.

NOVELS

4 stars

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie by Erin Soderberg Downing & Lu Banks (Narrator) April 6, 2021

The Peach family have been struggling since the death of their mother and wife. Lucy has taken on most of the responsibility for her younger siblings while her father has abandoned his children and sunk himself into his work. When he is forced to take a sabbatical, he purchases a food truck and decides that they will fulfill one of their mother's dreams by travelling around the country in a food truck.
They all have a lot of learning to do to make the trip a success and win the big prize of $10,000 at the food truck fair in Delaware, Ohio. The best prize of all is, after a lot of challenges, learning how to be a family again.
I really liked this family. Ok, so a lot of the time I wanted to smack the father over the head, but he turns out to be ok at the end. Lucy, Freddy, and Herb are realistic characters. I especially connected to Lucy. As the oldest child in a large family, when disaster struck, I learned what it's like to parent my siblings (and my parents).

4 stars

The Graveyard Riddle (Goldfish Boy #2) by Lisa Thompson & Rosie Jones (Narrator) January 7, 2021

There is A LOT going on in this book!
Melody, Matthew and Jake are three friends. They go through the usual friend issues, but have bigger problems to deal with.
Melody's mother has put their house up for sale and refuses to consider talking to the father about financial support.
Jake is being bullied by one of the teachers at school. It isn't until the teacher ignores Jake's allergic reaction and ensuing anaphylactic shock, that his behaviour is dealt with.
Melody befriends Hal, a boy hiding out in the Graveyard. He tells her he is a spy for MI8 and weaves such a compelling story that she believes him. He even manages to persuade Matthew and Jake of his story. When the children finally deduce what is going on with Hal, it's a heart wrenching tale.

As gorgeous as the cover of this book is, the story inside is even more stunning.
Bitter grew up in foster care. Life was hard until she was chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school for artistic teens. Eucalyptus is situated in the town of Lucille, a community ruled by a corrupt billionaire, city leaders and police. Protests are ongoing and the only thing that seems to arise from them is more injury and death of the protestors. The Asata are a significant group that leads these protestors. When a close friend loses an eye after one of the altercations, Bitter uses her blood magic to bring forth Vengeance, an angel of death, who she hopes will stop the corrupt leadership and bring peace to Lucille. Soon an army of 'angels' joins with some of the protestors to hunt and kill Lucille's leadership.
Bitter and other protestors are opposed to this plan for murder and have to figure out how to stop them before it's too late.
While I was reading this I couldn't help but make a connection between The Black Power Movement of 1960's and 70's and The Asata. Both groups supported their community in many different ways.
In the end this book is a profound look into the difference between good and evil.


This was a reread for my book club. It was as profound, if not more so, the second time round.
If you want to understand what went on in the residential ‘school’ system and the ramifications for survivors, this is your book. Even though I was aware of the horror of these places, Michelle Good's story of five survivors brought my understanding of this violence against culture, families and children into a deeper understanding.

5 stars

The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2) by Richard Osman &  Lesley Manville (Narrator) September 16th 2021

I enjoyed this book even more than the first in the series, and I loved the first!
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are back. This time the octogenarians have to find 20 million dollars in stolen diamonds and figure out who murdered two MI5 agents. 
As we get to know about the backgrounds of these characters, I adore them even more. It's a reminder to me of how many stories my elderly neighbours have inside them.


I listened to this book, but should probably have read it with my eyes. It's full of fascinating information about the multiple biomes that exist inside and around all things on the planet. I left this book aware of the immense complexity of the microscopic organisms that rule our world. If you are a fan of science nonfiction, read this. It will change the way you think about the world.

5 stars

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber, David Wengrow & Mark Williams (Narrator) October 19, 2021

This is a brilliant book that shakes up what we have been taught about the history of humanity. Highly recommend!

CURRENTLY

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Didion, Joan
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

UP NEXT 

Cold by Mariko Tamaki
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 11/24 

#MustReadNonFiction 6/18 

Canadian Authors 28/100

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 11/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 113/250
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