Library Matters

Swift Fox All Along by by Rebecca Thomas & Maya McKibbin (Illustrator)

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It will be released September 8th 2020 by Annick Press Ltd.

This story is based on the author’s life as a young girl.

Swift Fox’s parents are separated. Usually when she sees her father, they go for ice cream or to the park. Today is special. He is taking her to meet his Mi’kmaq family for the first time. I’m sure many readers will be able to empathize with her anxiety around this as ‘her belly fills with butterflies’ to be meeting new people.

Her father tries to calm her down by telling her that being Mi’kmaq is who she is and what’s inside of her. It doesn’t help. In fact, the butterflies get worse.

When they arrive she is ushered into the house where there are many people to greet her. While they are all friendly and supportive, her anxiety doesn’t abate.

It gets worse when they are about to smudge and she is expected to know what to do. She runs out of the house and hides under a porch.

Eventually she smells her dad’s fry bread and sees another cousin arrive. It’s his first time meeting his relatives and he is also reluctant to go inside. The two cousins connect and go in to the house together.

This time Swift Fox’s dad shows her what to do with the braid of sweetgrass so that she can participate in the smudging ceremony.

I had a bit of trouble with the father and family pushing Red Fox and not being more supportive and understanding. People of any age need to see or be shown something before they can know what to do. Thankfully, the family did end up teaching her what to do and from this she came to find it inside herself. This book provides a great opportunity for a discussion of culture – what it means and how we become part of one.

Maya McKibbin’s art is appealing. I like how she shows emotions in her characters. I wanted to know more about how she created these illustrations, and while I never did figure that out, I did get happily sidetracked into watching her brilliant short films. You can find them here.

Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem by Kate DiCamilla & Chris Van Dusen

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was published June 9th 2020, by Candlewick Press.

This book filled my heart so full I thought it just might burst with happiness. Truthfully almost all of Kate DiCamillo’s books leave me feeling like this, but her Deckawoo Drive series is especially endearing. I am a serious fan.

Stella Suzanne Endicott thinks her second grade teacher, Miss Tamar Liliana, is a “Good Fairy Who Vanquishes Old and Irritated Wizards.” She’s not so fond of Horace Broom who knows the answers to every question Miss Liliana asks.

When she lets Horace read her poem, they get in an argument over where pigs live. Horace insists that they live on a farm so Stella cannot possibly have a pig friend who sits on couches. The two end up in a shouting match and are sent to the principal’s office.

On the way Horace falls apart emotionally and Stella tries her best to encourage him to face what is to come. Before their day is over, the two of them end up trapped in a janitor’s closet. What we discover is that as these two children face adversity, they survive because of their combined different strengths.

Although the ending was not unexpected, I was still delighted by it. Not only do they become friends, they learn that life is all about patterns and surprises. All of us, no matter our ages, can stand to be reminded of this jewel of truth.

I love that Stella lives on Deckawoo Drive and through her, we readers get to spend time with Mercy and find out how things are going with Baby and Eugenia Lincoln.

I love Chris Van Dusen’s art in all the other books in the series and am looking forward to seeing the finished illustrations for this one.

Northwest Resistance by Katherena Vermette, Scott B Henderson (Illustrations) & Donovan Yaciuk (Colorist)

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was released February 25th 2020 by HighWater Press.

The A Girl Called Echo series deals with the history of the Metis in Canada and life for one young Metis girl today. What strikes me as most important about this book and this series, is how it educates us about the roots and history of racism and violence against indigenous peoples.

Now is the perfect time for all of us to be reading them.

In this one, the third in the series, we find Echo still in her supportive foster home, only now her mother, who is ill, is there with her.

Fear is a theme in this book. It’s there in Echo’s worry about her mother, and it’s there in her worry about the deaths of the Metis she meets in the past. Knowing ahead of time how this story unfolds didn’t stop me from experiencing this anxiety as I lived through this time with her.

As in the previous books, Echo continues time travelling. This time she finds herself in Batoche, Saskatchewan, during March of 1885. There she is befriended by a girl named Josephine. Together they go to a gathering where Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont are speaking. She discovers that Josephine is the daughter of Benjamin, who she connected with in an earlier book.

Canada is in the process of annexing Metis land once again. “Most of the people were not opposed to becoming part of Canada, but wanted to be able to keep the land that they had inhabited for generations.” However, surveyors were “ignoring their traditional river-lot system and imposing their square-lot system.” They were also concerned that these lots would be given to white European settlers.

The Metis were getting desperate. Numerous petitions had been sent to the federal government but all of them were ignored. Eventually they formed a coalition with other settlers, Cree, and Sioux to go to battle with the Canadian government. In the end, the coalition was outnumbered and outgunned by the military. Louis Riel ended up surrendering in order to save lives.

Readers learn the history of the Metis people both from Echo’s time travelling and what look to be teacher’s lectures. The graphic format is a brilliant way to portray this information. The stunning art builds an atmosphere that is moody, bleak and horrific. It moves from the serene beauty of a winter landscape into the horrors of a young girl experiencing war.

In her life at home, Echo learns more about her ancestors. Her Mother’s research ends in a genealogy chart showing that Echo is related to Benjamin and Josephine.

As in the other books, for readers who want to know more about this aspect of Canadian history, there is a timeline at the end of the book that outlines significant events. The back matter here also includes a map of the area and a short biography of Gabriel Dumont.

My only wish about this book is that Echo’s present day story could be better developed up front. I didn't understand what was going on with her mother. I even went back to reread Red River Resistance to see if I had forgotten or missed something. This however is a quibble, and I am looking forward to going wherever this team want to take me next.

Canadian school libraries should have numerous copies of this series.

The following links will take you to my reviews of the previous novels.

Pemmican Wars

Red River Resistance

#IMWAYR June 8, 2020

Hello out there. It's #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.

This has been a very wet and cool May and June. It's good for working hard at renovations, but not all my garden plants are happy. On top of all that, as a wet west coast gardener, I'm having to adjust to the lower humidity here. Everything needs more watering than I am used to and little seedlings can get dried out very fast! So far I've lost spinach, zucchini, radishes and carrots. Sigh.

I read a lot last week, but a lot of it was online news posts about the protests around the world, police violence, racism here in Canada, what defunding the police would look like, and of course, all the ensuing political machinations.

June is Indigenous History Month here in Canada. You can read about this here. I'm planning on reading primarily indigenous titles this month. If all the books on this list are as good as the ones I've already read, this is sure to be a fabulous place to start. I'm especially looking forward to reading If I Go Missing, a graphic novel by Jonnie Brianna that's on that list.
I've just found this list of books by Indigenous Canadian authors for teens and kids!

I won't be checking in next Monday as we will be in Vancouver visiting our grandchildren for their 3rd birthdays. I'm not sure how it will all work out with social distancing, but it will be fabulous to see our babies no matter what! I can't wait to hold our newest one in my arms. I'm happy to report that big sister and little sister are officially smitten with one another. Her cousin thinks she's pretty special too.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard, Jennifer Zivoin (Illustrator)

This is a powerful and important book that will help parents talk about violence and racism. I 'read' it, by watching the following video.

NOVELS

5 stars

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo & Melania-Luisa Marte (Narrator)

When I first started listening to this I got mixed up about who was who and what was going on. I started it all over, figured it out and was lost in the story.
Wow! What a read!
If I wasn't already an Elizabeth Acevedo fan, I sure would be now. While I appreciate the richness she brings to all her characters, I really came to love these two sisters who don't know that the other exists. At first I expected to hate the father, but he is so brilliantly nuanced that instead I ended up feeling sad for who he was.

4 stars

The Case of the Missing Auntie (A Mighty Muskrats Mystery) by Michael Hutchinson

The second in this series takes the Mighty Muskrats, a team of young indigenous sleuths, into the city. They are staying with their Auntie and cousins and among other things, plan to go to the Exhibition. Otter wants to see his favourite band play and Chickadee wants to track down their grandfather's missing little sister, Charlotte, who disappeared years ago.

The Muskrats discover that the city is very different from the reserve for all kinds of reasons. Racism and different kinds of danger stalk them in the city. A friend who now lives in this urban forest betrays them and they are forced to change their plans.

I especially appreciated Chickadee's persistence and research skills. She just doesn't give up when it comes to helping out her Grandpa. In the process of her research, the Muskrats end up in a center for reconciliation. Readers will learn a lot about residential schools and The Scoops: when governments stole indigenous children from their parents and arranged to have them adopted in white families.

Michael Hutchinson is an Indigenous Canadian.

CURRENTLY

I'm reading A Short History of Indians In Canada: Stories by Thomas King. I didn't make any progress in A Portrait in Poems: The Storied Life of Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas by Evie Robillard. I'm listening to The Huntress by Kate Quinn.

UP NEXT

I'll be reading Northwest Resistance by Katherena Vermette. I hope to get to Crow Winter by Karen McBride, one of the many books downloaded onto my ipad.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

Big Books Summer 2020 1/10 one in progress

#MustReadIn2020: 10/25 two in progress

#MustReadNFIn2020: 5/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 11/25 one in progress

100 books by Canadian Authors: 94/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 182/333

#IMWAYR June 1, 2020

These days I'm thinking about all my teaching family and friends who return to their classrooms June 1st. On the one hand I understand why our public health leader, Dr Bonnie Henry, has determined that the risk of a covid 19 out break is almost nil. On the other, I understand why teachers are anxious and worried. Many schools did not have adequate cleanliness regimes or facilities for hand washing before the outbreak. I wish all of my friends and colleagues courage and good luck for the next days. I have faith they will ensure a safe environment for themselves and their students.

Meanwhile, around here, renovations proceed more slowly than anticipated. Mudding and sanding is a slog. Thank goodness for audiobooks to take me into a different world while I am working. Sunday we went off to purchase a fancy spray paint system. Today, Monday, my partner is learning how to use it. My job is to move stuff from the next room and start ripping off trim and wall panel in preparation for more mudding and sanding.

I finally gave up on my old ipad air and purchased a new one. It should arrive sometime in the next week or so. I am excited, but waiting is hard. My old one had only 16 GB and was always out of memory. These days I am having to read ebooks and it's a nightmare to load them. This is especially true for Netgalley titles.

On a positive note, my local library is opening up for pick up. I have put a few books on reserve. Soon I will get to hold real library books in my hands again! Ho

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

The Eagle Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), Natasha Donovan (Illustrations)

NOVELS

5 stars

Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch 🍁

Seriously, is this not one of the most beautiful book covers you have ever seen?
Marsha Skrypuch is one of my favourite historical fiction authors. I especially appreciate that her novels often connect to Canada in some way. Her work opens my eyes to world events that I am unaware of. In this case it is the Armenian genocide from the time of the first world war. Her characters, Ali and Zeynep, won my heart. This is a reread for me for a book club I am in. You can read my full review of their remarkable story here.

5 stars

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo & Emily Woo Zeller (Narrator)

When Clara Shin and her 'enemy,' Rose, end up in a ruckus at school, their punishment is to work together over the summer in Clara's father's food truck.

While the story of enemies becoming friends and coming into who you really are might be common, Maurene Goo turns it into something fresh and unique. I became attached to these characters. I cared about them, their lives, their families, and their food truck. So will you.

Listening to this book made me happy. It accompanied me while I worked in my garden, applied mud to drywall, and knitted on a baby sweater. I am looking forward to whatever Maurene Goo comes up with next.

5 stars

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

This is a profound book.

Jam is a black, transgendered, selectively mute, teen girl who lives in a utopian world without monsters. Then she accidentally brings Pet, a clawed, horned creature, into existence. Pet tells her it has come to hunt a monster who is connected to Jam's best friend, Redemption.

Together the three of them set out to find the monster and deal with it.

What happens after the victim and monster are identified is terrifying, primarily because all too often this is the reality for abused children. Adults regularly refuse to acknowledge that the monster exits. Thankfully, these kids have Pet on their side.

NONFICTION

5 stars

The Eagle Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), Natasha Donovan (Illustrations) 🍁

The Eagle Mother is a book loaded with information about the eagle life cycle. What makes it unique is how it puts this information into a context of indigenous ways of knowing. You can read my full review and see samples of the gorgeous illustrations here.

5 stars

March: Books One, Two and Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powell (Illustrator)

This was a reread for me for a book club that meets this coming week.
Prior to reading this series, I knew next to nothing about John Lewis except that he is a politician who enjoyed Preaching to the Chickens as a boy. Learning more about the events of the Civil Rights Movement was fascinating the first time round. It was a more profound experience now.
March One deals with the events of Brown vs. The Board of Education, the murder of Emmet Till, Rosa Parks and the bus strike, the inception of the SNCC, and the Lunch Counter Sit Ins. March Two brings the reader into an intimate awareness of what it meant to be a Freedom Rider. The violence is terrifying, but not as horrific as realizing that we haven't really come very far at all. This book culminates in the March on Washington. March Three begins with the bombing of black churches in Birmingham and takes us into the struggle for voting rights and the Selma March.
These days the news is full of George Floyd, Christian Cooper, Breonna Taylor, and Regis Korchinsky. Reading the series puts this news into perspective and reminds us that that we still have a long march ahead of us to bring real change to our respective countries. I've also come to realize that America's existing president isn't an anomaly at all. He's everything that many white supremacists see as normal.

CURRENTLY

I'm listening to Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. I'm reading A Short History of Indians In Canada: Stories by Thomas King and The Case of the Missing Auntie by Michael Hutchinson. I'm also in the middle of A Portrait in Poems: The Storied Life of Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas by Evie Robillard.

UP NEXT

I'm hoping to finish up and review a couple of Netgalley titles. I managed to find my copy of Zero Repeat Forever by Gabrielle S. Prendergast and hope to get started on it.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

Big Books Summer 2020 1/10

#MustReadIn2020: 10/25

#MustReadNFIn2020: 5/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 10/25

100 books by Canadian Authors: 94/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 178/333

Eagle Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) & Natasha Donovan (Illustrations)

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was released April 28, 2020, by Highwater Press.

The Mothers of Xsan Series highlights the Gitxsan’s way of knowing the world by showing the integration of culture and nature. Each book highlights the Salmon’s role as a keystone species both ecologically and culturally for the Gitxsan people in Northern BC. In this instance, it highlights its roll for the eagle.

This book follows a pair of eagles across a year. It begins with Lasa Ya’a, the Spring Salmon’s Returning Moon. An eagle mother sits high in a cottonwood tree protecting the eggs in her nest against a spring snowstorm. Across the book we see the eaglets hatch, fledge, grow, and learn.

I appreciate that Eagle Mother shows the similarities between the Gitxsan people and the eagles. Both are dependent on the salmon, but the eagle has its own roll to play in the ecology of the forest.

“Nox Xsgyaak and her partner may use this same cottonwood for up to 20 years. The time they spend there not only benefits the cottonwood, but the nitrogen rich skin and bone they leave at the bottom of the tree decays and leaves nutrients to spread throughout the ecosystem.”

Like the others in the series, the text uses Gitxsan terms and doesn’t hesitate to use scientific vocabulary. Most of these words are explained in small text boxes on the same page.

The back matter has additional information about the Gitxsan people with a chart of the different moons. It also shows a map of their unceded territory.

The biological, cultural, and spiritual connection between eagle, salmon and people is integral to this book. It’s there in the use of Gitxsan vocabulary in the text. It's there in Natasha Donovan’s stunning art. Her images, gorgeously coloured in the shades of the rainforest and river, integrate Gitxsan people in the background. What brings it all together is the use of traditional art into the landscapes.

The Eagle Mother is a book loaded with information about the eagle life cycle. What makes it unique is how it puts this information into a context of indigenous ways of knowing.

School Libraries should have at least 2 copies of each of the series. I can hardly wait to see what this team will offer up next.

Here are the other books in the Mothers of Xsan series.

#IMWAYR MAY 25, 2020

I am celebrating.

First because I finished reading all the Chocolate Lily candidates. Mostly they are all really great reads so choosing the finalists is going to be challenging!

Second, because we now have our garden planted! (There is more to come, but for now we are on top of things.)

Tomorrow we start renovations.

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

NOVELS: High Interest - Low Vocabulary

I need to begin this section by giving a shout out to the Orca Current novels written by British Columbian authors. These are, according to their website, "short, high-interest novels with contemporary themes written specifically for middle-school students reading below grade level. Reading levels from grade 2.0 to 5.0. Interest level ages 10–14." Many of these are written by award winning authors and from what I am reading, many are own voices books. I'm impressed as heck.

4 stars

Embrace the Chicken by Mahtab Narsimhan 🍁

This little novel packs a lot of important messages into it. Like many newcomers to Canada, Shivani is struggling to fit in and find a place for herself in her new school and community. She is terrified that if people meet her mother, who is struggling with English, people will make fun of her. If they do that, they will also end up making fun of Shivani.
I cringed at how Shivani was ashamed of her family and her culture. Thankfully, her parents are smart and their new community is diverse and accepting. I really appreciated how responsible and responsive all the adults in this book are. I also liked how thoughtful the students are. This is the reality of the multicultural world I spent many years teaching in.

4 stars

Tick Tock Terror by Melanie Jackson 🍁

I don't do scary at the best of times. That's why it took me a while to garner enough courage to open this book. As an adult reading books for children, my perspective is different from the target audience. I'm so busy worrying about what will happen to the characters, I don't get involved in the way younger readers might. On the other hand, I know the Edgar Allan Poe story this one references so that might just be another reason for my anxiety.
Anyway, this is a fast paced, tense, thriller for younger readers. Connor, who loves to climb, is coerced into hiding a stolen object high on a 'Pit and Pendulum' fairground ride. Fixing the mess he's gotten himself into isn't easy.
What I really liked about this book is how the many different characters are shown to be more than Connor assumed.

4 stars

Dressed to Play by Jennifer Manuel 🍁

The publisher asserts that "Sports Stories are action-driven sports novels that turn reluctant readers into all-star readers! Plus, they feature characters with diverse racial, physical, mental, and economic backgrounds."
Dressed to Play impressed me much more than I anticipated. I admit to even getting a bit weepy at the end. Jordan loves basketball almost more than anything else, but when she starts getting called names and has to deal with bullying, she almost quits.
I especially appreciated how this book takes a hard look at misogyny and body image within the world of sports. It has made me appreciate all those young women athletes across time even more than I did before reading this.
You can find out more about this series here.
http://www.lorimer.ca/sportsstories

NOVELS

4 stars

The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead & Rachel L. Jacobs (Narrator)

This character driven book is just charming. I loved the authenticity of Bea as she struggles with all the changes in her life. When her father acknowledged he was gay, her parents divorced, but continued to have her best interests at heart. When her father decides to marry Jesse, Bea discovers that Jesse has a daughter. Sonia takes longer to embrace their new sisterhood, but Bea is undaunted.
Throughout the book Bea sees a therapist to help her deal with her anger issues. Eventually we become privy to a big secret that has been eating at her.
I appreciate how much Rebecca Stead deals with in this book - separated parents, living in two different places, therapy as part of a normal life, homophobia, and the ordinariness of spats and arguments with friends and family.

5+ stars

Cold Falling White by G. S. Prendergast 🍁

This book is the jewel of my reading week.
It just wowed me. I started reading and couldn't stop. The world building, the characters, and the story held me in its sway till it was finished. I still can't stop thinking about it.
I have the first in this series somewhere in a box, but alas, we have moved and I have no idea where it is. Otherwise I would have jumped right in. I did read a synopsis before starting this just in case I needed to know what happened before. I don't think it was really necessary.
Earth has been invaded by alien creatures called The Nahx. The Nahx, who are a cross between machine and clone, hunt humans and kill them with a special kind of poison dart. The series focuses on a group of Canadian friends who were camping in the Rocky Mountains when the invasion took place. This saved their lives, but they were still hunted by Nahx soldiers.
This begins with Xander being escorted across Nahx territory by August, a rogue Nahx. August loved Xander's friend, Raven, who died in the previous book. He gives up his life to save Xander who eventually ends up in a refugee camp near Prince George.
Raven wakes up after being darted to find herself transformed into a human version of a Nahx.
The action packed tale is brilliantly told through the perspectives of these three characters. I'm desperately hoping there will be another in series.

It is pure genius. I just can't recommend it enough.

CURRENTLY

I'm reading March: Book Three (March, #3) by John Lewis, and rereading Dance of the Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch for an upcoming book club. I'm listening to The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo.

UP NEXT

I'm hoping to go and reread the the first two in the March Trilogy. All my unread hardcopy books are in boxes so I've just downloaded The Case of the Missing Auntie by Michael Hutchinson and A Short History of Indians in Canada by Thomas King. It's about time I started reading to reach my indigenous goals.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

Big Books Summer 2020 1/10

#MustReadIn2020: 9/25

#MustReadNFIn2020: 4/12 one in progress

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors: 9/25

100 books by Canadian Authors: 91/100

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 172/333