Things Not to Do

The anxieties and disillusionments of modern life seem to be at the core of most contemporary short-fiction collections. So it is little surprise that the similarly titled Things Not to Do, by Toronto writer Jessica ... Read More »

September 21, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Kingdom of No Worries

By Philip Roy

When a small island appears in the middle of a river running through their town, 12-year-old best friends Billy, Charlie, and Sami lay claim to it – and the Kingdom of No Worries is born. ... Read More »

September 20, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

The Prisoner and the Chaplain

By Michelle Berry

Time is running out in different ways for the title characters of The Prisoner and the Chaplain. For the former, the hours between midnight and noon are slated to be the last of his life; he’s ... Read More »

September 19, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Sit

By Deborah Ellis

Children, like dogs, are often told to “sit.” But in Deborah Ellis’s new collection of 11 short stories, the kids are much too rambunctious for that. In “The Glowing Chair,” Miyuki is a 12-year-old Japanese ... Read More »

September 18, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

The Last Wave

By Gillian Best

There is something about the sea that calls to people. Sailors, divers, beach vacationers – to those of us who feel most at home in the salty brine of a vast expanse of water, there ... Read More »

September 14, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Spirited Away: Fairy Stories of Old Newfoundland

By Tom Dawe; Veselina Tomova (ill.)

In Newfoundland, fairies are dangerous. They steal babies, play wild music that forces people to dance till they drop, and lead travellers over cliffs to their deaths. Sometimes they spirit people away completely: heedless berry ... Read More »

September 14, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy

By Manjusha Pawagi

In April 2014, author and family court judge Manjusha Pawagi was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia. Her candid and often funny new memoir covers the period from her diagnosis to her meeting, two ... Read More »

September 12, 2017 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

The Night Garden

By Polly Horvath

Children’s literature abounds with magical gardens: from the walled plot that Mary Lennox coaxes back to life in The Secret Garden, to the setting for a time-travelling friendship in Tom’s Midnight Garden, to Oxford’s Botanic ... Read More »

September 12, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

What’s My Superpower?

By Aviaq Johnston; Tim Mack (ill.)

Nalvana, a young Inuit girl with a big heart, has always dreamed of having a superpower. She observes the behaviour of the children with whom she goes to school and can easily identify their “superpowers.” ... Read More »

September 11, 2017 | Filed under: Picture Books

★ Letters to a Prisoner

By Jacques Goldstyn; Angela Keenlyside (trans.)

One day, a girl and her father join a peaceful protest march; the demonstration turns ugly when protesters are met with a phalanx of heavily armed riot police. The girl’s father is arrested and thrown ... Read More »