Under Emily’s Sky

As this book opens, Lee’s mother forces Lee’s alcoholic father to leave the family. Eleven-year-old Lee can’t express her overwhelming anger, which abates only at school next day when the teacher shows slides of Emily ... Read More »

April 19, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

Lydia Thrippe! A Critic’s Diary Followed by the Lydiad

By Daniel Sloate

At university I was given a secondhand copy of a literary anthology, with a free form novel-in-progress attached. The book had been owned by a celebrated Upper Canada College academic, who had scribbled thousands of ... Read More »

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Nothing Sacred: The Many Lives and Betrayals of Albert Walker

By Alan Cairns

The story of Albert Walker has all the elements of a lurid mystery: high finance, international fugitives, incest, and finally, murder. Walker fled to England from Canada in 1990, taking with him his 15-year-old daughter, ... Read More »

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

A Hand in the Water: The Many Lies of Albert Walker

By Bill Schiller

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

★ Dippers

By Barbara Nichol, Barry Moser, illus.

Dippers is that rare book that appeals to both adults and children on several levels at once. Set in 1912 near the Don River in Toronto, the book melds the ordinary and the fantastic in ... Read More »

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Picture Books

Bodies in Motion: A Matthew Prior Mystery

By Anthony Quogan

In pseudonymous Toronto mystery writer Anthony Quogan’s Bodies in Motion, recurring character Matthew Prior is commissioned to adapt Hitchcock’s train thriller The Lady Vanishes for a modern-day American audience. By way of research, he is ... Read More »

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Best Book of Bikes

By Amy Pinchuk

I don’t know if Quebec author and engineer Amy Pinchuk’s latest contribution to the Popular Mechanics for Kids series is the best book of bikes, but it’s certainly one of the most comprehensive. The six ... Read More »

April 16, 2004

In the Clear: A Contemporary Canadian Poetry Anthology

By Allan Forrie, Patrick O’Rourke, Glen Sorestad, eds.

For decades, Saskatchewan-based Thistledown Press has been publishing poetry collections by well-known and lesser-known Canadian writers. The editors of In the Clear have exploited the press’s archival wealth to compile a large anthology whose purpose ... Read More »

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Anthologies

Great Software for Kids and Parents

By Cathy Miranker and Alison Elliot

IDG Books has discreetly minimized the Dummies logo on its new kids-and-parents computing series, packaging this set as “a cool reference for the whole family.” The three guides, covering software for kids aged 2-12, web ... Read More »

April 16, 2004 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment