Quill and Quire

BOOK REVIEWS

Jess and the Runaway Grandpa

By Mary Woodbury

Mary Woodbury’s latest novel for young adults offers a compelling mix of adventure, suspense, and psychological realism. The main plot centres around 12-year-old Jess and her elderly neighbour Ernie, the runaway grandpa of the book’s ... Read More »

March 7, 2004

The Belonging Place

By Jean Little

Once again, Jean Little, author of more than 20 books for children, has reached into the rich vein of her personal and incidental history for a tale of an orphan’s search for a place to ... Read More »

March 7, 2004

Free Reign

By Rosemary Aubert

The premise of Free Reign is promising. Ellis Portal, a former judge, is one of Toronto’s homeless, living in the bush lining the city’s Don River Valley. One day, he finds a man’s amputated hand, ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Buying on Time

By Antanas Sileika

Buying On Time is a moving and entertaining collection of short stories about a Lithuanian-Canadian family set in the Toronto suburb of Weston. Ordered chronologically from 1953 to 1981, the collection has the unified feel ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Two-headed Calf

By Sandra Birdsell

In The Two-Headed Calf, Sandra Birdsell’s first collection of stories in 12 years, the Manitoban writer explores the strangeness lurking in Winnipeg’s tidy streets. Here, parents and children, lovers, and friends live in conflict, sometimes ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Banjo Lessons

By David Carpenter

In Tim Fisher, the anti-hero of David Carpenter’s seventh book, the prairie author has created an engaging character whose struggle toward independence and maturity fills this long and frequently very funny coming-of-age novel. Set in Alberta, ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels