Quill and Quire

BOOK REVIEWS

Out of the Ashes

By Valerie Sherrard

Valerie Sherrard, the executive director of a group home for adolescents and the foster parent of more than 70 teens, has created a highly readable novel for this age group. Out of the Ashes is ... Read More »

January 12, 2004 | Filed under: Authors

Irish Chain

By Barbara Haworth-Attard

A quilt can be a family album, each scrap of material in the patchwork pattern commemorating rites of passage and memorable moments. In Irish Chain, Barbara Haworth-Attard’s latest historical YA novel – as in her ... Read More »

January 12, 2004

The Seeker

By Margaret Buffie

Emma Sweeney, a 16-year-old Watcher who doesn’t know who she really is, was not supposed to have bonded so deeply with her Earth family. But as she watches her adopted mother die, Emma vows to ... Read More »

January 12, 2004

★ Fractures: Family Stories

By Budge Wilson

For many years, Nova Scotia writer Budge Wilson’s short story collection The Leaving has been my standard gift for two groups, thoughtful teenagers and visitors to Canada. With no stylistic fireworks, Wilson deftly captures the ... Read More »

January 12, 2004

Ricky

By Eric Walters

Family, friendship, compassion, and a very large snake are the entwined themes in Eric Walters’ new novel. Protagonist Ricky (later revealed as the young Eric Walters) is most comfortable among his 29 pets, and thrives ... Read More »

January 12, 2004

The Maze

By Monica Hughes

Some aspects of The Maze – girl gangs, ostracism, swarmings – recall the horrible fatal attack on 14-year-old Reena Virk five years ago in Victoria. Monica Hughes combines a perceptive grasp of the dynamics of ... Read More »

January 12, 2004

Tribes

By Arthur Slade

Since the death three years earlier of his father, a world-famous anthropologist, 17-year-old Percy Montmount Jr. believes he’s truly able to see the world through his father’s eyes. As a quasi-omniscient observer studying the ritualistic ... Read More »

January 12, 2004

City Signs

By Zoran Milich

Although this book’s photos were taken in cities, preschoolers from communities of all sizes will recognize and relate to the objects and concepts portrayed. Thirty colourful camera shots illustrate the way we use letters, symbols, ... Read More »

January 12, 2004 | Filed under: Picture Books

★ Alphabeasts

By Wallace Edwards

How would an alligator go about sitting in an easy chair? Toronto artist Wallace Edwards props his alligator’s chin on a well-cushioned footstool, while its tail drapes down over the chairback and its front legs ... Read More »

January 12, 2004 | Filed under: Picture Books