Awards, Announcements, and News

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sulz
Keyword(s):  
Associate Professor ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Book Award ◽  
Children’S Fiction ◽  
Map Search ◽  
Children's Fiction

The Canada Council for the Arts announced the various winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards. On the English side, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen won for Children’s Text and Virginia Wolf by Isabelle Arsenault won for Children’s Illustration. For French works, Un été d’amour et de cendres by Aline Apostolka won for Children’s Text while La clé à molette won for Children’s Illustration. See the details here: http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/en If you have not heard of 49th Shelf, it is worth taking a gander at http://49thshelf.com. It is a joint project of the Association of Canadian Publishers and Canadian Publisher’s Council with some funding and sponsorship from government and industry. Its goal is to help find Canadian books and bookstores that sell them. Aside from being able to search by category (including several sub-categories of children’s fiction and non-fiction) or author, it features an intriguing map search to locate books related to geographic areas to help with your own “100-mile book diet”:  http://49thshelf.com/map. In addition, 49th shelf has an invitation out for librarians and educators to get access to some specialized content http://49thshelf.com/librarians. Some award announcements since the last issue include: National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature (books published in USA by US citizens) won by William Alexander for Goblin (see the 2012 finalists at http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2012.html#.UOcvSW9wV8E)Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize won by Frank Cottrell Boyce for The Unforgotten Coat (see the 2012 longlist at http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2012/jun/08/childrens-fiction-prize-longlist-gallery)Costa Children’s Book Award for writers based in the U.K. and Ireland won by Sally Gardner for Maggot Moon (see the 2012 longlist at http://www.costabookawards.com/media/6956/shortlistrelease-forthewebsite.pdf) Upcoming in January should be the announcements for the various awards from the Association for Library Service to Children division of the American Library Association which include the Newbery, Caldecott, and several others. Finally, we do like to note University of Alberta and Edmonton connections when possible. Thomas Wharton, the author of The Fathomless Fire (reviewed in this issue) is an associate professor here and also recently gave a wonderful, engaging guest talk for a Greater Edmonton Library Association evening event. David Sulz, Communications Editor

scholarly journals The Eyes of the Animals

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
University Of Minnesota ◽  
Linda Hogan ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Book Award ◽  
American Book ◽  
Story Writer ◽  
The University

Linda Hogan Linda Hogan (1947), a successful poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and essayist whose tribal affiliation is Chickasaw, spent most of her childhood in Oklahoma and Colorado. She taught at the University of Minnesota, and has been an associate professor in the English Dept. at the University of Colorado in Boulder (where she obtained her MA in 1978), since 1989. She has served on the National Endowment for the Arts poetry panel for two years and has been involved in wildlife rehabilitation as a volunteer. The main focus and movement of Linda's work concerns the traditional indigenous view of and relationship to the land, animals and plants. She has won numerous awards, such as the 2002 Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year (Creative Prose: Memoir), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (1998), the prestigious Lannan Award, which may not be applied for, for outstanding achievement in poetry (1994), the Oklahoma Book Award for fiction in 1991, and the American Book Award (1986). She was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer in 1990.

scholarly journals How mamas love their babies by J. Fitzgerald & E. Peterson

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Adams
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Art Educators ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Many ◽  
Page Design

Fitzgerald, Juniper, and Elise Peterson. How mamas love their babies. The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2018. The first children’s book from sociology PhD Juniper Fitzgerald and artist-activist Elise Peterson, How Mamas Love Their Babies gently approaches an intersectional understanding of motherhood, while also connecting the many shared experiences of becoming and being a mother. Peterson creates a beautifully layered environment to accompany Fitzgerald’s bold, yet simple text. By overlaying colourful multimedia collage techniques with black and white retro photographs, the illustrations are dynamic and textured. The bright, engaging page design is inviting and makes this a wonderful selection for art educators looking for literacy tie-ins. This book is notable for its acknowledgment and celebration of the many ways mothers work, love and care for their babies. Fitzgerald draws upon her personal experiences labouring in the sex industry to bring forward a unique space within the text by including parents whose work may be stigmatized. In doing so, she underlines the importance of ensuring children can find themselves, their caregivers and communities represented respectfully within the pages of a book. A powerful, inclusive and decisively feminist addition to any children’s collection or storytime, Fizgerald and Peterson encourage readers to welcome, value and honour the presence of all mothers in the lives of their children and communities. Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewed by: Alexandra Adams Alex is a busy mom, student and public library assistant, with a passion for Early Childhood Education and the Arts. She is currently working on her MLIS at the University of Alberta.

scholarly journals “We live and love on a fissure”: an Interview with author Jerry Pinto

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Vinai
Keyword(s):  
Faculty Member ◽  
Graphic Novel ◽  
Moving Image ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Career Option ◽  
Children’S Fiction ◽  
Social Engagements ◽  
The City ◽  
Children's Fiction

Jerry Pinto is one of India’s most prominent names in literature; equally appropriated and applauded by staunch critics and connoisseurs. Apart from being an author, he has worked as a journalist and as a faculty member in his native city of Mumbai. Apart from his fiction, non-fiction, poems and memoir, he has written books for children and has put together some very well-received anthologies. Jerry Pinto’s works have won him a plethora of accolades. His first novel, Em and the Big Hoom (2012) was awarded India’s highest honour from the Academy of Letters, the Sahitya Akademi, for a novel in English; the Windham-Campbell Prize supervised by the Beinecke Library, Yale, USA; the Hindu ‘Lit for Life’ Award, and the Crossword Award for fiction. Helen: the Life and Times of a Bollywood H-Bomb (2006) won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema. His translations from Marathi of Mallika Amar Sheikh’s autobiography I Want to Destroy Myself was shortlisted for the Crossword Award for Fiction. Furthermore, his graphic novel in collaboration with Garima Gupta was shortlisted for the Crossword Award for Children’s Fiction. His translation of the Dalit writer Baburao Bagul’s When I Hid My Caste won the Fiction Prize at the Bangalore Literary Festival in 2018 and his novel Murder in Mahim (2017) won the Valley of Words Prize, and was shortlisted for the Crossword Award for Fiction and the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image Prize.But there was a time when he feared rejection. In this interview Jerry Pinto touches on various issues, revealing the story of how he became a writer, a career option which wasn’t then recognised as a very reliable job prospect in India. He also discusses his social engagements and his connection with the city of his birth, Mumbai.

scholarly journals The Fathomless Fire by T. Wharton

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Quirk
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Real Risk ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
The University

Wharton, Thomas. The Fathomless Fire. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2012. Print. In the first book of The Perilous Realm fantasy trilogy for young adults, The Shadow of Malabron (2010), Will Lightfoot travels to the city of Fable in the land of Story and he is told that it “is not just a world with stories in it,… this world is story” (60).  In this place, Will learns about his own special talents and discovers that he must play his part in the story that is unfolding around him if there is to be any chance of averting catastrophe.  Together with his friend Rowen, her loremaster grandfather, Nicholas Pendrake, and a wolf named Shade, Will undertakes a perilous journey in the hopes that he can help his new friends and find his own way home. The second book of the trilogy, The Fathomless Fire (2012), picks up the adventures of Will, Rowen, and Shade where The Shadow of Malabron left off.  Will returns to the land of Story only to discover that his past exploits have become the stuff of legend, but that the land of Story is imperilled because one story is growing so powerful that it is changing and warping everything, even the past, and there is now a very real risk that this dark story will become the only story “everywhere and for ever.  No one will remember that there was ever anything else before, or imagine that things might be different” (325). This novel is recommended for young adults (16+).  This is an intriguing book for those who are interested in the idea that we are each, as individuals, the product of the stories (or histories) that we tell ourselves and others, and that we have the power to change the narrative.  Thomas Wharton has imagined a complex world of adventure, but one in which meanings can be both unfathomable and unstable.  Like many of the books in this category, “The Perilous Realm” series can be understood by young adult readers but will offer greater depth to moremature and knowledgeable readers.Follow the links below to view my interview with Thomas Wharton videotaped for The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature in December 2012. In this interview, the author discusses two of his earlier novels – Icefields (1995) and The Logogryph (2004) – before turning to the first two books in his The Perilous Realm trilogy: The Shadow of Malabron (2010) and The Fathomless Fire (2012). ¤ Access the interview here: http://youtu.be/aRUVHma7ZS4 Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Linda Quirk Linda taught courses in Multicultural Canadian Literature, Women's Writing, and Children's Literature at Queen's University (Kingston) and at Seneca College (Toronto) before moving to Edmonton to become the Assistant Special Collections Librarian at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta.  Her favourite children's book to teach is Hana's Suitcase, not only because Hana's story is so compelling, but because the format of this non-fiction book teaches students of all ages about historical investigation and reveals that it is possible to recover the stories of those who have been forgotten by history. For another perspective on this novel, please see the review by Lissa Davies in The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature, Vol. 2, No. 3 (2012).

scholarly journals Not So Very Long Ago

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
University Of Minnesota ◽  
Linda Hogan ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Book Award ◽  
American Book ◽  
Story Writer ◽  
The University

Linda Hogan Linda Hogan (1947), a successful poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and essayist whose tribal affiliation is Chickasaw, spent most of her childhood in Oklahoma and Colorado. She taught at the University of Minnesota, and has been an associate professor in the English Dept. at the University of Colorado in Boulder (where she obtained her MA in 1978), since 1989. She has served on the National Endowment for the Arts poetry panel for two years and has been involved in wildlife rehabilitation as a volunteer. The main focus and movement of Linda's work concerns the traditional indigenous view of and relationship to the land, animals and plants. She has won numerous awards, such as the 2002 Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year (Creative Prose: Memoir), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (1998), the prestigious Lannan Award, which may not be applied for, for outstanding achievement in poetry (1994), the Oklahoma Book Award for fiction in 1991, and the American Book Award (1986). She was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer in 1990.

scholarly journals News and Announcements

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail De Vos
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Book Award

News and AnnouncementsAs we move into the so-called “summer reading” mode (although reading is obviously not a seasonal thing for many people), here is a “summery” (pardon the pun) of some recent Canadian book awards and shortlists.To see the plethora of Forest of Reading ® tree awards from the Ontario Library Association, go to https://www.accessola.org/WEB/OLAWEB/Forest_of_Reading/About_the_Forest.aspx. IBBY Canada (the Canadian national section of the International Board on Books for Young People) announced that the Claude Aubry Award for distinguished service in the field of children’s literature will be presented to Judith Saltman and Jacques Payette. Both winners will receive their awards in conjunction with a special event for children's literature in the coming year. http://www.ibby-canada.org/ibby-canadas-aubry-award-presented-2015/IBBY Canada also awarded the 2015 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Picture Book Award to Pierre Pratt, illustrator of Stop, Thief!. http://www.ibby-canada.org/awards/elizabeth-mrazik-cleaver-award/The annual reading programme known as First Nation Communities Read (FNCR) and the Periodical Marketers of Canada (PMC) jointly announced Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth about Lies about Indians by Darrell Dennis (Douglas & McIntyre) as the FNCR 2015-2016 title as well as winner of PMC’s $5000 Aboriginal Literature Award. A jury of librarians from First Nations public libraries in Ontario, with coordination support from Southern Ontario Library Service, selected Peace Pipe Dreams from more than 19 titles submitted by Canadian publishers. “In arriving at its selection decision, the jury agreed that the book is an important one that dispels myths and untruths about Aboriginal people in Canada today and sets the record straight. The author tackles such complicated issues such as religion, treaties, and residential schools with knowledge, tact and humour, leaving readers with a greater understanding of our complex Canadian history.” http://www.sols.org/index.php/links/fn-communities-readCharis Cotter, author of The Swallow: A Ghost Story, has been awarded The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for 2015. Published by Tundra Books, the novel is suggested for children ages nine to 12. http://www.iode.ca/2015-iode-violet-downey-book-award.htmlThe 2015 winners of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were selected by two juries of young readers from Toronto’s Alexander Muir / Gladstone Avenue Junior and Senior Public School. A jury of grade 3 and 4 students selected the recipient of the Children’s Picture Book Award, and a jury of grade 7 and 8 students selected the recipient of the Young Adult / Middle Reader Award. Each student read the books individually and then worked together with their group to reach consensus and decide on a winner. This process makes it a unique literary award in Canada.The Magician of Auschwitz by Kathy Kacer and illustrated by Gillian Newland (Second Story Press) won the Children’s Picture Book Category.The winner for the Young Adult/Middle Reader Category was The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins Publishers).http://www.ontarioartsfoundation.on.ca/pages/ruth-sylvia-schwartz-awardsFrom the Canadian Library Association:The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Penguin Canada) was awarded CLA’s 2015 Book of the Year for Children Award.Any Questions?, written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books) won the 2015 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award.This One Summer by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood) was awarded the 2015 Young Adult Book Award.http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Book_Awards&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=16132The 2015 Winner of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Juvenile/YA Book was Sigmund Brouwer’s Dead Man's Switch (Harvest House). http://crimewriterscanada.com/Regional awards:Alberta’s Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature 2015:Little You by Richard Van Camp (Orca Book Publishers) http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/r_ross_annett_award_childrens_literatureRocky Mountain Book Award 2015:Last Train: A Holocaust Story by Rona Arato. (Owl Kids, 2013) http://www.rmba.info/last-train-holocaust-storyAtlantic Book Awards 2015 from the Atlantic Book Awards SocietyAnn Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature: The End of the Line by Sharon E. McKay (Annick Press).Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration: Music is for Everyone illustrated by Sydney Smith and written by Jill Barber (Nimbus Publishing) http://atlanticbookawards.ca/awards/Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award 2015:English fiction: Scare Scape by Sam Fisher.English non-fiction: WeirdZone: Sports by Maria Birmingham.French fiction: Toxique by Amy Lachapelle.French non-fiction: Au labo, les Débrouillards! by Yannick Bergeron. http://hackmatack.ca/en/index.htmlFrom the 2015 BC Book Prizes for authors and/or illustrators living in British Columbia or the Yukon:The Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize was awarded to Dolphin SOS by Roy Miki and Slavia Miki with illustrations by Julie Flett (Tradewind).The Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize for “novels, including chapter books, and non-fiction books, including biography, aimed at juveniles and young adults, which have not been highly illustrated” went to Maggie de Vries for Rabbit Ears (HarperCollins). http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2015The 2015 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (MYRCA) was awarded to Ultra by David Carroll. http://www.myrca.ca/Camp Outlook by Brenda Baker (Second Story Press) was the 2015 winner of the SaskEnergy Young Adult Literature Award. http://www.bookawards.sk.ca/awards/awards-nominees/2015-awards-and-nominees/category/saskenergy-young-adult-literature-awardFor more information on Canadian children’s book awards check out http://www.canadianauthors.net/awards/. Please note that not all regional awards are included in this list; if you are so inclined, perhaps send their webmaster a note regarding an award that you think should be included.Happy reading and exploring.Yours in stories (in all seasons and shapes and sizes)Gail de VosGail de Vos is an adjunct professor who teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, young adult literature, and commic books and graphic novels at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades. 

scholarly journals What Can You Do with Only One Shoe: Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent by S. & S. Shapiro

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Quirk
Keyword(s):  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
The University

Shapiro, Simon and Sheryl Shapiro. What Can You Do with Only One Shoe: Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent. Illus. Francis Black. Toronto: Annick Press, 2014. Print.The publisher is promoting this charmingly-illustrated book as one intended to inspire a practical and constructive response to the environmental concerns with which we all must grapple. It is a theme which is oddly underrepresented in children’s books, perhaps because it is difficult to craft an approach which is empowering.This book considers popular contemporary ideas about recycling/repurposing everyday objects which have outlived their initial purpose, but it is not the do-it-yourself handbook that it appears to be. Instead, it is a collection of juvenile short poems with a humorously entertaining tone, but no clear message. Clearly, we should not judge this book by its title or by its covers. One poem makes fun of a toilet-turned-into-a-planter and offered as a gift, while another offers a range of silly suggested uses for a single shoe, including flattening pancakes. There is a poem which describes a tractor pulling a “broom propeller” for street sweeping which doesn’t work very well (“pebbles flying left and right”) and another in which a dog made of bicycle parts is less than satisfying (“he can’t lick my nose”). There are some poems with a less mocking tone, but which offer suggestions that are even more absurd, such as children making musical instruments from rusty cans retrieved from a landfill site or children building their own playground, complete with a swing and a slide, from an old ambulance. Intended for children aged 5-8 years old, I wonder what young readers would make of these poems.The illustrations by Francis Blake are by far the best feature of this book. Going well beyond what is found in the poems, the illustrator has created a marvelous cast of characters that are expressive in a way that is both quirky and charming. While the illustrations deserve four stars out of four, the text certainly does not.Not recommended: 1 star out of 4 Reviewer: Linda QuirkLinda taught courses in Multicultural Canadian Literature, Women's Writing, and Children's Literature at Queen's University (Kingston) and at Seneca College (Toronto) before moving to Edmonton to become the Assistant Special Collections Librarian at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta.  Her favourite children's book to teach is Hana's Suitcase, not only because Hana's story is so compelling, but because the format of this non-fiction book teaches students of all ages about historical investigation and reveals that it is possible to recover the stories of those who have been forgotten by history.

Awards, Announcements, and News

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sulz
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Maternity Leave ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Rare Book ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The University

First, we would like to follow up on news about award shortlists reported in the last issue of the Deakin Review. The UK’s Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (www.cilip.org.uk ) announced the winners for the 2012 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards. Interestingly, both the Carnegie Medal for outstanding book for children and the Kate Greenaway Medal for distinguished illustration in a book for children were awarded for the same book - A Monster Calls published by Walker Books. Patrick Ness received the Carnegie award as author and Jim Kay the Kate Greenaway award as illustrator. In fact, Patrick Ness also won the award in 2011 for Monsters of Men.  It sounds like a book not to be missed! www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/ and www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/ For its part, the Canadian Library Association (CLA) announced the winners of its three children’s literature awards at the CLA conference in Ottawa at the end of May. The Whole Truth by Kit Pearson (HarperCollins Canada) won the Book of the Year for Children Award, My Name is Elizabeth illustrated by Matthew Forsythe (Kids Can Press) was awarded the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award, and All Good Children by Catherine Austen (Orca) was chosen for the Young Adult Book Award. http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Book_Awards&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=12660 As for upcoming awards, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (www.bookcentre.ca/award ) recently released the finalists for each of its seven children’s book award with winners to be announced at the TD Canadian Children`s Literature Awards and Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse events in Toronto and Montreal later this Fall. Notably, this year marks the inaugural year for the new Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. Reviews of a few of the finalists have appeared in the Deakin Review. Pussycat, Pussycat, Where have you been? is up for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (see Deakin review here: ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/deakinreview/article/view/17078) while This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein is in contention for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People (see Deakin review here: ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/deakinreview/article/view/17096) On a local note since we are based out of the University of Alberta, Edmonton writer Nicole Luiken is a finalist for the inaugural Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy for her book Dreamline. Also, we note that Gail de Vos, a professor at our very own School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta is the chair of the jury for this award. Finally, we would like to note a few changes here at The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature. Sarah Mead-Willis who was the communication editor for the first four issues (and rare book cataloguer at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta has, as she remarks, “moved to the other end of occupational spectrum” and is enrolled in a professional cooking program at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver. We wish her well and thank her for her contributions.Also, Maria Tan has joined the team filling in for Kim Frail who is off on maternity leave and Nicole Dalmer has stepped in as intern editor.Have a wonderful summer filled with great reads.David Sulz, Communications Editor 

scholarly journals Miss Moon, Wise Words from a Dog Governess by J. Hill

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Quirk
Keyword(s):  
Private Household ◽  
Canadian Literature ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Original Idea ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
The University ◽  
Children's Activities

Hill, Janet. Miss Moon, Wise Words from a Dog Governess. Illus. Janet Hill. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2016. Print.This book is disappointing because it lacks the wise (or whimsical) words that it promises and offers only well-worn clichés, like “practice makes perfect” and “remember your manners.” These trite teachings are not offered as part of a story, but simply as a series of lessons. We are told in the introduction that Miss Wilhelmina Moon learned these lessons when she worked for a time as the “governess to sixty-seven dogs on an island off the coast of France,” but we never learn what led her to these insights. The introduction teases us by suggesting that we are about to read about the adventures of a dog governess with an absurdly large number of charges.  Unfortunately, there is no story here so the introduction’s implausible premise just seems odd and the text is nothing more than a list of hackneyed expressions. At the back of the book is a “class photo” of the sixty-seven dogs which is confusing because it seems to suggest that Miss Moon is not a governess in a private household, but a teacher at a school for dogs.Since no story grows out of the clever and original idea of an overburdened dog governess, we are left to focus on the illustrations. Dogs are cute. Children are cute. Illustrations of dogs in various guises—wearing glasses, hats, scarves, capes, or bow ties–and involved in various children’s activities—riding a bicycle, listening to a bedtime story, practicing archery, or taking a bath—can hardly fail to be appealing. Janet Hill’s sometimes adorable illustrations manage to capture something of the character of a range of dog breeds and they are sometimes very cleverly conceived, but they vary significantly in quality and sometimes seem unfocused or unfinished. Even so, the only reason to reach for this book is for the charming illustrations.Recommended with reservations: two stars out of fourReviewer: Linda QuirkLinda taught courses in Multicultural Canadian Literature, Women's Writing, and Children's Literature at Queen's University (Kingston) and at Seneca College (Toronto) before moving to Edmonton to become a librarian at Bruce Peel Special Collections & Archives at the University of Alberta.  Her favourite children's book to teach is Hana's Suitcase, not only because Hana's story is so compelling, but because the format of this non-fiction book teaches students of all ages about historical investigation and reveals that it is possible to recover the stories of those who have long been forgotten by history.

scholarly journals Happy Spring Deakin Readers!

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Pearce
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
General Public ◽  
New York Times ◽  
General Meeting ◽  
Annual General Meeting ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Final Note ◽  
Northern District ◽  
Book Award

Hello! As this issue quickly follows our last there are only a few news items to share with you. The Forest of Reading / Festival of Trees 2019 which is a national festival, held its largest event in Toronto from May 14 to 16. Students read a variety of Canadian children’s books throughout the year and then vote on their favourite book. Awards are then granted for books in a variety of different categories. The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has a lovely summary article about the festival that includes a lengthy list of all the winners. You can also see all the nominees for the various awards on the Ontario Library Association website. The Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable (VCLR) has announced it’s Information Book Award Shortlist. It includes eight juvenile non-fiction titles. Voting for winners continues into the fall and the winner will be announced in November. The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Annual General Meeting will be taking place on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 6:00 pm. CCBC members and the general public are welcome to attend: Room 224, Northern District Library / 40 Orchard View Blvd. / Toronto, Ontario M4R 1B9 On a final note, the Children’s book author Judith Kerr passed away earlier this month. Kerr was known for her book The Tiger that Came to Tea. The New York Times recently published an obituary tribute to Kerr. Best wishes for a wonderful summer! Hanne

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