Book Reviews

George Robert Bateman, Jr., The Transformative Potential of Participatory Budgeting: Creating an Ideal Democracy.Garett Jones, 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less.

We've Got Lots of Good News for You!

Greetings everyone! Welcome to another issue and a round-up of children’s literature news. It has been a long and cold winter in Edmonton, but it seems to be finally winding down. There are some award and event news to share with you as well as some podcasts. I happen to be a big podcast lover and and my favourite ones help me get through the winter darkness with insightful ideas and discussions. It thought it would be fun to highlight a few children’s literature podcasts that may interest our readers. Here’s wishing you all a warm spring! AWARDS Alberta Literary Awards were announced by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. The books shortlisted for the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature include: Jenny Keith (Edmonton) – Day Cat, Night Cat Mike Kerr (Calgary) – Crafty Llama Nhung Tran-Davies (Calmar) – Ten Cents a Pound Shortlist reading events will be held this spring in Edmonton on May 5 and in Calgary on May 15. The BC Book Prize shortlists have been announced, and titles shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize include: Learning to Breathe by Janice Lynn Mather The Journey Forward, A Novella on Reconciliation: When We Play Our Drums, They Sing! / Lucy and Lola by Monique Gray Smith and Richard Van Camp Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen Very Rich by Polly Horvath Those shortlisted for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize include: The Nameless City: The Divided Earth by Faith Erin Hicks, Robert Bateman: The Boy Who Painted Nature by Margriet Ruurs Illustrated by Robert Bateman, Sir Simon: Super Scarer by Cale Atkinson; Sparks! by Ian Boothby Illustrated by Nina Matsumoto Sterling, Best Dog Ever by Aidan Cassie Full details can be found at the BC Book Prize Website. EVENTS Me and Mr. Carnegie: 16th Albert Lahmer Memorial Lecture The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, Lillian H. Smith Branch, Toronto Public Library April 25, 2019, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm See more at: Canadian Children’s Book Centre CHILDREN’S AND YA PODCASTS YA Write Every month, Amy Mathers talks to YA writers about their inspiration as a writer and their latest books. Picturebooking A Podcast About Creating and Sharing Picture Books The Yarn A narrative adventure. The Yarn takes listeners behind the scenes of children's literature, and lets them look at all the threads that must be weaved together to create a book. The Children’s Book Podcast Hosted by Matthew Winner, elementary school librarian and co-founder of All The Wonders. The Children's Book Podcast features insightful and sincere interviews with authors, illustrators, and everyone involved in taking a book from a drawing board to bookshelf. Books Between A podcast about books for tweens around the ages 8-12. The podcast offers trending topics, author interviews, and recommendations.

Voices from the Wild: An Animal Sensagoria by D. Bouchard

Bouchard, David. Voices from the Wild: An Animal Sensagoria. Paintings by Ron Parker. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013. Print.This gorgeous book brings together two extraordinarily-talented individuals. David Bouchard is a former teacher, a former president of the Metis Nation of Greater Victoria, a recipient of the Order of Canada, and the author of many books. His popular books use poetry, prose, and visual elements to explore Aboriginal and Métis culture and traditions in both French and English. Ron Parker is one of Canada’s best wildlife artists. His career took off in the 1990s when his realistic portraits of animals in their natural habitats stood alongside those of Robert Bateman and helped to create a very hot market for signed limited edition prints. The publisher is to be applauded for thinking of bringing together Parker’s glorious paintings and Bouchard’s inspiring poetry. It was a wonderful idea, but, unfortunately, it was not well executed. It is most unfortunate that Parker’s beautiful images were not packaged in a fresher and more contemporary book design, one that would appeal to today’s young people. The author says that he “wrote this book with young people in mind” and certainly he has organized his poetry into a familiar scheme for a children’s book—sections which explore the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste)—but unfortunately, the scheme is too childish for young adults while the poetry is too sophisticated for small children. There is great value and power in this poetry, in which the reader is asked to see the world through the senses and perspectives of numerous animals, but, just who is the intended audience?As it is, this volume does a disservice to both the author and the artist. The design may be appealing to parents or teachers of a certain age—who may feel a nostalgic affection for its familiar, if outdated, style, and who will be undaunted by the poetry—but the publisher has made a mistake in marketing this title as a children’s book. As it is, this book stands outside of normal publishing categories. Although too small to be classified as a coffee table book, both the design and the content seem more aligned with that category than any other. Although there is a great deal to applaud here, I cannot recommend this as a children’s book.Not recommended: one star 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 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.