The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales by Emily Brewes My rating: 4 of 5 stars I want to confess that I’m having trouble reading anything dystopian these days because the truth is just too imaginable during the pandemic. I absolutely loved the setting of this book….something homegrown where I can imagine the PATH system in […]
The Witch’s Hand by Nathan Page My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m totally biased towards graphic novels and include a lot of them in collection development. This reads like a cross between Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Road to Riverdale Vol. 1 and Scooby-Doo! and the Haunted Castle. For a first in a series, […]
I haven’t had such a big crying cathartic end to a book in a loooong time.
The Dime Box by Karen Grose My rating: 5 of 5 stars For a debut novel, this is an author to watch. Karen Grose carefully weaves the present with the past in the story of Greta….neglected, abused and isolated with her parents in the woods of Muskoka. In the present, she is the prime suspect […]
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood My rating: 5 of 5 stars Masterful. If I could write like anyone in the world, it would be Margaret Atwood. Make time to read The Handmaid’s Tale, binge watch the series, and read this book. We finally get to understand the Gilead system inside and out. We find out […]
Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Eden Robinson you have created such delicious characters. If Jared or Georgina or any of them knocked at my door and said, “There’s an emergency! The coy wolves are eating the dolphin people and they need your help!” I’d shape-shift into my amphibious alter-ego, […]
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson My rating: 5 of 5 stars A set of this book was generously purchased for our school by our First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FNMI)consultant at the board office. 5 pages into it many of our teachers were too scared to teach it and put it down. Boldly […]
Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is my favourite book that I’ve read this year HANDS DOWN. It first came to my attention because I enjoy reading from the Ontario Library Association’s Evergreen book list each year. I enjoyed the audiobook version through Audible as Hernandez narrates her own book. […]
Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan E. Coyote My rating: 5 of 5 stars Ivan’s voice is so refreshingly Canadian…I feel so strongly about this voice (new to me but not new) and its place in the Canadian canon. Ivan speaks from the heart of the Yukon, and then BC and although they have had lots […]
The Pain Eater by Beth Goobie My rating: 4 of 5 stars Maddy is gang-raped by her masked classmates when she is alone and vulnerable but she knows another person was witness to it. At first, she is only able to calm her traumatic thoughts through self-harm. Going to school each day everyone notices the […]
Subject to Change by Karen Nesbitt My rating: 4 of 5 stars Declan’s family is falling apart as his single mother works beyond her limits to keep the family together, and his brother struggles with addiction as a way to avoid confronting responsibility. Declan battles with which of his family’s secrets to keep and which […]
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline My rating: 4 of 5 stars I chose this book as it is nominated by the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading program in the White Pine selection this year. …and I think it is a strong contender for the winner, but teachers aren’t allowed to vote. I’m not […]
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like many settler Canadians, I am on a remarkable journey started just this year to connect with a past that was hidden from me about the atrocities towards First Nations people. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Having read and enjoyed Boyden’s […]
Code in Every Class by Kevin Brookhouser My rating: 4 of 5 stars A powerful little read that zips by. Although I’m personally working on my entry-level Lightbot skills, I really like how Kevin Brookhouser opens up with pseudo-coding activities to create a coding mindset and then works towards more and more challenging materials. The […]
