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 […]
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had one of those friends at university who lived really close to the edge of always going too far. She abused alcohol, had a variety of sexual partners and walked home alone in the dark. I was always confused by […]
Dan vs. Nature by Don Calame My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is a light read but darker than Don Calame‘s previous works. Dan and his Mom’s fiance venture into the wilderness with a motley crue of tag-alongs. Dan is intent on breaking the fiance until he starts to really struggle with the […]
The Magicians Trilogy Boxed Set by Lev Grossman My rating: 4 of 5 stars Do you remember how you felt at the end of the Harry Potter books…you couldn’t believe it was all over? Lev Grossman’s world renderings have left me feeling like I have been to another world and back again. Truthfully, I didn’t […]
Baltimore, Vol. 1: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s dark and dingy but it has this throwback, homage feeling to it that really appealed to my sense of design. The story uses many archetypes and predictable twists and turns as there is a plague, and zombie-esque creatures and […]
They Left Us Everything: A Memoir by Plum Johnson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first became interested in Plum Johnson’s They Left Us Everything as it has won the Ontario Library Association’s 2016 Evergreen award for best in Canadian adult fiction. This book is my surprise read of the year. Aging parents and […]
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins My rating: 4 of 5 stars Being a librarian, I rarely buy books anymore just for me but every now and then one leaps out at me, circulates through my family, and then makes its new home in my library where I recommend it to my secondary […]
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m gradually working my way through the Amnesty International Book Club recommendations and this book This book is written in a simple style, at times, overstating the emotion involved in this heartwrenching tale of gendercide and survival as Asha searches to find the […]
The Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant My rating: 5 of 5 stars Remember how when you studied Canadian literature we were referred to Margaret Atwood‘s book Survival? The Jaguar’s Children is a fine example of how this same theme is evolving in the year 2016 as our main character aims to travel to El Norte […]
Punishment by Linden MacIntyre My rating: 5 of 5 stars MacIntyre masterfully combines a serene small town setting with the incestuous secrets of the past. Tony, a retired guard from the nearby penitentiary, returns home to create some space between himself and the drama of his former employment only to discover that his past won’t […]
threadbare beauty 