The Sisters Brothers By Patrick DeWitt Patrick DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers is an old western with a modern twist. Even if you don’t like westerns (like me), you might like this one. Hilarious and grotesque at the same time, The Sisters Brothers is surprisingly funny and doesn’t shy away from a bit of self-reflection. The […]
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood is a book that will stay with me for years to come. I have never read anything like it, and don’t expect to ever find something like it again. Be aware this book will make you lose sleep and wreak […]
Lost in the Backyard By Alison Hughes I love survival stories, and this is a good one! Flynn is 13 and couldn’t care less about nature or the environment. He finds camping pretty boring and he doesn’t pay attention in his Outdoor Ed. class. He is far more interested in his phone and his Nike […]
The Best Mistake MysteryBy Sylvia McNicoll Stephen Noble tends to worry a lot. His mom often says that he makes too much out of things. But when the fire alarm goes off at school and all the kids get sent home without even getting their agendas, Stephen suspects something is really wrong. Later that afternoon, […]
Mae and June and the Wonder Wheel By Charise Mericle HarperThis post was originally published in Canadian Materials, Volume XXIII, Number 16, December 23, 2016. June is always open to making friends, and when Mae moves in across the street, it looks like a perfect opportunity. But potential friendship is almost thwarted by the disagreeable April, […]
The Riverman By Aaron Starmer What a wild book this is! Twelve-year-old Alistair Cleary is befriended by one of the neighbourhood “weird kids” – Fiona Loomis. Fiona has a secret to tell Alistair and she trusts him not to tell – she is regularly transported to a fantasy world called Aquavania. In this magical place, […]
Eco Warrior Eco Warriorby Philip RoyEco Warrior is a wonderful tale about a sixteen year old boy named Alfred that pulls you in right away and keeps you reading from page one to the end. Alfred is traveling to Australia in a homemade submarine with his pet seagull and dog to learn how to be an […]
Although All That Matters is the sequel to Wayson Choy’s first novel, The Jade Peony, it is actually a parallel story. Told this time from the point of view of the eldest son of the Chen family, rather than his younger siblings, the Chens have arrived in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the 1930’s, during the Great […]
All the Single Ladies By Rebecca Trainster From the title, you might mistakenly assume Rebecca Traister’s “All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation” is a self-help tome or maybe a biography of Beyoncé, but it’s actually a well-written and engaging history of the women’s liberation movement in the United […]
We Are Growing!By Laurie Keller One of the new Elephant & Piggie Like Reading books, We Are Growing by Laurie Keller entices emerging readers to keep practicing their skills once they’ve finished all the books in their beloved Mo Willems series. With high-impact, brightly coloured and cartoonish illustrations, simple text and larger than life sounds […]