June 7, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Research shows that verse and simple rhymes aid in early childhood development. Babies and toddlers respond to “Itsy Bitsy Spider” because their little brains and bodies are working to make sense of their worlds, to ... Read More »
We’re taught to fear blood, maybe because it’s so often tied to death and gore. In Toronto author Liselle Sambury’s Blood Like Magic, blood signifies other things, too – notably our link to our ancestry ... Read More »
June 3, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Dawn Quigley, citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, North Dakota, delivers to young readers the clever and quirky story of Josephine Makoons Azure, otherwise known as Jo Jo Makoons (“Makoons” means bear cub ... Read More »
May 31, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Peggy’s Impossible Tale by husband-and-wife duo Roy Miki and Slavia Miki is based on the “exceptionally special” guinea pig their daughter, Elisse, had as a child. Guinea pig Peggy is a curious creature and so ... Read More »
May 27, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas is an uplifting celebration of resilience. Packed with big issues – a family split apart, microaggressions perpetuated by supposed friends, social-anxiety-induced panic attacks, and a coming-out narrative – ... Read More »
May 20, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
For a kid in Los Angeles in 1984, their street can be their whole world. In this illustrated chapter book, that’s precisely what the muddy paradise of Muscatel Avenue is for Alex and Wolf when ... Read More »
May 17, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
A companion to her 2019 debut, Jasmin Kaur’s sophomore YA novel, If I Tell You the Truth, blends poetry, prose, and illustration to tell the intergenerational story of Kiran, a Punjabi woman who flees her ... Read More »
April 19, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Parry Sound, Ontario, author Harry Kleinhuis delivers a well-realized, if uneven, adventure novel set on Alberta’s Athabasca River in the late 1930s. Fifteen-year-old Jack can’t take his distant, moody, and sometimes violent father, Malcolm, any ... Read More »
April 15, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Waterfowl, day-camp antics, and family secrets collide during a summer of self-discovery in Like a Duck from prolific Ontario-based children’s author Deborah Kerbel. Sarah lives in a little seaside town with her mom and best ... Read More »
April 12, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Basking in the glow of a Biden-Harris White House, America may appear to have a newly progressive sheen, but it’s not bright enough to blind observers to the country’s ugly prejudices. Sabina Khan, author of ... Read More »
March 18, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books