February 27, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
Writing for children tends to be conservative in form. One effect of this tendency is that children’s literature can be a haven for writers who are drawn to traditional forms that are currently unfashionable in ... Read More »
Take an intriguing title, add a mystery, include a dash of danger, a bantering family, and a hate-love relationship with a horse, and you’ve got ingredients for a book that will please a wide-ranging audience. ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
This collection of short stories for young adults by Mary-Kate McDonald finds all protagonists in a state of emotional pain. Jason discovers from a third party that his best friend is moving away. As her ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
Carol Matas won renown in the late 1980s with Lisa and Jesper, two very well-done books about the Holocaust and the Second World War. Her latest young adult novel, Telling, continues the Winnipeg author’s more ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
Barbara Reid’s amazing ways with Plasticine are familiar to readers from her imaginative illustrations for a number of books such as Have You Seen Birds? and The New Baby Calf, but in this new book ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Picture Books
When the body of her mother, who disappeared five years earlier, is unearthed during the demolition of a restaurant formerly owned by her parents, 15-year-old Tasha Scanlan sets out to prove to the police – ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
With 14 million copies of his 30 books sold in 52 languages, Farley Mowat’s name is established internationally among adults. These excerpts from eight of his autobiographical books should go a long way toward interesting ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
Moon Tales is a handsome book. Tucked between its deep blue endpapers dancing with stars and moons are 10 moon-themed folk tales with fat cushion-shaped windows of illustration, richly coloured paintings of mountains, forests, jungles, ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
We meet poor old Gordon Stevens departing with his Grade 7 classmates for a week-long field trip to an island. Unfortunately, before he gets on the bus, Gordon and the reader have to endure good-byes ... Read More »
February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
Don Tapscott (Growing Up Digital) suggests that use of the Internet is changing the way children actually think. Mary Beaty, frequent contributor to these pages, makes a convincing case that the Internet is a sort ... Read More »
February 24, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction