December 10, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction
Looking at Maya hieroglyphics,” this book informs readers, “is like looking at a plate of spaghetti.” How to unlock this ancient code was a mystery that has challenged scientists and others for years. This book ... Read More »
Is hockey still at the heart of the Canadian psyche? Is it still our defining myth? It’s the kind of topic the CBC would turn into a rambling, multi-part documentary. Hockey’s a bigger business than ... Read More »
December 10, 2003 | Filed under: Picture Books
The old stereotype of the emaciated yogi with an intense stare is out. But if it’s been replaced by an emaciated supermodel in a snazzy leotard, is that progress? Luckily, media images aren’t all, and ... Read More »
December 10, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction
Liz Primeau knew something was wrong when she realized that insects and neighbourhood pets avoided her manicured lawn in favour of bushes and shady gardens. When she thought about it, she decided that she couldn’t ... Read More »
December 10, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Sports, Health & Self-help
Stanley knows the couch is off-limits to dogs, but his owners are out every evening and he’s bored. So one night he sits on the couch and nothing happens! Emboldened, he turns on music the ... Read More »
December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Picture Books
West Coast author Sally Fitz-Gibbon has parlayed the magic of wearing fresh footwear into a joyful rhyming picture book. Using simple structured rhyme and ending each line with the word “shoes,” Fitz- Gibbon tells the ... Read More »
December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Picture Books
In A Day Does Not Go By, Sean Johnston arranges his themes – the fear of betrayal, the fragility of love, the haplessness of old age, the inadequacy of language – into 27 short vignettes.In ... Read More »
December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Short
Whenever I read a book to my children and they enjoy it more than I do, I send them straight to bed and assume they’re just tired and exhibiting poor aesthetic judgment. But when, despite ... Read More »
December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Picture Books
Poet Tim Bowling’s intensely interiorized story of 10-year-old Callum Taylor often reads more like a personal memoir than a typical coming-of-age novel, which is both a good and a bad thing. The intense memories of ... Read More »
December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels
Richard Thompson and Martin Springett continue to explore mythology in The Night Walker, their latest collaboration. The story opens with a native boy adventuring starts homeward, strange noises follow him but stop abruptly whenever he ... Read More »
December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Picture Books