September 13, 2023 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Into the Bright Open, by Métis author Cherie Dimaline, reimagines The Secret Garden through an anti-colonial lens. It is the eighth book in the Remixed Classics series, in which authors from under-represented backgrounds take literary ... Read More »
Hans Christian Andersen Lives Next Door is a funny and thought-provoking middle-grade novel about the power of stories – especially the ones we tell ourselves. Real life isn’t a fairy tale for Andie Gladman. The ... Read More »
September 11, 2023 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
There are beloved folk tales that are passed down through generations. Something in the story makes them worth retelling over and over again. The Shade Tree, written and illustrated by Suzy Lee, and translated by ... Read More »
September 6, 2023 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
One Summer in Vancouver is a coming out story set against the backdrop of Vancouver’s Gay Games, which were held in 1990. At 17, Tom is struggling to come out – both to himself and ... Read More »
September 4, 2023 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Abandoned at birth by her father Phineas, “a scoundrel, a flim-flammer, and worse, circus riff-raff,” Ephemia Rimaldi (Effy) has found a comfortable home with her great-aunt Ada, a committed campaigner for women’s rights. Determined that ... Read More »
August 30, 2023 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Grand Chief Salamoo Cook is Coming to Town! is a raucous picture book by author and playwright Tomson Highway. Highway weaves songs – written in Cree, with translations into English – throughout the story, and ... Read More »
August 23, 2023 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
Dr. Afua Cooper may be best known for her work of nonfiction, The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal, a finalist for the Governor General’s Award ... Read More »
August 21, 2023 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Kids’ Books
Julie and the Mango Tree, Sadé Smith’s second picture book, tells the story of a young Jamaican girl who learns that her favourite treat is more enjoyable when shared. As her Papa isn’t there to ... Read More »
August 16, 2023 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
Focus. Click. Wind. These are the actions 11th grader Billie Taylor performs when taking photographs. She is a teenager trying to make sense of a tumultuous world: the book opens in April 1968, in New ... Read More »
August 14, 2023 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
The best children’s stories – the best stories, period – often start in ways that feel familiar, even hackneyed, only to go places you could not have predicted. Think of celebrated author-illustrator Jon Klassen’s picture ... Read More »
August 9, 2023 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books