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Spring preview 2015: books for young people

spring-26

SCHOOL DAYS

From educational publisher HighWater Press comes a series that explores the Seven Teachings of the Anishinabe. Written by Métis Governor General’s Literary Award–winning poet Katherena Vermette and illustrated by Manitoba artist Irene Kuziw, Amik Loves School: A Story of Wisdom tells of a young boy whose positive experience with learning is contrasted by his grandfather’s recollection of time spent in a residential school. Plan Canada president and CEO Rosemary McCarney and Second Story Press’s latest collaboration is Tilt Your Head, Rosie the Red (see above). The picture book, with illustrations by Yvonne Cathcart, is the story of a girl named Rosie who finds a creative way to encourage her classmates to stop taunting her Muslim friend for wearing a headscarf. On the YA side, Lorimer presents Femme by Mette Bach, in which boy-crazy Sofie comes to question her sexuality after becoming friends with her high school’s only open lesbian. Razorbill Canada’s big spring title is from Susan Juby, an author known as much for her humour as her ability to tackle tough subjects. In The Truth Commission, Normandy Pale and her friends are self-appointed arbiters of honesty, but find out that some things are better left under wraps.

LEST WE FORGET

Scholastic Canada continues its successful I Am Canada series with Defend or Die, in which author Gillian Chan recounts the rarely told story of the Canadian defence of Hong Kong from the Japanese during the Second World War. Also set during that period is War in My Town (Second Story Press) by E. Graziani,
in which a young girl’s world is thrown into chaos when her small Italian village becomes a battleground.

NOT FROM AROUND HERE

spring-05Whether it’s girls on the run from abusive pasts or space invaders in our midst, these books explore what it’s like to feel as though you are out of your element.

If You Live Like Me by Lori Weber (Wandering Fox/Heritage House)

Avis Dolphin by Frieda Wishinsky; Willow Dawson, illus. (Groundwood Books)

The Incredible Space Raiders from Space! by Wesley King (Simon & Schuster Canada)

Since You’ve Been Gone by Mary Jennifer Payne (Dundurn Press)

Q&Q’s spring preview covers books published between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2015 • All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time • Titles that have been listed in previous previews do not appear here