Menace and Mischief

The cast of characters here is lengthy. This is the story of CJ, Raymond, and Julie (three Grade 7 students), Hobo (their homeroom hamster), Miss Hiss (the science lab’s boa constrictor), Wilson (a Grade 9 ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction

White as the Waves: A Novel of Moby Dick

By Alison Baird

This intriguing adventure is billed as a retelling of Melville’s classic – with a catch. It’s told from the whale’s point of view. This is an original but difficult premise to work with and has ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

★ The Smugglers

By Iain Lawrence

Hands up, anyone who read Moonfleet (a swashbuckling adventure novel by J. Meade Falkner that was required reading in Canadian schools during the 1950s and 1960s). Remember the scene in which John accidentally puts his ... Read More »

February 12, 2004

Wherever Bears Be

By Sue Ann Alderson, Arden Johnson, illus.

In Vancouver writer Sue Ann Alderson’s latest book, the bickering sisters Samantha and Belinda head up the mountain to pick berries. Along the way, they imagine they see and hear bears everywhere. Samantha sings a ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Picture Books

Jessica Takes Charge

By Linda LaRose, Leanne Franson, illus.

As its title suggests, Jessica Takes Charge is a picture book that celebrates a preschooler’s determination to deal with her own problem – although her solution involves her parents in comical discomfort. Jessica’s particular problem ... Read More »