Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

“MacLean, the award-winning author of The Nine Lives of Travis Keating, The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy and Home Truths, has a serious track record for developing wonderfully drawn, multi-layered teen characters and this book is no exception. This is the Bedford author’s first book done in free verse, however, which seems to help give […]

Lisa Doucet is the Co-Manager of Woozles, a children’s bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she has worked for the last sixteen years. As today’s Canadian Kidlit Hero, Lisa shared with us some of her stories and experiences—and a lot of her passion. What led you to become a bookseller?  It was actually a happy […]

“Skrypuch’s Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War (rev. 9/12) told the dramatic story of eight-year-old Tuyet’s 1975 rescue from Saigon aboard a giant plane filled with babies in cardboard boxes. This sequel describes Tuyet’s adjustment to life with her adoptive Canadian family, the story’s drama this time revolving around the surgery she must […]

The International Reading Association has published a series of book reviews about social justice-themed books for children of all ages. One of their selections is One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: “This companion book to Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War (2012) provides the […]

“…In an interview Jill Maclean she said she writes character driven books. She hit the nail on the head with that statement, given the memorable characters she creates here…Nix, Roxy, Bryan, Twig, Chase, Loren and Blue, and Nix’s parents. Set in Newfoundland, this is his story about family, conflict, friendship, death, secrets, a dog and a budding romance. The […]

“…Nix Minus One shows off Jill MacLean’s characteristic strong plotting that helped win countless awards and nominations for her other books: The Nine Lives of Travis Keating (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008), The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2009) and Home Truths (Dancing Cat Books, 2010).  She creates characters who would be considered […]

Jill MacLean, whose YA novel Nix Minus One is set in small-town Newfoundland, has always passion for that province. Today she shares with us: ONE If you choose to canoe in Newfoundland in June, July, or August, you’d better be wearing a bug jacket and you’d better be prepared to view the lake through a […]

“The author conveys the desperate, rushed and tense atmosphere.  We too feel claustrophobic as the door of the airplane shuts and the heat and smell closes in around us and Tuyet.  Everyone seems kind to Tuyet but she has no understanding of why things are happening to her.  Was she selected to help with the […]

With the Ontario Library Association Super Conference fast approaching, it seems appropriate to acknowledge another OLA program that is engaging children across the province right now: the OLA Forest of Reading. Every October the Forest of Reading committees, which are made up of public and school library practitioners, select shortlists of nominated titles for the […]

“This touching book based on the true story of the Rogers family and a tiny teddy bear brought tears to my eyes and made my son sad for a family who lost a beloved member. Aileen Rogers, a 10 year old girl who lived on a farm in East Farnham, Quebec in 1915, owned a […]