Kidlit « Buried In Print

Martha Brooks’ Two Moons in August (1990)

“There were two moons last August — one that was almost full at the beginning when Mom was alive and our lives were normal, and then a big full cheater moon at the end, one that looked down so beautifully on the world when everything was awful and changed and never would be the same [...]

Nicolas Debon’s Four Pictures by Emily Carr (2003)

There are a number of ways in which one can get to know Emily Carr.

Groundwood Books – House of Anansi, 2003

First, for the bookish, via her own writing.

Klee Wick (1941), The Book of Small (1942), The House of All Sorts (1944), and, published posthumously, Growing Pains (1946), Pause (1953), The Heart of [...]

Kim Echlin’s Inanna (2003)

“I like telling stories of women who act on their passions.”

“I like these strong female characters.”

“When I talk with readers I feel an enormous appetite in women to explore both their strength and their emotional connectedness, which still tend not to be honoured in the dominant culture.”*

Any one of these statements would [...]

Sita’s Ramayana: A Feminist Retelling

As if it wasn’t enough to take The Ramayana and present it in images, this volume retells the ancient epic through the eyes of a woman. This is Sita’s Ramayana.

House of Anansi, 2011 Artwork by Moyna Chitrakar

The original Sanskrit text is attributed to the poet Valmiki, and it is comprised of 24,000 verses which [...]

“A compelling up close perspective”: Loon

Nearly two weeks ago, author Susan Vande Griek and illustrator Karen Reczuch took home the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for Loon.

Groundwood – House of Anansi, 2011

This post’s title comes from the jury’s description of the book, and the cover alone, with its rich, tapestry-like image, declares that this bird [...]

Yellow, Black and Braille: Two books for young(ish) readers

Pamela Porter’s backlist landed all-of-a-piece on my TBR with I’ll Be Watching.

Groundwood Books – House of Anansi, 2008

Yellow Moon, Apple Moon is aimed at the earliest readers. It provides a lovely transition-from-board-books option.

[Next on my Pamela Porter list, if you're curious, arranged in order of readers' ages: Sky (prose, 8-12) and The Crazy Man (free [...]

Ahmad Akbarpour’s That Night’s Train (2012)

When life and story intersect: that’s where this story takes place. (And isn’t that the best place ever to set a story?)

Groundwood – House of Anansi, 2012

But, okay, in the beginning, when readers step aboard That Night’s Train, they are actually in a railway carriage.

“The train went clickety-click, clickety-clack and [...]

Paul Yee’s Ghost Train (1996)

You could read this book because it has won a tonne of awards.

Groundwood – House of Anansi, 1996

(It won the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature (Text), the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award, the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award.)

You could read it because Paul Yee has a solid [...]

Canadian Railroad Trilogy

When I was a girl, I heard Gordon Lightfoot’s albums often enough that I knew the words to his songs as well as I knew the lyrics on my Sesame Street records.

Once, my mom brought home a recording from the library: one of his ballads with an illustrated book to accompany it, an early [...]