Turning Pages Reads: ROAD SIGNS THAT SAY WEST by SYLVIA GUNNERY

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

Synopsis: A content warning for suicide and troubling attention from adult men.When their parents depart on their long-planned for trip to Europe, 19-year-old Hanna springs the plan on her sisters, Megan and Claire - to take Mom's car the following day and go on a cross-country drive, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Nova Scotia to Vancouver. Adventure, in the form of the Trans-Canada Highway is just a breath away - if they'll agree to it. 17-year-old Megan's not interested. She has a job and a life plan, to get fit for swim team tryouts come the fall, and she wants to stick to it. She likes adventure in measured, planned doses, nothing spur-of-the-second, like Hanna seems to always be. Claire, at fifteen, idolizes her older sisters, and only wants peace. If Hanna offers adventure, Claire wants to make sure she gets in on it - and that Megan goes along. And she does -- grudgingly -- briefly helping Claire create the united front of sisterhood. It lasts -- briefly -- until cracks begin to show.

There are other road-trippers along the way, hitchhikers, families, street buskers. Like a friendly butterfly, Hanna seems to alight on each one and engage with them, much to Megan's bitter observation. Aren't the sisters enough? Why does Hanna always have to go? Why can't she be average, like everyone else? She quits everything she starts - first University, then her nannying job in Italy, and now their big sisterhood trip. She talks them into attending the weddings of strangers, of bowling and partying, and she's not paying enough attention to Claire. She's such a sucky big sister.

There's something Hanna and Megan aren't telling Claire - something that happened with Hanna in Italy. Sometimes, Claire hates being the youngest, gets tired of keeping the peace between Megan's acid tongue and Hanna's blithe merriness. Can't Megan see there's something wrong with Hanna? No... of course not. Megan's suddenly got a crush on one of the people they meet along the road - and it's flaring up faster than Claire's ever seen. Hanna keeps disappearing, and Megan doesn't even notice. And, neither of her sisters can quite see that not all is well with Claire, either.

What started out as a lark turns into something deeper and broader, as the last summer three sisters are together ebbs and flows. They share a closeness and silently affirm their love, even as their good time eventually fades, like all things do, into memory.

Observations: This is a quiet book, a literary book, and a difficult story to cram between two plain paper covers. A sisterly Bildungsroman is both vast and deep; it covers the happenings over a summer, but also the tendencies of a lifetime thus far, in a way. The narrative is more a series of observations from inside the mind of each girl, and isn't always seamless. The "head-hopping" can be frustrating for a reader seeking a typical narrative with a rising narrative arc, and this book might be more appropriate to an older reader. I think it crosses over well into being an adult read.

Things happen in this novel, and yet, not much does. It's a road trip; there are long silences, periods of silent anger, spontaneous, giddy parties with strangers, and a lot of examining internal thoughts. Hanna thinks a lot about the terrible job in Italy, and the way it ended, with confusion and accusation of things which didn't happen - but things which, she is ashamed to admit, she dreamed of happening. Are we responsible for our dreams? Because we might want something, does that make us as bad as if we'd reached out and tried to take it? Does that mean we attract more of the same? Is it our fault?

Megan seems merciless; unforgiving, exacting, keeping count of how many times Hanna has disappointed her, to the detriment of her own enjoyment of life, and of her seeing Claire as anything but Hanna's yes-woman. When she finally thaws, her sisters are surprised -- but she freezes up again quickly. The novel unfortunately doesn't spend as much time with Megan, or on expository dialogue to help the reader see her inner mind, and the reader is left wondering what she really wants, except for her sister, Hanna, to stop leaving her behind. Her prickly resentfulness is shown at the end as a held-over childhood resentment, which makes her seem more pathetic than angry.

Claire's loss is recent enough that the shock hasn't finished with her. She's walking wounded, but doesn't know it, until she sits down long enough for the thoughts to filter through. It hits her, on this trip, that the friend she lost is never coming back, ever. She doubts herself, and second-guesses all of the conversations she had. Why hadn't she seen it coming? What does it say about her, that she missed so much pain? What if it happens again? Suddenly, Claire feels like a tiny speck in a massive world that has spun out of control... and her sadness is so great that it's crushing her. Maybe this is how her friend had felt, too...

The novel ends with trailing threads, and for some, the end will seem jarring. But, a road is a constant, just as the narrative of sisterhood and the process of growing, maturing, and separating is a common experience, in many ways. This constantly shifting narrative means that some things aren't resolved in this novel - bitterness remains bitter 'til the end, losses still pain, good times are ephemeral. The road goes on, but the one thing that remains is sisterhood. Despite everything, these girls will always be related.

Conclusion: Definitely not for the common crowd, this novel is made up of the pauses between growing pains, and will find its audience among those who have wished to draw closer to their families and see them as complex and enigmatic human beings, instead of the familiar souls they've always known. Perfect for people transitioning through stages of life, and wondering what more is out there.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publishers. After May 1, you can find ROAD SIGNS THAT SAY WEST by Sylvia Gunnery at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Turning Pages Reads: FREEDOM'S JUST ANOTHER WORD by CAROLINE STELLINGS

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

Mostly I'm not that big a fan of YA historical fiction that are set in modern history. Finding a novel set in the 70's or 80's feels weird, mainly because I've been alive during part of those years, and novels almost doesn't feel "historical" enough, yet are too technologically backwards (What? No laptops?!) to feel contemporary. Regardless, I was charmed by this novel which includes both the blues and nuns, classic cars and Janis Joplin. That the main character is biracial and African Canadian is even better. It's a short crossover read with something for both teens and adults.

Synopsis: Louisiana "Easy" Merritt has had it any way but easy, to let her tell it. Her parents, Thelma and Clarence, hailed from Louisiana - thus her name - and they've been quietly living out their lives above the Canadian garage where they've lived since before Easy was born. As an obviously biracial girl living with a black couple, Easy's been the subject of gossip in her small corner of Saskatoon since she was small. Her real mother was a white woman called Wendy Wood, who was probably a prostitute -- and Easy can't figure how Clarence, who obviously adored Thelma, ever did that -- and now it's too late to ask Thelma anything. There are a ton of mysteries in Easy's life, none of which she's interested, anymore, in solving. Nope, she's got her destiny all lined up: she's going to get up out of the slow-moving garage where she works, flushing radiators, changing oil and replacing spark plugs and batteries. She's going to become a blues singer like Billie Holliday in the US, playing the zydeco music her parents taught her on the accordion and frottoir. She's going to go back to where her parents came from, and make all of her dreams come true -- somehow. If she gets lucky. She's working hard at the garage, and saving every dime. Clarence hates it, but he knows she's going to live her Dream.

The Dream becomes even more of a sure thing when Easy meets her idol, Janis Joplin. Janis - Easy even gets to call her Pearl, like her friends get to - has asked Easy to meet her in Texas, and through a turn of good luck for a favor Clarence made her do for some nuns, Easy's even got a ride to the States. At last, Easy is headed off to stardom. That is, stardom if Janis a.) comes out of her bottle and remember who she is and b.) if being in Amarillo, Texas in 1970 doesn't kill her. Though Clarence explains to Easy about "sundowner towns," little does she realize that ANY drop of African American ancestry is enough, in some parts of Texas, to get you spat on at the very least, and dragged out of town on a rope at the very worst.

Easy's had it rough, yeah. But, a little bit of gossip never broke her. A little bit of gossip never swore at her and chased her out of a park for spite. And maybe the rest of Easy's dreams aren't all that solid, either -- does she want the crowds, who batten upon Pearl and drain her dry? Does she want the compromises? ...what does Easy want? As it turns out, Saskatoon has nothing on Route 66 -- and Easy gets a good, close look at the America she dreamed about, the woman she idolized, and the "freedom" from the dull existence that she thought she craved. And, once Easy's had a good look, it's up to her to decide what it is that she's seen -- and whether any of it is worth a second glance.

Using the structure of an epic road trip as the Heroine's Journey, Stellings draws readers into Easy's know-it-all, confident view of the world, and lets us sit in the back seat while she takes the ride of her life. This book questions the pursuit of our dreams, whether they worth chasing everything to have them, and takes a closer look at whose sacrifices we're willing to overlook to stand in the spotlight.

Observations: A novel with a female mechanic? Yes, please. A novel with a girl disinterested in college, but able to turn her hands to a job that will keep her fed? Yes, please. A novel with a brown girl going on a road trip - an EPIC road trip, at that? Oh, yes, please. A Mother Superior like all the ones I loved in 70's nunspiration-movies who played guitar and softball and were pretty cool beneath those starchy habits? Oh, yes, please, and thank-you. I'm such a sucker for Canadian books, and this one almost makes it seem like living in Saskatchewan would be a safe and lovely dream. (No. It wouldn't. The Canadians might be easier-going but SNOW. Just say NO to that much snow.) I did wonder why no one mentioned to "Easy" why her nickname might have been... problematic. I expected Janis to... point this out to her? Or at least Postulate Marsha, who, it seemed, would have been thrilled to correct her, but no one ever said, "You might not want to call yourself 'Easy,' hon, it sounds like a personal description," which seemed a little questionable to me - but, what do I know.

I admit that I found Marsha a hoot - not just the name, which dragged to mind the Brady Bunch every time I heard it, but the fact that she was just such a ray of sunshine. I did want to know a little more both about what made her turn to the veil, and what made her such a nasty person -- but acknowledge that this wasn't her story. Though I loved both versions of the cover -- the first tries to evoke Billie Holliday but is very bright and colorful, and the last more subdued and more mic-focused, which works even better -- I kind of wished there'd been room to include a nun in an old-school habit.

Though I loved that Easy finally got her audition, a part of me wished that she'd been able to do it for herself. She had such agency throughout the novel, mastering mechanics (in a casual but-I-can't-be-bothered way), meeting Pearl, getting herself through racist-infested Texas, truly figuring out who Clarence was and how he operated -- and then at the last, to have her victory basically handed to her was a bit anticlimactic to her both as a girl, and as a brown girl getting her "in" handed to her by a white boy. I wish the author had seen another way forward for this character, who did everything else the hard way -- but her way. And, what does this do for the boy? We have no idea really why he did it - or anything. That, unfortunately, was a tiny thing in the book that still -- still -- bugs me.

Conclusion: At a mere 143 pages, this is a quick escape into the past. Easy is, by turns, driven and judgmental, naive and unforgiving, hopeful and helpless. It takes just these few pages before she's given a glimpse of a world which makes her think twice. A book which will elicit plenty of discussion, including an exploration of the "real 70's," Easy is a uniquely memorable character and this "historical" slice-of-summer road trip novel will be truly enjoyed.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Second Story Press. After September 13th, you can find FREEDOM'S JUST ANOTHER WORD by Caroline Stellings at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Turning Pages Reads: FINDING HOPE by Colleen Nelson

Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!

Trapped.
Every fingernail scrapes
On shut doors,
Ripping off.
At least the blood
can escape.

- from the ARC

Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Hope is her mother's last chance for vicariously getting out of the go-nowhere, nothing town of Lumsville. Hope's mom should have left after graduation, but she'd already met her first husband. The next thing she knew, she was five years out of high school, the widowed mother of a three-year-old, and stuck fast in a town of meth and hopelessness, going nowhere. Hope knows her mother's dream is for Hope to get out, and for Hope to have the opportunities she didn't, so Hope is going to Ravenhurst, a girl's boarding school, in hopes of interrupting the cycle of hopelessness that's already taken root within them.

Hope isn't sure what she hopes for, really. A place to belong, where she isn't in the shadows of her older brother, isn't the awkward one who doesn't party, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and doesn't want any part of that. Eric was the hockey-star, their mother's first dream for someone getting out of Lumsville, but something derailed him, and first pot, then meth pulled him down into a deep, dark, bottomless pit. Hope takes care of him as best she can, giving him most of her babysitting money, leaving food, warm clothes, pictures in the stump where they used to build forts. She writes poems expressing the rage and sorrow and the silences that have fallen in her family, at the inexplicable loss of the brother who was once a rising star. Hope's finding her feet at Ravenhurst, has found a few edgy, popular girls to hang with, and, with her new boyfriend, Devon, from the neighboring school making things fun, she feels she's finally given herself a new start where things can be good. But, the truth is that wherever you go, there you are, and Hope soon finds herself in a bigger mess than before. Hope's mother can take Hope out of Lumsville, but is it possible to take Lumsville out of Hope?

Observations: This book was painful to read, in myriad ways. The short chapters, told in alternating voices, the tersely minimalist blank verse of Hope's poetry, and the bleakness of the situation create a sort of alternate universe of silence and white spaces -- this is a novel of what isn't said. Eric's painful self-recrimination is a slow horror in swinging imbalance with his manic sketchiness. The reader's horrifying sense of revelation tears away at them as they are handed sharp shards of truth, a sliver at a time, truths which lodge in the heart and make it bleed. At first I resented hearing Eric's voice in the novel, I'll admit. He constantly railed against the people who wouldn't give him the means to destroy himself, and it was apparent that he was wearing his sister out. And then I wanted him to stop railing against himself and make better choices - I wanted to shake him. I appreciate that the narrative doesn't supply the Eric character with an easy fix, because while he was destroyed by someone else, the hole he dug when he hit rock bottom was of his own making. The author doesn't make a big "just say no" statement, which is helpful and realistic, but neither does she let him off the hook.

Hope's struggles and mistakes are immersive and deeply painful as well. A lonely girl, she seems almost too young to leave home, isolated in Lumsville and trusting too easily in her new school, and too soon. She enables others in their behavior, and though she knows so much about these issues, in some ways, she willfully blinds herself. Some readers may find her naïveté frustrating, but this is less an issue of Hope's characterization and more how well known the "Innocents vs. Mean Girls" trope has come to be. Additionally, I had deeper questions about Hope I wanted answers to, such as how she felt about being the holder of her mother's vicarious hopes? Did she feel she had worth to anyone as just... Hope: not her mother's vicarious sojourner, not her brother's next hit, but just Hope? I wished that there had been one scene where she spoke one-on-one with her father, as well, as he was largely invisible except as characterized by his refusal to further enable Eric.

We all saw Hope's downfall from a mile away, as the obvious pitfall was hard to miss. The novel's antagonist is over the top, and the "whys" of this are never answered. Her removal solves one of Hope's immediate issues, but the others -- the total lack of friends, the loneliness -- should still have existed at Ravenhurst; the solution there, and with Eric as well, felt facile. The choppy, sketchy style of the book leaves us somewhat only with what we can see, so going deeper with the characters wasn't as easy. We are left to imagine a great deal, and this is what is useful; readers will ask themselves these types of questions, and perhaps come away with some deeper understanding of how they would handle this.

Conclusion: Drugs, alcohol, and sex: they're all in this novel, realistically and darkly portrayed, and there are a lot of f-bombs dropped, so I'd suggest this book for readers who haven't been sheltered, and aren't easily shocked. With somewhat of a rushed last chapter, which provides resolution without easy answers, this is very good book showing the difficulties and struggles of a family trying to survive a meth-addicted member. This novel will resonate in reader's minds and be a good jumping off point for discussions.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Dundurn Publishing. After April 12th, you can find FINDING HOPE by Colleen Nelson at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER by CAROLINE STELLINGS

The second "episode" in the Nicki Haddon mysteries continues Chinese-born heroine Yu Fin's adventures with MI6, the FBI, and other super secret agencies that this sixteen-year-old manages to infiltrate and outthink.

Summary: Since her involvement in the Ming vase case crossed her path with law enforcement agencies in Canada, Nicki's been recruited and sent to London for training. Her not-a-butler friend, Fenwick, has set her up to live outside of London with his sister, Emma -- a middle aged punk rocker with a band who pretty much hates her on sight. He can't go with her - Fenwick is on the trail of a theft from Buckingham Palace, and looking for a book that's missing... about a certain golden flower.

Nicki's in an uncomfortable situation that gets worse -- at the airport she was photographed and followed. The guy who followed her turns out to be a gang member who peers into Emma's windows. And the spy school Nicki was looking forward to turns out to be odd as well -- Nicki runs into one of her suspicious-acting instructors at a museum where a docent preparing to speak on the history of the opium trade is found poisoned. Nicki fears her teacher has been compromised by drug dealers... and maybe it all ties to that book no one can find. It's time to pull out her Fu Yin persona and get to work.

Peaks: Nicki Haddon's wealthy upbringing gives her a great many advantages, and though she doesn't know a great deal, she's flexible and finds out. She is also always finding ways to help the people she sees as overlooked; this time it's a punk rock band. Nicki's merely supposed to be a student in this book, but is dragged away on a fast-paced, over-the-top adventure which includes Buckingham Palace, Balmoral Castle, a stuffy butler, opium poppies, East End London rhyming slang, and general comic-book style insanity. This series is like popcorn, and readers seeking diversion will return for another quick read.

I had a little trouble suspending disbelief about some of the plot elements in the novel, but I can see this being enjoyable for kids looking for wish-fulfillment reading. Adults may find it unlikely that a sixteen-year-old girl, even a smart one, would be taken seriously by various international spy agencies to the point of impressing them and being the only one on hand to save the day!

Valleys: The difficulties of plotting a mystery include suspicious adults, but Nicki meets few, since her caretaker is in a punk band and she fends largely for herself. Nicki even without her Fu Yin persona is incompletely characterized and remains mildly mysterious. Readers may find it hard to warm up to her, as the narrative voice explains a lot of her actions and emotions but the novel lacks emotional resonance. Some of the relationships in the novel seemed rushed and underdeveloped, and Nicki's search for her birth parents, which should be personal enough for her to keep close to her heart, and to endear her to the reader, she seems afraid to tackle. Readers may wonder why she isn't more direct, talks to her parents about what she wants and needs, and uses their prodigious money and reach to find out what she can. While the transracial adoption element keeps the novel interesting, emotional development is shortchanged in favor of action in the plot, as we are told and not shown who Nicki is, what she cares about, and what drives her.

Conclusion: Like a compact Chinese superhero, Nicki outthinks, outfights and outsmarts the villains around her in this over-the-top standalone sequel.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. You can find THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER by Caroline Stellings at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: THE SCRATCH ON THE MING VASE, by CAROLINE STELLINGS

Since a "cozy" is a subgenre of crime fiction where the mysterious doings (murder/mayhem) are off-screen and the sleuth is usually funny (either amusing or odd), this novel straddles the line between being cozy and being plain YA - because the sleuth is neither amusing nor strange, only an average over-achieving teen -- but neither is she warmly personable nor cozy. The main character is lightly drawn - so lightly sometimes that we don't get a sense for her personality, but the detail and setting are vivid. This is a first novel in a series with a bit of potential. It's kind of Hawaii 5-0 - the original "book 'em, Danny" one, not the recent makeover - meets Nancy Drew -- again, the 1940's original, not the new one. By that I mean the adults are kind of slow, and the teen runs rings around them, of course.

This novel also has a transracial adoption subplot, as the Chinese-born protagonist was adopted by North Americans.

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Nicki Haddon isn't Hawaiian, but lives there - when she isn't competing in martial arts around the country. A child of very wealthy property owners - wealthy and clueless, as they call all of their butlers by the same name - Nicki has all that she wants but their attention. At the moment, she's in Toronto on her way to train with one of the premier kung fu masters in the country at Fire Dragon Academy. But bored and alone in Hawaii, she's arrived early - and finds she's arrived just minutes after the Master has been stabbed. Her timely call for help saves his life, but his incoherent mumbling about a Ming vase has her worried and intrigued. First, what Ming vase? And, why is it up to her to get it? Through a fast-paced series of slightly improbable events, Nicki, who was born Fu Yin, tracks down the whereabouts of a fake vase, a real vase, and the culprits behind its theft and the attempted murder.

Peaks: This is a mostly bloodless mystery, fast-paced and appropriate for older middle graders to young adult readers. As in most cozies, it's easy to tell who the suspicious folk are, but less easy to tell why we should suspect them. Nicki is young and Asian and has a lot of agency, and we learn a bit about the Chinese dynasties, Ming vases, and the emporium.

Valleys: I found the characterization very light in this novel. The narrative is well-plotted, but there's not a lot of emotional resonance with the character for me. I want to like Nicki much more than I do; I want to feel she's genuinely lonely and bewildered by her absent parents. I want to feel these things for myself, rather than having the facts handed to me. Nonetheless, the pacing being quick glosses over the fact that we don't know the character, and pulls the reader through the story, but if readers are looking for a relatable and warmly drawn character, they will instead find a sketch.

Conclusion: I think there need to be more YA mysteries and am always on the lookout for books which include characters of color so I'm glad I ran across this one. Despite some unevenness, the detailed setting, fast pace and over-the-top plot made this a light, quick read.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. You can find THE SCRATCH ON THE MING VASE by Caroline Stellings at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: CHERRY BLOSSOM BASEBALL by Jennifer Maruno

Mid-autumn might seem like a weird time to start reading about baseball again, but since the World Series victories are still echoing in our ears, I think it's a fine time to start thinking about spring training again. One of the first books my brother got as an audio book to support his reading was BASEBALL SAVED US, by Ken Mochizuki, published by Lee & Low. That book was a big deal to ME because it reminded me of other books I'd read about life in Japanese internment camps during WWII, and tied baseball's popularity to both historical and contemporary Japan. I was pleased to find a book about a female baseball fan - I'm all about the sports books for girls - and even happier that it's a Canadian book - but was shocked to learn a piece of history that I'd discounted. I was unaware that Canadian citizens of the Japanese race were interned from 1941-1945 and some were deported after the war.

This is a quiet and slow-paced but vivid and absorbing slice of life for a girl called Michiko - or Millie, depending on who you are - who lived when the world was in flux, Italians and Japanese people weren't trusted in the Western world, and baseball was the one thing you could count on.

Summary: Michiko hasn't had a portrait of herself for years - because it's illegal for the Japanese to own cameras. The rowboat her Uncle George made? Has to be hidden, and eventually given away to a friend. From their normal lives in gorgeous, coastal Vancouver, the Minigawa’s have been pushed further and further inland -- until their only choice is to live West of the Rockies - or go back to a Japan that Michiko has never even seen.

Ontario is freezing, and worse, not filled with the familiar sighs and smells of Japanese-Canadian families. Here Michiko stands out so much that she takes refuge in being quiet Millie, doing her best to just fit... but the siren song of baseball urges her to break out of her shell. In time, her successes remind her family that success can still be had, and there are reasons still to be proud.

Peaks: Like most of my favorite historical fiction stories, this is an intergenerational tale. Though Michiko's entire family doesn't live together, the neighboring Italian woman, a serviceman uncle with whom she corresponds and the other adults in the small farming community color her perspective and inform bits of the story, filling in history and culture in ways the author might otherwise have found onerous. Michiko relies on her aunt's fashion sense to help her be the best-dressed girl at a party where she's mostly ignored while the Italian neighbor introduces her to lasagna and shares with her a pair of trainers which enable her to play baseball. I also love that this is multicultural -- the Italians and the Japanese are unlikely survivors, thrown together, and in this story that makes them tentative, then strong friends.

Though some of the adults in the novel are bitter and everyone is grieved, there are a variety of responses to being interned and Michiko is able to observe the adults in her life acting and reacting, and draws her own conclusions on how best to behave in the small but painful interactions she struggles with in her own life.

Valleys: I felt that there were no valleys, but would like to offer this book to a child with its companion volume, WHEN THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS FELL, to get the whole scope of Michiko's story.

Conclusion: We need diverse books which allow reader to compare and contrast experiences of the world war in various nations. I love that this book is about a girl who plays baseball against the odds, who tries to take pride in her culture when others would rip it away, and who does her best to keep faith with what she believes in.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Dundurn Press. After December 15th, you can find CHERRY BLOSSOM BASEBALL by Jennifer Maruno at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

TURNING PAGES: JACOBS'S LANDING, by DAPHNE GREER

I love fish-out-of-water novels so much. Junior high seems to be the perfect age to experience new things and retain the adventure of the newness, while exploring the difficulties of adjusting and taking it all in stride. Daphne Greer has written a fish-out-of-water novel with a classy cover that reminds me of THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS, by Katherine Paterson, with a quieter protagonist who deals with the hand he's been dealt in different ways. While the fish-out-of-water/ mi familia loca trope is nothing new, the requisite "new-things-per-page" that makes a novel interesting is all right there, includes new landscapes - this book is set in the tiny village of Newport Landing, Nova Scotia, and now I have nineteen other reasons to pop over to Nova Scotia one summer. It sounds amazing.

Summary: Jacob Mosher's life is like a cracked cup. All that was familiar and loved has seeped out -- way back when he was tiny, his mother, then a year ago his father, now, this summer his foster mother, Maggie, and the familiar cityscapes of Ottawa. There's very little left in Jacob's life that doesn't seem to be departing on an outgoing tide. His social worker, Bernice, has worked a miracle in finding his last two surviving relatives. He has grandparents! But they're a world away in Nova Scotia - a.k.a. nowhere - and they're as weird as heck. SUPER weird. His grandfather, Frank, is forever barking nautical orders, wears this bizarre naval getup, is blind, and can't seem to remember Jacob's not some junior sailor on his nonexistent ship. His grandmother, Pearl, is... evasive, doesn't ask any questions - or answer any questions, either - and doesn't always remember to put in her dentures. And why didn't Jacob's father ever say anything about having family? Why hasn't he ever been to see Frank and Pearl? There are secrets and things left unsaid haunting all corners of the great big house on the hill.

Jacob begins the summer completely uninvested, but his grandparents seem to expect vastly different things from him than he thought, and his own expectations of surviving the summer are worlds away from what he finds. Fortunately, there Ruby from up the lane, Kenny, his grandfather's home health aide, and a few other reliable folk to help him find his feet. An absolutely sweet tale of secrets revealed and hearts mended, this is a perfect middle grade summer read.

Peaks: Though this book leaves the reader heart-full, it is also funny. While many people believe there is nothing funny about aging, "Captain Crazy, and his sidekick, Pearl" - a.k.a. Jacob's grandparents - are full of their own little quirks and habits, and Jacob is completely unable to say no to either of them, with the expected (sometimes exasperating, sometimes hilarious) results. I like the gradual way Jacob begins to care about them, and take more and more of their worries, and the worries of his friend Ruby onto his shoulders.

While this isn't exactly a mystery -- it's merely a summer-in-a-new-place kind of book -- there's a couple of little plot quirks at the end that I didn't see coming, which were quite satisfying.

Valleys: None to report, though a perceived lack of diversity may have had more to do with me missing some cues than there being none to report. This is a quick read about a boy who was a little sad and displaced, which is something we've all felt, and that commonality will pull in even the most reluctant of readers.

Conclusion: Like a perfect summer day - warm, but with just a kiss of breeze - Daphne Greer's book celebrates the best things about foster care, family, friendships, and bridging the generations to make our own truths. This is a book you'll want to hug.

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I received my copy of this book courtesy of Emily at Nimbus Publishing. You can find JACOB'S LANDING by Daphne Greer at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Reading all weekend! Join the Book Challenge!

TURNING PAGES: FLIGHT OF THE GRIFFONS, by Kate Inglis, illus., by Sydney Smith

Rarely do I get something as absolutely delightful in the mailbox as the unexpected package I received all the way from Halifax this week. It brought news -- big news:

There are still PIRATES in the backwoods of Nova Scotia. Pirates -- and get this -- they're unionized. They're the T.H.U.G.S. -- the Treasure Hunters & Useful Goods Society.

Treasure isn't all they're salvaging though... some of them are salvaging the world.

"The people will pay with their whole being: physically, mentally, ideologically, spiritually, with their land, their soul. And not just country people. Not just native people. Poison will flow through villages, towns, and cities and not stop. We must rise up. We must disrupt the system. Capitalism is a deception." ~ Rasmus Krook

Reader Gut Reaction: This is an intelligent book, which makes it a big mouthful for middle-grade readers who are thoughtful and crave a challenge. This book is a smaller, more chewy mouthful to crossover adult and older teens, who take its beautiful turns of phrase and concepts of radical environmentalism, and mull them over, taking in hard truths and crunching them into smaller and smaller bits, until they're swallowed, and hopefully they lodge in the heart, and become a part of the reader.

No glossary, but crew lists here. Also, there is Swedish in this novel -- untranslated -- but through context (and the fact that our language loosely parallels its construction) it is perfectly comprehensible. The illustration, by Halifax-based author Sydney Smith, absolutely MAKES this novel. The water-color cover, the end pages, the evocative pen-and-ink interior illustrations -- we should ALL be so lucky to EVER have someone like him illustrate a novel in the States. The book layout, the heft and silken feel of the thing in the hand -- just makes it entire a beautiful and precious treasure, to be smuggled out to the treehouse - or onto the train in a purse - and to be savored. This is NOT a book to get in ebook form. No, no.

Another thing I loved about this novel is the diversity of work culture and gender. Girls are metalsmiths, scientists, or homebodies in this novel (or hopeful pirate captains). Men are both rowdy and loud, and quiet and careful; cooking, cradling babies, collapsing in despair -- the brashest of lunatics or the truest of friends (and good at picking locks). Some are mute, some, like Missy, are nearly deaf. Also, some of them are downright noisy, and burp a lot.

One tiny drawback for some readers will be that there are tons of characters - some may have a hard time keeping them straight, as they are all hardbitten Northerners, covered in plaid and grease. However! This is where the illustrations will save you, and there are also cultural and ethnic diversities depicted in characters as well (though I doubt one, Brock Jones, had a single line throughout the novel).

Loyalty to oneself and ethical ideals are at the heart of this brilliant and surprising novel. Environment, red tape, crime, capitalism, and survival are topics ably fielded alongside of faithful stewardship, friendship, and what makes a family. Though this is a companion novel to Princess-Bride sounding THE DREAD CREW, FLIGHT OF THE GRIFFONS is a standalone.

Despite the fancy name, the T.H.U.G.S. are still operating outside the law (I mean, pirates, duh), but they're carefully organized and wound up in paperwork. They're scavengers, these pirates but instead of pirating ships at sea, they operate land ships, convoys of massive trucks and chopped-up school buses, welded onto old logging trucks. They wear plaid, a lot of time, to blend in with the folks up North, but they're pirates -- salvage pirates, that is, and no one's metal or reusable, recyclable parts are safe, no old mine, railroad, airport or dumpsite will be left for government dismantling crews. Not if they can help it.

Though lawless is as lawless does; not even in the T.H.U.G.S. does everything runs smoothly. Not every lawless pirate wants to be tied up in paperwork, and sometimes there's complaining -- and outright rebellion. Chief B, who is the outfit's bureaucratic bun-haired dictator, puts down rebellions everyday before breakfast. Her spies are everywhere, and if you cross her, she sicc's the Royal Mounted Canadian Police on those who don't walk the straight and narrow. She's had a couple of ships under her beady little eye. Unfortunately, they're both crews known to Missy Bullseye.

Concerning Character: Since she was nine, and climbed into the window of the land-ship owned by The Dread Crew, a pirate -- with a ship of her own -- is all things and everything Missy has ever wanted to be. There are complications - Missy has never been to a traditional school, and is losing her hearing, and has to read lips and put information together as best she can -- but she's used to that. Before he died, her father made sure she could get along in the world on her own. She's fulfilling the regulations for her dream -- paperwork and such -- and Missy has been climbing up steadily through the ranks, serving her workterm on every ship, completing the requirements of her apprenticeship to become Union Certified. If she's to have her own ship, she must be accepted for probationary status as a member of the T.H.U.G.S., and she MUST be approved and certified...but, roadblocks are thrown in her way. Bureaucracy rears its brainless head in the form of paperwork and delays, and Missy fears she'll never see her dream come true. She's already thirteen! Time's a'wastin', if she wants to have that ship before she's old. And so, she agrees with Chief B., the T.H.U.G.S. petty, obsessive dictator, to take on a little job for her... a job that will get her probationary status, guaranteed, but one which doesn't leave her feeling exactly right. It's a job of finding and spying on one blacklisted, wildcat pirate crew called the Griffons.

Nobody's seen the Griffons, for way too long -- and their way of ignoring paperwork, letting their contract expire and dodging Chief B's justice has got her stomach in knots. It's her steely-eyed obsession to bring them in, and bring them down. No one messes with Chief B. -- No one. And, Missy -- ready to do anything for her apprenticeship -- finds herself owned. She wants that certification too much to say no... An able spy, though she's just a tough little string of a girl, Missy actually finds the Griffons, all right -- but she also finds the grasslands, the loudest drums she's ever heard, new friends, and new challenges and a whole new world. Suddenly, Chief B.'s justice doesn't look right, and doesn't seem worth it. Suddenly, Missy's on the wrong side of everything she ever wanted to be. After all, who's to say who is walking the straight and narrow, when it comes down to it? Who's to say what Missy wants is more important than what the whole world...needs?

If you're looking for a thoughtful, fast-paced, mad-cap, entertaining novel which will delight you, pick this up. You will not be disappointed, and you'll come away thinking - which is never a bad thing.

Res upp! Life is GOOD!

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I received my copy of this book, courtesy Nimbus Publishing. You can find FLIGHT OF THE GRIFFONS by Kate Inglis online, or at an independent brick-and-mortar bookstore near you!