Rain – the good, the bad, and the imaginative

I’m a little tentative about declaring that spring is finally here in Calgary.  We’ve had too many tantalizing false starts, but it’s been almost two weeks without snow and I’ve decided to hope for the best.'

So with spring in the air… Downpour by Emily Martin is a perfect accompaniment for the season.

It’s a gentle, poetic and imaginative reverie about a rainy day that so saturates everything, that the colour from red poppies begins to run, colouring various plants, animals and other things that it contacts.   From its own leaves and roots to the ground underfoot, to the beaks of nearby birds, to fields, fences and puddles, to a happy old man’s beard, all things have the potential to turn red.  A cute and curious hedgehog keeps us company throughout this contemplation of spring and the colour red. 

The grey tones of everything else illustrated really make the red pop.  The line drawings are well suited to the poetic nature of the book, contributing to the ‘flowy’ feel of a very grey, wet, rainy day. 

And what about the now white poppies? Well our little hedgehog tries to give them back some of their missing colour.  The author includes a couple of personal musings on the credits/copyright page on the last page that I think are very interesting.

                Poetry lurks, especially in the rain.

                Red used to be my least favorite color.

                Only fools don’t change their minds.

                Disaster is inevitable.  Watch it unfold, find beauty.

Sync up

May 15th is the start of Sync: YA literature into your earphones.

This week's pairing is the classic Time Machine by H.G. Wells with  WARP: the reluctant assassin by Eoin Colfer.  You only have a week to download these two audiobooks.

See the link at the top of the right-hand column.

SYNC offers 2 FREE audiobooks each week May 15 - Aug 20, 2014. Sign up for email or text alerts that invite you to download the new titles as they become available.

Holiday break

University is winding down for another academic year which means I’m heading off for a holiday.  I don't know about you but it feels like this winter has been never-ending.

But wait!  Before I go, I have to share a little story.

Just a couple of days ago, a co-worker brought the book The Underwater Museum: the submerged sculptures of Jason Decaires Taylor to my attention.  Loved it!

It’s a surreal but amazing look at the work of this artist who casts life-size human models (using real people) to create sculptural pieces that he then sinks off the coast of Grenada in the Caribbean and various places along the coasts of  Mexico.  It blends an artistic statement with a way to encourage reef development.  The three essays at the front of the book, one by the artist himself, Carlo McCormick an art critic and curator and finally, from a scientist, Helen Scales about reef conservation and the importance of healthy reefs to the environment offers different perspectives showing the relevance of such a project.

The book showcases a great blending of art and science.  Check out the website to find out more about the artist and the project.  I think anyone would find this fascinating to peruse. 

And, guess where I’m going?  Don’t say Mexico.  In looking for an off-the-beaten-track spring adventure this year we chose Grenada.  I love how serendipity plays out sometimes.  To find out about this underwater museum just before I go is just too auspicious and I’ll be making the most of this opportunity.

I’ll be back in May and will start posting again in the middle of the month.

The Play’s the thing

I was pretty keen on reading an adaption of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival as a play.

I mean, a wordless book turned into a theatrical production?  Whaaaa?

Well, while it might be said to be ‘based’ on the book it turns out not to be a direct, page-by-page adaption but is better described as a companion piece to the novel.

Which doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have a place in the classroom. 

If you're studying immigration and the migrant experience, then this little play would be very relevant.  It follows three main characters as they think about their lives living in a different country, separated from their families. There are several minor characters of various ethnicities filling out the cast.  They represent the commonalities experienced among immigrants.  One of the characters even says that “We are all in the same boat now!” speaking both physically and metaphorically.  Tan’s male character also undergoes some of the same experiences, leaving his family, sailing on a ship, arriving in a new country, coping with culture shock and meeting new people, often other immigrants.  These overarching occurrences certainly tie the book and the play together.

The play provides stage directions that indicate that at several points, Tan’s illustrations from the book will be projected onto a screen.

This book could be used as an example of adapting one kind of literary work into a different format.  In a conversation with Shaun Tan that is included at the front of the play, we learn that he is also working on the early phases of a feature-length project also based on The Arrival.  He says, “this would be yet another interpretation of story concepts that is likely to depart significantly from the original book, simply because the medium is so different – so quite a challenge.”

I can only imagine what the challenges might be but I'm also very keen to see what this project will look like.

Overall, reading the play is not as rich an experience as reading Tan’s The Arrival.  However, I think watching this play might be the best way to take it in. It incorporates acrobatic and circus-like elements to help impart the story. It looks fascinating.  Take a look and decide for yourself:

Guest blogger - Teen vs Adult sensibilities

Janet H. is the colleague I describe as a 'kindred spirit' because we're both fanatical readers of children's literature.  We swap titles constantly adding to each others 'to-be-read' piles on a regular basis.  We have similiar tastes but vary enough that we can often direct each other to books we wouldn't have otherwise got to.  I thought it worth sharing  Janet's retrospective about a recent book club meeting she attended as it focuses on a book a few of us in the Doucette Library really favoured and makes us consider where our own lines in sand are when it comes to contentious issues - How much is too much?

Like most women of a certain age, I belong to a book club. We have all been friends for over 20 years, connected originally by volunteer work, but now connected by our monthly meetings, our passion for books and our love of wine. We select our books in categories and one of the categories on our list is children’s/teen books. Of course, I get nominated to select the book in this category. The category started because we all wanted to read Harry Potter (and needed an excuse, I guess) – but we have read classic children’s books (Alcott and Montgomery), Hunger Games, John Green, and have dipped our collective toes into graphic novels.

So for this year’s choice, I suggested Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I have raved about the power of this book before. It is not an easy read, but the courage and the deep friendship between the two young women resonated strongly with me and stays with me, even a year later.

So I was more than a little surprised that at how much feedback (OK, pushback) was generated about this book. Along with the comments “Deeply disturbing” “Terrible torture scenes - gratuitous” “How could she?” came the inevitable “I can’t believe that this is a YA book – it should be marketed to adults, shouldn't it? It’s very graphic.”

To say I was surprised is, perhaps, an understatement. This is something I got used to defending when the Hunger Games came out – when adults would say, “Children killing children – how awful!”  my tongue in cheek response (one which I usually did not say) was “Have you BEEN in a high school lately? Do you REMEMBER your high school experiences?” I am stating the obvious when I say that I think children and young adults read, in part, to put things into perspective. Reading transports people into a different world and away from their own troubles – the “Hunger Games” may not ever be a world that our children will know, but the need to build friendships and collaborations, the need to  be strong in the face of adversity, the need to recognize and deal with your fears,  are common themes in life.

And I view Code Name Verity both the same and differently. Unlike the Hunger Games, Code Name Verity was written about a historical time that was truly horrible and life altering. Young women and men, to say nothing of children, adults and seniors, were tortured, beaten, experimented on – and all in the name of a truly evil man and his ideas of a perfect world. To be brave enough to enlist in the military, to serve your country when it was at war, to take on the role of a spy, or to work as part of the Resistance movement when you have barely reached maturity as an adult was a very real experience for many of that generation. More to the point for me, was the strength of the friendships formed in that time – when you never knew what the next day would bring – when you could not fathom how you were going to summon the courage to carry on, you did - and in the face of utter horror, complete despair and physical and emotional pain. Hope and optimism against evil drove many to be brave and courageous (even foolhardy?) when the odds appeared to be against them.

I re-read Code Name Verity before our book club meeting. I wanted to know if the impact that it had on me was a result of “glorifying”  the book in my head or was very real. What struck me again as I re-read it was the strength of the bond between two young women. I had forgotten that final scene and what happened on the bridge until I read it again. And the awfulness of that moment hit me again – and made me wonder what I would have done in that moment. Was the violence gratuitous? I don’t think so – it seemed to be a necessary part of the action. And from any non-fiction accounts of what I have read, this was a very real part of the Second World War and the fate of those captured by the Germans and thought to be spies.

Wein, in the afterword, states that there was no part of the book that was not based on a real event. And I think that is what sold me on the book and made me recommend it to my book club. At the same time, she also says that what she wanted to write was not a good history, but a good story. I think she did that in spades. Would I recommend it again? Yes, but perhaps I would position it differently (although I can’t remember how I positioned it, so maybe that was not the issue). Perhaps the issue is that we persist in thinking of the teen/YA years as an idyllic time and of teenagers as basically self-centered individuals struggling to become fully realized adults.  Instead, this book should reinforce that many teens were, and are, capable strong beings when called upon to do the impossible. And maybe there was some of the “I could never do that” in the narrative of my friends. Who knows?

Homeward bound

Recently, Canada’s military has more or less pulled up stakes in Afghanistan, its 12 year mission complete; I thought the book The Road to Afghanistan by Linda Granfield a timely selection for the blog.

This is a story told from the perspective of a Canadian soldier recently sent home, who is contemplating how she became a part of this mission and the cost of war -- any war -- for those involved.

Thinking about her great-grandfather who signed up to be a soldier in the First World War and its impact on his life, ties together the sacrifices that all soldiers understand they may have to make.  Her musings are interspersed with recollections of the sights, sounds and people she met while stationed in Afghanistan.  There’s a lot of beauty but there is also darkness and pain.   And the hopeful note that's found throughout the book is that life does go on despite the losses.

The book would be a good piece to bring into middle grade classrooms to start discussions and raise awareness about the nature and costs of war.  With so much in the news recently about veterans and the struggles that they often face returning home and becoming civilians again, this story provides an opportunity to further student understanding that war doesn’t end when the last shot is fired.

Consider using Kathy Stinson's  Highway of Heroes for younger students.