Do You Remember?

Smith, Sydney. Do You Remember? Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2023.
How do we hold on to the ones we love once they are gone? By remembering them. By sharing our memories with the people who are still with us. By recalling events that once seemed insignificant but now have become precious. This deeply touching picture book by an award-winning author and illustrator tells the story of a young boy remembering his father. Snuggled up together with his mother in a new apartment, the two of them quietly recall a picnic, a birthday, a move to a new city. Softly coloured illustrations – sometimes with no words – help to tell a story of loss and resilience for readers five years old and up. Most highly recommended.

More books illustrated by Sydney Smith

More books about grief

More books by Canadians

I Talk Like a River

Scott, Jordan. I Talk Like a River. New York: Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, 2020.

A little boy wakes up every morning with the sounds of words stuck in his throat. He can’t make them come out properly and so goes through his days without saying a word. Afraid. Sad. But then his father takes him down to the river – to walk along the bank and watch the water bubbling and churning, whirling and crashing – and explains that he is like that river. He stutters. Beyond the rapids, however, there is smooth water. He feels less lonely. Based on the author’s own experiences growing up, this beautiful picture book – illustrated by the award-winning Sydney Smith – is highly recommended for readers of all ages.

More books by Canadian writers

More stories based on the author’s life

Deadman’s Castle

Lawrence, Iain. Deadman’s Castle. New York: Margaret Ferguson Books, Holiday House, 2121.
Ever since his father witnessed a crime seven years ago, Igor and his family have been on the run. They’ve moved all over the U.S.A., constantly hiding from a man who has threatened harm. Igor has never been allowed to attend school, own electronic devices, or have any friends. He has changed identities so many times, he can no longer remember where he was born or what he was first named.
On his twelfth birthday, Igor decides he is tired of living in fear. What if what his father has told him isn’t even true? What if no one is hunting them down? What if his father is actually crazy?
This quickly-paced, 243-page novel is highly recommended for readers 11 to 14 years of age.

Another novel of suspense by Iain Lawrence

More stories by Canadian authors

More stories about moving

P.S. Remember the beginning of Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time? Remember how Meg thinks everyone in her family hates her and that is why she has been given a bedroom in the attic? Adolescence is generally a time of questioning adults and feeling unloved. As you read Deadman’s Castle, you might like to notice how Igor’s emotions and actions are common to many twelve-year-olds, even those who aren’t living in extraordinary circumstances.

Almost Time

Schmidt, Gary D. Almost Time. Boston : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.
A lovely picture book about a little boy waiting for the weather to get cold enough to tap the maple trees for syrup. Full-page illustrations by the award winning illustrator G. Brian Karas accompany a simple story told by an award-winning author and his late wife, Elizabeth Stickney. Highly recommended for readers 5 to 8 years old who have experienced the frustrations of waiting. 

More picture books

More stories of winter

 

Two Roads

Bruchac, Joseph. Two Roads. New York: Puffin Books, 2019.
Twelve-year-old Cal and his father, homeless, travel across America by rail. It’s 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, and countless poverty-stricken men are clambering onto freight trains, hoping not to be caught by the guards. But Cal is caught – by a surprise. His father tells him that they are Creek Indians. And now he is going to join a demonstration in Washington, D.C. to defend the rights of World War I veterans, so Cal is being dropped off in Oklahoma to stay at a residential school for native Americans.  Joseph Bruchac, author of numerous novels and picture books, skilfully tells a story of grief and hope. Recommended for readers 11 years old and up.

Note: All books published by Puffin are well-written. All stories by Joseph Bruchac are worth reading.

More stories of indigenous people of North America

More historical novels

More stories set in Oklahoma

Mouse and His Child

Dear Reader,

Have you read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis? Have you read Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White? If so, you know how great truths about life can be hidden in stories about ordinary people and ordinary animals. Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban is another great story to warm your heart. It will make you cry and laugh, worry and rejoice. It is the story of some small little windup toys, besieged by rats, struggling to find a place they can call home. 

Be warned: this novel was published over 50 years ago and so the language is slightly different than what you are used to reading in more recently published books. The vocabulary is more sophisticated. And the story is not short. But the lively writing will carry you through the 244 pages in no time at all. Have fun!

Hoban, Russell. Mouse and His Child. New York : Scholastic Inc., 2017, c2001.

By the way, you might like to notice the illustrations when you read the book. They’re by David Small, who has illustrated many fine picture books. You might like to try some picture books by Russell Hoban, too: A Bargain for Frances and Bread and Jam for Frances. They’re for younger readers but they’ll make you laugh and remember your own younger years. 

Ms. R. 

P.S. If you are 8 years old and already a very good reader, you might like to try more of the stories on THIS PAGE.

World Oceans Day

June 8th is World Oceans Day!

‘World Oceans Day’ was officially recognized, in 2008, by the United Nations General Assembly after a proposal, in 1992, by the Government of Canada.

 “Without water, our planet would be one of the billions of lifeless rocks floating endlessly in the vastness of the inky-black void.” – Fabien Cousteau, oceanographic explorer

Gerstein, Mordecai. The Boy and the Whale. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2017.
A young boy and his father rescue a whale tangled in their net in this life-affirming story based on a real-life event. The expressive illustrations, well-designed pages, and  smoothly flowing text combine to make this a wonderful picture book for children and young teenagers. 

“I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me. The sea.” – Gary Paulsen, Caught by the Sea 

More ocean books

 Learn more about World Oceans Day!

Marino, Gianna. Following Papa’s Song. New York: Viking, 2014.  
Full-page illustrations colourfully illustrate this story about the migration of humpback whales. Recommended for children up to seven years of age.

“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” – Rainer Maria Rilke, poet