Answer: Nobody. We don’t have one. But I’ll get to that in a moment.
A couple weeks ago, I was in London, England and saw the rather stunning stage production of Michael Morpurgo’s The War Horse (formerly at the National and now at the New London Theatre). There was a wonderful moment when the titular horse [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Books’
November 12, 2009
Who is Canada’s Children’s Laureate?
October 31, 2009
Will Self Reads his Roald Dahl Aloud
A while back, I wrote about the importance of reading Zorgamazoo aloud (trust me, it’s the only way).
Then, this week, I read Will Self’s marvellously thoughtful review of Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox. In the course of the article, Self admits that although he hasn’t read every last word Dahl wrote, what he has [...]
October 27, 2009
Zorgamazoo Shortlisted for the 2010 Silver Birch Award
Good news everyone! Zorgamazoo has been shortlisted for the 2010 Silver Birch. It’s one of the Forest of Reading awards run by the Ontario Library Association and it’s voted on by actual readers, which is always nice to see.
I’m extremely excited and honoured to have been shortlisted — and to be in such good company! [...]
July 30, 2009
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Woah. This is an exciting book. It’s just cliffhanger after cliffhanger.
It’s the story of Todd Hewitt, a boy born into a religious settler’s colony on some distant planet. Unfortunately, when the settlers first arrived, the “spackle,” an indigious community of aliens, employed germ warfare to repel them.
In Todd’s village, the spackle’s germ killed all the [...]
July 28, 2009
New World Monkeys book preview
Good news, everyone. My friend Nancy Mauro’s debut novel, New World Monkeys, comes out in September and there’s a pair book previews up on youtube.
Can’t wait to read this black-comic firecracker. Yay, Nancy!
July 26, 2009
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
This was a surprising book for me. It had been recommended by several people, but after starting it a few times, I’d never progressed past the first couple chapters. This time, however, was different.
I realized something about Gilead. It’s not a book you can read in the bustle of a local cafe. You shouldn’t read [...]
July 10, 2009
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson
Maybe on account of Zorgamazoo, I’m always interested in novels that do something interesting with language. Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson fits the bill. The book’s brimming with arcane language, uncommon sentence structure and archaic dialects of American English.
The story takes shape like something out of a gothic horror tale. Octavian is a young boy [...]
June 19, 2009
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Finally got around to How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. It’s a rich and rewarding novel with a beautifully voiced heroine and a tremendous premise. Or rather string of premises, really — if you count the mysterious war; the supposedly doomed love; the supernatural elements…
Daisy is a New York kid with concrete and espresso [...]
June 8, 2009
Ja, No, Man by Richard Poplak
I met Rich Poplak’s mother first, months before I met Rich himself. This was at a CANSCAIP meeting in December ‘09, where I was twigging the Society to my kid’s novel. I’d been living in London for the previous year and I was blissfully oblivious to the literary non-fiction scene in Toronto.
“My son’s also a [...]
June 4, 2009
Not Enough Violence in Children’s Books?
Some parents have (semi) jokingly said to me: “What’re you, crazy?! I can’t read a book to my child all about lobotomies!” To this I have two things to say:
1) Zorgamazoo isn’t all about lobotomies. A lobotomy (or rather the threat of one) merely represents the inciting incident…
2) You may be right. Every kid’s different. [...]
