The Next Chapter's children's book panel recommends 9 great holiday reads for kids
Ken Setterington, Michele Landsberg and Bee Quammie share their favourite recent kids books
It is the most wonderful time of the year! For The Next Chapter, that means our children's book panel is back with their holiday reading choices.
Michele Landsberg is a writer, activist and grandmother, Ken Setterington is a writer, uncle and retired children's librarian and Bee Quammie is a broadcaster, writer and mother of two.
They spoke with Shelagh Rogers about some of their recent favourite reads for kids this holiday season.
Welcome to the Cypher by Khodi Dill, illustrated by Awuradwoa Afful
Bee Quammie: Khodi is Bahamian Canadian and Awuradwoa is Ghanaian Canadian. It just brings some really interesting context to what is Canadian literature when we have people of other heritages who are combining that with their Canadian upbringing. A cypher in hip hop culture is an informal gathering of rappers, beatboxers and break dancers; everyone gathers together in a circle and take turns "freestyling" — spontaneously creating music and dance live and off the top of their heads. Welcome to the Cypher uses hip hop as a basis to encourage kids to dive into the magic and creativity of language.
Welcome to the Cypher uses hip hop as a basis to encourage kids to dive into the magic and creativity of language.- Bee Quammie
The main character, who's a Pied Piper type of figure, is going through the streets of a city and gathering children to tell them about the magic of the cypher and encouraging them to join this cypher. Children are encouraged to join in, including those who might be shy to speak up or might be doubting that they have something important to say.
You see these colourful and vibrant images of children. They're flying in the sky. They're sliding down rhythmic waves that are coming out of a microphone. They're performing, they're playing instruments. It's a beautiful synergy between the illustrations and the words. Welcome to the Cypher is an amazing book. My kids loved it.
It's a Mitig! by Bridget George
Michele Landsberg: I've got this insanely adorable picture book for preschoolers called It's a Mitig! It has colourful, bright pastels, lively pages and each page gives us a rhyming couplet introducing a new Ojibway word. The illustrations make clear what the word means. If you're a little hesitant about pronouncing these words, there is a perfect guide at the end that children can use very easily. This is a beautiful way to introduce children to Ojibway culture. It's all about nature. I think it's a lovely, endearing book.
Firefly by Philippa Dowding
Ken Setterington: This novel just won the Governor General's Literary Award. This is a girl who has been living in the park across from her mother's residence because her mother is often on drugs or alcohol and has caused problems. But she gets picked up by a social worker and the police, and she's taken to live with Aunt Gayle, her warrior aunt, who has a costume shop called The Corseted Lady with seven million costumes. This girl, whose real name is Fifi, thinks of herself as Firefly, as in a firefly in the dark. She gets to try on different costumes in the shop. She's just discovering who she is.
It's a powerful book with engaging characters. It helps one discover who family is. It's a book with a real heart and something that young readers are really going to be taken by.
Hold That Thought! by Bree Galbraith, illustrated by Lynn Scurfield
Bee Quammie: My next pick is another picture book called Hold That Thought!. It's the story of Finn, who wakes up with something kind of buzzing in their head. They realize that it's not a worry, it's not a question, it's actually an idea. Finn takes this idea to school and shares this idea with their friends, and they make the idea grow into something big and wondrous.
What's interesting is — with Lynn Scurfield's illustrations —you see the idea as a tangible thing. You see how it grows and changes as the other friends contribute and get excited about the idea. But the idea is impacted by thoughts. So a bully comes along, knocks the idea down, thinks it's a terrible idea. Finn starts to doubt the idea and loses confidence and you see the idea start to shrink. But just before it disappears totally, Finn realizes that it actually is a good idea and it starts to grow again.
The book covers great themes around curiosity, confidence, perseverance, inclusion and collaboration.- Bee Quammie
The more confident Finn gets in the idea, the more it grows. Finn shares with even more kids this idea, and they add their own ideas to it, making it even better than it was before. The book covers great themes around curiosity, confidence, perseverance, inclusion and collaboration, which are key elements for kids to start to understand, even from a young age.
The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
Michele Landsberg: The book is sort of the Wild West, post-apocalyptic and fantasy, all combined in the most natural, breezy way. It's a future England. They don't make much of what happened to them, but now it's divided into seven kingdoms and each is run by repressive religious authorities. Very menacing indeed. They exile or kill any children who are different in any way. We first meet the protagonist, Scarlett McCain — she's about 16 — and she wears a long leather coat and boots, has a lightning quick mind and a bright resolve. She's always thinking ahead and getting on to the next bank to rob because she's a survivor and she runs into, in peculiar circumstances, a pale, strange and very shy and elaborately polite boy named Albert Browne.
His narrative just drives you forward with inventive imagery and vivid landscapes.- Michele Landsberg
The two of them are on the run from sinister, bowler-hatted assassins. I would say that this book is for 10 or 11 and up. The language is so propulsive, so alive. His narrative drives you forward with inventive imagery and vivid landscapes. It's an irresistible novel. It's not too laden with ideas, either. This is an adventure, and it is hopeful and energetic, and the prose is astonishing.
Two at the Top by Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Christopher Corr
Ken Setterington: This is a bright, engaging, vibrant picture book that's also nonfiction. It's called Two at the Top: A Shared Dream of Everest and it tells the story in two voices — one is Tenzing Norgay and the other is Edmund Hillary. It goes on to tell how they both like climbing and then they end up at Mount Everest and the two of them work together until they do indeed reach the top.
The illustrations are quite simple, but they're ones that kids are going to take to. And then the book is followed with information about Mount Everest and about the number of people who have climbed it, about the fact that now there's maybe too many people climbing, and who will clean the trash they leave behind on the once pristine slopes. It's a book that has questions as well as answers.
For Laika by Kai Cheng Thom, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching
Bee Quammie: I didn't realize it was based on a true story. It's the story of Laika, an orphaned dog who lived in Moscow. The book takes a bit of a creative license with Laika's story, where she runs with a pack of stray dogs and one night one of the dogs tells her that stars are the spirits of dogs who have gone to heaven. Now, Laika wonders what their names are and if her parents are up there, but no one actually knows. Laika eventually meets a stranger in the streets of Moscow who turns out to be a scientist. He chooses Laika to go on this grand adventure to space where she hopes to learn the names of the stars in the sky.
If this sounds familiar to some folks, it's because it's based on the true story of an actual dog named Laika, who lived in Russia and was part of early experiments to travel to outer space in 1957. Laika actually went up on Sputnik 2 and ended up going to space.
The story provides a unique way to have discussions with children about sensitive topics like different types of family loss, and it also opens their minds up to science. There is a discussion guide at the end for teachers, parents and guardians to get even deeper into the themes of the book. The illustrations provide a rich way for children to engage.
Across the Rainbow Bridge by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love
Michele Landsberg: Kevin Crossley-Holland is one of the great British writers for children. Across the Rainbow Bridge is about the magical bridge that allows the Norse gods to travel down into Iceland and interact with the simple farmers and children who live there. It's an extraordinarily beautiful book. The illustrations by Jeffrey Alan Love are stunning.
This whole book just breathes the fresh, tangy air of Iceland and the feeling and scent of the pine trees.- Michele Landsberg
It's for older children, I would say 10 and up, because some of it is a little frightening with trolls and ghosts. But there are also gentle stories. It's a series of linked stories of the gods coming to Earth. This whole book breathes the fresh, tangy air of Iceland and the feeling and scent of the pine trees. Somehow, without overwriting it, Kevin Crossley-Holland communicates the elemental wonder of nature. A very delightful treat for holiday giving.
Dusty Dreams and Troubled Waters by Brian Bowman, illustrated by Richard Rudnicki & Susan Tooke
Ken Setterington: This is a graphic novel for slightly older kids called Dusty Dreams and Troubled Waters. It tells the story through the eyes of a young man, Wally, who is from the Prairies. He decides in the war to join the Navy, where he is one of many men that have no training but are sent there because the times are desperate. He is sent on a Corvette to assist ships crossing the Atlantic. It's all black and white. It was striking when the character says, "The only green thing on me was the colour of my face" and the illustration, although it's just in black and white, you almost think it's green because it is so realistic.
It's an engaging, fun title and certainly one that you don't put down until you finish it.- Ken Setterington
The story is by Brian Bowman and the art is by Richard Rudnicki. Richard died while he was finishing this book and his wife, Susan Tooke, took over and finished the illustrations.
It's a graphic novel. It's a good book. It's an engaging, fun title and certainly one that you don't put down until you finish it.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
