Monday 29 April 2019

Malice

Malice
Malice
By Chris Wooding


Malice is the comic that everyone wants to read.  They’ve all heard about it, but hardly anyone can get their hands on it.  Malice is kept behind the counter and under beds.  It’s dark and disturbing content shows only glimpses of stories.  But the kids in these stories aren’t made up – they are real kids who’ve gone missing.  And they’ve gone into the sinister world of Malice.

Kids have also heard that if you want to visit Malice, all you have to do is call Tall Jake to come and take you away.  Do a little chant, burn some cat hair and next thing you know, Tall Jake will appear.  Of course, most don’t believe it.  But some kids try it – just to see what happens.

Luke is the first to call this darkness.  When Kady and Seth finally get a hold of one of the comics, they learn Luke’s fate.  He has made it into Malice, and he may not get out.

Despite the danger, Seth decides he wants to go to Malice too.  He is bored with life and always looking for more excitement.  He only half believes it will work anyway.  When he finally gets there, he learns that Malice is darker than even he expected.  But he also meets other kids like Justin and Tatiana, who are living in Malice.  Some are trying to find a way out.  If you can find a white train ticket, you can go back home.

Others want to stay and find a way to stop Tall Jake.  He’s hurting kids after all. Seth and Justin decide to set out together to stop the monster that is behind Malice.  Meanwhile, Kady is trying to help from the outside.

But can three ordinary kids really stop this evil?

Written as both a novel and a comic, Malice allows readers to see right into its dark world.

Highly recommended!
 

Thursday 25 April 2019

Heart Of A Champion

Heart of A Champion
Heart Of A Champion
By Ellen Schwartz


It’s 1941 and ten-year-old Kenny Sakamoto wants to play baseball.  His brother, Mickey, is a star player on the Asahi baseball team in Vancouver.   But Kenny has a weak heart, and his parents won’t allow him to do anything strenuous – especially baseball.

Kenny is determined, so he asks Mickey to coach him secretly.  In a few months, he will try out for the Clovers, the baseball team for his age group.  He is slowly improving, but when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, everything changes.

Canada soon declares war on Japan, and all those of Japanese ancestry have their rights slowly taken from them.  Although Kenny and his siblings were born in Canada, they quickly become “enemy aliens”.  Eventually the Sakamotos, along with all the other Japanese-Canadian families, are moved to an internment camp in the B.C. interior.

With only shacks to live in and no recreation opportunities, it is easy to lose hope.  But Kenny has other ideas.  He decides that he will turn an area used to dump old construction materials into a baseball field.  He organizes the work, recruits helpers, and soon finds that he is much stronger than anyone thought.

Heart of A Champion is an inspiring story about a boy who learns that he is a very capable human being.  It also touches on Vancouver history.  Many Japanese lives were changed during the internment – homes and boats were taken, businesses destroyed.  This is one story among many about a dark time in Canadian history and the resilience of Japanese-Canadians.
 

Monday 8 April 2019

Bluecrowne: A Greenglass House Story

Bluecrowne
Bluecrowne: A Greenglass House Story
By Kate Milford



Fans of Greenglass House rejoice!  Kate Milford gives us some Greenglass House history in Bluecrowne.  

Lucy Bluecrowne has been raised on a schooner.  The Left-Handed Fate is her home, but in the early 1800s, a ship is not a safe place for a little girl.  Lucy’s father and the rest of the crew regularly do battle with other ships.  When Lucy is injured in one of those battles, her father decides enough is enough.  He and Lucy retrieve her stepmother, Xiaoming, and her stepbrother, Liao, from their home in China.  When they make landfall in Nagspeake, they know they have arrived at their new home.

Lucy begins the process of moving into the beautiful Greenglass House but longs for her home at sea.  She is terribly sad to be left at the house while her father continues his life aboard ship.  In an attempt to keep her happy, her father offers to buy her a small boat – her first command!  Lucy is thrilled, and drags Liao along to find one.

For his part, Liao is obsessed with fire and fireworks, and at seven years old is quite skilled with pyrotechnics.  Greenglass House will be different from China, but will at least offer him his own workshop.

As the two siblings set out to explore their new surroundings, they meet two peddlers, Trigemine and Blister, who are awfully interested in them.  Aware of Liao’s love of fire, Blister offers to bring him some supplies that can help him put on a thrilling show.  But these peddlers are not what they seem.

Trigemine and Blister arrive at Greenglass House and lure Liao into his workshop.  When Lucy sees a big explosion, she fears that Liao is dead.  When she can’t find him, she becomes frantic.  She soon begins to realize that Trigemine and Blister have powers beyond her imagining.  But to her surprise, her stepmother does too!  

Join the early inhabitants of Greenglass House on an adventure that crosses space and time, and that brings ancient Chinese mythology to life in a blaze of glory!