Celebrating the special relationship between a father and son, Sherman Alexie’s 2016 picture book, Thunder Boy Jr. is a delightful read that families will enjoy.

 

Thunder Boy is named after his father but he wants a name all his own, something like Gravity’s Best Friend (since he learned to ride his bike when he was three). Luckily, Dad comes up with a name that will light up the sky!

 

The stunning and colourful illustrations by Yuyi Morales are the result of scanning old wood and clay bricks and using their colours and textures to paint digitally.

 

Highly recommended!

 

Rating: 5 stars/5 stars

Recommended for all ages.

The details: Alexie, S. (2016). Thunder Boy, Jr. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Historical Fiction

I'd like to tell them that my father's name was Shipu, that he was a great moose hunter and great fisherman, a friend to the animals, the wind, the sun, the trees and the water. I want to tell them that my name is Nipishish, and that I'm his son. That I decided to come here to become educated, to be free, and that I'm ready to do whatever it takes to rebuild my life, leave the miserable reserve, forget the damned residential school.

There are so many things I'd like to tell them, but the words won't come out. I don't know who I am anymore. Larivière? Nipishish? Métis?

Michel Noël's Good for Nothing tells the story of how 15-year-old Nipishish grows to become a man in northern Québec in the 1960s. Nipishish has managed to escape the abusive residential school system and returned to his ancestral home, only to discover the Canadian government has decided to build white people's homes on the land. Watching the poorly thought out reserve decimate the spirits of his community, he decides he must escape to the city.

The Government decrees Nipishish attend school in Mont-Laurier, an all-white town, and live with foster parents there. Deciding this wll be his chance at freedom, Nipishish agrees and begins school in the community. However, there is no place where he really fits in and after much pain and anguish Nipishish discovers he must return to his roots and uncover the mystery surrounding his father's death.

Good for Nothing tells the story of a neglected period in our history from the point of view of people who seldom get to talk about their experience of it. The book has something for everyone: politics, romance, mystery and should make people reconsider what they think about Canada's residential system and the reality of racism in this country. Recommended reading for men and women ages 15 and up.

The details: Noël, Michel. Good for Nothing. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2004.

Award Winning Fiction

"Take away the ceiling and there's millions, trillions of stars...Out on the prairies on a clear night, you can see every one of them. As long as you can find the stars, Noreen, or even imagine them, you can convince yourself that you don't feel lonely."

Martha Brooks’ True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is an examination of the power of community to heal the wounds that each of us silently endures Although subtly tied to the perspective of seventeen-year-old Noreen, the book provides a multiplicity of perspectives that compel the reader’s interest in the secret struggles of each character inhabiting the small town of Pembina Lake, MB, where citizens live shoulder to shoulder without ever really knowing each other. Playing with the metaphor of stars, Brooks examines the hopes and dreams of three generations yearning for something more.

The beauty of this novel lies in its language (veins of light flashed across the sky, an immense and rounded womb) and in the little moments of connection that overcome the loneliness that lies beneath the delicate surface of our skin. Essentially we are all, at some level, screw ups like Noreen. And only in the fleeting and rarest of moments where we reach out to another human being can we overcome all this pain we cause ourselves and others.

A lovely book, utterly lovely, but sad too. Hopeful in the end (which keeps Confessions from teetering into tragedy). Recommended for 16-18 year old readers or older. Mature themes and language.

The details: Brooks, Martha. True Confessions of a Heartless Girl. Toronto: Groundwood, 2002.