A full decade has passed since Yann Martel won the coveted Booker Prize for his Life of Pi. I confess I had to force myself to finish that book when it first appeared; I admit to being befuddled to learn of its Booker win and the...
By no means is Jinchalo your conventional manga/manwha/graphic work. Not to be going around in circles, but its title – which, in Korean, means something akin to 'really?' 'is that for real?' – works rather appropriately as a response to experiencing this adventure ...
Guy Delisle is a graphic genius who draws what he sees – simply and unadornedly – with droll, minimal commentary, and creates some of the most poignant, effective, resonating memoirs ever. French Canadian Delisle has undoubtedly found international fame as a traveling artist: he recreated his temporary assignments...
As we leave the wild mountains and head back to (so-called) civilization this morning, I'm convinced that Ashley Spires' Larf captures that disorienting journey just right, with lots of easy laughter offered on every page. Re-entry always requires maintaining a sense of humor! Larf thinks he...
From the fabulous team who created the ever-so-delightful Spork, comes another whimsical wonder, so clever that parents just might appreciate the duo's achievement even more than their wide-eyed bundles. "One day my sister Virginia woke up feeling wolfish. She made wolf sounds and did strange things,"...
Reading these double memoirs of a native Inuit girlhood during the 1940s in far northern Canada is a searing experience. What was done to children disguised as progress and opportunity (not to mention in the name of a Christian God) is a tragedy that is...
Here's an immigration story that took me by total surprise: German-speaking Mennonites from Mexico who work as migrant laborers in Canada. To understand just how many levels of peripatetic displacement that involves, you have to read this fascinating (mega-award-winning!) book backwards. "Canada and the United States were...
Canadian author Deborah Ellis has harnessed the power of words to create miraculous results: her multi-award-winning Breadwinner Trilogy (The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey, and Mud City) has raised over a million dollars in royalties for Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan and Street Kid International. With her...
With utter certainty, I can claim that I've never ever been remotely disappointed by a Michael Ondaatje title. Until now, alas. Here's my very best advice to you about this, his long-awaited new title, The Cat's Table: read it page by page for yourself only;...
A magician, his dog, their groceries come home and settle in to relax, eventually drifting off for a nap. Meanwhile, a rabbit peeks out from the magician’s hat, sees the snoozing man and dog, notices the carrot on the counter, and decides he must have...
Regardless of what is actually happening on the page (even brutality, sometimes tragedy), Michael Ondaatje's writing is something akin to a velvety, soothing dream. In a perfect world, reading (or better yet, listening to ...
In the six months since Mama passed away, Chanda's life has changed completely. As the sole provider for her sister Lily and brother Soly, Chanda is unable to continue her own education and instead substitutes at the primary school. With Mama gone, Chanda's best friend...
If it hasn't happened already, soon enough Chanda's Secrets will be coming to a theater near you ...
The final installment of Canadian activist/author Deborah Ellis' award-winning Breadwinner Trilogy follows Shauzia, Parvana's best friend from The Breadwinner, in which both girls survived by cross-dressing as young boys, working to provide for their shuttered-in families in Taliban-controlled Kabul. While Parvana's desperate odyssey to reunite with her family...
The second part of Canadian anti-war activist Deborah Ellis' lauded Breadwinner Trilogy continues with Parvana's odyssey to reunite with her surviving family. Parvana and her recently released father leave Kabul at the end of The Breadwinner, determined to find Parvana's mother, older sister, younger sister, and toddler...
When Parvana’s gentle father is suddenly beaten without cause and locked away for being an educated citizen, her family is left without a means to support themselves. Under Taliban rule, women are forbidden in Kabul to leave the house unless fully covered and accompanied by...
In her small native village, young Wuditu – and the rest of her family – are called falasha, a derogatory term reserved for Jewish people. Their own name for themselves is Beta Israel, meaning 'the house of Israel.' In spite of a centuries-long history grounded in Ethiopia,...
Had I not been so enthralled with Room, I don't know if I would have discovered Emma Donoghue's many other titles, but I've definitely been enjoying reading newly discovered authors' works backwards. Take a look at the cover and you can probably guess what Landing is about....
In September 1978, three months before her fifth birthday, Nelofer Pazira went to visit her father on the third day of what would become a five-month unjust imprisonment; his alleged crime, like thousands of other Afghans at the time, was not supporting the Communist government....
The year is 1997 when Guy Delisle journeyed to Shenzhen, an industrial city in southern China, to oversee a production project for his French animation employer. His China gig would follow with another outsourced animation project that would lead to his Pyongyang: A Journey in North...
