Ember and the Ice Dragons by Heather Fawcett

Do you open a book without reading the synopsis? This happened to Meghan when she went to read a recent pick for Junior Book Club, Ember and the Ice Dragons by Heather Fawcett. The excitement and hilarity that came from learning while reading the book that Ember was indeed a fire dragon in human form, could be seared into one's memory and leave a book as being memorable.

"Ember St. George is a dragon. At least she was before her adoptive father—a powerful but accident-prone Magician—turned her into a human girl to save her life.

Unfortunately, Ember’s growing tendency to burst into flames at certain temperatures—not to mention her invisible wings—is making it too dangerous for her to stay in London. The solution: ship Ember off to her aunt’s research station in frigid Antarctica.

Though eccentric Aunt Myra takes getting used to, Ember quickly feels at home in a land of ice storms, mischievous penguins, and twenty-four-hour nights. She even finds herself making friends with a girl genius called Nisha and a mysterious orphan named Moss.

Then she discovers that Antarctica is home to the Winterglass Hunt, a yearly tradition in which rare ice dragons are hunted for their jeweled scales. Furious, Ember decides to join the hunt to sabotage it from the inside.

But being an undercover dragon isn’t easy—especially among dragon hunters. Can a twelve-year-old fire dragon survive the dangers that come her way in the Antarctic wilderness and protect the ice dragons from extinction?" https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062854513/ember-and-the-ice-dragons/

The story lands more towards being ageless. As an adult reading this book, there were no indications that the story was made for an audience younger. The relationships between Ember and Lionel, Lionel and his sister, Aunt Myra, and the friendships that Ember builds with Moss and Neisha, are ones that anyone can identify with. This book exhibits the essence of friendship and found family.

It may be a story that is strongly cemented in fantasy but it felt more like reading something that was believable. Fawcett does an amazing job of wrapping the readers into the story. It's just one of those books where you need to know what happens at the end. 

 

Does Ember save the dragons? Request the book and find out!

March Recommendations from Bring Your Own Book Club

Are you looking for that next read? Our monthly meetings of Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Café are a great way to find that next read. 

In March, we discussed 10 different titles. Check them out below - click on the cover photos to request a copy from the library!

When You Know What I Know by Sonia K. Solter

This harrowing, and ultimately hopeful novel in verse sensitively depicts a girl's journey through the aftermath of abuse.

One day after school, on the couch in the basement, Tori's uncle did something bad. Afterward, Tori tells her mom. Even though telling was a brave thing to do, her mom still doesn't believe her at first. Her grandma still takes his side. And Tori doesn't want anyone else—even her best friend—to know what happened.
​

Now Tori finds herself battling mixed emotions—anger, shame, and sadness—as she deals with the trauma. But with the help of her mom, her little sister, her best friend, and others, can Tori find a way to have the last word?

From debut author Sonja K. Solter comes a heartbreaking yet powerful novel that will strike a chord with readers of Jacqueline Woodson and Tony Abbott.

https://www.lbyr.com/titles/sonja-k-solter/when-you-know-what-i-know/9780316535410/

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Marriage can be a real killer. 

One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.   https://www.gillian-flynn.com/books/gone-girl-tr/gone-girl-mm

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the hardcover special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a bookmark ribbon, and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book—gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred—and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants. 

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass

The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli

From the acclaimed author of The Night Portrait comes a stunning historical novel about two women, separated by five hundred years, who each hide Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa—with unintended consequences.

France, 1939

At the dawn of World War II, Anne Guichard, a young archivist employed at the Louvre, arrives home to find her brother missing. While she works to discover his whereabouts, refugees begin flooding into Paris and German artillery fire rattles the city. Once they reach the city, the Nazis will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Louvre's art collection. Anne is quickly sent to the Castle of Chambord, where the Louvre's most precious artworks—including the Mona Lisa—are being transferred to ensure their safety. With the Germans hard on their heels, Anne frantically moves the Mona Lisa and other treasures again and again in an elaborate game of hide and seek. As the threat to the masterpieces and her life grows closer, Anne also begins to learn the truth about her brother and the role he plays in this dangerous game.

Florence, 1479

House servant Bellina Sardi's future seems fixed when she accompanies her newly married mistress, Lisa Gherardini, to her home across the Arno. Lisa's husband, a prosperous silk merchant, is aligned with the powerful Medici, his home filled with luxuries and treasures. But soon, Bellina finds herself bewitched by a charismatic monk who has urged Florentines to rise up against the Medici and to empty their homes of the riches and jewels her new employer prizes. When Master Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint a portrait of Lisa, Bellina finds herself tasked with hiding an impossible secret.

When art and war collide, Leonardo da Vinci, his beautiful subject Lisa, and the portrait find themselves in the cross-hairs of history. 

https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062993595/the-stolen-lady/

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?
 
Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak. 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/196150/bridge-of-clay-by-markus-zusak/

Batavia by Peter FitzSimons

Batavia is the greatest story in Australia’s history and history comes to life with Peter Fitzsimons.

The Shipwreck of the Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good vs evil, the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, ship-wreck, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more.

Described by author Peter FitzSimons as "a true Adults Only version of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street," the story is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night.

While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 2000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves, kill most of the rest and spare only a half-dozen or so women, including his personal fancy, Lucretia Jansz - one of the noted beauties of Holland - to service their sexual needs. A reign of terror begins, countered only by a previously anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to him those are prepared to do what it takes to survive . . . hoping against hope that the Commandeur will soon be coming back to them with the rescue yacht.

It all happened, long ago, and it is for a very good reason that Peter FitzSimons has long maintained that this is "far and away the greatest story in Australia's history, if not the world's." FitzSimons unique writing style has made him the country's best-selling non-fiction writer over the last ten years, and he is perfect man to make this bloody, chilling, stunning tale come alive.

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/batavia-9781864711349

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this charming romantic comedy from the author of The Ex Talk.

Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?

http://www.rachelsolomonbooks.com/weather-girl

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605904/such-a-fun-age-by-kiley-reid/

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

https://publishing.tor.com/allsystemsred-marthawells/9780765397522/

This is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland

Set near the Scottish border at a rugged castle on the edge of the sea, this is the story of a courageous lord who lost everything he held dear, of a strong young woman willing to sacrifice everything for happiness, of two lost souls who find in each other a reason to live again, to laugh again, and to love for the first time…

Gillian of Warewick knows no other treatment than the terrible physical and mental abuse issued by her father. So when he arranges a match for Gillian with Christopher of Blackmour, she is fearful.

Blackmour is rumored to be an evil sorcerer but when Gillian meets him, she finds him to be far more of a man than her father is. It is his unwillingness to be a lover to Gillian, though, that leads her to discover what they have in common…

That Blackmour has as many psychological scars to heal as she has physical.

https://www.lynnkurland.com/books/the-de-piaget-family-series/this-is-all-i-ask/

That's all for the month of March. Check back next month for April's selection. Or come out to Lakeshore Café on April 20th to here the recent book and contribute to the conversation.

February Bring Your Own Book Club

We love to see and hear what other people are reading. We get the opportunity monthly at Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Café to get some amazing recommendations from some of our local readers. 

In February, we discussed 8 different titles. Check them out below - click on the cover photos to request a copy from the library!

Permanent Astonishment: a Memoir by Tomson Highway

Capricious, big-hearted, joyful: an epic memoir from one of Canada’s most acclaimed Indigenous writers and performers

Tomson Highway was born in a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the eleventh of twelve children in a nomadic, caribou-hunting Cree family. Growing up in a land of ten thousand lakes and islands, Tomson relished being pulled by dogsled beneath a night sky alive with stars, sucking the juices from roasted muskrat tails, and singing country music songs with his impossibly beautiful older sister and her teenage friends. Surrounded by the love of his family and the vast, mesmerizing landscape they called home, his was in many ways an idyllic far-north childhood. But five of Tomson's siblings died in childhood, and Balazee and Joe Highway, who loved their surviving children profoundly, wanted their two youngest sons, Tomson and Rene, to enjoy opportunities as big as the world. And so when Tomson was six, he was flown south by float plane to attend a residential school. A year later Rene joined him to begin the rest of their education. In 1990 Rene Highway, a world-renowned dancer, died of an AIDS-related illness. Permanent Astonishment: Growing Up in the Land of Snow and Sky is Tomson's extravagant embrace of his younger brother's final words: "Don't mourn me, be joyful." His memoir offers insights, both hilarious and profound, into the Cree experience of culture, conquest, and survival. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/658338/permanent-astonishment-by-tomson-highway/9780385696203 

A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong

Detective Casey Butler has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions are being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. It seems like something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.

When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, they find themselves fighting to save the life of an innocent tourist while protecting the privacy of their town. What – or who – attacked this woman, and why? 

With an unconscious victim and no leads, Casey and Eric barely know where to start investigating, and having a stranger in their midst makes the residents deeply uneasy. Everyone in Rockton wants this mystery solved – and fast. https://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/book/a-stranger-in-town/

Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy

Before she had an eating disorder, twelve-year-old Riley was many things: an aspiring artist, a runner, a sister, and a friend.

But now, from inside the inpatient treatment center where she's receiving treatment for anorexia, it's easy to forget all of that. Especially since under the influence of her eating disorder, Riley alienated her friends, abandoned her art, turned running into something harmful, and destroyed her family's trust.

If Riley wants her life back, she has to recover. Part of her wants to get better. As she goes to therapy, makes friends in the hospital, and starts to draw again, things begin to look up.

But when her roommate starts to break the rules, triggering Riley's old behaviors and blackmailing her into silence, Riley realizes that recovery will be even harder than she thought. She starts to think that even if she does "recover," there's no way she'll stay recovered once she leaves the hospital and is faced with her dieting mom, the school bully, and her gymnastics-star sister.

Written by an eating disorder survivor and activist, Good Enough is a realistic depiction of inpatient eating disorder treatment, and a moving story about a girl who has to fight herself to survive. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250123503/goodenoughanovel

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250244499/onelaststop

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind. https://taylorjenkinsreid.com/books/malibu-rising/

Splintered Silence by Susan Furlong

It’s hard to bury the past when bodies keep turning up …
 
After an abrupt end to her tour of duty, former Marine MP Brynn Callahan and her canine partner, Wilco, arrive stateside—both bearing the scars of battle. With a mix of affection and misgivings, Brynn heads back to Bone Gap, Tennessee, and the insular culture she’d escaped when she enlisted.
 
The Irish Travellers keep to themselves in the mountains, maintaining an uneasy coexistence with the “settled” townspeople of McCreary. But when Wilco’s training as a cadaver dog leads Brynn to a body in the woods, long-simmering tensions threaten to boil over. Forming a reluctant alliance with local sheriff Frank Pusser, Brynn must dig up secrets that not only will rattle her close-knit clan to its core, but may forever changer her perception of who she is... and put her back in the line of fire. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/555431/splintered-silence-by-susan-furlong/9781496711670

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...

Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love—and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.

The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.

Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of “The Goose Girl” about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250191908/littlethieves

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut 

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut - wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184341/player-piano-by-kurt-vonnegut/

That's all for now! Stay tuned for March's recommended reads from Bring Your Own Book Club!

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

In May of 2021 the public awareness of Canadian history changed. The secrets came forward when remnants of those who never made it home were found at the former Indian Residential Schools. The stark reality of what Residential schools were and the people who suffered through them - and the churches, government, and the colonizers who ran them - became news into the world. In doing so our reading habits have changed; more people are picking books with a more direct purpose. We make sure the stories are not just about Indigenous People but also written by them. 

Author Cherie Dimaline brings the discussion forward with the book The Marrow Thieves, a dystopian Young Adult novel addressing the subject of residential schools in a different kind of format. This dystopian novel brings the idealism that if the world had no clean drinking water and vegetation was dying, people ended up losing their ability to dream. Readers follow the story of Frenchie as he ends up alone, to finding his group of people and then to finding his family, all while running from the recruiters. Frenchie is on the run and in hiding, much like the group of people that he travels with because they are indigenous. Indigenous people are the people who still dream, and the treatment for everyone else, can be found in their marrow. It's because of this that they are hunted, and put into new residential schools to be harvested for their marrow. 

The group of people that Frenchie travels with act much like a family. They also all have their own stories to share. They have a weekly time together where the character Miigwans shares Story, a time to educate about Indigenous history such as colonialism, treaties, the abuses administered at residential schools, their language and culture, all with the intention that it would not be forgotten. Moments of this book can leave you heartbroken, through their stories, through the abuses they experience within the timeline, and when members of their found family leave. 

As much as this book is set in a time that has yet to be, it reverberates into today's world. Our society has yet to learn from the horrors that Indigenous People have experienced or break generational cycles that are seen in their communities. This award winning novel is a worthwhile read for teens and adults. 

Cherie Dimaline released a sequel to The Marrow Thieves on October 19th Hunting by Stars.

Christian Reads September Because You're Mine by Colleen Coble

For the first installment of Christian Reads, we read Colleen Coble’s Because You’re Mine. This story follows Alanna, a singer and violinist in an Irish Celtic band, as she navigates her new life.

Early in the book we find out that Alanna and her husband Liam, the drummer of the Celtic band, are expecting their first child together. While on tour with the band in the United States, misfortune finds them. When Liam goes for a drive with his friend Jesse, a bomb goes off in the car killing Liam and seriously injuring Jesse. When Alanna goes home to have Liam’s funeral, she sees his parents to tell them the news that she is expecting their child. Liam’s parents unapproved of his marriage to Alanna from the beginning. Liam’s parents were rich, his father Thomas is a member of the upper house of the Irish Legislature, an Oireachtas Senator. On learning that Alanna was pregnant with Liam’s only child they wished to raise it as their own, threatening to gain custody if Alanna didn’t move into their residence. Barry, a lawyer from Charleston, acts as their manager while the band tours in the United States, offers to marry Alanna. Their marriage being one of convenience in order to help stop Thomas from coming after the baby. We soon find out that Barry isn’t all that he seems to be. The family home isn’t ready nor is it entirely livable. The studio Barry promised the band, wasn’t ready or even started. A shock comes to Alanna as there is a portrait of a lady in the family home who looks an awful lot like her.

As the band needs a new drummer, Jesse seems to have taken an interest to doing the drumming for them. Meanwhile, the detectives are wondering if Jesse was the one to set off the car bomb. Jesse has no real memory of his life before the accident. Alanna becomes worried as Jesse exhibits mannerisms of Liam. Tensions rise between Alanna, Berry, the band, and Jesse, making the story all the more interesting. Wrapping the story in a shroud of mystery.

There were some parts of the book that landed on the “I saw that coming” part of the book but the book was mostly something I did not see coming, especially the ending. The book has a very under toned Christian feel to it. Alanna struggles with her faith after the death of Liam, although because Liam relied heavily on his faith, she uses it as a reason to keep trying. As she finds herself restless in her faith, Alanna leans on Psalm 139 to help her through the time when she finds she is in the thick of the confusion of her new surroundings. Because You’re Mine was thoroughly enjoyable and a surprise of a read. The hints of the social differences between the Travelers, Alanna’s background, and the more well-off families such as Liam’s family or Barry’s, made for a story that is relevant regardless of the time frame. As socioeconomic backgrounds and conditions are still relevant in today’s world It’s how we handle those differences that make us really who we are. That idealism is echoed in the voices of the other band members when they find out that Alanna comes from a family of Travelers.

For myself, I would read another Colleen Coble book. I enjoyed the writing style and how she presented her story. It may be an author that we visit down the line for another Christian Reads selection.

What Colleen Coble books have you read lately? If you have any other Christian books that you would like to read with a book club, come to the next meeting on November 20^th. There we will be discussing Karen Kingsbury’s A Distant Shore.

Inspiring New Stories by Meghan Bowman

Story telling is a timeless tradition handed down through the ages. It is the biggest way we can honour our ancestors. Reading becomes a special time between a child and the reader. Through story telling our children learn many things, such as life lessons, and compassion.

For my childhood, reading was filled with Robert Munsch books, The Paperbag Princess, Murmel, Murmel, Murmel, and Love You Forever. Love You Forever is a generational story of the love a mother has for their child that has no limitations as the child grows. The mother holds her child in her arms singing him a song of promise. A promise which the child carries into adulthood, with his aging mother and newborn child. It is a book that brings fond memories to generations of adults. A book that we end up reading to our own children. 

As we enter into a more enlightened age where we wish to show representation and diversity, in what we read to our children, books are reflecting these needs. I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillet-Sumner (Illustrated by Michaela Goade) invoked similar feelings. In this book, we see a mother preparing for her child to enter into the world. Her preparations to welcome her child into her life. From the first moments she knew, she wrapped her child into the traditions of her ancestors, shrouding it in love. Instead of a song, the illustrations carry the song, the promise, to the child from page to page. It's a story of love, tradition, and a promise.

Both of these books tell stories of love, and tradition. For readers some of the stories we tell are part of our traditions. What stories and books are part of your traditions?

A Spotlight on Indigenous Films

Film is a beautiful artistic medium that allows people to explore worlds and circumstances beyond their own. 

It also allows us to engage in and learn about the cultures, passions, struggles, joys, losses, and history of other human beings, whether they come from countries across the globe, or exist in our own backyard. They teach us about human beings that we might not speak to on a daily basis, but whom we might have formed opinions about. They challenge us to question our own biases, and unlearn some of the prejudices that come with lack of exposure to different cultures and people.

Let's put a spotlight on some Indigenous Films, available through our local library and the Parkland Regional Library, as well as films available through the National Film Board of Canada, which anyone can stream for free. 

Indian Horse (2018): https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=5&cn=305845

 
An adaptation of Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese’s award-winning novel, this moving and important drama sheds light on the dark history of Canada’s boarding schools or Indigenous Residential Schools and the indomitable spirit of aboriginal people.

In the late 1950’s Ontario, eight-year-old Saul Indian Horse is torn from his Ojibway family and committed to one of the notorious Catholic Residential Schools. In this oppressive environment, Saul is denied the freedom to speak his language or embrace his Indigenous heritage while he witnesses horrendous abuse at the hands of the very people entrusted with his care. Despite this, Saul finds salvation in the unlikeliest of places and favourite winter pastime -- hockey. Fascinated by the game, he secretly teaches himself to play, developing a unique and rare skill. He seems to see the game in a way no other player can.

His talent leads him away from the misery of the school, eventually leading him to the Pros. But the ghosts of Saul’s past are always present, and threaten to derail his promising career and future. Forced to confront his painful past, Saul draws on the spirit of his ancestors and the understanding of his friends to begin the process of healing. - https://www.indianhorse.ca/en/film

We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice (2016): https://www.nfb.ca/film/we_can_t_make_the_same_mistake_twice/

The rights of First Nations children take centre stage in this monumental documentary. Following a historic court case filed by the Assembly of First Nations and the Child and Family Caring Society of Canada against the federal government, Alanis Obomsawin exposes generations of injustices endured by First Nations children living on reserves and their families. Through passionate testimony and unwavering conviction, frontline childcare workers and experts including Cindy Blackstock take part in a decade-long court battle to ensure these children receive the same level of care as other Canadian children. Their case against Canada is a stark reminder of the disparities that persist in First Nations communities and the urgent need for justice to be served. - Alanis Obomsawin

Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner (2000): https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=1&cn=75847

This adaptation of an ancient Inuit legend was filmed in Inuktitut and directed by Inuit filmmakers - making Atanarjuat the first feature film of its kind!

Set in Igloolik, in Nunavut, this is "a powerful drama, not a documentary," reminds the director Kunuk. "It demystifies the exotic, otherwordly aboriginal stereotype by telling a universal story." The clothes, spears, kayaks, sunglasses and dwellings were all painstakingly researched. "We show how our ancestors dressed, how they handled their dog teams, how they argued and laughed.. confronted evil and fought back."

Many enthusiastic viewers have compared this epic story to The Iliad. In the words of one movie critic, "If Homer had been given a video camera, this is what he would have done!" 

This film is also available in Inuktitut, with English subtitles through the National Film Board: https://www.nfb.ca/film/atanarjuat_the_fast_runner_en/

Home Fire: Ending the Cycle of Family Violence (2014): https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=1&cn=302062 

Home Fire is a 37 minute documentary film that explores family violence and restorative justice from an Aboriginal perspective. Featuring commentary from Elders, community leaders, and members of the justice system, Home Fire examines the colonization of Canada, historic trauma, the western justice system and grassroots healing programs in Aboriginal communities. - https://www.nfb.ca/film/home_fire/

Club Native: https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=6&cn=152290 

Tracey Deer grew up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake with two very firm but unspoken rules drummed into her by the collective force of the community. These rules were very simple and they carried severe repercussions: 1) Do not marry a white person, 2) Do not have a child with a white person. - https://www.nfb.ca/film/club_native/

nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (2019): https://www.nfb.ca/film/nipawistamasowin-we-will-stand-up/

On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. The jury’s subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada’s legal system and propelling Colten’s family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.See the 52-minute version here (CAMPUS subscription required). 

Aboriginality: https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=17&cn=268676

Follow Dallas Arcand, an urban youth, as he heads down the mystical Red Road to re-connect with new and traditional elements of First Nations culture. Dallas is a world champion hoop dancer and hip-hop artist aiming to connect urban Indigenous young people to their rural ancestral histories. He's a 7th generation Cree from Alexander (Kipohtakaw) First Nation. Directed by Dominique Keller, Aboriginality fuses animation by Dan Gies with live-action dance directed by Tom Jackson. - https://www.nfb.ca/film/aboriginality/

We Were Children: https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=3&cn=209685

As young children, Lyna and Glen were taken from their homes and placed in church-run boarding schools. The trauma of this experience was made worse by years of untold physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the effects of which persist in their adult lives. In this emotional film, the profound impact of the Canadian government's residential school system is conveyed unflinchingly through the eyes of two children who were forced to face hardships beyond their years. We Were Children gives voice to a national tragedy and demonstrates the incredible resilience of the human spirit. - Container Insert. 

Also available to buy from the National Film Board: https://www.nfb.ca/film/we_were_children/trailer/we_were_children_trailer/

Fire Song: https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=19&cn=279129 

Fire Song, the first Canadian narrative feature film to deal with two-spirited people in the First Nations community, focuses on Shane (Andrew Martin), a closeted Anishinaabe teenager who finds himself at a crossroads just weeks before he’s set to leave his remote Northern Ontario Aboriginal community for university in the city.

In moments, the film is overwhelmingly grim. Shane’s sister has committed suicide, and his mother is reeling from the tragedy. Shane’s girlfriend, Tara (Mary Galloway), struggles to hold together a relationship she knows is falling apart. Moving to the city is Shane’s chance to live openly with his boyfriend David (Harley Legarde), the grandson of a community elder, Evie (Ma-Nee Chacaby)—but there are countless obstacles in his way.

Fire Song is relentless in its portrayal of depression, suicide, sexual assault, drug abuse, and homophobia. The shockwaves of trauma felt throughout the community, Shane’s escalating desperation, and claustrophobic interior shots of David and Shane plotting their escape, or David’s mother mourning in her daughter’s room suspend the viewer in each character’s difficult reality. Yet, there are bright spots—fleeting glimpses of David and Shane lying in the grass, lingering shots of the incredible landscape—and ultimately Shane’s story is one of resilience. - https://www.pride.com/movies/2016/11/03/fire-song-brings-canadian-aboriginal-two-spirit-story-screen

When All the Leaves Are Gone: https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=24&cn=270048

As the only First Nations student in an all-white 1940s school, eight-year old Wato is keenly aware of the hostility towards her. She deeply misses the loving environment of the reserve she once called home, and her isolation is sharpened by her father’s serious illness. When Wato’s teacher reads from a history book describing First Nations peoples as ignorant and cruel, it aggravates her classmates’ prejudice. Shy and vulnerable Wato becomes the target of their bullying and abuse. Alone in her suffering, she finds solace and strength in the protective world of her magical dreams. - https://www.nfb.ca/film/when_all_the_leaves_are_gone/

Also available to stream for free via the National Film Board

To learn more about Canadian Indigenous Filmmakers, check out Indigenous Filmmakers and Actors: A First Nations Book for Young Readers: https://search.prl.ab.ca/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=99.1033.0.0.4&pos=1&cn=421973