News

I was happy to learn that author Janelle Diller chose Penguin Days as one of her favourite books on Shepherd.com. You can read her description of why she chose it here. https://shepherd.com/book/penguin-days

shepherd.com is a website that is trying to reimagine online book discovery and is definitely worth a look.

Adult Book Recommendation

The Morning Bell Brings the Brokenhearted by Jennifer Manuel

I eagerly awaited this second book by Jennifer Manuel, since I loved her debut, The Heaviness of Things That Float, and it didn’t disappoint. First year teacher, Molleigh moves to a remote Nuu-Chah-Nuulth village on the west coast of Vancouver Island, full of good intentions. But after a month of teaching she finds that good intentions aren’t enough and she is ready to quit. When she commits a major cultural transgression, mysterious, creepy things start to happen in the community. I loved the way Manuel, who is also an educator, captured the difficulty in being your best teacher-self when working with students who have faced trauma. The story is told through a white-settler outsider's point of view. Manuel is careful not to tell someone else’s story and in fact the importance of story and who gets to tell it is a major theme of the book. At the same time, she draws a poignant, heart-wrenching, joyful picture of life in a Nuu-Chah-Nulth community.

Children’s Book Recommendation

Hot Dog by Anh Do

This first book in a series of early chapter books has been hugely popular with the grade ones and twos at my school recently. Hotdog and his friends Kev, a cat in a cow costume, and Lizzie, a lizard who is scared of heights, embark on an adventure to save a small bird who has fallen from a tree. The book is silly and sweet, with a few lines of text and two-colour illustrations on each page, which make it accessible for children who are transitioning to chapter books.

Behind the Scenes

Last month I managed to spend some more days on my favourite island. Below is a photo of the beach which features in both Jake Reynolds: Chicken or Eagle? and Jake Reynolds: Against the Tide. See the boulders in the water? Imagine a seal pup resting on one at a higher tide, or a strange blue-footed bird hiding behind one at low tide.

Have a wonderful summer! I’m going to take a break in July, so you can expect my next newsletter in your inbox in August.