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The Odds Get Even by Natale Ghent

fernfolio — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:35:25 +0000

Boney, Itchy and Squeak are neighbours and best friends. All three boys are odd; Boney, whose parents disappeared when he was a baby, lives with his neurotic aunt and her long-suffering husband, Squeak, whose mother ran off to work in a travelling cabaret, views the world from behind World War I goggles fitted with lens made to someone else’s prescription, and Itchy contends with a father who’s an Elvis impersonator and a mother intent upon redecorating their house. Together, they built the club house in the tree behind their houses, have entered the yearly Invention Convention at their school, and weathered the attentions of the class bully, Larry Harry, and his henchmen, Jones and Jones.
Larry, aka the Fart King and Prisoner 95, seems determined to make the Odds’ lives unbearable. He and the Jones twins regularly throw eggs at the boys’ clubhouse, and ambush them on the street. Boney, Itchy and Squeaky are regularly assaulted by the bullies, especially during phys. ed. classes, which frequently end in one or other of the boys making a visit to the school nurse.
Since Larry has sabotaged their entries into the Invention Convention, the Odds have never won, even though Squeak is a scientific and engineering genius, but this year the friends are determined to win the grand prize of $500, and solve the bullying problem once and for all. Squeak thinks he’s figured out how to build an Apparator, a device that can detect the presence of ghosts, and, since the ruins of the Old Mill are rumoured to be haunted, the Odds decide that it would be the perfect place to test Squeak’s invention, and plan Larry Harry’s comeuppance.
Little to the friends know that their plans will put them afoul of the Old Mill’s current occupant, or that a chance encounter with a dog will land them in hot water and about four thousand sequins!
Written by Natale Ghent, author of No Small Thing, The Odds Get Even is an action-packed adventure about three boys, their bullies and….. a ghost?
FernFolio Editor

Marshmallow Magic and the Wild Rose Rouge by Karen McCombie

fernfolio — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:20:54 +0000

After a year in Balgownie, a small town in the highlands, soon-to-be thirteen-year old Laurel “Lemmie” Ferguson is still haunted by what happened in Edinburgh before she and her parents moved away. Ridiculed for her highly artistic approach to dressing, and her unusual, exuberant and sometimes clumsy behaviour, by the time Laurel left her private girls school in the Scottish capital, she had been turned on by her best friends, accused of lying and jealousy, sent to see a child psychologist, and tried to run away from home.
But life has definitely improved. With the help of her terrific older sister, Rose Rouge, an art student in Edinburgh, Lemmie has learned marshmallow magic, an elaborate series of sign readings and good-luck spells designed by Rose Rouge to help Lemmie stay calm and face each day with confidence. Though her sister isn’t able to visit often, Rose’s unexpected flying visits always seem to coincide with when Lemmie needs her most.
Lemmie has also made two wonderful friends since coming to Balgownie, Morven, a gangly and kind-hearted farm girl, and Jade Song, tiny, brilliant, knowing and wise. Though they are as different from each other as chalk and cheese, the two girls are loyal and supportive, and Lemmie has shared with them many of the secrets of Rose Rouge’s marshmallow magic. Though her other classmates at Balgownie Academy do occasionally comment on Lemmie’s clothes or joke about her clumsiness, she feels that they are laughing with and not at.
Then one afternoon, while she is standing on a sidewalk with Morven and Jade, Lemmie happens to catch a glimpse of a face in a passing car. Shaken almost to the point of physical illness, Lemmie brushes off the concern of her friends, and rushes home to work a little marshmallow magic. But another sighting confirms her worst fears, that the girl who made her life unbearable in Edinburgh has come to Balgownie. Lemmie starts sleepwalking again, sparking her parents’ worry, and soon there are messages from school indicating that her behaviour at school has changed. Will she once again find herself attacked and friendless, or, with Rose Rouge’s help, will Lemmie manage to confront her fears and safeguard the life she has build for herself in Balgownie?
Karen McCombie’s Marshmallow Magic and the Wild Rose Rouge introduces three very likeable and engaging characters in Lemmie and her friends, Morven and Jade, and perceptively examines the subjects of friendship, bullying, and individuality. Everyone needs friends like Morven and Jade. Everyone needs a teacher like Ms. McIver. And everyone sometimes needs an older sister like Rose Rouge.
FernFolio Editor

Looks by Madeleine George

fernfolio — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:25:36 +0000

Grade 10 student Meghan Ball is perfecting the art of invisibility. Her extreme obesity makes her both the target of vicious verbal attacks by J-Bar, Valley Regional High’s star athlete, and renders her a non-person in the eyes of staff and fellow students. Abandoned in Grade 7 by her only friend, Meghan strives to pass through her days at school without drawing attention, without being called upon in class, without having to endure the humiliation of co-ed gym classes. She spends as much time as she can get away with in an overlooked music room whose locked door she has learned to finesse, or lying prone on a cot in the nurse’s office, with another one of her “migraines.”
Then, one day when she is lying on that cot, her daydreams are interrupted by the arrival of a second student, Aimee, who claims to be having an allergic reaction to something she’s eaten. Accustomed to making them up herself, Meghan recognises an excuse when she hears one. Her curiosity is further piqued when she sees that Aimee is so thin her elbows and knees are knobbly and her bones are sharp, and that the girl uses her body and her facial expressions to push people away. Meghan recognises something in the strange girl in the velvet hat, and she decides that they are meant be friends.
Aimee is working as hard as Meghan at invisibility. Her allergy to a couple of foods seems to have blossomed to the point where most any food threatens to evoke an allergic reaction. Despite her mother’s constant worrying, she eats only sugarless Jell-O, apple slices and raw carrots. Hunger has become a constant presence, one whose sharpness Aimee has grown to welcome. Bill, a poet and her mother’s long-time live-in boyfriend, who understands Aimee better than anyone in the world, has recently moved out, taking with him his books of poetry and his gentle, supportive presence. Though Aimee has called Bill from time to time to talk to him about school and her poetry, she’s going to learn that their relationship cannot go on as before.
One thing Aimee wants to talk about with Bill is the gigantic girl who seems to be following her around. Another thing she wants to talk about with him is Photon, the school literary review, and its facilitator, grade-ten student Cara Ray, whose love of poetry, and admiration of Aimee’s poems has lured the lonely and prickly teen out of her shell enough to attend Photon meetings and share her writing with the enthusiastic and understanding Cara.
When the fat girl shows up in her driveway to warn her to, “Be careful with Cara… You think you can trust her, but you can’t,” Aimee reacts angrily, and threatens to call the police if Meghan approaches her again. But, when Cara betrays her trust, Aimee has cause to remember Meghan’s warning, and finds herself seeking out the enormous girl, and asking her for help.
Written by Madeleine George, Looks is a brutal and sensitive examination of adolescence and body image, and eating disorders. Stripped of the comfort of platitudes or happy endings, George’s story reads like scouring pad poetry; each word scrapes up against the soul.
FernFolio Editor

The Moon Children by Beverley Brenna

fernfolio — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:09:27 +0000

Conditioned by his experiences, both at school and at home, eleven-year old Billy Ray has learned not to expect much from life. His inability to read more than a handful of simple words or to recall numbers, and his hyperactivity in class have made him the butt of his classmates’ taunts and putdowns. At home, his parents’ hard drinking has caused a roller coaster of good moments and bad.
When his mother’s pregnancy results in her seeking help for her alcoholism and then issuing an ultimatum to Billy’s father to either stop drinking or move out, Billy watches as his dad packs up his things and goes. His assurances to Billy that he’ll be in touch are empty promises. So, with his mother off working long days cleaning rooms at a local motel, Billy finds himself practising tricks with his yo-yo, the birthday present he received when he wanted a water pistol and a skateboard. When he learns that a nearby public park is going to hold a talent contest, to raise money for a local kids’ charity, and that the prize will be twenty-five dollars, Billy decides to enter. Mastering the twenty-one tricks shown in the book he got with the yo-yo prove easy for Billy, but finding someone to sponsor him by donating money to the children’s charity proves more difficult.
Across the street from Billy’s rundown apartment stands a big, well-kept house, and often, in those hot July days leading up to the talent contests, a girl sits on the front steps of that house drawing and writing in a yellow notebook she has on her lap. Curious about the girl and what she is doing, Billy approaches her and discovers that, though Natasha Arnold is friendly and welcoming to him, she does not speak. Through her drawings and gestures, as well as what he overhears from neighbours, Billy learns that Natasha has been adopted from a Romanian orphanage by Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, a wealthy couple who want desperately to help Natasha to overcome the traumas of her early childhood. But she has a secret that is weighing her down, one that she is going to need Billy’s help to confront. In reaching out to support Natasha, Billy will also find the courage to face his own sense of helplessness and inadequacy.
The Moon Children is a story about a young boy’s struggle to live with dignity while coping with the lifelong effects of foetal alcohol syndrome, about a young girl’s attempts to reconcile her past with her present and future, and about how, together, they are able to see and understand what is truly important. Well worth a read!
FernFolio Editor

Payback by James Heneghan

fernfolio — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:02:11 +0000

For thirteen-year old Charley Callaghan, the new school year is proving tough. A recent immigrant from Dublin, he has made one good friend only to see him depart Vancouver for Ontario. Though his father has found employment, he isn’t making much money and has to be away from home several nights a week. And, worst of all, by far, shortly after her arrival in Vancouver, Charley’s mother suddenly died of cancer. Somehow, he can’t get interested in school or in the assignments, which are piling up, and has fallen into the habit of skipping school altogether when his father is away and his little sister, Annie, has been delivered safely to her junior elementary school for the day. Home alone, he takes naps in his mother’s closet, surrounded by her clothes and the smell of her that still lingers on them.
The school bullies, Sid Quinlan, and his nasty sidekick, Rebar, lean on Charley pretty hard in the first weeks of the new year, mocking his Irish accent and making fun of his bright red hair, but Charley knows a little bit about bullies, and stands up to them just enough that they go in search of a new victim.
They find that victim in Benny Mason, whose gentle manner, soft, sweet face and long hair make him an instant target. Before long, Sid and Rebar label Benny a ‘faggot’ and set out to make his life a constant misery. From his observation point as a classmate of the three boys, Charley watches as Benny buckles under the weight of the bullies’ abuse, silently willing the boy to fight back and then mentally shaking his head in disgust when Benny does nothing to stop it. On one or two occasions, Charley thinks about stepping in to take on Sid and Rebar for Benny, then reminds himself that he’s got his own problems.
Then tragedy strikes, and Charley knows that he bears responsibility for doing nothing to help Benny. He sets out to try to balance the scales, and ends up learning a little about himself as well as coming to terms with both his mother’s death and what happened to Benny.
Told in the first person by Charley, Payback is terrific book about bullying and the consequences of doing nothing. As Charley reads in his history text, “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” Martin Niemoeller
FernFolio Editor

Egghead by Caroline Pignat

fernfolio — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:56:59 +0000

From the moment he sets eyes on Will Reid, Shane has him in his sights. With his old-man clothes, his preoccupation with ants, and his secret writing of poetry, Will is an obvious target for Shane’s bullying. Though he was accepted, or, at least, tolerated, in elementary school, Will finds himself on his own in Grade 9. When he is taunted, and humiliated by Shane and his gang, no one steps up to defend him, except his old friend Katie McGillvary.
Katie, a straight-A student, is fond of Will and takes his occasional tantrums in stride. She is horrified by Shane’s behaviour toward Will, and begs her friend to report what’s going on to the school principal. But Will knows that you don’t rat on a bully, and, despite her pleas, Katie does, too, so the bullying escalates until Will is being physically assaulted.
Devan, one of Shane’s gang, has always liked hanging out with Shane. He sees his behaviour as harmless good fun, something that the majority of their fellow classmates enjoy. He immediately identifies Will as a geek, and an egghead, but finds himself attracted to Will’s friend and supporter, Katie McGillvary. As Shane’s bullying becomes more threatening, Devan finds himself unwilling to participate, and begins to see how harmful Shane’s actions really are.
When Shane’s taunting and threats lead, finally, to near tragedy, Will, Katie, Devan and Shane must come to terms with the consequences of their actions, and inactions, and accept the changes that come with maturity.
Told from three points of view, that of Will, Katie, and Dev, Egghead is a sympathetic and thoughtful story about bullying that examines the issue from the perspectives of the victim, the bystanders and the bully. Well worth the read!
FernFolio Editor

A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson

fernfolio — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:05:17 +0000

Since their mother’s death, three years before, eleven year-old Corrie and her five brothers and sisters have had only one another to hold onto. Lost in his classes and his research and his book, their professor father seems largely oblivious to them, the sad state of the house and garden, and the terrible meals the housekeeper leaves for them.
And so it is that fifteen year-old Sebastian has become the head of the household, responsible for his younger siblings. It is he who keeps a gentle rein on the rather wild six year-old twins, Orly and Juliet, draws up schedules for meal preparation and dish washing, decides bedtimes, and doles out allowances. It is Sebastian, as Sir Lancelot, who has created the knights of the Round Table and who, in the absence of King Arthur, their father, presides over their meetings, reads to them from the old legends, and taught them the Code of Chivalry.
Though, at fourteen, Roz seems to be chafing at Sebastian’s rule, Corrie, Harry, and the twins are eager participants in the knightly gatherings, and long for the day when they will undergo their trials before being dubbed knights by Sir Lancelot. As Sir Lancelot’s squire, Corrie – Master Cor – enjoys a close relationship with Sebastian, and fiercely defends him against any who might scoff at his preoccupation with knights and heraldry, or laugh at his shoulder-length hair.
At home, he is the perfect gentle knight, looked up to by his brothers and sisters, but Sebastian’s life at school is miserable. A target of the class bullies, he is friendless and the victim of constant verbal and physical assaults. Though Corrie worries about her brother, and longs to find the courage to tell her father about her concerns, Sebastian tells her that everything is fine, and that she is not to trouble Fa.
After three years without any close friends of her own, Corrie finds herself drawn to Meredith, whose cheerful determination to become friends breaks down the walls that Corrie has put up around herself. Meredith is bright and perceptive, curious about the Bell siblings, and the game they seem to play together. When she finally worms the story of the Round Table out of Corrie, Meredith wants to play, too, and Corrie struggles to nurture their growing friendship while remaining faithful to Sir Lancelot.
When Roz becomes wrapped up in clubs and her friends, and Sebastian suddenly grows remote, Corrie must shoulder responsibility for her younger siblings, while watching anxiously as her family spirals out of control.
Set in the late 1950s in Vancouver, Kit Pearson’s A Perfect Gentle Knight is a compelling story about grief and loyalty. Quite simply, a beautiful tale!
FernFolio Editor

Feather Brain by Maureen Bush

fernfolio — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:17:17 +0000

Ten year-old Lucas Clarke loves dinosaurs, so when he comes across a website advertising a dinosaur-making kit for $19.95, he digs out the last of his birthday money and sends away for it. Lucas is disappointed what arrives in the mail. The small test tube filled with a clear liquid seems to prove his mother’s warning that you never know what you’ll get when you order over the internet. But, when he’s ready to start the papier maché layer of his next dinosaur model, of a Stegosaurus, Lucas opens the test tube and adds a couple of drops of the liquid to his glue and water mixture, and what happens next shocks and delights him. When it is painted and dried, the Stegosaurus comes to life, and Lucas is thrilled to find himself the owner of a model-sized little herbivore who loves eating tender blades of new grass and crocus bulbs.
Unfortunately, Lucas’ experiences at school aren’t quite so happy. Since moving to the school over a year before, he has been the chief victim of the class bully, a nasty piece of work named Kyle. After a particularly unpleasant run in with him, Lucas decides to build a second dinosaur model, one that will help him get even with the bully. He chooses the most vicious feathered dinosaur he knows of, a sinornithosaurus, and labours hard to get the details exactly right. Lucas’ new model exceeds his expectations; perfect in every way, it is the best model of a dinosaur that he has ever made. But the new dinosaur rapidly proves to be more than Lucas can handle, and the instructions on the test tube that created it seem to suggest that he’s now got a problem for life!
Feather Brain is a fun and smart story about dinosaurs, bullies, and getting more than your wished for. A great book for students in Grades 4 to 6!
FernFolio Editor

Kissing the Rain by Kevin Brooks

fernfolio — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:12:41 +0000

Constantly picked on, called names and beaten up by Dec Bowker and his gang, fifteen year-old Moo Nelson has retreated into a solitude that is punctuated only by music, food, and his nightly visits to a footbridge over the nearby A12 motorway. From that bridge, Moo watches the vehicles, observes the ebb and flow of traffic, counts red cars and blue cars, and tries to think of nothing, not of his father, who is defrauding welfare and dealing in stolen goods, not of his mother, who solves every problem with food, not of the fact that, at 240 pounds he is the fattest kid around, not of the struggle to get through each day at school. Moo struggles with the Rain, the constant deluge of abuse at the hands of Dec and his mates, and his mind-over-matter attempts to Umbrellarize himself from it. So, brutalized by his experiences, he mentally beats himself up over every issue, and second-guesses every move.
One evening in November, Moo stands on the footbridge and watches as a Range Rover forces a BMW off the road, and an altercation takes place between the driver of the Range Rover and the driver and occupants of the BMW. When the cops arrive, they find a dead body and charge the driver of the Range Rover, one Keith Vine, with murder. When interviewed, Moo proves to be an excellent witness, only he is adamant that Vine could not have killed the victim. The police are determined to make the charge stick since, Moo discovers, Vine is a career criminal with a long history of violent assaults and murder, but the boy knows what he saw, and won’t change his story, not even when threatened by the lead detective on the case, one Detective Inspector Callan.
Moo’s wilfully ignorant mother accepts spending money from Vine’s high-priced lawyer, and the local cop in Vine’s pay arranges for Moo’s protection, while Vine himself pays Moo an unexpected visit, and Callan increases the pressure on the boy. Soon Moo realizes that he is caught between a rock and a hard place, and that, no matter what he says or does, he will never be able to escape the Rain. As the threats escalate, Moo is blinded by the realization that the only solution to his dilemma is Kissing the Rain.
Recounted in the first person by Moo, Kissing the Rain is a dark and gripping story about bullying, isolation and intimidation that is as compelling as it is repellant. Kevin Brooks has created an unforgettable story around an unlikely hero, one that will stay with you.
FernFolio Editor

Our Friendship Rules by Peggy Moss and Dee Dee Tardif and illustrated by Alissa Imre Geis

fernfolio — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:07:45 +0000

Jenny and Alexandra are best friends. They sit together on the school bus, play cards in Jenny’s tree house, spy on Alexandra’s brother, skip rope, and play Jenny Tag. Both girls are creative; Jenny makes puppets and invents games, and Alexandra draws and paints. Though the girls have had their disagreements, they have always been able to work things out.
When a new girl comes to their school, Alexandra thinks that Rolinda is the coolest kid she’s ever seen, and, from that first moment, want to be friends with her. Alexandra dresses like Rolinda, and cuts her hair just like the new girl’s, and soon Rolinda decides they are friends. They sit together on the school bus and eat lunch together, but there is no room in this new friendship for Jenny.
Rolinda thinks Jenny is like a lizard, always running around and hiding under things, and, to her shame, Alexandra finds herself agreeing. Wanting to further cement her relationship with Rolinda, Alexandra shares with her a secret about Jenny, one she has sworn never to tell. When Jenny learns that her best friend has told her secret simply to impress the coolest girl in the school, she is angry and hurt and cries. Alexandra is overcome with remorse. She apologizes to Jenny, but worries that, this time, there is no way to repair their relationship. Then Jenny reminds her of their friendship rules, written after another argument, and, together, the girls rewrite those rules to reflect what they have learned.
Our Friendship Rules is a terrific book about how even the best of friends can hurt each other, and how good friends are worth holding onto. Beautifully illustrated in album style by Alissa Imre Geis, this story will resonate with girls from Grade 3 up.
FernFolio Editor