Hold the Date! Trouble in the Hills Launch is November 6th

It's set - the date for the official launch party for Trouble in the Hills is November 6th. Watch this space - there will be deets announced here as soon as I've got them. There will be SPECIAL TREATS for teachers and librarians so please spread the word to all your bookish chums!

Cultural Appropriation - Is It Appropriate?

A heated discussion recently erupted on a writer's listserve that I belong to. The topic - cultural appropriation. Specifically, should authors be allowed to write from the point of view, or about, people from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds from their own?

I was surprised to see that several of the listserve's contributors questioned an author's "right" to produce works on any topic, and from any point of view they choose. After all, isn't that precisely a writer's  job description, to get into the head of another person, no matter who they are, and render them so accurately and believeably that no one knows nor cares who created them? Great characters live and breathe on their own.

Who gets to decide who has the "right" to publish anyway? Some thought we should self-censor, which is bad enough on its own. But it also made me wonder where the slippery slope begins. How quickly do we move from self-censorship to political correctness to fascism and book burning? (For more on self-censorship, see my post on science publishing at http://sci-why.blogspot.com/2011/09/call-to-arms-and-flippers-too-science.html).

I, clearly, come down in the "Yes" camp - that any of us, all of us, can write about whatever we darn please. And we should be judged by the output of our efforts, not by the color of our skin, our gender or our age. If I was restricted from writing from the point of view of a boy, I'd never have been able to write either The Looney Bay All-Stars series, or my current YA adventure novel, Trouble in the Hills.

If I'd been judged by my skin color, I couldn't have written Juba This, Juba That, my hot-off-the-press picture book from Tundra Books, either. It's based on an African American slave chant. I'm not African-American, but I knew a good subject when I saw one. And I also knew no one else had ever written a picture book using this theme. For me, bringing the Juba chant alive for a new generation of kids of all colors trumped my own ethnicity. What a crime it would be if publishers had refused to publish this book, citing "cultural appropriation"  and my white skin as the reason!

I find the concept of cultural appropriation abhorrent. I understand that certain groups have been marginalized in history, and should be encouraged and assisted in telling their own stories. But that doesn't mean we should continue the crime of judging people by their race or gender, and preventing them from developing opportunities to create or to work because of those or any other personal characteristics. 

When people do that, they cease to be positioned on the left, where many fans of this philosophy seem to be situated. Instead they show themselves to be more in tune with the repressive philosophies of the totalitarianists and fascists on the far right.

Please read Juba This, Juba That  and judge it on its own merits - the calibre of the writing, the beauty of the art (expertly created by Ron Lightburn), and not on the color of my or Ron's skin. That would be what I call culturally appropriate.

Trouble in the Hills Coming Soon!

My previous post highlighted Juba This, Juba That, my upcoming picture book. I've got another book coming out this Fall too - something completely different. It's a Young Adult thriller:

Trouble in the Hills was my first venture into adventure (pardon the terrible wordplay; I'm incorrigible). I'm delighted by what  Christie Harkin, editor par excellence at Fitzhenry and Whiteside, has helped bring out in it! Our goal was riveting, edge-of-your-seat, page-turning, hold-your-breath, stay-up-til-2am storytelling.  I think we did it. The cover is awesome, anyway.

My current challenge is figuring out how to do an equally exciting trailer on a dollar-store budget. Anyone out there have some cool video of a helicopter shooting at kids running across a BC ranch? What about exploding ATVs? (And that's just the first chapter....)

The Roots of Juba This, Juba That in Black History

Is there anything more exciting than the arrival of a new book?


My advance copies of Juba This Juba That arrived last week. Ummmm...that new book smell......

The artwork by Ron Lightburn is fantastic, and double fun, the dust jacket reverses to a fabulous poster!
Here's my fave image from inside the book:

What's going on in this funhouse image, you may ask? To answer this question, we'll need to take a trip back in time - to Colonial America, to be exact.

The book originated in a family trip to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. There, the costumed staff were showing us how people lived in the 18th century. One staff member was grinding corn and singing a work chant. Its first verse went like this:

Juba This Juba That

Juba killed a yellow cat

Juba This Juba That

Juba Juba Juba Juba

I'm not big on killing cats, but the rhythm of the chant, stuck with me. I kept hearing it in my head throughout the rest of that holiday, and especially on the long drive back to Toronto. No wonder the slaves chanted it to make the work go easier - it was hard to think of anything else once those lines were lodged in your head.

Back at home, I decided to do a little research on the chant to see how I might adapt it for a children's book. Catchy rhythms, after all, are great hooks in picture books for younger readers.

My first research foray on the web was disappointing. The versions of the chant I came across were universally violent and gruesome, or just plain unappealing for children. Not exactly kid-friendly in our era! But there were verses, too, that incorporated opposites (high/low, here/there). Those, I thought, could be the basis for something more contemporary.

If I wanted to turn Juba into a picture book, then, I'd have to do some serious alteration to the verses, not just a tidying up. But could I, should I,  actually rewrite the verses? Part of me - the part that was a History Major at Duke - recoiled at the thought of altering historical texts. But the other, larger part of me thought that by doing so, the Juba chant could be revived for a new audience that would never hear it if the words remained unchanged. Can you imagine a jaunty kids' book making it to market if it talked of killing cats or cutting off a pigeon's wing?

Neither could I. So I got to work, writing new verses that were in keeping with the original ones, minus the ick factor.

But finger snappy verses do not a picture book make. I also dreamt up a  magical story line that involved a boy, a cat, and a night time visit to a carnival, to tie everything together.

My book was born. I hope it honors the spirit of the creators of the original Juba This, Juba That chant. And I hope you like it.

For more on the origins of the Juba chant, go to the excellent website http://www.voicesacrosstime.org/come-all-ye/ti/2004/lessons/03_3-5_Michalsky.htm. It also incorporates teaching lessons for grades 3-5 based on the chant.

Red Cedar Award Shortlists Announced......

...and yes! One of my books, The Insecto-Files, is on it.

Here is the complete list of nominees in both the fiction and non-fiction categories:


Red Cedar Fiction 2012 Nominees





The Dread Crew by Kate Inglis

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan

Rex Zero: The Great Pretender by Tim Wynne-Jones

Walking Backward by Catherine Austin

After the Fire by Becky Citra

Faerie Rebels: Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson

The Ship of Lost Souls by Rachelle Delaney

The Giant Slayer by Iain Lawrence

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman

Dear Canada: A Desperate Road to Freedom Karleen Bradford

Timothy and the Dragon's Gate by Adrienne Kress

The Prince of Neither Here nor There by Sean Cullen



Red Cedar Information Award 2012 Nominees



Charlie: a Home Child’s Life in Canada by Beryl Young

Learn to Speak Music by John Crossingham

The Insecto-files by Helaine Becker

Big Train: the Legendary Ironman of Sport by Lionel Conacher. Richard Brignal

Fighting for Gold by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers by Kristin Butcher

Animal Aha! Thrilling Discoveries in Wildlife Science by Diane Swanson

It’s a Snap! George Eastman’s First Photograph. Monica Kulling.

Whispers from the Ghettos by Kathy Kacer & Sharon Mckay

Hoaxed: Fakes and Mistakes in the World of Science by The Editors of YES Magazine

How to Build Your Own Country by Valerie Wyatt.

100% Pure Fake by Lyn Thomas

Out of this World: The Amazing Search for an Alien Earth by Jacob Berkowitz

You Are Weird: Your Body’s Peculiar Parts and Funny Functions by Diane Swanson

Kaboom! Explosions of all Kinds by Gillian Richardson

Whirlwind Month Ends in a Win!

I've done over 60 school and library presentations since April 1st, so my head is spinning for sure. But what spun me round the most was having two of my books honored with yummy awards this past week.

On Thursday last week, while I was presenting to schoolkids in Amherst, Nova Scotia, the Silver Birch Awards were being handed out in front of more 700 screaming book lovers in Toronto. What's the Big Idea? received the Honour Award in the nonfiction category.

Then, on Saturday night, the Canadian Booksellers Association held their annual Awards dinner for their fave books of the year. And yippy yahoo, A Porcupine in A Pine Tree won the Picture Book of the Year Award!

Here are some pictures from that wonderful event for your viewing pleasure:


The Toronto children's book store, The Flying Dragon (woot!) won Specialty Retailer of the Year.




Vikki VanSickle, bookseller and #Torkidlit Author, won the award for Young Bookseller of the Year!



Here she is, looking gorgeous accepting her award.



Here we are accepting our award from Eleanor of Mables Fables Bookstore.



I know everyone expects me to blabber on whenever they hand me a mike, but I surprised everyone by letting Werner take center stage and say our thank yous.




See how adoring I look??



                                              Of course I couldn't leave the stage without saying something......


Here, with my hubby Karl and Diane Kerner, Publisher at Scholastic Canada.



And here with Susan Chamberlain, owner of Sarnia's fabulous The Bookkeeper, which won the Bookseller of the Year Award. Susan and I go waaaaaay back, to our days working at McClelland & Stewart. Don't ask how long ago that was.



This is my favorite shot of all. Yes, we were pretty chuffed. :)



So Cute! New Cover Just Arrived!

I was thrilled to receive this pic in my inbox last night from illustrator Ron Lightburn. It's the cover for our new picture book, Juba This, Juba That, which will be published by Tundra Books this fall.

Isn't it adorable????

The book is based on a traditional work chant sung by slaves in the American South. I learned the "song" when visiting Monticello, the home of U.S. founding dad Thomas Jefferson. The costumed staff we met there were doing all the jobs that were done on the original estate, including grinding corn. The chant was being sung as part of that  job.

I never was able to get the catchy rhythm of the Juba chant out of my head. What a wonderful book it would make, I thought! So I put my thinking cap on, did some research, and re-wrote the chant to make a simple story that's fun to read and fun to hear. I also made sure to include some key preschool learning opps - my background is in the education world, after all. The story focuses on opposites like up and down, near and far, high and low.

I haven't seen the rest of the art for the book yet, by judging by the cover, it will be whimsical and beautiful and evocative. Can't wait!!!!