The team of Audrey Vernick, Liz Garton Scanlon and Chris Raschka probably had a substitute teacher or two during their school days. However, I wonder if they were as unsure of them as the narrator is of their substitute teacher in Dear Substitute. Finding out that their teacher is out unexpectantly (why did Mrs. Giordano not warn them?) all sorts of feelings pop up for one student. After all, Miss Pelly changes their routines, cannot pronounce some of the student’s names, she reads new books […]
No Matter the Wreckage there Can be Hope
Sarah Kay, along with illustrator Sophia Janowitz, created her debut collection of poetry back in 2014. And in 2018 No Matter the Wreckage came on my radar. Kay’s poems celebrate family, love, travel, as well as the oddness, beauty and darkness of the world. She is powerful and soft. Bold and quiet. She hits you over the head and whispers in your ear. To hear her read her works (so far only on YouTube) would be a grand treat. Her voice is the perfect vessel […]
It just feels young to me
Do you remember that discussion on the internet about how the world at large is always so eager to dismiss and mock the things that young girls love? I think about that a lot, and have tried harder to not do that myself. So, when I heard Rupi Kaur reading her poems on CBC Radio, talking about her youth and success and her dreams, I decided to give The Sun and her Flowers a try. This is Rupi Kaur’s second book; her first book Milk […]
Depression & Other Magic Tricks
You know that a book is good when you highlight/mark something in the acknowledgements of the author. Depression & Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim is a collection of poems dealing with depression: thoughts, what she wishes others knew, conversations she had, the struggle and finally, the hope they have that they will be well someday. While the poem “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” has become the poem associated with Benaim it was her poem “On Releasing Light” that I got the “feelz” from. […]