This month will see the release of Heather Stemp’s third and final book in her Ginny Ross series Beyond Amelia. Each of these three Middle-Grade/Young Adult novels can be read as a stand alone, but readers who enjoy historical fiction may enjoy reading the entire series. With this in mind, my review will start with Best Books for Kids and Teens 2014 Selection Amelia and Me (August 2013), followed by Under Amelia’s Wing (April 2020), and conclude with Beyond Amelia (April 2024). After reading about Amelia Earhart in her friend’s scrapbook, twelve year-old Ginny Ross decides to become a pilot ..read more

Camille Intson (alias, Camie) (b. 1997) is a Hamilton-born and Tkaronto-based multidisciplinary artist and researcher whose practice spans writing, performance, music, new media, and emerging technology. Her critically acclaimed body of work has been honoured with a Playwrights’ Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award, Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award, NNPF National Playwriting Competition Award, Hamilton Music Award, Best in Fringe/Venue and New Play Contest Award, and a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination. Intson is also currently a PhD Candidate within the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Inf ..read more

I feel like a witness, an audience member at the theatre to see the performance of embodied wisdom verbalized in A Beautiful Rebellion: poems by Rita Bouvier. The collection is in 5 sections: “a beautiful rebellion,” “a place I know,” “supermoon rising,” “when the moon is full,” and “the rest of us will carry you along.” These section titles, together, form a poem unto itself. The first third of the book has grounding experiences in nature, the next third includes interactions with people and their struggles, and the last poems act to hold up sacred moments of being present as a way forward ..read more

How do routines differ from rituals? Why are rituals so powerful? Can conscious engagement in rituals enrich our lives? These are a few of the questions addressed in Michael Norton’s The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions. Norton, a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, delves into research, articles, and his own experience to offer his take on the importance of rituals. The book is divided into four sections: exploring what rituals do, rituals we do for ourselves, rituals and relationships, and rituals at work and i ..read more

Accompanied by warm family photos shared by community members and richly toned photographs created specially for the book by Patricia Bourque, Margaret Augustine and Dr. Lauren Beck have prepared a welcoming place setting for anyone interested in Indigenous history and culture in Mitji – Let’s Eat! Mi’kmaq Recipes from Sikniktuk. Containing great information and advice for those interested in further honing their kitchen craft, the cookbook’s recipes are organized by the four seasons (plus a fifth, “year-round” chapter), with straightforward directions and further references and general tips f ..read more

Geoff Bouvier has produced a kind of long poem we haven’t seen for a long time in North America. Us from Nothing is an experiment in the epic that isn’t either doggerel or primarily parody. The poem achieves this, like most modern long poems, by renovating and subverting classical epic conventions, but also by eschewing the heavily allusive, theoretical apparatus of the long poem as it appeared in the hand of so many from Ezra Pound and Charles Olson to Rachel Blau Duplessis and Lisa Robertson. Adopting both a linear, serial structure and a deceptively simple style, Bouvier’s epic is refreshin ..read more

The Birth of an Anatomical Venus First, death: not that of her father fallen into the sea to birth her from foam but her own. Hundreds of bodies for one slashed beauty, some pulled from the water, some from dirt, wrapped in a shroud and dragged to an artist, the salt of the sea mingling with decay. This is no Botticelli. This is the work of blood and bone, fat and gristle, covered by paint and wax. An artist shapes the molds: heart, lungs, and kidneys— pearls for her new cavity. Now, a plaster cast, pour the virgin wax and colour the pale marrow with lead and cadmium. Stuff her hollows with wo ..read more

David A. Robertson has expertly woven age-appropriate teaching moments with all the unknowns of a young adolescent’s sudden upheaval in The Kodiaks. The main character, Alex Robinson, is an 11 year old from the Norway House Cree Nation who must adapt to two of the most stressful things a child can go through: moving to a new and bigger city, and going to a new school. He is forced to leave behind George, his best friend from the reserve, as well as his beloved hockey team where he was the MVP. Bravely, Alex bears a positive attitude in the face of change and looks forward to tryouts for the ne ..read more

Titled “The Poetry Game,” Frog Pond Review Issue 4 offers 18 poems, several of them inspired by “a game of close listening.” Ten poets met to participate in the Game. “Gamemaster” Misha Solomon describes the process this way: “The first poem was brought to the Game. The second poem was written during the Game. The third poem was brought to the Game.” And so on. The key question for readers, of course, will be “what was the result?” I found the “poetry game” to be an intriguing concept, and was eager to answer that question for myself. The “game” resulted in an interesting linkage between pairs ..read more

Deviant as a poetry collection not only challenges accepted standards, but excavates beauty from social derision. Grace is surefooted and defiant, torquing queer love and male hostility into language that lulls and then lashes. Oxford Languages defines a deviant as “departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior.” Deviant as a poetry collection not only challenges accepted standards, but excavates beauty from social derision. Grace is surefooted and defiant, torquing queer love and male hostility into language that lulls and then lashes. Consider “Strawbe ..read more