Nicole Winters's Blog, page 2

TT Full Throttle – an IOMTT fiction book sells for $275.00???

TT Full Throttle – an IOMTT fiction book sells for $275.00???

I needed a good chuckle today and I got it. Seems someone on Amazon is selling TT Full Throttle, a fiction story about qualifying for the IOMTT Road Races, for $275.00? Hilarious! (But also odd, because the other listing has reviews and this one doesn’t… what gives?) Of course, if you’d like to read this book (available in hardcopy, paperback and ebook) you can check it out HERE at a more reasonable price. Also, if you’d like to just send me $275, I’d be happy to send you five personally autographed copies… just saying’. ; )

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Jock-Fat-Chick...

The Jock and the Fat Chick – And other Fat Acceptance Books

I’m happy to see there’s a host of other fat acceptance books out there. Check out this list at Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/genres/fat-acceptance

 

Ocean Photographer – Lee Caldwell

Stunning ocean shot by my talented New Zealand friend, Lee Caldwell.

Click on the photo to visit his site:

 

Three Experts on How to Write a Thriller

While my next YA book isn’t a thriller, I do enjoy reading how other genre writers approach their craft. Last summer, I made a concerted effort to watch a lot of classic noir films. It was time well spent. Below is a Wall Street Journal article about three authors on how they approach the genre.

Book Nook: Great books for teens – the White Pine Nominees

The White Pine™ Award reading program offers high school-aged teens

at all grade levels the opportunity to read the best of Canada’s

recent young adult fiction and non-fiction titles.

Award winners are announced in May, 2016.

Nominees include:

All the Rage

By Courtney Summers

Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time-and they certainly won’t now-but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.

 

The Art of Getting Stared at

By Laura Langston

16 year old Sloane Kendricks has a chance at her dream film school, and she’s not going to let anything get in the way of her short film application, not even having to work with slacker Isaac Alexander. But then one day she notices her hair has started falling out. As she loses more and more hair, Sloane is finally diagnosed with alopecia areata. There is no cause, no treatment, and no cure. Sloane has never cared about her appearance, but that was when she was normal. What will she do now?

 

The Bodies We Wear

By Jeyn Roberts

To get a glimpse of heaven try Heam. The catch: you just might see hell instead. Faye was eleven when Heam was forced on her and her best friend, Christian. Faye saw hell and vowed retribution. After years spent training, Faye is ready to take revenge on the men that destroyed her future and killed her friend. But vengeance has its price and a mysterious young man doesn’t want Faye to pay up. Branded by what happened to her as a child, Faye wonders if setting aside revenge is worth it for a future that may no longer exist?

 

Delusion Road

By Don Aker

Willa Jaffrey is beautiful, rich, dating the perfect guy, and looking forward to a fabulous senior year. Enter mysterious Keegan Fraser, a handsome new student who wants no part of the games everyone plays at Willa’s high school. Despite a rocky start, Keegan and Willa gradually become closer, even as Willa’s carefully constructed universe begins to fall apart. And while Keegan helps Willa deal with some hard truths, Willa has no idea that Keegan’s past holds the darkest of secrets—and it’s about to catch up to him. Someone is looking for Keegan and his family and is getting menacingly close to finding them.

 

The Outside Circle

By Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Kelly Mellings

This graphic novel is an eye-opening account of some of the troubles thrust upon the Aboriginal people, shown through the lens of a troubled young man. When older brother Pete ends up in jail, he realizes the negative influence he has become on his younger brother, which leads him to begin a process of rehabilitation that includes traditional Aboriginal healing circles and ceremonies. As the story unfolds, it takes the readers on a journey that is both educational and captivating.

 

Rabbit Ears

By Maggie De Vries

Kaya is adopted, multiracial, grieving the death of her father and carrying a painful secret. Feeling ill at ease with her family and in her own skin, she runs away repeatedly, gradually disappearing into a life of addiction and sex work. Meanwhile, her sister, Beth, escapes her own troubles with food and a rediscovered talent for magic tricks. Though both girls struggle through darkness and pain, they eventually find their way to a moment of illumination and healing.

 

A Sense of the Infinite

By Hilary T. Smith

This is the story of Annabeth’s senior year of high school. For years, she has been grounded by her close friendship with Noe. But now Noe is pulling away from her, and she’s feeling alone and uncertain. Ultimately, it’s a story about friendship, about the evolution of relationships and people. It’s about finding your path and your destiny, with or without, a best friend at your side. This story relates how growing up at any age means changes that are hard, changes that hurt, and changes that inspire excitement.

 

Soldier Doll

By Jennifer Gold

When Elizabeth finds an antique soldier doll at a garage sale, she buys it for her dad’s birthday, who is getting shipped off to Afghanistan. In her quest to find the original owner she traces the history of the doll’s travels through generations as it is passed on to soldiers going off to war. Her father dies in Afghanistan as she locates Meg in England who gave it to her fiancé a century earlier who fought in WWI.

 

The Story of Owen

By E.K. Johnson

Listen! For this is The Story of Owen, dragon-slayer and mediocre high school student. When Owen and his heroic dragon-slaying aunt move to the rural town of Trondheim to serve the town as its dragon-slayers, Siobhan’s life is changed forever. When Siobhan agrees to tutor Owen she has no idea that she will become his bard, bearing witness to his heroic feats of daring and play her own role in saving her town from escalating dragon attacks. Listen! For only Siobhan knows the truth, and it changes everything the world knows about dragon slaying.

 

The Troop

By Nick Cutter

Scoutmaster Tim takes five boys for a weekend camping trip at Falstaff Island. He thinks the worst he’ll have to deal with is the boys’ different personalities clashing, or perhaps the leader of the pack challenging his authority, but the truth is much worst. A disturbingly thin stranger stumbles onto their island campground, within his body, a bioengineered horror. Their camping weekend turns into an actual fight for survival, with each boy doing the unthinkable to stay ahead of the monster that has been unleashed on them, never realizing there was a monster within their group already.

Book Nook: Great books for Grades 7-8 Red Maple Nominees

The Red Maple™ Award reading program is offered for the enjoyment

of students ages 12 to 13, in Grades 7 and 8.

This program aims to get readers engaging in conversation around the books

and encourages them to use critical thinking while reading.

Awards are announced in May, 2016.

Nominees include:

The Cat At The Wall

By Deborah Ellis

A cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house on the West Bank that has just been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.

Should she help him?

After all, she’s just a cat.

Or is she?

It turns out that this particular cat is not used to thinking about anyone but herself. She was once a regular North American girl who only had to deal with normal middle-school problems — staying under the teachers’ radar, bullying her sister and the uncool kids at school, outsmarting her clueless parents.

But that was before she died and came back to life as a cat, in a place with a whole different set of rules for survival.

When the little boy is discovered, the soldiers don’t know what to do with him. Where are the child’s parents? Why has he been left alone in the house? It is not long before his teacher and classmates come looking for him, and the house is suddenly surrounded by Palestinian villagers throwing rocks, and the sound of Israeli tanks approaching.

Not my business, thinks the cat. And then she sees a photograph, and suddenly she understands what happened to the boy’s parents, and why they have not returned. And as the soldiers begin to panic, and disaster seems certain, she knows that it is up to her to diffuse the situation.

But what can a cat do? What can any one creature do?

 

The Dogs

By Allan Stratton

Cameron and his mom have been on the run for five years. His father is hunting them. At least, that’s what Cameron’s been told.

When they settle in an isolated farmhouse, Cameron starts to see and hear things that aren’t possible. Soon he’s questioning everything he thought he knew — including his own sanity.

What’s hiding in the night? Buried in the past? Cameron must uncover the dark secrets before they tear him apart.

 

The Fragile Bones

By Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Meet Harrison and Anna.

One is a fifteen—year—old boy with an uncanny ability to recite every bone in the skeletal system whenever he gets anxious — and that happens a lot. The meaning of “appropriate behaviour” mystifies him: he doesn’t understand most people and they certainly don’t understand him.

The other is a graduating senior with the world at her feet. Joining the Best Buddies club at her school and pairing up with a boy with Aspergers/autism is the perfect addition to her med school applications. Plus, the president of the club is a rather attractive, if mysterious, added bonus.

Told in the alternating voices of Harrison and Anna, Fragile Bones is the story of two teens whose lives intertwine in unexpected ways.

 

The Gospel Truth

By Caroline Pignat

Phoebe belongs to Master Duncan and works in the plantation kitchen. She sees how the other slaves are treated — the beatings and whippings, the disappearances. She hasn’t seen her mother since Master Duncan sold her ten years ago. But Phoebe is trying to learn words and how to read and when she is asked to show the master’s Canadian visitor, Doctor Bergman, where he can find warblers and chickadees she starts to see things differently. And Doctor Bergman has more in mind that just drawing the local birds.

Phoebe’s friend Shad works on the plantation as well — but mostly he worries about his brother Will. His brother is the last member of his family and he is determined to escape from the master and the tobacco plantation. He has already been caught and beaten more than once. And the stories about life in Canada can’t be true, can they? How does a man survive without the master there taking care of everything?

 

Prison Boy

By Sharon E McKay

In an unnamed country, when little Kai is brought to the orphanage run by Bell, a fearsome Englishwoman whose dedication to her charges is unflinching, an older child, Pax, immediately takes him under his wing. It soon becomes apparent that Kai is a brilliant child, and given the right circumstances, could go on to achieve great things.

Penniless and living amidst political strife and constant uncertainty, the children are nonetheless taken care of and protected—until Bell dies and they are left on their own. Pax is determined to keep Kai safe, and to make sure he gets the education he deserves. But life on the streets is tough—and dangerous.

In a desperate attempt to make enough money to keep Kai in school, Pax agrees to work for a shady character known only as Mister. Mister sends Pax on a “special” mission—carry a very heavy box to a pre-arranged location, and wait. At the very last minute, Pax realizes that the box contains a bomb, which explodes, killing and maiming hundreds of people.

Pax and Kai escape the deadly explosion, only to be arrested soon after and charged with terrorism. What follows is a descent into the hellish prison where brutal guards stop at nothing to make Pax talk.

 

The Truth Commission

By Susan Juby

Open secrets are the heart of gossip—the things that no one is brave or clueless enough to ask. That is, except for Normandy Pale and her friends Dusk and Neil. They are juniors at Green Pastures Academy of Art and Applied Design, and they have no fear.

They are the Truth Commission.

But Normandy’s passion for uncovering the truth is not entirely heartfelt. The truth can be dangerous, especially when it involves her sister, Keira, her brilliant older sister, the creator of a best-selling graphic novel series, who has left college and come home under mysterious circumstances, and in complete silence.

Even for a Truth Commissioner, there are some lines that cannot be crossed …

 

Uncertain Soldier

By Karen Bass

Seventeen-year-old Erich is a prisoner of war working at a northern Alberta logging camp. Twelve-year-old Max goes to school—reluctantly—in the nearby town. The two would be unlikely friends, except that neither has anyone else to turn to. At the height of World War II, nobody wants to befriend a German.

It doesn’t matter that Erich was forced into the military by his father, or that Max was proudly born in Canada. They are both easy targets for the locals’ grief and anger against the Nazis. The other prisoners are no more welcoming, distrustful of Erich’s perfect English and his dislike for Nazism. Still, when a series of accidents shake the logging camp, they pressure Erich to question the Canadians and find the saboteur—even if his questions get him into trouble. Caught between angry prisoners and suspicious captors, Erich is afraid to take any action at all. It is only when Max’s schoolyard tormentors cross a dangerous line that Erich realizes that his real loyalties lie not with a regime or a country, but with his friend.

 

Walking Home

By Eric Walters

13-year-old Muchoki and his younger sister, Jata, can barely recognize what’s become of their lives. Only weeks ago they lived in a bustling Kenyan village, going to school, playing soccer with friends, and helping at their parents’ store. But sudden political violence has killed their father and destroyed their home. Now, Muchoki, Jata, and their ailing mother live in a tent in an overcrowded refugee camp. By day, they try to fend off hunger and boredom. By night, their fears about the future are harder to keep at bay. Driven by both hope and desperation, Muchoki and Jata set off on what seems like an impossible journey: to walk hundreds of kilometers to find their last remaining family.

 

We Are All Made of Molecules

By Susin Nielsen

Thirteen-year-old Stewart Inkster is academically brilliant but “ungifted” socially. Fourteen-year-old Ashley Anderson is the undisputed “It” girl of grade nine, but her marks stink. Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. “The Brady Bunch” it isn’t. Stewart is trying to be 89.9% happy about it, but Ashley is 110% horrified. She already has to hide the truth behind her parents’ divorce; “Spewart” could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder. They are complete opposites. And yet, no matter their differences, they share one thing in common: they–like the rest of us–are all made of molecules.

 

Young Man With Camera

By Emil Sher, David Wyman

T— is used to getting grief. Grief from his mother, who worries about him constantly; grief from Mr. Lam, who runs the corner store and suspects every kid of stealing; grief from the trio of bullies he calls Joined at the Hip, whose cruelty has left T— so battered he fears even his whole name could be used against him.

But T— has his own strength too: his camera, which he uses to capture the unique way he sees the world. His photos connect him to Ms. Karamath, the kind librarian at school; his friend Sean, whose passion for mysteries is matched only by his love for his dog, Watson; and most of all to Lucy, a homeless woman who shares his admiration for the photographer Diane Arbus. When Lucy is attacked by Joined at the Hip, T— captures the assault on film. But those images lead him into even deeper trouble with the bullies, who threaten to hurt Sean if T— tells.

What’s the right thing to do? Do pictures ever tell the whole truth? And what if the truth isn’t always the right answer?

Book Nook: Amy Mathers Teen Book Award & the Winner is….

Amy Mathers Teen Book Award



The Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, established in 2014, honours excellence in teen/young adult fiction. The prize is awarded annually. To be eligible, the book must be an original work in English, aimed at readers aged 13-18 and written by a Canadian or a Permanent Resident of Canada.

2015 Nominees:

The Art of Getting Stared At

Written by Laura Langston (Victoria, BC)

“From the first chapter, the rich storytelling capability of Langston is evident… The Art of Getting Stared At painfully portrays the self-consciousness of a seemingly strong teenage girl who is faced with a non-life-threatening disease that affects her appearance…This book deals with issues that many teens wrestle with in some way: issues of image and identity, self-acceptance and the judgments that we make about others, as well as ourselves.”

Blues for Zoey

Written by Robert Paul Weston (London, UK)

“A bittersweet coming-of-age story, Blues for Zoey features an immediately likeable, believable protagonist who learns some poignant life lessons about love and truth, music and dreams… Weston has created characters that resonate with the reader long after the turn of the final page… The raw, visceral, weird and delightfully accurate prose make for a thought-provoking and contemplative read… This is a suspenseful thrill ride of a book.”

The Bodies We Wear

Written by Jeyn Roberts (Vancouver, BC)

“An intense, riveting saga about one girl’s quest for revenge against the men who changed her life forever, this is a book that is intense, dark and dramatic yet ultimately hopeful and redemptive… The Bodies We Wear offers a fascinating insight into the complex nature of human want and need… Faye’s psychological journey is compelling and sometimes heartbreaking, while the world that Roberts’s has created is stark and frightening… This is a poignant tale about the nature of love, hate, redemption and prejudice.”

 

The Gospel Truth

Written by Caroline Pignat (Kanata, ON)

“In poetry that is spare and beautiful, Pignat carefully, exquisitely creates a searing portrait of life on a southern tobacco plantation in the year 1858. Telling the story from multiple points of view, she provides a nuanced, multifaceted perspective on truth and freedom, and a realistic rendering of that time in history… Moving, lyrical and intriguing, this is a story that will captivate readers of all ages.”

 

What We Hide

Written by Marthe Jocelyn (Stratford, ON)

“Using a variety of narrative styles, Jocelyn gives us the opportunity to think deeply about the profound role of secrets in our lives – who has them, who keeps them, who does not, and why… Set in the 1970s and told from eight points of view, teenage boarding students’ secrets are revealed to create a layered and nuanced tale of prejudice, assumptions and lies… Letters, scripts and straight narration keep the pace of this character-driven novel moving forward in this thought-provoking meditation on the nature of truth and perspective.”

JURY MEMBERS: Melissa Bourdon-King, YA Co-ordinator, Mabel’s Fables Bookstore; Lisa Doucet, Co-Manager, Woozles Children’s Bookstore; Pamela Jeffrey, teacher-librarian, Stayner Collegiate Institute, Simcoe County District School Board.

 

UPDATE

And the 2015 winner is…

Congratulations Marthe Jocelyn!

Book Nook: Canadian YA books you may have missed in 2015

Below is a list of Canadian authors with YA books published in 2015.

By no means is this a complete list… also, check out my list from 2013.

            

              

               

Guest Interview with Debbie Ridpath Ohi at inkygirl.com

Debbie Ridpath Ohi writes and illustrates wonderful children’s books.

I have at least three (see below) and my nephew loves them!



     

For fun, Debbie doodles using found objects, creating some really unique and beautiful drawings like this one. You can check out more of these at: http://debbieohi.com

I was honoured to be a guest on her blog which you can read here

Follow Debbie at her website or on Twitter and Instagram

Thanks Debbie!

Book Nook: 2015’s Governor General Children & YA Award Nominees

Governor General children and young adult nominees in 2015 you may have missed. Congratulations to all those on this list!