From Ant to Eagle by Alex Lyttle 3.4 stars

[Karin]

NB I read this because it is largely set in London, Ontario.

Calvin Sinclair, age 11, has been bored to tears since they moved from London to a small town, and is tired of having to entertain his younger brother, Sammy. He makes a new friend and starts ignoring Sammy. Sammy, on the other hand, is having a tough summer with one illness after another. After Sammy receives a diagnosis, the rest of the book is largely set in a hospital in London.

Lyttle is a pediatrician, and wrote this middle-grades novel to help children understand illness, dying and grief. He has garnered much of his knowledge because he practises* pediatric medicine (he is a pediatric allergist/immunologist) in Calagary, although he hales from London (we are still talking about the one in Ontario).

*(In case you see this as a type because your device is putting a red squiggly line on it, practise is the correct spelling of the verb in Canada, just check http://www.luther.ca/~dave7cnv/cdnspe... the only truly Canadian spelling lexicon there is--practice is only a noun in Canada).

[Nikki]

I have nothing interesting to say about the book, but +1 for practice/practise (I'm from the UK) - one of those odd rules I remember from school is that you can match them up because *N*oun comes before *V*erb in the alphabet, and practi*C*e comes before practi*S*e. I always think that the U.S. driving "license" looks wrong.

[Karin]

Nikki wrote: "I have nothing interesting to say about the book, but +1 for practice/practise (I'm from the UK) - one of those odd rules I remember from school is that you can match them up because *N*oun comes b..."

Thanks. Yes, it took me years to start spelling it license for the noun, but mostly go for licence. Actually, I've lived in the States so long they often both look right and wrong. It's also a case of noun being c and verb 2. In the States it's always s for licence/license but always c for practice/practise.

[annapi]

I had never heard of that rule for practise/practice or licence/license before!

[Karin]

annapi wrote: "I had never heard of that rule for practise/practice or licence/license before!"

That's because you're American, and Americans just use C for both :)

American spelling rules are different (but Canadians are a bit of a hybrid because we spell tyre tire just like Americans, for example, but we write cheques to pay bills not checks).