Children’s books: Dump trip helps lad part with beloved toy
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Winnipeg Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*$1 will be added to your next bill. After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.00 a X percent off the regular rate.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
In Tim Wynne-Jones’s King of the Dump (House of Anansi, hardcover, 32 pages, $22), Teddy resists his dad’s edict to give up his ride-em-daschund, even though he’s outgrown it.
On a trip to a garbage dump, Teddy learns how materials are recycled. He transfers these lessons when he and his dad visit a swap store, realizing his beloved toy will be well-used and cherished by a younger, smaller child, and that growing up is okay.
Scot Ritchie draws playful, accurate depictions of the complicated recycling processes. For children aged 3-5.
● ● ●
Briana Corr Scott uses gentle rhyming poems to document the ways we can “lose a day” in I Lost a Day (Nimbus, softcover, 32 pages, $15).
Depression, anger, wonder, rehearsal and play are just some ways the hours can fly by. But there’s no such thing as a wasted day, as the children learn from their experiences: “Yarn that is tangled/Can always be wound… In the days that I lost/It was me that was found.” Scott’s watercolour paintings illustrate the moods and colours of these formative moments in a child’s life. For children aged 4-7.
● ● ●
Puffins are improbable successes in the avian world. In The Tufted Puffins of Triangle Island (Groundwood Books, 32 pages, hardcover, $22) Deborah Hodge outlines the life cycle of tufted puffins that spend their summers on Triangle Island, off the coast of B.C., and which ply the cold waters of the North Pacific every winter. Karen Reczuch’s beautiful images show puffins swooping over the water or snuggling newborns in their nests. For young readers aged 4-8.
● ● ●
Children in Maré, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, want to play, learn, get ahead in life. In I Was Supposed To Be At School (Second Story Press, 32 pages, $22) they write — in collaboration with Ananda Luz and Isabel Malzonito — the government about how police violence permeates their lives. A constant state of fear causes parents to miss work and kids to miss school, keeping them in poverty.
Children’s drawings show kids being shot, helicopters dropping bombs and police invading homes. “Here I am, behind the washing machine. Hiding under the bed. Hiding under the table.” The book is aimed at children aged 6-8, but its poignant, sophisticated content can also be used to educate children aged 8 up about the state of the world.
● ● ●
The Harry Potter books initiated changes in writing for young people that are still being felt. The old becomes new again in The Incorruptibles by Lauren Magaziner (Aladdin, 400 pages, hardcover, $25).
The young heroine, Fiora, whose parents were killed by wicked oppressors, is motivated to bring the criminals to justice. Sharply written, with touches of the medieval as well as today’s hi-tech, this novel will keep kids aged 9-12 on the edge of their seats.
● ● ●
In Tizzie & Me: Fifteen Ways to Love a Mink (Red Deer Press, 111 pages, hardcover, $24, published Nov. 2024) by N.M.L. Hazard and illustrated by Alice Priestley, a young animal rights activist is shocked to see her best friend has fur trim on the hood of her coat. With the guidance of their teacher and their parents, the two girls (and readers aged 7-9) learn a lot about these semi-aquatic animals, the animal rights movement and friendship.
● ● ●
Kenneth Oppel’s Best of All Worlds (Penguin Teen, 256 pages, hardcover, $27) is a timely novel by the writer of the Silverwing and Airborn series.
A family goes to their lake cottage, but awakens in a different world. Is it a dream, have they been kidnapped by aliens or is the Deep State at work? Oppel incorporates climate change, conspiracy theories, racism, the Bible and more in this well-constructed mystery that will engage teens age 13 and up.
Harriet Zaidman is a novelist for young people. Her latest, What Friends Are For, is set in 1983 during the abortion debate in Canada. It launches on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.
History
Updated on Monday, September 22, 2025 4:13 PM CDT: Clarifies intended age range for I Was Supposed To Be At School