Hasiuk’s teenagers endure tough times

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This article was published 21/02/2015 (4229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg author Brenda Hasiuk has written a raw, realistic and memorable story in Your Constant Star (Orca, 236 pages, $13, paperback).

Aimed at older readers, it focuses on three teenagers: Faye, who was adopted from China as an infant; Bev, who is pregnant with an unwanted baby; and Mannie, Bev’s boyfriend who has multiple problems but badly wants Bev to keep their baby.

Hasiuk’s novel explores the emotional turmoil of all three characters: Faye, who has loving foster parents but still yearns to know about her birth mother; Bev, who rebels against both her divorced parents by acting as tough and insensitive as possible; and Mannie, who tries to escape with drugs and stolen cars that mask his search for someone to love.

This is not an easy book to read, but is one that will stay with you long after you finish it. Hasiuk’s first novel, Where the Rocks Say Your Name, was nominated for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. She is the wife of Winnipeg author Duncan Thornton, whose fantasy and adventure books are very different from Hasiuk’s writing.

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Brantford, Ont. author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch has written a number of books about the Armenian genocide. Dance of the Banished (Pajama Press, 240 pages, $16, paperback) is set just before and during the First World War. It tells the story of two young lovers, Ali and Zetnep, separated by the war — Ali is taken to Canada by an uncle, while Zetnep remains in Anatolia. When war breaks out, Ali is imprisoned in an internment camp as an enemy alien, while Zetnep struggles to survive in a place where neighbours and friends are being massacred as Armenian Christians — and only an acquaintance with the American consul prevents her from being arrested.

The scenes in the internment camp are some of the most interesting parts of Skrypuch’s story, as Ali is forced to cut down trees, which he regards as sacred, in order to construct buildings for the camp. Skrypuch has just been appointed to Canada’s First World War Internment Recognition Endowment Council as a direct descendent of an internee. Written for ages 12 and up.

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Inhabit Media is a new Inuit-owned publishing house based in Nunavut that is dedicated to telling traditional stories and myths of northern Canada. Two picture books — The Walrus Who Escaped by Inuit-born Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and her husband, Sean, a folklorist of Scottish-Mohawk ancestry; and The Spirit of the Sea by Rebecca Hainnu, of Clyde River (both 32 pages, $17, hardcover) — bring fresh vision and professional design to traditional myths.

The Walrus Who Escaped is lavishly illustrated by Burlington artist Anthony Brennan, as the walrus is tricked by the raven into diving deep in the sea, while the raven turns the water to ice.

Hwei Lim, who supplied the dreamy artwork for The Spirit of the Sea, lives in Malaysia. This myth is one of many which recounts the origins of the ocean and its powerful storms, as a woman, betrayed by a vengeful bird and her own mistakes, ends up at the bottom of the sea.

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The Boy in Number Four, the boyhood story of hockey superstar Bobby Orr, written by first-time Windsor author Kara Kootstra (Penguin, 32 pages, $20, hardcover) will be welcomed by early hockey enthusiasts. Aimed at youngest readers (3-6), it is written in rhyming verse and has an afterword by Orr. Large, colourful illustrations based on actual pictures of Orr as a child are by Ontario artist Regan Thomson.

 

Helen Norrie is a children’s literature specialist whose column appears on the third Saturday of the month.