The YA novel
Like Home tells the story of a teen named Chinelo, Nelo for short. Her best friend is Kate and life is good. Nelo s family owns a convenience store in a popular neighbourhood known as Ginger East. But when the store is vandalized and police get involved, Nelo is emotionally affected and her relationship with her friends and family change forever.
Like Home is for ages 14 and up.
Louisa Onomé is a Nigerian Canadian living in Toronto.
Fresh Air9:57How growing up in Mississauga inspired a new YA novel about community and the challenges of gentrificationLouisa Onomé speaks about her debut novel Like Home - a story that tackles gentrification through the eyes of teenagers - and the inspiration she drew from her own experiences growing up in Mississauga.9:57
With art and maps by Shanawdithit
The pencil drawings are intricate: slender dark lines marching carefully across the pages, glimpses into a people long believed extinguished. Shanawdithit, a Beothuk woman in her 20s, drew them nearly two centuries ago in the months before she died. Only a dozen of her drawings are known to exist today.
Five are maps of the lake in central Newfoundland, today known as Red Indian Lake, where Shanawdithit’s people made camp. But they are not mainly cartographic. Instead, they are accounts of what Shanawdithit saw: where heavily armed British settlers captured Shanawdithit’s aunt, Demasduit, in March 1819; where Demasduit’s husband, Nonosabasut, the last known Beothuk chief, was shot and killed, along with his brother, trying to convince the English to give her back; and, drawn in the red that symbolized both her people’s ochre decorations and their blood, the routes that the Beothuk took as they fled the muskets and bayonets that day.
2021 Spring Preview: Kids’ books
This season’s books for children – from babies to teens – feature big-name authors and illustrators, anticipated debuts, and a fluffle of bunnies.
PICTURE BOOKS
The Rock from the Sky
Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press/Penguin Random House Canada, April
Jon Klassen is back – not that he really went away. It’s just that it’s been four years since he released his last solo work, the final book in his bestselling Hat trilogy. (
This Is Not My Hat was the first book to receive both the Caldecott and the Kate Greenaway medals.) Since then, he’s only done collaborations, illustrating books with his friend and author Mac Barnett among others. Recent standouts include the chapter book