“Convictions”
by Judith Silverthorne
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$16.95
ISBN 9-781550-506525
I've now read enough of Judith
Silverthorne's numerous books to know that anything she writes will be a worthy
read, and my belief was confirmed again with her latest, the historical novel Convictions. This time the multi-award-winning
Regina writer (and Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild) has
penned an action-packed, fact-based tale about 14-year-old Jennie, a British
lass sentenced to serve seven years in a penal colony in Van Diemen's Land
(Tasmania, Australia) after she was ungenerously convicted of theft. First
however, Jennie must survive the four or five months of sailing on a convict
ship with 234 other women and children, and a crew that includes more than a
few letches. It's cramped, filthy, and there's precious little food or medical
aid. Before long Jennie finds herself stitching up a fellow convict, Lizzie, a
"doxie" who's been flogged almost to death by the evil guard Red
Bull.
I'm in awe of how Silverthorne pulls it
all together: the historical and sailing details, the adventures (including
fistfights, a hurricane, and a shipwreck of Titanic proportions), and even the
first sparks of a romance between Jennie and the ship's youngest guard, Nate.
This is extremely competent writing, and what's more, it's a story that's hard
to put down.
It's 1842. Jennie's doomed to the
faraway penal colony because she stole "a mouldy sack of oats" from a
garbage bin to feed her starving family. Silverthorne brings the story to life
in paragraph one via sensory details, including "sun-baked
cobblestones" that burn Jennie's bare feet, and the "sudden cloying
stench of dead fish, rotting wood and slime." As with an establishing shot
in cinema, the author immediately transports readers into the story's time and
place. In the next paragraph she introduces conflict. A guard yanks Jennie, and
she "winced as he cuffed her wrists behind her back. A second guard
snapped shackles on her ankles". Soon after, the veteran writer includes a
scene: we hear the rough voices of other convicts and guards, plus bystanders'
comments, and this dialogue smartly provides background information while also
increasing the story's plausibility.
The convicts get little time on deck,
but when they do Jennie notes "no sign of a coastline in any direction;
only the never-ending grey sea mirrored by the dreary mackerel sky. The
desolate sounds of the wind, the water and the odd call of a seabird." Red
Bull and other guards are constant threats, and the women's nights are spent
"fending off vermin and nightmares." Prisoners are threatened with a
flogging frame, and there are "punishment balls and torture irons strapped
to the wheelhouse."
This is no pleasure cruise. Jennie's
smart, resourceful, and strong, but when she finds herself having conversations
with herself, she worries she'll end up like "Crazy Mary".
Fortunately there are a few warm hearts on board, including matronly Sarah and
young Alice, who become Jennie's closest friends during the life or death
journey.
Will they survive? The answer's in the
book. I highly recommend you discover it.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
__________
“Sibling Shenanigans”
by Marjorie Cripps, illustrated by Val
Lawton
Published by Your Nickel’s Worth
Publishing
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$12.95
ISBN 9-781927-75706
I can't imagine a better title for
first-time author Marjorie Cripps' collection of stories for young readers than
what she's chosen, Sibling Shenanigans.
This fun and ably-written series of short tales features likeable siblings
Amanda and Mitchell, who get along exceptionally well with each other, their
parents, and their beloved Grandma. The senior's a central character (and
sometimes accomplice) in several of the ten pieces. Saskatchewan-born
Cripps is a retired school librarian whose love of quilting is evident in many
of the stories.
Using different styles - some stories are
written in First Person, others in Third Person; some are realistic, others
fantastic - and an upbeat tone, Cripps welcomes us into the active lives of
young Amanda and Mitchell, beginning with the latter's spectacular adventure in
a "runaway stroller". Cripps shares anecdotes about sleepovers,
birthdays, Christmases, pet dogs, camping, and a family move from one side of
Vancouver to the other.
I appreciated how easily the author's
pen swung between real life and fantasy, making both feel credible. In "Barkley
on Wheels," we learn that Grandma is living in a seniors' complex,
Summitcrest Lodge. "'This new hip is not nearly as good as my old
one,'" she says. Barkley is her dog, but the Jack Russell terrier has gone
to live with Amanda and Mitchell's family now. When the family takes him to the
cottage, the dog zips around as happy dogs do, and a few days later the
leash-free dog is struck by a car. There's an interesting synchronicity between
Grandma's use of a walker and the dog's new harness and two-wheeled cart that
support its hindquarters. "'If Barkley can keep rolling, so can I!'"
Grandma says.
Anyone with a doll phobia might find
the next story somewhat creepy. In "Magic Moonlight Dance," Amanda
sleeps over at Gram's doll-filled house, and during the night the dolls – from
Gram's favourite, Celeste (circa 1890s) to Barbie and Ken, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy
Andy, 1960s Chatty Cathy, and wooden Pinocchio
- come alive to dance and play with the unfrightened girl.
Then it's back to reality, with Gram
taking the kids tenting: the thin foam mattress gives her bones a devil of a
time, and it's a three-store chore to find a better mattress in town. Rings
true!
The final story concerns the
imaginative children flying across Canada on Grandma's magic quilt. They touch
various squares on the quilt and voila: away they zoom. They spy a humpback
whale in the Pacific, and "… the quilt dropped low enough for them to
salute the Mountie in front of the Parliament Buildings." At one point a
lobster even attaches itself to the quilt.
The book is minimally illustrated with black
and white drawings by veteran book illustrator Val Lawton, from Calgary. Once a
child has graduated from picture books, this would be a great early reader –
with or without a parent or grandparent snuggled up to listen. The author can
be proud of her first title. Hopefully there are more to come.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
__________
“Ceremony of Touching”
by Karen Shklanka
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$16.95
ISBN 9-781550-506679
It's gratifying to possess some
knowledge of where, both literally and metaphorically, a poet is writing from. The
first piece in BC poet/doctor/dancer Karen Shklanka's second book of poetry –
which originated as her master's thesis – is a touchstone. It introduces us to
"the wounded soul of a doctor" who finds repose on Salt Spring Island
among the "scent of salted forest, wrap of humidity/from logs returning to
earth, and reassurance/from thickets of salal flowers cupped in prayer." It's
a strong, unique, and elemental premise.
In many ways I feel this
seven-sectioned book is not unlike one long prayer, or at least a meditation:
upon one's profession, personal relationships, nature and human nature, how
"everything is connected," and upon the atrocity of the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima. The section that recounts the historical event (from a
fictional tailgunner's perspective; I'm thankful for the poet's extensive notes
on the poems) is titled "Flight Log," and it's no small deal that it
was long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize. More interesting to me, however, are
the numerous poems in which one can almost feel
the poet's personal grappling about the here and now.
Shklanka is an empathetic physician
with many drug-addicted patients. Some of their sad lives, like that of patient
S, are recounted in narratives that expose their desperation:
"Hospitalization is a home away from homeless," the author writes.
She recognizes that given the pressures on time, doctors sometimes
"default to efficiency and having less compassion than a pig."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, hands often appear in the book. In a
poem that nods toward the collection's gorgeous cover image – a bleeding
pomegranate – Shklanka writes: "Hands are pale bloody
parentheses." In a poem about a
self-harming patient, we read "There's too much on my hands. My hands are
empty."
In the poem "Indiferencia,"
she writes: "the doctor's fingers/march the cold bell of a stethoscope
across/a chest," and in a Japanese-set poem, there are "Nervous
fingers of rain/on the roof of the temple."
I applaud the poet's one-stanza poem
that describes a hike up Mount Robson ("the summer before/our
wedding") and does not overtly mention marital discord except via the
title: "Neither of Us Wants to Keep the Photographs," and
well-chosen, ambiguous words like "stumble," "hunger" and
"sharp descent." Perhaps all readers also appreciate those lines in
which they recognize their own innocuous folly, ie: "I've been looking
into the wrong end/of the binoculars."
Shklanka makes excellent poetry of her
personal life and her profession, and
she doesn't shirk from the stereotype of doctors as gods: "We have
important things to do/and we will fit them into time's tight dresses."
Wow.
I especially admire the last poem.
Written in couplets, "Behind the Cabin at D'Arcy" melds natural
details (ie: "rose hips left by the bears"), the calming rhythms of
ceremony (achieved partly via word repetition), practical elements (ie:
"the wood stove"), and a spectacular image of a love-making couple
"superimposed, faintly, on the mountains." The poem leaves the reader
with a sense of healing calm.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
