Fight for Justice

“Fight for Justice”
By Lori Saigeon
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shanna Mann
$7.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-405-7

“Fight for Justice”, a middle years novel by Regina author and inner-city elementary teacher Lori Saigeon, is unique in giving authentic voice to bullying in urban schools and vividly portraying bullying behavior as a precursor for gang involvement.

It was easy to sympathize with Justice’s motivations; his machismo, his responsibility as man of the house and his need to protect his twin sister Charity. Students and adults will identify with his slippery slope of bad decisions that leads to his isolation from the protection of adults and further vulnerability to the bullies.
But Justice isn’t stupid. He asks for advice, he studies the adults around them and assesses their behavior. How will they react if he tells them about being bullied? Will they do something dumb (from his perspective) like simply tell Trey to stop it? With maturity and clarity, Justice assesses the people in his life and puts them into categories. Are they his allies, does he protect himself from them, or is he their protector?

Lori Saigeon is deadly accurate in her portrayal of not only the instigation and escalation, but the reasoning that kids go through before deciding to ask an adult to intervene. They know that adults can’t be everywhere, and the choice they make is almost always to do damage control for when—not if—the bully catches them alone.

Not only is this a good book for students (for authenticity and applicability I can’t think of a better one)but it is also a good read for adults, especially those who don’t understand why their kids just won’t tell them who is bullying them so they can put a stop to it. It won’t mitigate the adults’ sense of helplessness, perhaps, but it will show you what’s going through their heads, and help you understand their reasoning. Their decisions are bad, from an adult perspective and experience, but from a child’s they are well reasoned and sound, because adults won’t always be around to protect you, and if you can’t protect yourself, you have to at least do what you can not to make it worse. “Fight for Justice” accurately and vividly portrays bullying and what to do about it when it happens to you.

Published in:  on 23 December 2009 at 12:27 pm Leave a Comment
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Eat Away Illness, Second Edition

Eat Away Illness, Second Edition
by Paulette Millis
Published by Soul Food Publishing
Review by Karen Lawson
ISBN 978-0-9683647-3-4 $37.95

Here is a book that takes a common sense approach to nutrition. In today’s fast paced, fast food society, it is often difficult to maintain healthy eating habits. It is even harder to sort through the vast amount of information about nutrition that is available.

Paulette Millis is a Registered Nutritional Consultant who has written a book that will appeal to everyone who wants to change the way that they eat. “Eat Away Illness” is a must have reference book that looks at ways to eat well and improve one’s health. It is chock full of valuable information and suggestions for anyone who wants to learn more about nutrition.

The author has faced a variety of her own health issues, which was the impetus behind writing her book. The focus of “Eat Away Illness” is to make people aware of the importance of proper nutrition and how healthy foods can not only maintain and improve health, but also help to heal the body and mind.

“Eat Away Illness” is much more than just a cookbook. All the recipes use healthy, natural ingredients. Many of them are gluten free and dairy free. Most of them use simple and organic ingredients. But Millis goes one step further and combines useful and important information about how to be aware and knowledgeable about nutrition and includes ways to improve one’s overall health and well being.

This user friendly cookbook and nutritional guide is a valuable resource for anyone who not only loves to cook but wants to make a conscious effort in choosing foods that are healthy and provide proper nutrition.

Published in:  on 16 December 2009 at 1:00 pm Leave a Comment
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Family Christmas

Book Title“Family Christmas”
by Fawn Nielsen
Published by Hear My Heart Books Inc.
Review by Andréa Ledding
978-0-9811367-0-7 $14.99

This durable coil-bound book, described by the author as a “living journal”, provides a place for families to record family traditions, hopes, dreams, wishes, and even New Year’s Resolutions. Some pages are left blank with only a heading, while others contain lines for family members to write together what the holiday means to them, treasured moments, or memorable gifts. There are pages for planning, recipes, memories, and reflections on the past year. There are spaces to record highlights for both adult and children, and space to reflect on growth, regrets, and accomplishments. Some pages are set aside for family pictures, unique traditions, and even a page for small children to colour.

It’s hard to write a review on a book which has yet to be written – each journal will be unique to the family which creates it, beginning with the first page in which they are invited to create an acrostic representing their family name. But it’s easy to imagine families filling out this book together over the holiday season, and being delighted to come across it every subsequent year, tucked away in the ornament box….and, if they’ve left themselves room, adding to it as the years go on. The completion of this book becomes a living tradition of its own, and a keepsake that can be easily tucked away until the next Christmas season – when it is time to cherish what has passed, and savour what is yet to come.

This book is available at your local bookstore, or visit www.skbooks.com

Published in:  on 9 December 2009 at 1:29 pm Leave a Comment
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About Jim and Me: a love story

“About Jim and Me: a love story”
Written by Sally Crooks
Published by Benchmark Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$14.95 ISBN 978-0-9813243-1-9

Are you interested in recording your personal history and preserving stories about the people and places that have enriched your life? Then perhaps, like Regina writer Sally Crooks, you should write a memoir. Life writing, as it’s sometimes called, has become increasingly popular, and workshops on the genre are frequently led by many of Saskatchewan’s veteran writers.

Crooks’ 164-page memoir, “About Jim and Me: a love story,” traces the author’s experiences as a Scot who immigrated to Regina in 1965 with her beloved husband, Jim, a physiotherapist 16 years her senior – an age difference her family wasn’t pleased about. The book project, Crooks explains, began in 1997, six months after Jim’s death, and was 12 years in the making.

The author’s no literary apprentice: she studied the craft at the Sage Hill Writing Experience; participated in writers’ colonies; and has been publishing poetry for years. As her book progressed, various segments appeared in journals, were heard on CBC Radio, and were recognized with Saskatchewan Writers Guild awards. In 2007, Crooks earned a John V. Hicks Manuscript Award.

In the opening chapter, “Our Last Night Together,” Crooks unflinchingly details her husband’s post-stroke conditions, and her hands-on care: “When the catheter care was completed, when I had rolled him onto his right side, inserted the belladonna and opium suppository to control the painful bladder spasms, adjusted the pillows, straightened his pyjama top … when all of this ritual had been performed for the last time, I bent to kiss him goodnight and hear, as always, his murmured, ‘Thank you, dear’ … And we wept, as we had never done in over forty years of life together.”

Jim Crooks had not been a well man since a heart attack in 1980, but a stroke in 1995 exacerbated his decline. Sally, who’d studied music in England and sang in numerous productions in England and Scotland (and became highly involved in Regina’s music community), had just returned from a concert rehearsal the night of Jim’s stroke: “I made and poured the tea, gave Jim his [Scotch mutton] pie and sat down … After a few minutes I became aware there was no sound or movement from Jim…I rose to look and found him immobile, his eyes glazed, his mouth, with the remains of the pie, open but rigid.” Life changed forever.

Crooks reveals the emotional rollercoaster while Jim transitioned from hospital to the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre to home, and finally to a personal care home. She includes the hours leading to his death, then moves between the years that followed and special moments that came far before, like their honeymoon, their ocean crossing on the “Empress of Canada,” and their first date at the Royal Festival Hall.

The couple’s shared love of music was a lifelong bond. Crooks writes: “ … singing with the Regina Philharmonic Chorus is the part of my life that gives me most pleasure and solace.” From the careful prose evident in this memoir, I suspect writing is up there, too.

Published in:  on 2 December 2009 at 2:22 pm Leave a Comment
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