Shepherd’s Callby Counios and GanePublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle ShawISBN 9781988783772 $19.95 Shepherd’s Call is the latest installment in the internationally award-winning Shepherd & Wolfe mystery series, written by Regina-based authors David Gane and Angie Counios. Tony Shepherd is all set to graduate from high school when his best friend Charlie Wolfe suddenly disappears leaving only a cryptic text message on Tony’s phone saying: “Help”. Tony’s search for his friend leads him back into Charlie’s past where he slowly discovers the traumatic events that shattered Charlie’s life. The book is told from both Tony and Charlie’s point of view, so at the same time as we are following Tony’s search we are also following Charlie’s adventures as he attempts to figure out why he has been abducted and what he needs to do to stay alive. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book. The previous book Wolfe in Shepherd’s Clothing ended on such a cliffhanger and I’ve been desperate to find out what happened to Charlie and Tony. It took me a little while to get into this book because it’s been a few years since the previous book was published. But the chapters are short and the…

Buddy: A Farm in the Forest StoryWritten by Jena Wagmann, Illustrated by Alana HyrtlePublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$16.95 ISBN 9-781988-783895 It’s not uncommon for children’s authors to transform a scenario from “real” life into a story for a picture book, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In the case of Goodsoil, SK writer Jena Wagmann’s new title, Buddy: A Farm in the Forest Story, the actual-experience-to-the-page formula works dog gone well. The retired school administrative assistant-turned-farmer (and writer!) has paired her talents with Nova Scotia illustrator Alana Hyrtle—and if I’m guessing correctly, this is actually a mother-daughter team—to create a heartwarming story with delightful watercolour illustrations about adopting a scruffy Shih Tzu who’d been abandoned in the forest by its previous owner. “Buddy” was “definitely not the handsomest dog they had ever seen—his eyes bulged out of his head, his teeth stuck out on one side of his mouth, and his little black nose did not sit in the middle of his face.” Buddy appears on the cover facing the moon and a star-filled sky above a forest, and it was easy to fall for the “little bit crooked” canine hero who at one…