Face Off by Maureen Ulrich Published by Coteau Books for Teens Review by Karen Lawson $12.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-452-1 After the success of her first teen hockey novel, Power Plays, Maureen Ulrich has once again scored big with her second hockey novel called Face Off. Set in Estevan, SK, this story follows the next chapter in the life of Jessie MacIntyre, who was the main character in Power Plays. The author is no stranger to the classroom or the hockey rink, as she has had many years of experience in both environments. Ulrich knows her subject matter and her audience well and the result is a contemporary story that captures the reality of high school life and all the trials and tribulations that go with it. Jessie is a likeable and typical prairie teenager who is still grappling with fitting in to a new school. Her friends and teammates are strong willed young women with a wide array of different personalities and problems. The author has created a colourful cast of characters, most of which were introduced in Power Plays. On the surface, this book appears to be about girls’ hockey and the competitive spirit that fuels the sport. But Face…

My Human Comedy by Gerald Hill Published by Coteau Books Review by Shelley A. Leedahl $14.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-371-5 Sometimes, when I’m particularly fond of a poetry collection, I send the poet a gift. Not flowers, or cash; not even a Tim Horton’s gift certificate. I send the poet’s words back to him or her, extracting several of my favourite lines and reordering them to make a new poem, a tribute poem. It’s both a thank you and my highest praise. The last time I sent such a piece it was to Regina writer Gerald Hill, shortly after Coteau Books released his eclectic poetry collection, My Human Comedy: The Man From Saskatchewan Book Two. I couldn’t help myself; the book’s an absolute delight, and the excerpts – Hill’s an original – came together with ease: Sunlight In Patches, These Moments After Rain (A Poem For Gerry, By Gerry) Here between the street and his heart – a little place, not too far away – he wants to get rid of himself. Late afternoon, afraid to find more light. All of this easy as gravel to see. It’s hard to make a difference in this heat. He’s full of stillness, gets quieter…

Ghost Messages by Jacqueline Guest Published by Coteau Books for Kids Review by Jessica Bickford $8.95 13:9781550504583 Ailish O’Connor is like any other thirteen year old girl living in Ireland in 1865, except she has what her father calls the “fey gift”. Ailish can see into your soul with the touch of her hand. She uses her gift to keep her and her father fed, telling fortunes that most think are a “penny’s entertainment” until her Da brings Rufus Dalton to their wagon. Ailish feels his darkness, but doesn’t know just how evil he is until she wakes up to find her father near death, and their one precious possession, a golden figurine which was to be their future, stolen. In Jacqueline Guest’s newest juvenile fiction Ghost Messages, a young girl is faced with a ship-full of trouble and will do anything to ensure the future of her and her father. This includes sneaking on to the Great Eastern as it departs Ireland for its mission to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable between Europe and North America, cutting her long hair, donning trousers, and putting in her labour as a cabin boy. Luckily she meets David Jones, who is…

Katie Be Quiet by Darcy Tamayose Published by Coteau Books Review by Shelley A. Leedahl $18.95 ISBN 978-1-55959-390-6 Thirteen-year-old Katie Bean has much to process. She and her mother have moved to a “sleepy prairie town,” she is the target of school bullies, and “Her body [is] going through weird changes.” Her mother is preoccupied with her unusual new job – “drawing up plans for Constantine’s lavender farm” – and thus has zero time for Katie. These issues are difficult enough, but what’s truly devastating is the fact that Katie’s eccentric musician-composer father recently died “in his sleep,” and Katie’s grieving in solitude. Her only friend is her father’s piano. There is, however, a strange new development in her young life: the voice that “[keeps] shushing her.” Is she going crazy? So begins the juvenile novel, Katie Be Quiet, the second book by Lethbridge writer Darcy Tamayose. The “new kid not fitting in” scenario is common among books for young readers, but Tamayose’s book stands out for its complex mystery, its intermingling of youth and adult characters – including a rude man from Paris and his poodle-doting wife who’ve come to manage the lavender farm’s tea room – and for…

Letters to Omar by Rachel Wyatt Published by Coteau Books Review by Sharon Adam $21.00 ISBN 978-1-55050-448-4 Letters To Omar is a novel by Rachel Wyatt which revolves around three lifelong friends as they plan a dinner for a charity supporting Afghan civilians. Dorothy writes intimate fantasy letters to Omar Sharif and other notable people, none of which are sent. The letters attract the attention of a publisher, newly arrived from Europe and looking for his first project. Add to the mix an estranged husband looking to return, a daughter who returns from a self-imposed exile and other family chaos and you have the beginning of a story that will surprise and delight. Family is a huge part of the story: we feel Delphine’s confusion as her son leaves home for Afghanistan, not as a soldier but as a volunteer aid worker. We feel her guilty delight of having her home to herself, and resentment when a visiting cousin ruins that sense of privacy. People do odd things, sometimes in the face of common sense and the advise of friends. We are not always in control of our emotions and the heart doesn’t always agree with the head. Eventually we…

In Silverthorne’s latest book, the prolific and award-winning Regina writer again introduces readers to a contemporary character who travels back in time. Young Emily, the likeable protagonist, travels to Scotland to spend time with her geologist father (whom she’s not seen since her parents decided to divorce, months before), and to learn more about her family’s Scottish ancestry. Before leaving, however, she finds a hand mirror – “with intricate filigree metalwork and inlaid stones” – in her recently-deceased grandmother’s home, and the image in the mirror is not Emily’s own.

The Factory Voice by Jeanette Lynes Published by Coteau Books Review by Marie Powell Mendenhall $21.00 ISBN: 1-55050-401-0 The Factory Voice mixes the best traits of historical and mystery novels into one package. It tells the story of four women during the World War II era and the men who become part of their lives. Like all good Canadian stories, it begins with a train ride: 16-year-old Audrey escapes marriage in Alberta to work in an airplane factory in Fort William, Ontario. Sharing the train is Muriel, a brilliant woman who becomes chief engineer at the same factory. In Fort William, secretary Ruby engages Audrey as snack-cart girl to gather “dilly” stories for her Factory Voice newsletter. Before long they cross paths with Ruby’s friend Florence, who must wear a red kerchief as probationary riveter because her mother is a notorious Red Finn. Add to this mix a prison break by a man who turns out to be Muriel’s first love (an anti-war protester), a cantankerous test pilot, a couple of brash young men, and a British intelligence officer sent to investigate possible sabotage, and the novel’s plots and subplots bubble to the end of its 285 pages. Told in…

The Forest Horses by Byrna Barclay Published by Coteau Books Review by Kris Brandhagen $21.00 ISBN 978-1-55050-447-7 Spanning decades, Byrna Barclay’s The Forest Horses is an unconventional love story, a passionate tale set in Russia, Sweden, and Canada. The tale is comprised of four stories intertwined: Pytor is a Russian horse thief who abducts Lena–a Swedish teenager–along with a herd of forty ponies which are the forest horses of the title. Eventually they marry, and daughter Signe is born to Pytor and Lena, as they lead a pony caravan carrying food to the starving, and evacuating refugees from war torn Leningrad during the German siege in 1941. Maryushka, Pytor’s sister, ‘does her part for her country;’ and the reader is exposed to an evocative and detailed description of the denigration of her life and Leningrad. Barclay seamlessly works in historical detail through Maryushka, a worker for the war effort who spends her days on an assembly line. From fear of being accused of treason, Maryushka works herself to the bone for a country that cannot provide her with food: “Food. That’s all the women at work ever talk about now: what’s for supper tonight, how hungry they still are, till…

Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips Published by Coteau Books Review by Shelley A. Leedahl $14.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-411-8 Fishtailing, the new genre-hybridized book for teens by Richmond, BC writer Wendy Phillips, is 196 pages long but takes precious little time to read. A drama that reads like a novel written in poems, the book’s über-quick pacing, innovative structure, disparate adolescent characters and bold themes combine to create a literary experience highly-suited for teenagers. The story braids the inner hopes, fears and traumas of four central characters: edgy Natalie, who’s been transferred to her new school due to “some difficulty with peer relationships” at her former school; Tricia, who feels invisible within a blended family, struggles with her Japanese\Canadian ethnicity, and is drawn toward friendship with Natalie; Miguel, who’s fled the violence of Central America with his uncle and cousin, reads Neruda, and is haunted by images of his mother’s murder; and Kyle – the most interesting of the four seniors – who works in his father’s garage, writes the best poetry, and plays his guitar with grease-stained fingers. We also hear from Mrs. Farr, an overwhelmed English teacher who encourages the students to write poetry but challenges them over the merest hint…