These three award-winning novels explore the feelings and reactions that teenagers have when their lives are disrupted by a crisis at home that is way beyond their control.

In Skin Deep, by BC writer Sandra Diersch, Corinne has big plans for the summer between grades nine and ten — she and her best friend, Romi, are planning makeovers that will put them on the popularity list next year. But Corinne's world falls to pieces when she discovers that her mom has breast cancer. Instead of shopping malls and spas, Corinne's summer is filled with doctor's visits and chemo treatments. This novel examines the range of emotions a teenager feels when faced with the realization that her parents are all too mortal.

Skin Deep is a Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens selection. It was "Highly Recommended" by CM Magazine. Follow the link to read the full review: http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol17/no2/skindeep.html

In Best Laid Plans, Robyn has big plans to get as far away from her family as she can. She's tired of living in poverty at the family's struggling farm in the Okanagan. Robyn's got her sights set on university in Ontario. But then her younger sister reveals that she's pregnant. Suddenly there's pressure for Robyn to put her future on hold to stay and help her family. Robyn has to decide whether to put herself or her family first.

Best Laid Plans is a Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens selection.

In Lori Weber's Split, eighteen-year-old Sandra doesn't go to her high school graduation ceremony: there's no one to cheer for her since her mother walked out on her and her alcoholic father a few months ago. Now Sandra feels lost and abandoned, with no one to relate to or to give her any direction or guidance. 

Split is a Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens selection. For a full review of this "Highly Recommended" novel, click on the link: http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol12/no5/split.html

There's no doubt how important friendships are in the teenage years. But with that also come a whole host of potential conflict, especially when it comes to peer pressure and standing up for oneself. The challenge for some teens is deciding when enough is enough.  These four novels explore different toxic relationships in the lives of teens:

In Truth and Lies main character Erin seeks to find the person responsible for a physical attack on her long-time friend Marcel, who is gay. This novel examines the different homophobic attitudes that abound in Erin's high school as well as the dynamic between different high school cliques.

Out of Time by Peter McPhee deals with a subject that many students across Canada will no doubt be talking about after last year's disturbing news stories around bullying and teen suicide. In this book, three friends who consider themselves "outsiders," have carried out a suicide pact. One has been found dead, another is in hospital, and the third is still missing. It's up to a fourth friend, Eileen to find her

In Final Takedown by Brent R. Sherrard, main character Elias is growing up in poverty with an alcoholic mother and an absent father. For the longest time, Elias has counted on his best friend Silas and his family for support. Together Elias and Silas are no strangers to trouble. But then a fight in the school yard ends with both boys being charged. Elias and Silas are warned by a judge to stay out of the trouble because the next time they show up in his courtroom, they'll be sent to jail. This is enough to make Elias start to rethink his life, but not SilaSo when Silas comes up with an idea for a crime that could get them into a lot of trouble, Elias has to decide whether to stick by a friend who has been like a brother to him, or strike out on his own.

Final Takedown is a Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens selection.

On the Game by Monique Polak and Last Chance by Lesley Choyce are two novels that explore extreme situations faced by some desperate young people: teenage prostitution.

In On the Game, journalist, writing instructor, and prize-winning author Monique Polak has fictionalized the true story of a fifteen-year-old girl who is lured into prostitution by her first love, an older man who preys on young, innocent, and lonely girls like her. Although Yolande, the main character, is rescued from a dangerous situation in the end, many girls in the real world are not. This is a realistic, cautionary tale about how a teen can be lured into the sex trade without realizing what is happening.

On the Game is a Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens selection. To see what teen readers think of On the Game, view the reader comments on Monique Polak's website: http://moniquepolak.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=422&Itemid=64

In Lesley Choyce's novel Last Chance, two teens, Melanie and Trent, are navigating life on the streets. Although neither is in a position to look after the other, Trent finds them a place to stay, while Melanie learns to buy food on very tight budget. Despite all their struggles trying work within the social welfare system, stay in school, and make ends meet, it seems like they might just be okay — until Melanie finds out that the reality of their situation is much darker than she could have imagined: Trent lied to her about his job working the night shift at a factory, instead he's been working the streets as a male prostitute.

Last Chance is a Resource Links 2010 Year's Best book. Visit the blog of this 8^th-grade teacher for a review: http://readingjunky.blogspot.com/2010/06/last-chance-by-lesley-choyce.html

Q: One reviewer had this to say about Girl Fight: "This book hits timely topics, and hits them hard. The rawness of the language and emotion make it a difficult read, but an important one." (Resource Links Volume 17, Number 2) Why was it important for you to write this story?

A: I wanted to write about a girl who is tough, smart, and funny, and I wanted to write a character who questions what people expect from a “girl” and questions what a “strong girl” looks like. This character became Zadie, the protagonist of Girl Fight.

I thought I’d be too lazy to actually write this novel but sentences from the first chapter kept materializing while I was trying to sleep. For two weeks, 6 a.m. would come and I would realize that the entire night was over and these sentences had kept me awake. I got to the point where it was easier to write the book than not.

Q: The subject of this book is girl-on-girl violence and bullying, but your approach is unique. For many girls, even those who have never hit another person, there must at one time or another been the desire to. Yet fighting is something more commonly expected from teenage boys rather than girls. There are obvious gender expectations at work here. Why did you choose to write about the girls and violence like you did?

A: I was disturbed by some of the media’s comments on recent reports of violent physical fighting between girls. They [the media] seemed shocked that girls were capable of physical power and that girls could possess the instinct or desire to fight. They couldn’t see a girl in any role except for that of the victim. I wasn’t comfortable with that and thought I could give teen readers a character that is more complicated and more like the girls I know.

I also wanted to touch on different ways that violence can be perpetrated. I had researched cyberbullying for another project and was hyper-aware of how inescapable it is and how frightened Zadie would feel when targeted in this way.

Also, I want to draw on the unique writing style of that book — with the graphic novel references. 

Q: Are you a big fan of graphic novels yourself? Was that what inspired you? If so, which ones in particular?

A: I am definitely a fan of graphic novels and comics. Julie Doucet, Marjane Satrapi, Elisabeth Belliveau, and Mariko & Jillian Tamaki — to name just a few big ones — are definitely authors/artists that I try to steal as much from as I can. A lot of these authors have great sense of humour, and I try to write things that are humorous too, because I like to entertain myself, to make myself laugh while I’m writing.

Graphic novels have probably influenced me more than I realize, but I think that my writing style is a byproduct of how much I love to play around with language and my admiration of lit heroes like bpNichol and Gertrude Stein. I like to use onomatopoeia and caps wherever I can, because I enjoy that stuff as a reader, and I think it has special appeal to reluctant readers too. I always think about the page as a space and I love it when I see words jump off of it. It makes me giggle. I've spent just as much time writing concrete poetry and puppet animations as writing long narratives, and in general I care more about whether every sentence is beautiful than I care about whether anything is happening plot-wise.

I knew a lot of things about Zadie from the beginning, but I didn’t know that she would be an artist. I think that my decision to have Zadie draw and my decision to utilize comic/graphic novel elements was in part a strategy to approach the scenes of heavy violence in a way that I could be comfortable with and interested in. And filling the first fight scenes with speech bubbles and stars and movement lines that only Zadie could see was a way to show how out-of-touch Zadie was with reality. Zadie sees herself as a comics superhero, and superhero-type comics are really curious domains where women can and do kick ass regularly, but can still be objectified hard-core. So it’s a pretty weird and confusing place to exist in, and that headspace made Zadie’s emotional problems multiply.

Q: Are there any autobiographical elements to this story?

A: Yes. In high school I felt a lot of the anger that Zadie feels, and I had no idea what to do with that anger. I felt underestimated and frustrated, and I didn't realize then that other people feel that too.

Zadie's little sister, RAMONA ROAR!!!, is based on my sister Rhonda.

And Ms. Cohen, the art teacher, was definitely based on my high school art teacher, who embodies the universal art teacher quirkiness and whose sweaters were fascinating.

Art and writing were refuges for me in high school. I love the idea of a person being able to save themselves through their art. I don't know how often it happens but I cling to the idea that everyone has stuff like that — stuff you can do that you love — and that you could stumble on these things any day now.

Editor's P.S.: Faye's book is getting very positive responses from early reviewers. Girl Fight is a Resource Links 2011 Year's Best book. Girl Fight is "Highly Recommended." by CM-Canadian Materials. Read the 4-star review here: http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol18/no14/girlfight.html

Cooking for couples
By Greg Burliuk
Posted 3 days ago

Essentials

What: Fresh and Healthy Cooking For Two by Ellie Topp and Marilyn Booth is a collection of healthy recipes for couples and which often features simple four-dish meals. The recipes are meant to be cooked quickly.

Signing: Ellie Topp will be at the Kingston Seniors Centre, 56 Francis St., for a book sale and signing Monday, Dec. 5 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. One of the soups from the book will be served. It's also available for $24.95 at the Novel Idea and Indigo Books.

Cookbooks have a bias against couples. And don't get me started on singles. Check out just about any recipe and you'll see it's just about always meant to feed four or more people.

Just cut it in half you say? That's fine if you're talking about a cup of flour, but how do you bisect an egg, for example? There are cookbooks for two out there but not many. That is why Ellie Topp decided to rectify the situation. Together with dietician Marilyn Booth, she's written Fresh and Healthy Cooking For Two.

I first talked to Ellie several years ago when she wrote a cookbook about small batch preserving. The current one was inspired by her own empty nest situation.

"It's the way I cook now that my kids have left home," she says. "I used to spend half the afternoon in the kitchen doing something complicated but you're not as tempted to do that when there's only two of you."

There are a lot of advantages to this cookbook, other than its smaller amounts. First of all, it's designed for couples who don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. The prep time for most of the dishes is under 30 minutes, so the cookbook is valuable not only for empty nesters, but also young couples just starting out who perhaps aren't that experienced in the kitchen.

Secondly, in the mains section, Ellie has designed a whole meal around a main, including a salad, vegetable and starch. So while your meat is cooking, you can whip up the salad and veg, and set the starch to going as well.

"They're everyday meals and if you're a single these recipes divide easily," she says.

The meals may be simple to make, but Ellie takes care to slip the unusual in there with ingredients like kale, rapini and kohlrabi, which don't show up on most of our plates with let's say regularity. "Things like kale, I can use in winter and they're wonderful in soups," she says.

Sometimes she'll take favourite recipes and tinker with them to get the calorie and salt count down. Such was the case with her version of gazpacho.

"That took a while to do, but I got it down quite a bit," she says, before adding a handy tip. "When you want a tomato flavour, tomato paste has almost zero calories and no salt whereas canned tomato sauce has a lot more of both calories and salt."

Ellie often has collaborators when she writes her books. "I like to work with a dietician," she says. "I've got my masters in food science, but I like to work with someone who's always up to date on dietary matters."

I made three complete meals with the cookbook and really enjoyed the fact that I could put out several dishes per meal in less time than I usually spend doing just one dish. I started out on Friday night with the most complicated one of the three and to our minds, the most successful.

The main was Indonesian-style chicken with savoury peanut sauce, and the sides were basmati rice with chutney, steamed green beans and kohlrabi and carrot salad with orange and cumin. Correction on that, I couldn't find kohlrabi at Loblaws, the store I figured was the best bet to have it. However, there was an informative booklet in the veggie section there where I discovered that some kind of cabbage would be a good substitute and provide the same kind of crunch. I bought some savoy cabbage, which is a milder form of this veggie.

I usually hate snapping green beans so I bought a package of pre-cut ones, which were simply steamed and then tossed with olive oil. The rice was made tastier by slipping in a couple of spoonfuls of mango chutney. The great brilliance of this meal was the way the chicken was cooked. I've seen this done before in restaurants, but had forgotten. You fry the chicken enough to get a crust and then finish it on high heat in the oven. The result is a spectacularly tender chicken, the only way we'll eat from now on when not stir-frying it.

The next night, we went vegetarian with three-cheese pasta bake with tomatoes and spinach, along with a mixed vegetable salad. I still had lots of the savoy left so I used that in the salad, whose dressing was made simply by mixing mayo and salsa and didn't turn out half bad. The pasta bake was very pretty to look at, and cheese lovers will be happy with it, but truth to tell, we felt it needed a little juicing up. My wife and daughter applied ketchup and I, a couple of shakes of hot sauce and all was well.

The last meal was another chicken one, baked chicken with a sesame crust, roasted potatoes and carrots provencale. There was also supposed to be a cabbage toss, but I still had some salad left over from the first night and served that. Not having any commercial bread crumbs, I made my own by tossing some light right bread into the food processor. I was pleased with the results as the chicken was once again baked, although it wasn't quite as tender because it was baked at a lower temperature. The big hit foGregr us was the carrots, which were tossed with garlic and black olives.

When our daughter leaves on her student exchange in February, I'm pretty sure we'll be coming back to this book a lot, although I'll probably add things to the recipes because in our house, we like things spicier and more garlicky.

Eric Zweig is a lifelong sports fan who has been a professional sportswriter since 1985. He is the author of four books for young readers.  Here we talk to Eric about some surprising examples of how the actions of sports heroes can help serve as examples of positive character building for youth.

Q: You've been writing about professional sports for nearly 30 years. Have you seen a change in the way the media and sports commentators are talking about events or incidents that raise issues of fairness, respect, fair play, and sportsmanship? What effect do you think these commentaries have on young fans?

A: These days, with all-sports TV networks, all-sports radio, web sites and twitter feeds, there is just so much MORE sports coverage than when I was growing up, and EVERYTHING gets talked about more than it used to. Lately, concussions and head shots are the big issues in hockey … and this seems to lead into the idea that players today have less respect for each other than they used to. I’m not sure that’s true, and hockey has always been a very violent sport, but I do think it has led to an understanding that younger people playing hockey do have to learn more about fairness, respect, fair play, and sportsmanship. Parents of young athletes too. And that has to be a good thing.

Q: Your Recordbook Tough Guys is an example of how sports can help develop the character attribute of citizenship, because it shows how two rivals, Joe Hall and Newsy Lalonde, put aside their differences and learned to work together for the greater good of their team. How would you relate this to what kids might be seeing in professional sports today, or even in their own youth leagues? 

A: Tough Guys certainly touches on this … but my book Crazy Canucks, about the national men’s ski team in the 1970s and ’80s, is an even better example about the importance of teamwork. Skiing is pretty much an individual sport, and even though there are national teams, in that era, the Europeans pretty much all prepared as individuals. Realizing how undermanned and underfunded they were compared to those European “teams”, the Canadian skiers realized that they really would have to work together in order to have any success at all. And the success they did have was truly amazing. There’s an expression that says “there is no ‘I’ in team” and I think that most of us do have to learn, in sports, and in our work, that we often have to put our own feelings aside and do what’s best for everybody. It’s not an easy lesson to learn, and I do think it’s something that sports can help with.

Q: In Long Shot, you show how the Winnipeg Falcons, a hockey team made up of working-class Icelandic immigrants, were kept from playing in the regular Winnipeg league because of prejudice. Yet that team went on to represent Canada in the Olympics and even won the first Canadian Olympic gold medal in ice hockey! What character attributes do you think it took for them to win? What made them such a successful team?

A: The story of the Winnipeg Falcons is a truly inspiring one! The players really had to overcome a lot in order to succeed. I think the hardships they faced did teach them the importance of fairness, courage, respect, and perseverance. They showed that a small group, working hard together, can really accomplish a lot. And when they did reach the top (ie, winning the Canadian amateur championship and going to the Olympics), the way they treated the poorer passengers on their ocean voyage to Europe showed that they really were fair and honest people who wanted to treat others they way they wished they had been treated. The same when they got to Europe and realized how much better they were than the European hockey teams. They refused to run up the score. They even worked to train those European players to become better at the game. It’s really a perfect example of the way we are all are supposed to behave — in sports and in life!

A powerful way to reinforce empathy is to find common ground between people who don't think they have anything in common.

A reluctant reader with an interest in hockey can easily find common ground with the characters in Lorna Nicholson's true-life story about a hockey team who overcome tremendous obstacles to win gold at the Olympics. The book is Fighting for Gold.

The hockey players in this book play a different version of the game -- sledge hockey. The fact that they are disabled makes it tougher in some ways for them to play the game. But they're as dedicated to hockey as anyone can be -- as a young reader quickly realizes.

Lorna talks about the team's struggles and accomplishments in the tournament and also touches briefly on each player's physical disability and even shows the logistical challenges that the team faced getting all its players to the tournament.

It's a great story with a happy ending. The team went into the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy and came out with the gold medal for Canada.

Lorna's respectful coverage of their stories makes this book ideal for character education units around empathy, as she creates awareness for their struggles without diminishing their athletic prowess.

Reviewers have recognized Lorna's achievement with this book. Says Resource Links: "This book is fast-paced and action-packed, but also very empathetic towards the struggles and amazing achievements of the members of the team." (Read the whole review; it's in Volume 15, no 3)

Many kids in B.C. will know this book already. It's currently shortlisted for the 2011/2012 Red Cedar Book Award

Fighting for Gold is part of the Lorimer Recordbooks series, hi-lo sports history stories for ages 12 and up.

Looking for a more direct approach to help kids understand character education through sports? The Deal With It series titles are 32-page graphic-novel-style books that contain quizzes, Q+As, comics and scenarios that get kids talking about issues.

Competition: Deal with it from start to finish

This book looks at some of the pressures that kids face to do well is sports, school, and extra-curricular activities. It also examins what happens when competition turns ugly – cheating, name-calling, and bad sportsmanship — and helps provide solutions for dealing with these situations.

Click here  to download a free teacher's guide.

Fighting: Deal with it without coming to blows

This book looks at some of the reasons why kids start fights and comes at the issue form the roles of the instigator, the defender, and the bystander. Kids see how building acceptance, respect, cooperation, fairness, and teamwork can help prevent fighting.

Click here to download a free teacher's guide.

Lorimer's Sports Stories books designed to appeal to young people who would rather spend their time playing sports than reading. The books are written with plenty of play-by-play scenes to engage reluctant readers. The problems that the characters face often result in personal growth or realization through sports – and, just like in real life sports, these problems are often associated with developing character traits like honesty, courage, integrity, and perseverance.

If you've got young hockey players in your school or community these are books that can connect with kids and that reinforce character education themes:

In Making Select, a new book by Steven Barwin, main character Tyler could have avoided a lot of trouble, and an injury, if only he'd shown HONESTY with his parents by telling them what he really needed was a break from hockey.

In Power Play by Michele Martin Bossley, main character Zach has to find the COURAGE to get back on the ice after a big hit, even with the knowledge that a bully is waiting for him when he does.

Hat Trick by Jacqueline Guest is about Leigh, a main character who is leading a double life – lying about hockey to her mom and lying about dancing to her dad and friends. She will have to show INTREGRITY by being open and honest with everyone.

In Joseph Romain's Two Minutes for Roughing, Les loves playing on his first real hockey team, but has to find the courage to PERSEVERE in the game after being the target of the team's bullies.

In Roughing by Lorna Schultz Nicholson, main characters Josh and Sam learn to RESPECT a new player's talent. 

In Delaying the Game, Lorna Schultz Nicholson creates main character Kayleigh, who has to improve her TEAMWORK skills if she's going to succeed on her new all-girls' team. 

 Sports Stories are hi-lo sports fiction for youth ages 10-13. In addition to hockey, other sports such as basketball and soccer are covered.

For Canadians who lived through it, the eight games between Canada's best hockey players and the Soviets' in 1972 was a series to remember. For Canadian teens today, the series can serve as a great context for discussing character attributes of fairness, respect, and sportsmanship.

For years leading up the 1972 "Friendship Series" (ironically this was the name originally given to the tournament), Canada hadn't performed well in international hockey tournaments. Canadians believed it was because their best players were pros in the NHL, and at the time not allowed to play in international tournaments of 'amateurs' like the Olympics. So a tournament was set up that would pit Canada's best against the Soviets'. It would be no contest, most Canadians believed, because hockey was our sport. But all this changed when Canada lost Game 1 and the battle to win became a "war on ice.". Remember, too, that this was at the height of the Cold War which pitted the West against the Soviets.

Summit Series '72, a new book by sportswriter Richard Brignall, addresses many of the issues surrounding this series, including nationalism and the Cold War context. To use this series to tie-in with character education themes, students can refer to the following scenes from the book and discuss them in terms of these character attributes:

Fairness: After Canada's Game 4 loss in Vancouver, the Canadian fans booed their own players. Team captain Phil Esposito had this to say “I tell ya, every one of us thirty-five guys that came out and played for Team Canada, we did it because we love our country, and not for any other reason. No other reason. And I don’t think it’s fair that we should be booed.” (Refer to Summit Series '72 page 94)

Respect:  Heading into the series, the Canadian media debated not if we would win the series, but how much we'd win by. Players, too, thought there would be no contest. Afterwards goalie Ken Dryden said, "We didn't respect our opponents. We didn't have a sense that we could lose." (Refer to Summit Series '72 page 85)

Sportsmanship:  In Game 6, Bobby Clarke, then a rookie player, was told by one of the coaches to "take out" Soviet player Kharlamov. Clarke slashed Kharlamov's ankle with his stick and fractured his ankle. (Refer to Summit Series '72 page 115)

 For a review of this new book, click on this link to CM Magazine. http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol18/no11/summitseries.html. The review sums up the book: "Highly recommended."

You can get Summit Series '72 from your usual library wholesaler. To order online, click here.