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CITY/TOWN: North Vancouver
DATE OF BIRTH: July 22, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH: Vancouver, BC
AWARDS: Dancing Naked: ALA Quick Pick 2000, CLA/ YA Honour Book 2002, White Pine Award (Ontario Readers Choice Award) 2002.
Allegra by Shelley Hrdlitschka was nominated for YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list. YALSA is a division of the American Library Association.
In 2008, Shelley Hrdlitschka introduced the fictional, polygamous community of Unity with her novel, Sister Wife, nominated for a Governor General's Award. Its Bountiful-like leader called the Prophet had 26 wives and 90 children. Fifteen-year-old Celeste instinctually questions the strict doctrines and befriends a mutually skeptical boy, Jon. Caught kissing, he runs away before he can be banished by the Prophet. In a sequel, Lost Boy (Orca 2018), Jon is unprepared for life outside Unity and struggles with alcohol, drugs and homelessness.
***
***
BOOKS:
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: The True Adventures of Coola and Grinder (Orca 2019) $19.95 978-1-77203-277-2. With Rae Schidlo. Illustrations by Linda Sharp.
Lost Boy (Orca 2018) $14.95 978-1-4598-1637-4
Dancing in the Rain (Orca 2016) Ages 12+ $14.95 9781459810655
Allegra (Orca 2013) $12.95 978-1-4598-0197-4
Sister Wife, 2008, Orca Book Publishers $12.95 9781551439273
Gotcha!, 2008, Orca Book Publishers
Sun Signs, 2005, Orca Book Publishers
Kat's Fall, 2004, Orca Book Publishers
Dancing Naked, 2001, Orca Book Publishers
Tangled Web, 2000, Orca Book Publishers
Disconnected, 1998, Orca Book Publishers
Beans on Toast, 1998, Orca Book Publishers
[BCBW 2018] "Kidlit"
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: The True Adventures of Coola and Grinder
by Shelley Hrdlitschka and Rae Schidlo, illustrated by Linda Sharp
Victoria: Heritage House, 2019
$19.95 / 9781772032772
Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski
*
Grizzly bear! Ursus arctos ! Or is it, more correctly, Ursus arctos horribilis? The first is the species name, the second the subspecies name. A glance at the two loveable cubs on the cover of a recent non-fiction children’s book makes it easy to guess which one its authors choose to give. Like much else in this book — clearly a labour of love — it reveals a lot about decisions made by its two authors and its illustrator, namely to ignore, gently, the horribilis nature of the subspecies.
First off, though, for readers not familiar with the story (much repeated in Vancouver news media), these are the essentials. In 2001, two orphaned grizzly cubs, one from British Columbia’s north coast, one from the interior, were taken into care. A veterinarian, hearing about them, initiated the building of a refuge high on Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain (in winter a ski resort). Since then, their growth and behaviour has been closely observed, directly by the public in summer and indirectly by infrared camera during the winter months of “dormancy” (not quite hibernation.) Local media and tourist sites seem to be particularly taken with reporting and photographing the grizzlies’ coming out of dormancy in the spring.
Besides not using the term “horribilis,” the authors have, calculatedly, left out other bits and pieces of information. First, they keep their focus very much on the bears rather than on the humans involved in their wellbeing. From the loggers who found one cub, to the vet who initiated the building of the refuge, to the “human caregivers” who look after the bears, all remain shadowy. Some of them are named in the Acknowledgements, but none in the story itself.
More strikingly, though, the authors decide not to report, for example, that two other cubs were (briefly) brought to the shelter in 2002, or that an attempt to integrate wolves into the shelter led to a violent end when, in full view of the public, one of the bears dispatched the wolf. Understandably, too, the book skirts other uncomfortable issues, like the facts that, before this attempt at sheltering the animals, orphaned grizzlies were (apparently) killed, or that some animal activists have questioned the nature of the programme.
Further to create a positive mood, the authors generally choose to write as if they were narrating a tale. The book begins, “A tiny grizzly bear cub stumbled out of the forest and lurched across the logging road.” Throughout, the writing style is simple and the tone quiet:
They enjoy each other’s company. Even when they sleep they are usually side by side…..
Sometimes they play fight with their huge mouths open, trying to grab the other’s thick fur around the neck. Sometimes Grinder is like a pesky young brother and invades Coola’s space even when Coola is napping.
The story of the grizzlies emphasizes their endearing behaviour. They tussle and tease, they bob for roots in a pond, they float on their backs while grabbing their toes.
Also reinforcing the book’s steady calm is the fact that much of the content — not the form — would sit comfortably in a magazine or newspaper. In fact, some younger readers (at least based on four samples!) may find the book a little fact-based, a little external. Indeed, some sections sound almost text bookish: “Coastal bears … tend to be bigger than interior bears …. because their diet includes more protein, mainly in the form of salmon.”
Considered only as a book to engage children and to fulfil no other purpose, The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain is targeted toward a particular kind of child. Most enthusiasts of children’s literature (and both authors have had experience, one as an author) recognize that many children are most engaged when they shake in their boots. From Grimm’s fairy tales to Disney classics, children’s eyes pop and their hearts race as they encounter the horrible and, yes, grisly. Some young readers of a book about grizzlies would no doubt love to be just a little frightened. Killing a wolf stone cold with a single swipe of a giant, clawed foreleg, for example, would be exactly the kind of stuff that would do the trick.
Another decision made by the authors that suggests their aiming at particular kind of reader, is not to engage in imaginative speculation or to enter the point of view of the animals. The writers of children’s fiction, of course, generally do both. A writer of children’s fiction is likely to have invented a narrative about the way each cub experienced the joys and terrors of the first months of life, and, even more, how each suffered a harrowing loss of mother and siblings, all through the animals’ eyes.
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain uses no such tactics. Indeed, doing so would have betrayed the basic principles of authenticity that the writers embrace.
The closest the authors come to betraying objectivity is in a photofolder that comes as a kind of appendix. Here, photos of the bears with striking expressions are captioned with speech bubbles the way humorous scrap-bookers apply captions to photos of venerable aunts and bemused babies. The joke here, though, is arguably chiefly on those who dibble with photos.
The conservationist project is further reflected in the inclusion of two graphically colourful maps and a list of grizzly facts, headed “Did You Know?” With these diversions the authors take additional steps to develop a relish for the solid reality lying behind both the particular circumstances of these two grizzlies, and grizzlies in general. To know them, as we appreciate, is to love them.
Again, though, it is clear that in selecting the particular facts to report, the authors wish to emphasize only fairly benign biological features. We like, and want to protect, that which we know, understand, and find fascinating.
It is obvious why facts about the crushing strength of the jaws (Wikipedia reports 84 kg per square centimetre!), the killing power of a swipe of heavily clawed forelegs, or the battles to the death of male grizzlies are not included in the “Did You Know?” section. It is additionally obvious why the authors steer well clear of any “facts” about human/bear interactions. The news media and Hollywood, after all, do an enthusiastic job of reporting nightmare-inducing details of bear attacks. Think: horriblis.
Clearly, this book’s driving force is to record the efforts of the Grouse Mountain project, yes, but also to propel the principles of wildlife conservation. Using a calmly narrated, feel-good children’s book as the conduit for both of these seems a reasonable method. From a purely conservationist point of view, however, the selection of grizzlies as subject matter raises some issues. Indeed, some conservationists feel that focusing on “charismatic megafauna” can distract from the need for broad-reaching conservation. (e.g. https://theweek.com/articles/450037/why-want-save-whales-but-not-crickets).
From a Canadian perspective, of course, it is polar bears, not grizzlies, that are the main poster boys (and mammas) of the conservation movement, though orcas, “spirit bears,” woodland caribou, and grizzlies do crowd eagerly into the media. In contrast, the bat populations decimated by white-nose syndrome don’t exactly hit the headlines. As for freshwater mussels, the Olympia oyster, or the American eel — all endangered species in Canada — you don’t have to be a media expert to calculate the odds of any of them focusing laser beams of popular conservationist energy, let alone becoming the topic of a children’s book.
Both as a children’s book and conservationist project, this is, of course, illustrated. The same kind of attempt to balance factual reality with charm that underlies the writing, is reflected in the copious and detailed illustrations. The illustrations, in fact, are at least as much a labour of love as the writing. Any reader who has made even a passing attempt at daubing a bit of paint on canvas will appreciate the vast labour that has been lavished on the detailed illustrations. Not just the bears themselves — and their densely detailed fur, for example — but the trees and plants, are often given a (roughly) photographic treatment. It is not surprising to read that photographs “informed” the illustrations (though what that means is a little unclear.) Most of the illustrations, in fact, have the look of being replications of photos, some more successful than others. Some of the illustrations, further, are an unusual montage of photos (usually foliage) and painting, almost with the appearance of a scrapbook.
Noticeably, again, the illustrations implicitly encourage children to find bears charming rather than grisly. Like the writing, the illustrations are gentle, calm and a little misleading. The artist seems to have made the cubs’ eyes slightly larger than mother nature designed, and captured their faces as mostly winsome or even smiling, sometimes framed by flowers or berries. They are shown snoozing, tussling, or eating. Who wouldn’t want to protect creatures like these?
Clearly, this is the kind of book that will especially appeal to those who have been to the Grouse Mountain centre or hope to go. It tells an interesting story carefully and calmly. Unquestionably sincere and well-motivated, it will mostly engage children who love animals and like to know more about these grizzlies, rather than those who want a story of danger, comedy, or feats propelled by magic or superpowers. Doting grandparents will happily snap it up as a memento after an outing to the refuge, later packaging it up as a gift to appear at a birthday party or under a tree.
*
Born on Vancouver Island, Theo Dombrowski grew up in Port Alberni and studied at the University of Victoria and later in Nova Scotia and London, England. With a doctorate in English literature, he returned to teach at Royal Roads, the University of Victoria, and finally at Lester Pearson College at Metchosin. He also studied painting and drawing at the Banff School of Fine Arts and at UVic. Theo Dombrowski is the author and illustrator of popular guide, travel, and hiking books including Secret Beaches of the Salish Sea (Heritage House, 2012), Seaside Walks of Vancouver Island (Rocky Mountain Books, 2016), and Family Walks and Hikes of Vancouver Island — Volume 1: Victoria to Nanaimo, and Volume 2: Nanaimo North to Strathcona Park (Rocky Mountain Books, 2018). Theo lives at Nanoose Bay.
*
Lost Boy by Shelley Hrdlitschka
(Orca $14.95)
Review by Carol Anne Shaw
Each day is much like the previous one in Unity. Seventeen-year-old Jon must spend hours toiling in fields, working construction, caring for younger siblings, and studying the scriptures under the watchful eye of The Prophet.
The Prophet cannot be questioned. But, at seventeen, Jon finds himself wondering why a man should have at least three wives before he can get into heaven; why short-sleeved shirts are forbidden, along with listening to music of any kind.
After being caught kissing a girl, Jon decides he must leave Unity before he is banished.
That’s the set-up for Lost Boy, Shelley Hrdlitschka’s sequel to Sister Wife (Orca, 2008) which was set in the same fictitious polygamous community.
After hitchhiking to the nearby town of Springdale, Jon is taken in by Abigail, a former Unity member who has made it her mission to help the “polgys” or “lost boys.” She, too, has strict rules, but unlike The Prophet’s, hers are fair and evenly balanced. Everyone is treated with kindness and respect.
With Abigail’s encouragement, Jon manages to find work in construction. He discovers he is way out of his depth. He misses his family, and he misses the predictability of his former days. His new world is foreign and unsettling. A stranger to formal schooling, Jon falls behind with his studies. He has never been taught to think critically. It isn’t long before Jon finds himself spiraling into a life of drugs, alcohol, and homelessness.
While Jon’s descent into addiction is quick, it feels authentic. Lost Boy is told in first person/present tense—a style that places the reader right in the middle of the drama and action.
Part two begins with a bit of a jolt. Jon has clearly hit the skids. He’s living in a crappy apartment, drinking at work, smoking pot, and there are girls.
“…Charlie tosses me a beer, and I snag it out of the air. I shouldn’t have another one. I’ve already had a few and have to work in the morning, but I’m the only one here who has to get up early, so it’s not like I’m going to get any sleep anyway. The couch is my bed, and it’s groaning under the weight of the people crowded on it. Now I know why this place is called a butt hut.
…I’m on the couch with my arm around Belle. She’s snuggled in deep. Pot always makes her mellow. I hope she’s planning to stay all night on this couch with me.”
Bright and compassionate, Jon must not only learn how the “real world” works; more importantly, he has to learn who he is without the narrow-minded programming of The Prophet. This story credibly shows how easy it can be to fall into hard times when you have no real sense of who you are.
Compelling and well-written, Lost Boy had me on #TeamJon right from the get-go. The novel ends with potential for a third story about the young people who grew up in Unity—the girls in particular. 9781459816374
Carol Anne Shaw is the author of the “Hannah” books, all from Ronsdale Press. She lives in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.
DATE OF BIRTH: July 22, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH: Vancouver, BC
AWARDS: Dancing Naked: ALA Quick Pick 2000, CLA/ YA Honour Book 2002, White Pine Award (Ontario Readers Choice Award) 2002.
Allegra by Shelley Hrdlitschka was nominated for YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list. YALSA is a division of the American Library Association.
In 2008, Shelley Hrdlitschka introduced the fictional, polygamous community of Unity with her novel, Sister Wife, nominated for a Governor General's Award. Its Bountiful-like leader called the Prophet had 26 wives and 90 children. Fifteen-year-old Celeste instinctually questions the strict doctrines and befriends a mutually skeptical boy, Jon. Caught kissing, he runs away before he can be banished by the Prophet. In a sequel, Lost Boy (Orca 2018), Jon is unprepared for life outside Unity and struggles with alcohol, drugs and homelessness.
***
***
BOOKS:
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: The True Adventures of Coola and Grinder (Orca 2019) $19.95 978-1-77203-277-2. With Rae Schidlo. Illustrations by Linda Sharp.
Lost Boy (Orca 2018) $14.95 978-1-4598-1637-4
Dancing in the Rain (Orca 2016) Ages 12+ $14.95 9781459810655
Allegra (Orca 2013) $12.95 978-1-4598-0197-4
Sister Wife, 2008, Orca Book Publishers $12.95 9781551439273
Gotcha!, 2008, Orca Book Publishers
Sun Signs, 2005, Orca Book Publishers
Kat's Fall, 2004, Orca Book Publishers
Dancing Naked, 2001, Orca Book Publishers
Tangled Web, 2000, Orca Book Publishers
Disconnected, 1998, Orca Book Publishers
Beans on Toast, 1998, Orca Book Publishers
[BCBW 2018] "Kidlit"
REVIEW
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: The True Adventures of Coola and Grinder
by Shelley Hrdlitschka and Rae Schidlo, illustrated by Linda Sharp
Victoria: Heritage House, 2019
$19.95 / 9781772032772
Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski
*
Grizzly bear! Ursus arctos ! Or is it, more correctly, Ursus arctos horribilis? The first is the species name, the second the subspecies name. A glance at the two loveable cubs on the cover of a recent non-fiction children’s book makes it easy to guess which one its authors choose to give. Like much else in this book — clearly a labour of love — it reveals a lot about decisions made by its two authors and its illustrator, namely to ignore, gently, the horribilis nature of the subspecies.
First off, though, for readers not familiar with the story (much repeated in Vancouver news media), these are the essentials. In 2001, two orphaned grizzly cubs, one from British Columbia’s north coast, one from the interior, were taken into care. A veterinarian, hearing about them, initiated the building of a refuge high on Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain (in winter a ski resort). Since then, their growth and behaviour has been closely observed, directly by the public in summer and indirectly by infrared camera during the winter months of “dormancy” (not quite hibernation.) Local media and tourist sites seem to be particularly taken with reporting and photographing the grizzlies’ coming out of dormancy in the spring.
Grinder, rescued from Invermere, B.C. Painting by Linda Sharp
Besides not using the term “horribilis,” the authors have, calculatedly, left out other bits and pieces of information. First, they keep their focus very much on the bears rather than on the humans involved in their wellbeing. From the loggers who found one cub, to the vet who initiated the building of the refuge, to the “human caregivers” who look after the bears, all remain shadowy. Some of them are named in the Acknowledgements, but none in the story itself.
More strikingly, though, the authors decide not to report, for example, that two other cubs were (briefly) brought to the shelter in 2002, or that an attempt to integrate wolves into the shelter led to a violent end when, in full view of the public, one of the bears dispatched the wolf. Understandably, too, the book skirts other uncomfortable issues, like the facts that, before this attempt at sheltering the animals, orphaned grizzlies were (apparently) killed, or that some animal activists have questioned the nature of the programme.
Further to create a positive mood, the authors generally choose to write as if they were narrating a tale. The book begins, “A tiny grizzly bear cub stumbled out of the forest and lurched across the logging road.” Throughout, the writing style is simple and the tone quiet:
They enjoy each other’s company. Even when they sleep they are usually side by side…..
Sometimes they play fight with their huge mouths open, trying to grab the other’s thick fur around the neck. Sometimes Grinder is like a pesky young brother and invades Coola’s space even when Coola is napping.
Coola and Grinder. Painting by Linda Sharp
The story of the grizzlies emphasizes their endearing behaviour. They tussle and tease, they bob for roots in a pond, they float on their backs while grabbing their toes.
Also reinforcing the book’s steady calm is the fact that much of the content — not the form — would sit comfortably in a magazine or newspaper. In fact, some younger readers (at least based on four samples!) may find the book a little fact-based, a little external. Indeed, some sections sound almost text bookish: “Coastal bears … tend to be bigger than interior bears …. because their diet includes more protein, mainly in the form of salmon.”
Considered only as a book to engage children and to fulfil no other purpose, The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain is targeted toward a particular kind of child. Most enthusiasts of children’s literature (and both authors have had experience, one as an author) recognize that many children are most engaged when they shake in their boots. From Grimm’s fairy tales to Disney classics, children’s eyes pop and their hearts race as they encounter the horrible and, yes, grisly. Some young readers of a book about grizzlies would no doubt love to be just a little frightened. Killing a wolf stone cold with a single swipe of a giant, clawed foreleg, for example, would be exactly the kind of stuff that would do the trick.
Photo courtesy of Shelley Hrdlitschka
Grinder
Another decision made by the authors that suggests their aiming at particular kind of reader, is not to engage in imaginative speculation or to enter the point of view of the animals. The writers of children’s fiction, of course, generally do both. A writer of children’s fiction is likely to have invented a narrative about the way each cub experienced the joys and terrors of the first months of life, and, even more, how each suffered a harrowing loss of mother and siblings, all through the animals’ eyes.
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain uses no such tactics. Indeed, doing so would have betrayed the basic principles of authenticity that the writers embrace.
The closest the authors come to betraying objectivity is in a photofolder that comes as a kind of appendix. Here, photos of the bears with striking expressions are captioned with speech bubbles the way humorous scrap-bookers apply captions to photos of venerable aunts and bemused babies. The joke here, though, is arguably chiefly on those who dibble with photos.
The conservationist project is further reflected in the inclusion of two graphically colourful maps and a list of grizzly facts, headed “Did You Know?” With these diversions the authors take additional steps to develop a relish for the solid reality lying behind both the particular circumstances of these two grizzlies, and grizzlies in general. To know them, as we appreciate, is to love them.
Again, though, it is clear that in selecting the particular facts to report, the authors wish to emphasize only fairly benign biological features. We like, and want to protect, that which we know, understand, and find fascinating.
It is obvious why facts about the crushing strength of the jaws (Wikipedia reports 84 kg per square centimetre!), the killing power of a swipe of heavily clawed forelegs, or the battles to the death of male grizzlies are not included in the “Did You Know?” section. It is additionally obvious why the authors steer well clear of any “facts” about human/bear interactions. The news media and Hollywood, after all, do an enthusiastic job of reporting nightmare-inducing details of bear attacks. Think: horriblis.
Clearly, this book’s driving force is to record the efforts of the Grouse Mountain project, yes, but also to propel the principles of wildlife conservation. Using a calmly narrated, feel-good children’s book as the conduit for both of these seems a reasonable method. From a purely conservationist point of view, however, the selection of grizzlies as subject matter raises some issues. Indeed, some conservationists feel that focusing on “charismatic megafauna” can distract from the need for broad-reaching conservation. (e.g. https://theweek.com/articles/450037/why-want-save-whales-but-not-crickets).
Winter hibernation on Grouse Mountain. Painting by Linda Sharp
Shelley Hrdlitschka reading at Word Vancouver, 2018
From a Canadian perspective, of course, it is polar bears, not grizzlies, that are the main poster boys (and mammas) of the conservation movement, though orcas, “spirit bears,” woodland caribou, and grizzlies do crowd eagerly into the media. In contrast, the bat populations decimated by white-nose syndrome don’t exactly hit the headlines. As for freshwater mussels, the Olympia oyster, or the American eel — all endangered species in Canada — you don’t have to be a media expert to calculate the odds of any of them focusing laser beams of popular conservationist energy, let alone becoming the topic of a children’s book.
Both as a children’s book and conservationist project, this is, of course, illustrated. The same kind of attempt to balance factual reality with charm that underlies the writing, is reflected in the copious and detailed illustrations. The illustrations, in fact, are at least as much a labour of love as the writing. Any reader who has made even a passing attempt at daubing a bit of paint on canvas will appreciate the vast labour that has been lavished on the detailed illustrations. Not just the bears themselves — and their densely detailed fur, for example — but the trees and plants, are often given a (roughly) photographic treatment. It is not surprising to read that photographs “informed” the illustrations (though what that means is a little unclear.) Most of the illustrations, in fact, have the look of being replications of photos, some more successful than others. Some of the illustrations, further, are an unusual montage of photos (usually foliage) and painting, almost with the appearance of a scrapbook.
L-R: Shelley Hrdlitschka, Linda Sharp, Rae Schidlo
Noticeably, again, the illustrations implicitly encourage children to find bears charming rather than grisly. Like the writing, the illustrations are gentle, calm and a little misleading. The artist seems to have made the cubs’ eyes slightly larger than mother nature designed, and captured their faces as mostly winsome or even smiling, sometimes framed by flowers or berries. They are shown snoozing, tussling, or eating. Who wouldn’t want to protect creatures like these?
Clearly, this is the kind of book that will especially appeal to those who have been to the Grouse Mountain centre or hope to go. It tells an interesting story carefully and calmly. Unquestionably sincere and well-motivated, it will mostly engage children who love animals and like to know more about these grizzlies, rather than those who want a story of danger, comedy, or feats propelled by magic or superpowers. Doting grandparents will happily snap it up as a memento after an outing to the refuge, later packaging it up as a gift to appear at a birthday party or under a tree.
Bears in summer. Painting by Linda Sharp
*
Born on Vancouver Island, Theo Dombrowski grew up in Port Alberni and studied at the University of Victoria and later in Nova Scotia and London, England. With a doctorate in English literature, he returned to teach at Royal Roads, the University of Victoria, and finally at Lester Pearson College at Metchosin. He also studied painting and drawing at the Banff School of Fine Arts and at UVic. Theo Dombrowski is the author and illustrator of popular guide, travel, and hiking books including Secret Beaches of the Salish Sea (Heritage House, 2012), Seaside Walks of Vancouver Island (Rocky Mountain Books, 2016), and Family Walks and Hikes of Vancouver Island — Volume 1: Victoria to Nanaimo, and Volume 2: Nanaimo North to Strathcona Park (Rocky Mountain Books, 2018). Theo lives at Nanoose Bay.
*
Rae Schidlo and Shelley Hrdlitschka
REVIEW
Lost Boy by Shelley Hrdlitschka
(Orca $14.95)
Review by Carol Anne Shaw
Each day is much like the previous one in Unity. Seventeen-year-old Jon must spend hours toiling in fields, working construction, caring for younger siblings, and studying the scriptures under the watchful eye of The Prophet.
The Prophet cannot be questioned. But, at seventeen, Jon finds himself wondering why a man should have at least three wives before he can get into heaven; why short-sleeved shirts are forbidden, along with listening to music of any kind.
After being caught kissing a girl, Jon decides he must leave Unity before he is banished.
That’s the set-up for Lost Boy, Shelley Hrdlitschka’s sequel to Sister Wife (Orca, 2008) which was set in the same fictitious polygamous community.
After hitchhiking to the nearby town of Springdale, Jon is taken in by Abigail, a former Unity member who has made it her mission to help the “polgys” or “lost boys.” She, too, has strict rules, but unlike The Prophet’s, hers are fair and evenly balanced. Everyone is treated with kindness and respect.
With Abigail’s encouragement, Jon manages to find work in construction. He discovers he is way out of his depth. He misses his family, and he misses the predictability of his former days. His new world is foreign and unsettling. A stranger to formal schooling, Jon falls behind with his studies. He has never been taught to think critically. It isn’t long before Jon finds himself spiraling into a life of drugs, alcohol, and homelessness.
While Jon’s descent into addiction is quick, it feels authentic. Lost Boy is told in first person/present tense—a style that places the reader right in the middle of the drama and action.
Part two begins with a bit of a jolt. Jon has clearly hit the skids. He’s living in a crappy apartment, drinking at work, smoking pot, and there are girls.
“…Charlie tosses me a beer, and I snag it out of the air. I shouldn’t have another one. I’ve already had a few and have to work in the morning, but I’m the only one here who has to get up early, so it’s not like I’m going to get any sleep anyway. The couch is my bed, and it’s groaning under the weight of the people crowded on it. Now I know why this place is called a butt hut.
…I’m on the couch with my arm around Belle. She’s snuggled in deep. Pot always makes her mellow. I hope she’s planning to stay all night on this couch with me.”
Bright and compassionate, Jon must not only learn how the “real world” works; more importantly, he has to learn who he is without the narrow-minded programming of The Prophet. This story credibly shows how easy it can be to fall into hard times when you have no real sense of who you are.
Compelling and well-written, Lost Boy had me on #TeamJon right from the get-go. The novel ends with potential for a third story about the young people who grew up in Unity—the girls in particular. 9781459816374
Carol Anne Shaw is the author of the “Hannah” books, all from Ronsdale Press. She lives in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.
Articles: 6 Articles for this author
Beans on Toast (Orca $7.95) & Disconnected (Orca $7.95)
Info
Madison crams a lifetime of growing up into two weeks at Band Camp in Beans on Toast (Orca $7.95), a first novel by Shelley Hrdlitschka. With her parents' divorce and her recent move to the West Coast, making friends hasn't been easy for Madison-and she finds it isn't much easier at camp.
Hrdlitschka is a former teacher whose second novel, Disconnected (Orca $7.95), concerns 'psychokinesis'. Two boys are inexplicably drawn together from a great distance. 1-55143-116-5
[BCBW WINTER 1998]
Tangled Web (Orca $8.95)
Review
I know where you live. A single sentence on a sheet of paper in Tangled Web (Orca $8.95) plunges 15-year-old twins Alex and Tanner into danger, and, once again, their lives depend on outsmarting the vicious criminal Hap. First introduced in Disconnected, the brothers, separated at birth and only recently reunited, struggle for common ground.
Tanner is confident, impulsive, while Alex, who's endured a rougher life, is justifiably cautious, yet they share a rare psychic power. That power may be all that can save them, as the boys discover Hap's diabolical reach has infiltrated Tanner's Internet search for their birth mother and a suspicious medical study of twins.
Surrey author Shelley Hrdlitschka, a teacher for many years, discovered a love of children's literature during the daily storytime. Her first book Beans on Toast, chronicles a girl surviving her parent's divorce as she struggles to find her place in a new world. 1-55143-178-5
[BCBW 2000]
Dancing Naked (Orca $8.95)
Review
Shelley Hrdlitschka hoped to call her teen novel Dancing Naked in the Moonlight, but it sounded too much like a romance novel. The title was shortened to Dancing Naked (Orca $8.95) by her publisher. Now the grade-12- boy hired to create the book's website is having trouble getting the name accepted by some search engines--because the novel about a teenage pregnancy might be a porn link. The irony does not escape Hrdlitschka (pronounced Herda-lich-ka). Dancing Naked reflects her worries as a parent that sex is everywhere-advertising come-ons are rampant-in a world that expects kids to be abstinent. "I'm writing teen fiction and I have teenage daughters,"; she says, "so sometimes I wonder if I'm writing out my nightmares.";
Kia, the 16-year-old lead character in Dancing Naked, gets pregnant, having properly used a condom during her first and only tryst. The father of her child is not a mature, responsible or even particularly likeable guy. Maybe it is a mistake to sleep with someone for their looks, but that's hardly an error made only by adolescents.
At the hospital for her baby's birth, Kia visits an 80-year-old woman named Grace who is dying of cancer. They first met when Kia had volunteered at a senior's 'home.' Confined to a wheelchair, Grace tells Kia a story from her own youth. "Our heads are often at odds with our bodies,"; Grace tells Kia, "and it doesn't change in old age. I still feel young at heart. I'd like to jump out of this wheelchair and dance naked in the moonlight, but, obviously I can't. When I was young and lithe, I didn't, because my head told my body not to. Now it's the other way around.";
Shelley Hrdlitschka lives in a quiet North Vancouver neighbourhood, wholesome not wealthy, where bear attacks used to be her primary worry. Now her concerns are broader. Dancing Naked includes a fabulously gay youth group leader, Justin, both sides of the abortion issue, Kia, who is overcome by physical desires, and Grace, the octogenarian who regrets she never danced naked in the moonlight.
It's one thing to discuss Madonna as a feminist, but how can a young person really figure out the complicated ways that sex is power, without getting it all mixed up?
Help is needed. As a member of the Unitarian Church, Hrdlitschka is not keen on judging and preaching or forcing models of behaviour onto young people. Instead she tries to empathize with the tough choices they face. Hrdlitschka respects the curiosities of the body, while doing everything she can to inform the mind. "If you talk to a 16-year-old, you'd be amazed at how naïve they really are. The way I address it as a parent, and this comes through loud and clear in the book, is through education.";
Her oldest daughter attends a human sexuality course called OWL at the Unitarian Church. It's a 26-week course, and the acronym stands for 'Our Whole Lives.' "They address everything you can imagine,"; says Hrdlitschka, "By the end of it kids have absolutely no questions anymore. The idea of practicing putting on a condom with a banana is such a great idea! Most of us learn at the wrong time.";
For a girl, who can start to feel that acting out sexually is part of being a 'modern woman,' part of asserting herself, part of gaining equality with men, sexuality brings with it complicated issues.
"I think most parents would rather their children become adults before being sexually active, but how can you really expect that in the society we live in? My kids watch re-runs of Friends while I'm making dinner at night, and that's all about sex. My nine-year-old sits there, taking it all in. As for books, I would never tell my kids they can't read something. I find that when they're not ready for something they don't read it anyway.";
After becoming pregnant, Kia almost has an abortion. She jumps off the medical table at the last moment, crying out for them to stop. This is the closest Hrdlitschka comes to expressing her opinion on the procedure.
The challenge now is to get Dancing Naked in the proper hands. Hrdlitschka hopes it will be used as a vehicle of discussion between a mother and daughter.
"We used to live in Surrey, and there is no way our kids would have read this book in their class. I don't ever try to talk down to teens and I don't have a certain 'teen fiction' style. It's the story that matters most. You don't dumb it down, you just choose something they care about. Sex is definitely one of those things.";
Hrdlitschka got to share the process of writing with her daughters, who advised her at the dinner table if a certain idea was boring or silly. Her oldest daughter helped revise the email sections of the book, putting the email letters into proper teen talk.
"It's important to tell a well-paced story. Kids who are used to instant messaging and DVD's won't wade through boring parts. It's called writing books for the instant gratification generation.";
Dancing Naked follows Hrdlitschka's Beans on Toast, about a teenage girl coping with her parents' divorce, and two novels about twin teenage boys who were separated at birth, Disconnected and Tangled Web. Dancing 1-55143-210-2; Disconnected 1-55143-105-X; Tangled Web 1-55143-178-5
[Lisa Kerr / BCBW 2001]
Sun Signs
synopsis (2005)
Told in the form of online communications, Sun Signs (Orca, $9.95) by Shelley Hrdlitschka follows the struggles of 15-year-old cancer patient Kayleigh Wyse who is unable to attend school while she undergoes chemotherapy and radiation. In order to complete a science project on astrology, she enlists the help of other on-line learners, assuming everyone is as truthful as herself. She slowly realizes the world of the internet is about as unreliable as astrological predictions based on ever-shifting heavens. 1-55143-338-9
[BCBW 2005]
Allegra by Shelley Hrdlitschka (Orca $12.95)
Review (2013)
Don't stand so close to me. At what point does a teenage crush on a teacher cross the line? When does a teacher's support and admiration of a student become suspect?
These are the questions Shelley Hrdlitschka explores in Allegra, her ninth novel for teen readers.
"In music, the term allegro means 'lively, with a happy air,'"; says Mr. Rocchelli. The music teacher, with the faded jeans and the dimples, smiles at Allegra. "Does that describe you?";
"I think that's what my parents were hoping when they named me,"; Allegra mutters. It's only the first morning at Deer Lake School for the Fine and Performing Arts and already the place is a disappointment.
"And?"; prompts Mr. Rocchelli.
"I let them down,"; Allegra says.
Allegra's mother is a harpist in the symphony and her father is the bass player for a band called the Loose Ends. Her mother is all for classical training while her dad, self-taught, would scoff at someone like Mr. Rocchelli. Her dad's been performing for years while her mother's only recently gotten work as a musician. But it was her mother who made her complete the "highest level of piano performance"; at the National Music Academy before she'd consider letting Allegra study dance. Allegra's gotten math and biology out of the way at summer school and now she just wants whatever academics she needs to graduate. It doesn't make sense she has to take a lame music theory course, especially since she could fill that block with another dance class. You'd think a high school for the arts would get that.
She can write the final exam immediately, Mr. Rocchelli tells Allegra, and she has to concede "how nice he looks when he smiles."; Acing the exam still doesn't get her out of his class but he promises something "really special."; The project turns out to be a melody he's composed. "It's like a black-and-white sketch,"; he tells her. "I want you to turn it into a full- colour painting.";
Meanwhile, things are getting worse between her parents. Her dad's on the road so much her mom always gets this "weird kind of nervousness"; when he's about to come home. It's more than that, though. There's a simmering undercurrent Allegra can't quite read. But she has an idea it might have something to do with one of the guys in the symphony, the one named Marcus who drives her mother to performances.
Still, some of the kids at school aren't so bad. Tall skinny Spencer, for one. And the project Mr. Rocchelli proposed-expanding his melody into a full orchestrated version-is more fulfilling than Allegra imagined it would be. Soon she and Rocky-as he invites the kids to call him-are spending more and more time together working alone in the studio, caught up in the music and Allegra's startling talent, a talent way beyond her teenage years. Then everything begins to fall apart. She and Spencer aren't friends anymore, her dad's moved out. But Allegra's still got Noel.
That's Rocky's real first name. And then another student accuses Allegra and Mr. Rocchelli of an inappropriate relationship. Has she destroyed his career? His life? And what has she done to herself? In the dark days that follow, when there is "no reason to get out of bed"; and "dancing is pointless,"; Allegra discovers solace-and redemption-in an unexpected source. Her father.
Shelley Hrdlitschka's other novels include Kat's Fall, where 15-year-old Darcy must come to terms with his mother's horrific crime-throwing his sister from a fifth floor balcony-and Sister Wife, an exploration of the enforced plural marriage of young girls.
Shelley Hrdlitschka came to writing as a school teacher. 978-1-4598-0197-4
Louise Donnelly writes from Vernon.
"Recently I felt compassion for the Sechelt teacher, Heather Ingram, when I read Risking It All, the story of her relationship with a student. The media made mincemeat of her at the time, and I'm as disgusted as the next person when a teacher preys on a vulnerable student, but we're often too quick to judge before we have all the facts.
"I received many hugs from my students when I was teaching, back in the '80s, and my own daughters have given and received hugs from caring teachers. None of these were ever inappropriate but a male teacher friend confessed that he squirmed the entire time he was reading Allegra, not knowing where the teacher/student relationship was headed. He said he kept reflecting on all the times he'd been put into awkward positions by his own students, both male and female. When he wants to reach out and show genuine caring to his students-a quick hug or even a squeeze on the arm-he has to hold back for fear of his intentions being misconstrued.
"I understand why strict guidelines are now in place, yet it's unfortunate that it has to be this way, and I suspect that many teachers will continue to reach out with human touch and kindness when it is called for in the classroom.";
- Shelley Hrdlitschka
Louise Donnelly
Dancing in the Rain by Shelley Hrdlitschka (Orca $14.95)
Review (2016)
Shelley hrdlitschka hit it out of the park with Dancing Naked (Orca 2002), a YA novel about a young girl's course through pregnancy and her eventual decision to adopt her child to another family. Fans wrote and asked, What happened to the baby? followed by, What happened to the BABY?? but Hrdlitschka had no intention of following it up with a sequel
Then, four years ago, a young woman wrote to Hrdlitschka saying she had been moved by Dancing Naked as a teenager and had faithfully been combing the shelves ever since, looking for the next book. "She was in her twenties!"; says Hrdlitschka. "She had kept waiting for ten years.";
That has given rise to Dancing in the Rain, the story of that baby, sixteen years later, when Brenna, her adoptive father and adoptive sister are trying to pick up the pieces after Brenna's adoptive mother, Joanna, has succumbed to fast-moving breast cancer.
Before and after her mother's illness, Brenna volunteers at the wildlife refuge on Grouse Mountain, where her mother used to work. This job grounds her; it keeps her putting one foot in front of the other, as she moves through grief.
As Brenna commutes from the bottom of the hill to the grizzly bear enclosure every Saturday, she gets to know a friendly Australian tram operator named Ryan, who adored Joanna as a sort of surrogate mother while he was away from home.
As part of his own healing in the wake of his own mother's struggle with drugs and alcohol, and his brother's death in a car accident, Ryan takes Brenna under his wing, convincing her to hike the Grouse Grind as a way of dealing with the grief. Brenna accepts; a friendship turns romantic.
Ryan provides strong support for Brenna as she watches her younger sister, Naysa, try to drink and party the pain away. Brenna's hurdles include navigating a new life with an empty chair at the dining room table and reading the journal that her birth mother, Kia, had kept during the time she was pregnant with Brenna.
The journal is tougher than the Grouse Grind. Brenna tries to understand the forces at work in Kia's life that ultimately persuaded her to give her baby to another family to raise.
Alerted to Joanna's death by a mutual friend (the minister, Justin, for those who know the characters from the first book), Kia's sister Angie reaches out via Facebook. It rattles Brenna to have her birth aunt suddenly be in touch after all these years, but Angie is Brenna's only link to Kia, who isn't yet ready to reconnect with her daughter.
Angie gradually becomes a source of support for Brenna, helping to stabilize Naysa and drawing the aching family back together.
Although Ryan returns to Australia when his mother is discharged from rehab, he and Brenna maintain their connection, with him encouraging her to take part in a relay on Grouse to raise funds for breast cancer research.
We can't reveal what happens next, whether the past can be reconciled with the future. Suffice to say Hrdlitschka is once again trotting around all four bases.
Dancing in the Rain is an uplifting, heartwarming book that reminds young readers to look outside themselves for support when times get hard.
Adoption is an issue close to Hrdlitschka's heart because she has three adopted siblings. "In my extended family, there are all kinds of adoptions,"; she says, "and many across race lines.";
Hrdlitschka sprinkles some good guidance around, showing her characters making good and not-so-good choices from which they learn. Everybody hurts, and nobody's life is perfect-not even in the end. But it's real. And there's a real beauty in that. 978-1-4598-1065-5
Alex Van Tol is the author of Aliens Among Us: Invasive Animals and Plants in B.C.
Alex Van Tol
