Author: Lisa Helm

Fayne

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Ann Marie MacDonald

Well, I’ve been procrastinating about reviewing this one. Not because I hated it but because I loved it. And it is a long read deserving of engaging discussion and the investment of a reread. (and I hardly EVER reread novels). Ann Marie MacDonald is a force. Her creative brain is astounding. Her writing is filled with facts and philosophy, plot and poetry. She is a perfect mentor author who has written the ideal mentor text limitless in its potential for literary, thematic or personal discussion.

The novel is set in the late 1800’s. Our protagonist is Charlotte, a precocious child who spends days rambling about the family estate. Charlotte, motherless, loves her father immensely. But as Charlotte gets older, her curiosity and aspirations become too large for her father and the social constraints at the time; she is, after all, a girl and, therefore, should be raised to be a proper wife with no fanciful notions of pursuing academia. Aaaand, her curiosity may lead her to discover the unspoken truth behind her mother and her own identity. 

This novel was so good that I didn’t want to put it down, so I also purchased the audio copy, and both listened and read. I was so glad I did. The author herself narrates the novel, and may I say that it is one of the most engaging narrations I’ve ever listened to. I felt as though I was in seventh grade again, and my teacher was reading the Hobbit aloud….mesmerizing. And It made me appreciate the writing even more.

This novel discusses themes of identity, family, friendship, the confinement of social norms, gender issues, and legacy. 

Fayne is definitely a holiday read. Christmas holidays or summer so that you can devote the time to read/listen to it in its entirety. This novel is one of my favourite novels of all time… so far. : )

The First Date

~ Lisa Helm ~ 1 Comment

The sun and warmth of this fall on the coast have made me nostalgic.
I’m taken back…. to a time long ago when I was eighteen and on a first date with a boy who was gasp five years older than me.
One warm Sunday afternoon, he picked me up in his mother’s car, a white sedan with a burgundy interior. The day before, he had told me,
“Wear something you don’t mind getting wet.” he smiled as he lazily leaned against the counter of the “Pic-a-dilly Malt and Donut Shop” where I worked for the summer.
After hours of sorting through my closet the next day, I finally wore jean shorts and a tee shirt over a tank top. The tee shirt was grey.
And off we drove to the river. Where we floated and talked and enjoyed the silence and the sun.
There was only one inner tube, so we had to sit close.
The water was shallow and slow, and the afternoon was filled with hope and promise.
In three weeks, I was leaving home for university. I was nervous and excited to be off on my own and have the entire world open before me.
The future seemed filled with all sorts of possibilities and promises.
I wonder how I can capture this same feeling decades later, when the year is coming to its end when it seems that I must “return” rather than “go forward.”.
But,
I guess,
if I look closely enough, what lies ahead are promises of another kind.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Lina Rather

Sarah Davis is an apprentice midwife with a troubled past. It’s 17th-century England, and something darkly strange is happening. Children are born deformed, some with wings, some horns, and even some with tails and several eyes. It seems as though the border between the natural world and the unnatural world is becoming blurred. Not to mention, it was a time when accusations and executions for witchcraft were commonplace. Sarah, as well as being a midwife, has powers that allow her to persuade others to do what she wants…like walking into fire.
When Sarah becomes midwife to the wife of famous architect Christopher Wren, she soon realizes that Wren plans to use his child to serve a darker purpose.
The premise of this novel really intrigued me. It is a really short read, more of a novella, really. I wish the plot was more detailed and the characters more fleshed out. Because it is such a short novel, a few plot elements seemed irrelevant to the storytelling, and other elements that I feel should have been elaborated. On the whole, it is a good quick read.


Thank you to Thor Publishing and Netgalley for the free copy.

Those Crooked Days

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

Some days just seem crooked.

When everything is askew.

Walls look slanted.  Stairs are tipped.

You walk as if you’re missing a heel to you shoe.

Conversations seem unfinished or convoluted

and you can’t hold a thought long enough to keep it on any rails to speak of.

You cry when you should be laughing,

(you spell should “shood” when you know better)

and you’re awake when you should be sleeping but yet your alarm wakes you.

It’s snowing when there should be sun.

And it’s not as though you’ve been partaking in any libations,

no, (unfortunately)

it’s just the way the world seems to be this week.

And you wonder if it’s perception or reality.  Or your perception of reality clouded by exhaustion (or overthinking…or both)

And you hope for the curtain to be lifted and things to be clear and aligned so that tasks can be accomplished without befuddlement,

crisp

and clean

and complete.

By Brain is Like a Runaway Train

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes, my brain is like a runaway train.
Not the little namby-pamby one you see in some theme parks where it pretends to be out of control, and children squeal. No, in that one, you know you’re on a track that will take you safely back from whence you came. Instead, my brain is like an old, rickety locomotive carrying a full, heavy load of worries, fears and thoughts that have no apparent reason for existing and cannot be explained.
This locomotive uncontrollably plummets down the side of the mountain, scooping up wayward cattle in its cowcatcher or busting through landslides that have covered the rails.
Nonstop
on a maniacal mission.
Lurching and bumping and veering around corners at breakneck speed.
Any attempt at slowing down, let alone breaking, is ineffectual and a waste of time.
No distraction works.
As it turns out, the thing to do is to wait it out. To go with the momentum. Follow gravity without fighting. Trying not to get dizzy from the inability to focus on the landscape. Until I get to the bottom of the mountain
where I move from perpendicular to horizontal.
The train loses speed gradually until it comes to a complete stop, and I arrive at a resolution or at least an acceptance of sorts.
And I get off not too bad for wear.

In A Day

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

What a difference a day makes. Is this phrase a societal cliché? A lyric from an old song? Or maybe it’s a remnant from an old wives tale? Whatever the case, it seems to manifest itself often throughout life. Ten cases in point:

  1. In a day, you can go from being in love to suffering a broken heart.
  2. In a day, you can move from the whimsy of the summer holiday to the seriousness of work.
  3. In a day, you can go from feeling exhilarating independence to profound loneliness.
  4. In a day, you can be jolted from the complacency of routine to the anxiety of change.
  5. In a day, you can go from an empty page to reams of handwritten prose.
  6. In a day, you can mend fractured friendships.
  7. in a day, you can lose respect for someone you admire.
  8. In a day, you can find yourself halfway around the world.
  9. In a day, you can lose (and gain( the salt bloat caused by consuming a family-sized bag of potato chips.
  10. You can go from feeling insignificant and ineffectual to initiating incredible change just by facing everything that comes your way with grace.
    24 hours can hold a lot of power. Power to cause a myriad of emotions surrounding a hidden lesson. How profoundly human.

The Clinic

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Cate Quinn

If you’re looking for a psychological thriller that takes place almost entirely in an additional rehab clinic appropriately situated out in the boonies, of course (so that if something goes awry and, believe me, something DOES go awry), this is the book for you. 

Our main character is Meg, an interesting woman with an exciting job and an unhinged backstory. Meg is a professional poker player, and because she can “read” people, she works with law enforcement to combat cheaters and organized crime. Unfortunately, one consequence of her job is an oxycontin addiction. 

When Meg’s famous sister Haley dies at “the clinic”, everyone says it’s suicide; however, Meg knows her sister, and Haley would never kill herself. Instead, Megs believes Haley has been murdered. So, of course, Meg goes undercover to find the truth…and maybe in the battle her own addiction and defeat the demons from her past.

The Clinic is a novel filled with crazy patients and even crazier staff. Chapters alternate from Meg’s point of view to the point of view of Cara, the clinic’s administrator. I think Cara serves as the one character who presents the events of the plot from the most reliable point of view…or does she?

An engaging, intriguing read with twists and turns I didn’t see coming. An excellent, solid suspense story to add to your 2024 TBR list. 

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the Advanced Copy.

For Grace to Be in All My Steps

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

“Grace was in all her steps, Heav’n in her Eye, In every gesture dignity and love.”      John Milton

I’ve never wanted to be introduced as “the life of the party”.    No.  I’d rather be viewed as someone who is graceful and dignified and kind.  With glimmers of sharp wit flashing when you least expect it.   Sometimes graceful and dignified seem to be easy enough to cultivate but not so easy to maintain.  I have a quick temper.  And I can fall into a state of grumpiness that can last for days.

Why is grace sometimes difficult to sustain?  Why is it so easy to let the emotions of anger and pettiness rear their ugly and pitiful heads?  Most often from insecurity I’m sure.  The misconception that everyone is judging you.  And so what if they are?  Ever known people who have gone through friends like a box of tissue?  The ones who have defined themselves so stringently that misinterpret the actions and words as others as a direct attack on their view of themselves?  The people you just want to shake by the shoulders and say “it’s not them!  It’s you!  You are the common denominator.”

I know I don’t want to be one of those people.

I think most of us default to defining who we are by confidently knowing who we don’t want to be.

But back to grace and dignity.

How to make a response to a perceived indignation less visceral.  Stop.  Breathe.  Lower the voice (not menacingly so) but in a controlled manner.  Easier said than done.  Especially the breathing.  Difficult when all you want to do is rip someone’s head off and spit down his/her neck.  Which in itself is not very dignified.

And through it all to be consistent.  To be consistently graceful and dignified and not haphazardly so. Possessive of a calm, unruffled center.  Anchored in security of self.

This is what I’m working towards.

This is what I want to be.

2 New Books for Young People…or Anyone Really : )

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

The Otherwoods by Justine Pucella Winans

The Otherwoods is an incredibly engaging novel about a young person, River, who, in addition to trying to navigate the world as non-binary, also sees monsters….and spirits. For most of their life, River has been trying to avoid the portals that would suck him to a place where spirits and monsters rule supreme. Up until now, they have been successful in avoiding being drawn into these portals, steering away from any place that looks weird and definitely doesn’t acknowledge or making eye contact with any spirits or monsters at school or at home, which is almost impossible to do when one of them lives under your bed. When River’s crush gets sucked into a portal and “the Otherwoods”, River has to be brave and enter a world they have been spending their entire life trying to avoid. 

I found this novel almost allegorical, with the Otherwoods representing the real world filled with the “monsters” our LGBTQIA2S+ young people face. The character of River, their fears hurts, and loneliness creates empathy in the reader, and one can’t help but root for River’s defeat of not only the monsters but their insecurities. 

An important addition to any middle school library and classroom. 

Thank you to Bloomsbury Children’s and Netgalley for the free copy.

Tzia: the Book of Galatea by Mister Sanamon

A beautifully written fantasy novel about family, identity and discovery. Fourteen year old Theo boards an airplane to Greece with the hopes of finding her long lost family.  On board the plane, she encounters a strange old women who  tells Theo (through the wonderful use of caterpillar type creatures) about her heritage and about a quest she must take in order to save her world. This book reminded me A LOT of the Chronicles of Narnia. Descriptive language, a young protagonist, and a lion who will determine the fate of not only Theo but her ancestors, descendants and the mythical world of Tzia. 

A wonderful addition to any classroom library, a book club recommendation, read aloud or class study.

Thank you Netgalley and Hilverloo Publishing House for the free copy.

The Mystery Guest

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Nina Prose

Well, Nina Prose has done it again! If you loved her novel The Maid, you’ll love The Mystery Guest. We are back at the Regency Grand Hotel with Molly, now “Head Maid”. As Head Maid, Molly is responsible for preparing the tea room for the world-renowned, best-selling murder mystery writer J.D. Grimthorpe. As per Molly’s propensity, everything is perfect, that is until Mr Grimthorpe drops dead just as soon as he is about to make a news-shattering announcement. This time, Molly knows what to expect when a death occurs in her hotel, and she uses her acute observational skills to gather as much evidence as she can, not just because she wants to solve the case but because she doesn’t want the wrong person to get accused of the crime…like last time.
I absolutely loved being back with Molly. Nina Prose writes a good mystery rife with numerous suspects. In this novel, we also get a portion of Molly’s backstory when she was a little girl living with her Gran. Prose skillfully weaves this backstory and the present-day crime together so that I was engaged in both storylines. I also loved the plot developments that happened in the last third of the novel that lend themselves wonderfully to a third novel that I absolutely cannot wait to read!

You can pre-order The Mystery Guest which will in stores November 28th.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the free copy!

The Gray

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Chris Baron

If Middle School isn’t tough enough, Sasha also suffers from a condition that can, at times, get him into trouble. At first, Sasha seems to be a typical albeit shy middle schooler preoccupied with video games and texting his friend; however, we immediately learn that Sasha suffers extreme anxiety, which he tries to cope with through playing Earthfordge and watching YouTube videos for hours on end. This means of ‘escape through technology’ is not working, however. When Sasha is overwhelmed by anxiety, he goes to “the gray”, a place where he zones out and can hurt those around him. It is when Sasha enters “the gray” at school and beats a bully that his parents decide to take away all of his technology and send him to stay with his aunt out in the country. Sasha loves his aunt and does have fond memories of visiting his aunt and uncle until his uncle died two years ago. But his mom says his aunt “will look after [him] if [he’s] having a hard time,” and maybe he could “watch over her too”.

Throughout his visit, Sasha encounters several people, some of whom will become close friends and confidants and others who are just like the bullies he left at school. Through these encounters, Sasha learns that others around him encounter heart-wrenching life events that cause anxiety in them as well. Can he remember to manage his own “gray” while helping those he has begun to care for?

It is a wonderful novel that deals with anxiety in youth honestly and straightforwardly. Its characters are interesting and relatable, and it possesses many moments of suspense that propel the plot. A great addition to any middle schoolers’ reading list!!

When Giants Burn

by Beth Vrabel

This novel is told in alternate chapters from the point of view of two different characters. Gerty lives with her mother, father and little sister in a cabin “off the grid”. Her parents are survivalists, and her father is especially suspicious of the government and is ready to pack up and move at a moment’s notice. Gerty misses the life they had before when they celebrated Christmas, had reliable running water, and she didn’t have to sneak around to visit her pilot Grandmother. In fact, Gerty and her grandmother have a secret: they are building an ultralight airplane. Gerty is obsessed with flying and is considering joining the civilian air patrol (CAP). Still, with the types of parents she has, doing so looks highly impossible.

Our other narrator is Hayes. Hayes’s mother has just been released from prison, and he is trying to do everything he can not to end up like her. He is especially suspicious and fears she may commit another crime when his mom invites one of her friends, a past inmate, to visit.

Gerty and Hayes meet in the school counselor’s office when she attempts to help them build social skills, but neither kid is receptive to the idea. It is when Gerty shares her secret plans of building her plane and visiting Pando, an intricate system of trees originating from one organism believed to be one of the oldest on earth (Google Pando, it’s fascinating!!!) that two of them form a friendship that will prove to one essential to the survival of them both.

A fast paced book full of adventure. One of my favourite Middle School reads this summer.

Two Great Middle Grade Books

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

The Umbrella Makers Son by Katrina Leno

Leno creates an alternate world called Erde, where a young boy named Oscar Buckle lives with his father in a city called Roan in the country of Terra. In Roan, it rains. In fact, it rains so frequently that they have forty-seven types of rain. Oscar’s favourite rain is a gentle “web”, which sounds perfect for sitting indoors with a cup of tea and a book and watching it fall gently from the skies. One type of rain you do NOT want to encounter is a Blanderwheel…a Blanderwheel has the potential to be violent enough to kill you.

Oscar comes from a long line of umbrella makers. You would think that umbrella making would be a perfect business to be in, especially in the city of Roan. Alas, business hasn’t been great because of the competition; Brawn Industries (the makers of cheap umbrellas that break after one use) seems to have an edge on the market. Oscar may have to quit school to work with his father to make ends meet. On top of the financial crisis and being pulled from school, Oscar’s best friend Saige is moving far and away to a completely different area of Roan.

The one thing that gives Oscar just a wee bit of joy is the Night Market, when Oscar has one final good time with his best friend and forgets about his worries, even if it’s just for a couple of hours. But the Night Market proves to be more than just an outing for Oscar; he is given a quest of sorts by a visiting Seer who asks 11-year-old Oscar to find out why the rain in Roan has become potentially destructive. Is it environmental? Industrial sabotage? Or is magic afoot?

 This novel has so much potential for cross-curricular use. The multitude of images and footnotes adds an element of “historical text” to this fantasy fiction. The graphics and glossary give an Environmental Science and design bent. 

This is a wonderful novel filled with a tonne of potential for the classroom.

Opinions and Opossums by Ann Braden

Ok, I loved this book. Our main character Agnes is of the age where she is starting to attend Confirmation classes; the only thing is, she doesn’t think she believes in the same God that is portrayed in the Old Testament, a God that “punished Saul because he didn’t kill absolutely everyone? Who got mad at Eve for taking a bite of an apple?” (Braden pg. 26). In fact she finds inspiration and strength more so in the words of Maya Angelou “tell your truth to yourself first” than she does in the Old Testament. And horror upon horrors, she might actually believe God is a woman and not the old white man with a long flowing beard!! However, it is difficult for Agnes to converse with anyone about this heavy stuff because it goes against everything she is being taught in school and at church. The only adult she feels she can actually be herself with is the neighbour lady, Gracy, who is a wonderfully odd duck in her own way (just wait until you read about her obsession with opossums!). There is also her friend Mo, who is struggling to articulate who they are to a world that seems set on the status quo.

It is an important book in this age where dialogue, introspection and independent thought are vital. This novel has the potential for some incredible classroom discussion. Short, impactful and funny.

Whalefall

~ Lisa Helm ~ Leave a comment

by Daniel Kraus

Have you noticed that there have been a weird number of instances where paddleboarders or kayakers have narrowly missed being swallowed by a whale? What would happen upon ingestion? Would death be imminent? Would you be crushed by jaws or suffocated in the confines of the esophagus or stomach? Well, Whalefall is a novel where our main character, Jay, finds himself within the confines of a whale’s digestive tract.
Jay Gardiner believes that the only way can can reconcile himself with the suicide of his abusive father is to go on a solo scuba dive in the area where his father drowned recover his bones. Shortly into his dive, Jay spies a giant squid and is enthralled with the creature to the point of distraction. A sperm whale suddenly appears and swallows the squid sucking Jay into its mouth in the process. Once inside the whale, Jay realizes that he only has one hour left of air in his tank and, therefore, has to figure out a way to save himself before it’s too late.
Alone in the dark confines of the whale’s belly (one of its bellies), Jay is forced to confront the hatred he feels towards his father, the love he wishes he had, and the guilt that consumes him.
I read this novel in one evening. Very short chapters, a fast-pace, a sympathetic main character and a tonne of facts about the ocean, biology and the anatomy of whales make this an amazingly engaging read. This book is perfect for reluctant readers and/or as a read-aloud for junior and senior high school students. There is one chapter in particular where Jay has an emotional inner dialogue with the whale (or his father) that I would have two students read it aloud to the rest of the students (it is a truly emotionally raw and beautiful dialogue). . Kraus’s writing is wonderfully vivid and can be VERY descriptive regarding the gooey, bloody squishiness of the internal goings-on of a living being. And then, at times, descriptions are incredibly and poetically beautiful. For example:
It is the moon, pale blue, mottled, massive, dream legend. Rising. A ship of gods from primordial tar, yard after yard of wrinkled black bulk, a farce of size displacing the entire ocean. There’s an Omega shape in phosphorescent white, and Jay’s stupor permits the dull understanding that this crescent is a mouth, twenty feet of closed mouth and this obsidian skyscraper is no surfacing Atlantic. No colliding planet. It is a living thing. (Kraus pg 80). How amazing is this!!!

There’s a Trigger warning for mental, verbal and physical abuse and suicide.