Adult Non-Fiction
Reviewed by Michelle from the Altona Branch
Red River Girl chronicles the short life and untimely death of First Nations teen, Tina Fontaine. Winnipeg is close to home and this true crime book allows you to walk alongside the teen as her life turns into an investigation and becomes part of the inquest into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
This book is very well written and provides an honest portrayal of life as an Indigenous youth.
Christmas is right around the corner and while it is one of the biggest celebrations in North America, many cultures celebrate other holidays around this time of year. Check out our list of books on some of the different multicultural celebrations from around the world. As always, to place one of these books on hold, just click on the title and it will take you to the record in our online catalogue. To search our online catalogue, click here. For more help or information, contact your local branch.
Also, check out our story kits which include things like books, games and puzzles.
Multicultural Celebrations
Celebrate different holidays around the world, from Chinese New Year to Diwali, and from the Mexican Day of the Dead to American Thanksgiving.
Christmas is a popular holiday celebrated by people all over the world. This informative and engaging exploration of Christmas is aimed at the middle grades but will entertain readers of a much wider age range. Learn about the games played, foods eaten, music played and favorite ways of decorating in different parts of the world. With lots of fun facts (about everything from frumenty to the jolly old man in red himself) and recipes, there's plenty in this beautifully illustrated volume to satisfy anyone with an interest in the festive season.
Describes Christmas traditions in Mexico, Ethiopia, China, Germany, Lebanon, Sweden, Australia, and Russia.
Poems celebrating fourteen festivals observed around the world including Chinese New Year, Kwanzaa, Purim, and Tet-Nguyen-dan.
Hanukkah
Clifford and Emily Elizabeth are invited to celebrate Hanukkah with their friend Melissa. While at her house, they learn about Hanukkah traditions like lighting the menorah, eating latkes, playing dreidel, and singing songs. After dinner, they all go to see the giant menorah in the town square! But when the lights go out, Clifford just might be the only one big enough to save Hanukkah!
It's the Festival of Lights, and Mr. Fish is celebrating with his friends. Toddlers will love swimming along with the pout-pout fish as he turns little pouts into big smiles.
Al Rosen, a Jewish man, takes on the jobs of his Christian neighbors on Christmas Eve and day so they can spend the holiday with their families, starting a tradition that lasts for decades.
Follow along with the Llama family’s Hanukkah traditions as they light their menorah, spin the dreidel, fry latkes, and more. Laura Gehl’s lively rhyming text and Lydia Nichols’s vibrant illustrations make for a festive read. The book also features kid-friendly back matter, with expanded information on the holiday’s history and traditions.
Kwanzaa
Over the course of seven days, African Americans, families and friends, come together to light the candles that symbolize their past and future—and their unity. They gather as a community to make music and to dance; to feast on harvest foods and the good things of the earth; and to exchange simple, often homemade, gifts.
Li'l Rabbit searches for a gift for his grandmother when she is sick during Kwanzaa, and surprises her with the best gift of all. Includes The Nguzo Saba - The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. |
Adult Fiction
Reviewed by Janine from the Winkler Branch
The Strangers is the follow up novel to Katherena Vermette’s bestseller, The Break. The novel follows the women of the Stranger family as they navigate life, family relationships and loss. The story is told by three generations of Stranger women, who, throughout their struggles, show that the bonds of family can never really be broken. Margaret has always been smart and responsible, but life, including her oldest daughter Elsie, has been disappointing and she struggles with bitterness and anger as an older woman. Elsie, coddled by her Mamere (Margaret’s mother), never really learns to be responsible and can’t live up to the high expectations of her mother. She struggles with addiction and the desire to prove to herself that she can be worthy of her children and a better more responsible person. Elsie’s oldest daughter Phoenix gives birth to a son while in a detention centre and knows she will probably never get to see him grow up. She struggles with controlling her emotions and dealing with life in lock up. After spending time jumping from foster home to foster home, Elsie’s younger daughter Cedar goes to live with her dad, who finally seems to have straightened his life out after dealing with his own struggles as a young man. However, Cedar struggles to fit in with her new family and although they have more than she could have ever dreamed of, it doesn't make up for the fact that she is separated from her mom and her sister.
The story is told over a five year span, with each of the four Stranger women getting one chapter per year. I read this book in less than a week because it was so interesting. While at times hard to read, Vermette is an amazing story teller who paints a vivid picture of what life is like for the Stranger women. I also enjoyed the familiarity of the Winnipeg setting, which helped me to better visualize what was happening. Admittedly, I had a very hard time reading Margaret’s chapters. She had so much bitterness and anger over all the things that had gone wrong in her life that it clouded her perspective and affected the way she reacted to everything in her life. She was unable to enjoy anything good because she was so focused on the negative.
I read The Break a few years ago when it was one of the selections for Canada Reads and I remember being surprised at how much I liked the book. It wasn't something I would have normally read, but I was trying to read all of the Canada Reads books that year so I picked it up. When I saw that Vermette had a new book coming out this fall, I knew I had to read it too and it definitely did not disappoint. She captures the family dynamics so well and it is easy to empathize with the characters. Her writing style really brings the story to life and kept me captivated until the very end.
Adult Fiction
Inspirational/Mystery/Suspense
This is the first book in the four book Chesapeake Valor series.
Reviewed by Donna from the Miami Branch
Cold Shot is about four college friends, all working in different areas of law enforcement. The friends lose touch after a case goes bad and their friend Luke disappears. This causes Griffin, who had always wanted to be a police officer, to change paths and become a park ranger at Gettysburg. When Griffin finds a non Civil War era body at Gettysburg, Finley Scott, a forensic anthropologist, steps in to help. She knows this case was not an accident and the death was likely caused by a sniper. The past and present collide when Griffin's old friend Declan Grey, an FBI agent, steps in to take over the case. As all resources are brought in to help with the case, lost friendships are restored and each person gets to use their skills to help solve the case.
This book includes prayers but is not preachy, a love story that happens slowly with respect and dignity, as well as mystery and suspense. Each book in this series gets more and more exciting and they are all definitely must reads.
By Courtney Carver Adult Non-Fiction Reviewed by Jill from the Winkler Branch "Project 333 is an invitation to create space in your cl...
