Very Serious Children

Adderson, Caroline

Children's Books

Scholastic, Canada

A village is torn apart by its residents' inability to communicate, until a little girl shares the gift of punctuation in this humorous illustrated parable.\nChaos reigns in the village of Babble! All day, the residents fight, yell and argue, and no one is heard or understood . . . until a mysterious little girl arrives and gives the locals something very strange: a period. But what is this thing that looks like a freckle or a spot? The villagers don't even know how to ask. However, as the girl begins to share more gifts — a question mark, quotation marks — the residents slowly learn how to communicate. But when more fights arise and disaster strikes, can punctuation truly save the day?\nFrom School Library Journal\nK-Gr 4—The village of Babble makes no sense. Sentences and thoughts run together and there is no logic in speech. Then a small child with a mysterious bag of interesting symbols brings order to life and thought. In this humorous parable, periods, commas, question marks, and especially exclamation points help organize life and even save the life of a drowning child. Told in a fairy-tale format, this story humorously clarifies readers' age-old questions on the need for punctuation rules. The frightening message of "Soon we will eat Grandpa" can, with the simple addition of a comma, become the much more appetizing, "Soon we will eat, Grandpa." The illustrations in muted brown are hazy and of not much interest. But the story itself will make children laugh and learn in equal measure. VERDICT Recommended for classroom use as well as for independent reading; this useful parable teaches a memorable lesson on the necessity of good punctuation skills.—Eva Elisabeth VonAncken

Babble!: And How Punctuation Saved It

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

Tundra Books

Sitting Practice

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Headline/Review

It only takes a moment for your life to be changed forever—as the characters of this darkly comic novel discover early on. The fateful moment for the newlyweds Ross and Iliana comes with the freak automobile accident that leaves Iliana paralyzed, Ross grief-stricken, and both of them struggling to come to terms with a married life nothing like they originally had in mind. As the usually affable Ross struggles with guilt and with finding ways to cope with his newly fractured life, Iliana gets used to her unwelcome existence as a wheelchair-bound wife, to her husband’s growing sense of alienation, and to their awkward new lack of intimacy.What ultimately happens with Ross and Iliana is as unexpected and surprising as the fateful mishap that sets the events in motion in the first place. Sitting Practice is a clever and insightful study of love’s collision with harsh reality, told by an author with a remarkable instinct for the workings of human nature, a nimble gift for language, and the ability to find humor in the oddest places.

Trumpeter

Three and a half weeks after his wedding, Ross Alexander is driving home from a tennis game with his new bride when a wayward tennis ball rolls under his feet. As his wife Iliana removes her seatbelt to retrieve the ball, a truck slams into the car, and she ends up paralyzed and in a coma. 
So begins this extraordinary portrait of a fated marriage. Ross struggles with the guilt over the consequences of his wife's paralysis and for the imagined life that is now forever lost. He turns to an exploration of Buddhist principles to ease his pain. He must also contend with his codependent twin sister, Bonnie, mother of his adored nephew, who is jealous of the other woman in her brother's life. 
Iliana must deal with her new existence as a wheelchair-bound wife, her husband's feelings of alienation, and their aching and growing lack of intimacy. In this stunning new novel, acclaimed writer Caroline Adderson shows how lives can change forever because of one fateful moment. 
With characters that are achingly real, Adderson demonstrates why she is one of Canada's most talented and significant writers.

Literary

Thomas Allen Publishers

These nine razor-sharp stories herald the return of one of Canada’s most accomplished writers to the short story form. Stylistically varied and linguistically confident, here are compulsively readable stories that plumb the complexities of the human heart. A dying Finn, a philandering photographer recovering from an emergency splenectomy, a young woman heavy with an hysterical pregnancy - these are just some of the surprising characters that people these pages.

Pleased to Meet You

Short Stories & Anthologies

Thomas Allen & Son

In these ten short stories, Caroline Adderson adopts a brilliant array of perspectives ranging from that of a nineteenth-century prospector, to a chambermaid in WWI Victoria, to two long-time friends trying to sort out the eighties. The intensity of these deeply imagined stories is stunning.

Bad Imaginings

Porcupine's Quill

Product Description 
Cakes, cookies or pie? A rivalry among local bakers is the basis for this deliciously sweet, off-the-wall picture book.\nMonsieur Oliphant's cake shop, the only bakery game in town, has long had customers lining up outside its door for Oliphant's delicious jelly rolls and marvelous wedding cakes . . . until the day cookie concocter Mademoiselle Fée takes over the old shoemaker's shop. And it isn't long before the divine piemaker Madame Clotilde soon moves into the old bric-a-brac shop. Three different bakers all trying to outclass one another means their little cul-de-sac is packed with customers every day and night, so, one morning, when everyone is bumpling and jostling each other with their cakes, cookies and pies, a food disaster -- a massacre of cream, a devastation of crumbs -- is inevitable! Only one little girl has the drive (or appetite?) to find a solution, but can it last? This madcap tale of frenzied cooks and zany eats (and one very lucky town) will delight readers with a sweet tooth of any age! 
 Review 
"Children will delight in thinking about an abundance of gingerbread cookies, teetering, towering cakes, and blackbird pies." 
--Kirkus Reviews\n“This delectable book is a useful purchase for libraries looking for titles that foster discussion about competition and inclusion.” 
--School Library Journal 
 “Readers will become quickly invested in the escalating events on Sweet Street and the story’s carnivalesque atmosphere." 
--Booklist"This zany picture book delivers a tasty treatise on the benefits of keeping the peace — and keeping a variety of desserts at hand!" 
--Shelf-Awareness"If you have a sweet tooth, this is the book for you. . . . Adderson’s playful text is perfectly paired with Jorisch’s zany illustrations" 
 --Globe & Mail 
 About the Author 
CAROLINE ADDERSON was born and raised in Alberta and now lives in Vancouver with her husband, son and Jack Russell terrier Mickey. She earned a Bachelor of Education with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and spent the next ten years working as an ESL teacher. She now teaches at Simon Fraser University and writes for both children and adults. Her books for kids are frequently featured on Canadian award lists, including the Tree Awards, the Chocolate Lily Awards and the CCBC and OLA Best Bets, and her titles include the Jasper John Dooley series, the Bruno series, 
A Simple Case of Angels, 
Norman, Speak!, 
Eat, Leo! Eat! and 
I Love You One to Ten. Her works for adults have been awarded numerous prizes, including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers' Prizes, the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General's Literary Award and the Rogers' Trust Fiction Prize.\nSTÉPHANE JORISCH is a Canadian children's book illustrator who has written and/or illustrated more than 80 children's books in English and French. Stéphane's first book, 
Oma's Quilt, won the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award and was shortlisted for the Blue Spruce Award. He has also illustrated Michael Kaplan's Betty Bunny series. Stéphane's work in illustrated versions of Lewis Carroll's 
The Jabberwocky and Edward Lear's 
The Owl and the Pussycat have both won the Governor General's Awards for Illustration, and he was awarded the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for 
Un cadeau pour Sophie. In addition to his books for young people, Stéphane Jorisch also illustrates for magazines and has created designs for the renowned Cirque de Soleil. Stéphane lives in Montreal with his partner and their family.

It Happened on Sweet Street

Jorisch, Stéphane

Humor

Ellen in Pieces: A Novel

Harper-perennial

Ellen McGinty: sexy, impulsive, loud-mouthed, chock full of regrets. In middle age she sells the house she raised her daughters in, slips off the shell of her old life, and steps out for a first, tentative foray into real contentment - directly into the path of a man twenty years her junior. Her story explodes into multiple points of view. Through the eyes of her lover, Matt, her ex-husband, Larry, her two daughters (one a former addict), her grandson, and her friends, we watch Ellen negotiate her tumultuous life as the pieces of who she is finally come together. In its entirety, Ellen in Pieces explores love in its varied forms, the nature of regret (and the possibility of recovery from it), and that greatest human test, mortality.
Exquisitely written, absorbing and intelligent, this new novel by Caroline Adderson shows her at the top of her form. Ellen in Pieces is a deeply affecting story, an emotional mirror for all our lives.

Ellen In Pieces

Genre Fiction

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