Fantasy has become an increasingly popular genre of children's literature in recent years; Quests and Kingdoms provides a basis from which an adult unfamiliar with the genre of children's fantasy literature may explore it. Quests is an historical survey for the interested general reader, which will be of great practical value to library and education professionals as well. Though the aim is to give adults concerned with bringing children (or teens) and books together a familiarity with the children's fantasy genre and its history, for those who already know and love the classics of children's fantasy Quests will be an introduction to works and authors they may have missed. Taking a chronological approach, Quests begins with the fairy-tale collections of d'Aulnoy, Perrault, and the Grimms and works its way up to the novels of J.K. Rowling and Garth Nix, covering over three centuries of fantasy read by children. The lives of 95 authors are looked at and placed in historical context, while their works are introduced through both synopses and analysis. Quests also includes chapters on Tolkien, retellings of traditional stories, and King Arthur and Robin Hood. More than 500 works are discussed, and the thorough index makes the book a practical reference resource as well as a history and an introduction to the best in the genre. K.V. Johansen has Master's Degrees in Medieval Studies (Toronto) and English (McMaster). The author of a number of children's books, she held the 2001 Eileen Wallace Research Fellowship in Children's Literature from the Eileen Wallace Collection at the University of New Brunswick. She also received the 2004 Frances E. Russell Award for research in children's literature from the Canadian section of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People. 'Here is a magical thing, a reference book with a heart and soul. Brimming over with ideas, as well as facts and figures, the writing is elegant and the author's enthusiasm contagious. Here, too, a noble defence of fantasy and its literary value.' -O.R. Melling 'Johansen brings a scholar's erudition and a child's delight to the field of children's fantasy. Her thoughtful survey elevates fantasy from guilty pleasure to moral education, and reveals it to be not a recent marketing-driven fad, but an ancient and unbreakable strand of human creativity. If you know nothing about the genre, this book will turn you into an aficionado; if you think you've read everything, you'll find new gems here, and old ones glowing with a new light. For teachers, parents, anyone who wants to uncover the wonder of reading, Quests and Kingdoms is a pirate's treasure map.' -Tristanne J. Connolly, St. Jerome's University

Quests and Kingdoms: A Grown-Up's Guide to Children's Fantasy Literature

Johansen, K.V.

Teen & Young Adult

Sybertooth INc

In the late twentieth century, Canadian children's fantasy had a poor reputation internationally. Was this reputation deserved, and if so, has the quality of children's fantasy and the climate for its publication improved since that time? After a survey of twentieth-century Canadian children's fantasy, Beyond Window-Dressing examines these questions through an extensive cross-section of Canadian children's fantasy published between 2000 and 2004. From Palmer Cox and Catherine Anthony Clark to Judd Palmer and Alison Baird, and writers of international reputation such as Dave Duncan, O.R. Melling, Kenneth Oppel and Charles de Lint, Beyond Window-Dressing weighs Canadian fantasy against the best of the UK and US. It provides not only a window onto Canadian developments in the genre during the opening years of the twenty-first century, but insists that fantasy must be judged by standards as rigorous as those applied to any other genre of literature. K.V. Johansen held the 2001 Eileen Wallace Research Fellowship in Children's Literature from the Eileen Wallace Collection at the University of New Brunswick and was the recipient of the 2004 Frances E. Russell Award for research in children's literature from the Canadian section of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People. She has Master's Degrees in Medieval Studies (Toronto) and in English (McMaster), and is the author of a number of fantasy and science fiction novels for children and teens. Her 2005 book on the history of children's fantasy, Quests and Kingdoms: A Grown-Up's Guide to Children's Fantasy Literature, has received international critical acclaim and was short-listed for the 2006 Harvey Darton Award. The author's website may be found at: www.pippin.ca

Beyond Window-Dressing?: Canadian Children's Fantasy at the Millennium

At long last -- the ninth and final volume of the Bandy Papers, Stalin Versus Me, in which quintessential Canadian hero Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy has one final fling with death, despair, and destruction, in the final year of the Second World War. In the aftermath of the Normandy invasion, Bandy continues to bob through the ranks like a cork at sea, persecuted by one of his pilots and pursued by Gwinny, who just can't understand why her attempt to have him convicted of treason has soured their relationship. Love rears its (elegant, Belgian) head again, the King needs a man of tact and discretion for a delicate post-war job in Germany, and there's an embarrassing parcel of ladies undies to explain, not to mention just why a half-clothed Bandy (unfortunately, not the right half) is in bed with George Garanine, that lazy, loveable, failed Bandy-assassin. From Normandy to Brussels to Yalta to Moscow, Bandy's career path is as labyrinthine as ever, strewn with bottles, battles, and brasshat blood-pressure. Of most crucial concern to our hero, as 1944 draws to a close and 1945 sees the last grim push of the war beginning -- boozing pal Philby of the SIS couldn't possibly have any reason to get Bandy sent to the Yalta Conference except as a translator, right? And Stalin can't really be out to get Bandy, just because he happens to know that a certain Soviet leader was once a Tsarist agent provocateur. After all, we all know Uncle Joe isn't the type to hold a grudge. Will Bandy survive? Will he get the, er, mature, middle-aged lady (unaccountably still in love with her lazy, loveable, long-lost husband?) Will a plane be purloined? Will his last few hairs hold out?

Stalin vs. Me (The Bandy Papers, Vol. 9)

Literature & Fiction

donald-jack

Humor & Satire

Hitler vs. Me (The Bandy Papers, Vol. 8)

Bandy is back! It's 1940, and the intrepid air ace of WWI is eager to join the fight against Germany. Unfortunately, everyone seems to think Bandy is too old to be flying Spitfires, and should go quietly into retirement to polish his medals and knighthoods. Bandy, however, has other ideas, and uses his friends and/or enemies in high places to manoeuvre himself into the Battle of Britain. Between being mistaken for a Nazi spy, a communist, or a Chelsea pensioner, Bandy has as much trouble on the ground as he has in the air with the Luftwaffe, and when his son arrives on the scene, his troubles only get worse. This edition also includes Donald Jack's novelette "Where Did Rafe Madison Go?" Jack wrote the story just as the fate of the Avro Arrow jet fighter was still up in the air (the first test flight taking place in March '58, and the programme's termination coming only four months after the story was published). In "Where Did Rafe Madison Go?" Jack imagines a future delta-winged descendant of the Arrow, the CF-108, and takes us through the RCAF court martial that is trying to uncover the explanation for the plane's mysterious disappearance, an incident that even the pilot, Rafe Madison, doesn't understand.

JACK, Donald

In print for the first time, Donald Jack's comedy The Canvas Barricade was the first modern play performed on the main stage of the Stratford Festival (1961). The original cast included Peter Donat, Kate Reid, Jack Creley, Amelia Hall, Zoe Caldwell, and Bruno Gerussi. Misty Woodenbridge, a painter, has rejected the materialism of modern so-ciety for life in a tent by the Ottawa River, where he lives as carefree as the fabled grasshopper, eating stolen apples and painting masterpieces. But as summer draws to an end, reality rears its ugly head, and Misty must choose between starving in his tent and moving to the city with his fianc e. Meanwhile, his in-laws-to-be smell a cash cow when a mysterious art buyer begins snapping up Misty's work - and naturally they keep the money. Out of kind consideration for Misty's artistic ideals, of course.

The Canvas Barricade: A Tapestry, in Two Acts

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

It's 1925, and Bandy has finally found a secure post-war job: commander of the Maharajah of Jhamjarh's new air force. The only problem is, the British Raj is not so happy with him for setting up a rival air power inside British India. Between the impractical Maharajah, the British viceroy, and the Great Game being played by the neighbouring state of Khaliwar, Bandy has his hands full trying to keep his employer -- and himself -- out of deadly danger.

Me So Far (The Bandy Papers, Vol. 7)

It's 1918, and Bandy has survived the trenches and the war in the air, but now that he has his own squadron to command there are even worse things in store for him. His adjutant. A parachute test. A Paris dentist. The wrath of Brigadier Soames. Halifax hospitality... And when a new German biplane comes along that can out-perform even the Dolphin, it looks like it's the end of the war for Bandy.

It's Me Again (The Bandy Papers, Vol. 3)

Jack, Donald Lamont

It's the future. Jordan O'Blenis may be a genius when it comes to computers, but with spies after his sister Cassie's research in UAVs and artificial intelligence, he needs all the help he can get to keep her safe and save BWB Aerospace's top secret drone project. Luckily for Jordan, he has Helen the frog expert and Cassandra, the sentient supercomputer programme he created, on his side. The problem is, Helen thinks kidnapping and interrogating a government agent is a perfectly logical solution to their problems, while Cassandra has developed a bad case of ethics. When old enemies snatch Jordan, though, it's up to Cassandra to save the day, even if that means hijacking BWB's multi-million dollar UAV system. It's just borrowing, really...

The Drone War (Cassandra Virus)

Children's Books

Love on the Marsh, a long poem in 100 stanzas, is described by Lochhead as "an extension of High Marsh Road" and "brother and sister to it". The diary-like entries, a form to which Lochhead has frequently returned over the years, can also be compared to his work in The Panic Field. By turns earthy and etherial, a pilgrimage through a landscape of grass and sky and tumultuous emotions, Love on the Marsh revisits the High Marsh Road with a new eye and finds in it the self-examining, self-discovering heart. Douglas Lochhead, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a life-member of the League of Canadian Poets, was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1922, and served as an infantry and artillery officer in the Canadian Army during World War II. Lochhead's High Marsh Road was a finalist for the Governor-General's Award for Poetry, and in 2005 he received the Carlo Betocchi International Poetry Prize for High Marsh Road / La Strada di Tantramar. He is also a recipient of the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in English-language Literary Arts, and of many honorary degrees.

Love on the Marsh

Lochhead, Douglas

Poetry

Elliott Graven was prepared to be bored by his new town, and prepared to be annoyed by it. After all, it was a run-down fishing village in the back woods, and moving there suddenly had been his father's idea, not Elliott's. But he wasn't prepared for the sleepwalkers. Or the mushrooms. Or the jars of eyes. At least the werewolves seemed to be on his side...

Sporeville (Wellborn Conspiracy)

Marlowe, Paul

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