Canada

Materials from Canada

Hooked, When Addiction Hits Home

This collection of ten true stories is based on interviews with people who, in their youth, lived with an addicted parent or sibling. The subjects speak honestly about what it was like to grow up with a family member addicted to alcohol, drugs, food, pills, or gambling. While describing how they managed to cope, interviewees explore the full range of situations and emotions they experienced—from denial, anger, and confusion to acceptance and forgiveness. Their maturity, sensitivity, and even their sense of humor will give teens going through similar situations the important realization that there are many ways to break free from the chains of others’ addictions.

Rude Stories

A collection of international stories–originating from such places as Japan, Canada, Africa and Eastern Europe–all share a sense of irreverence and a taste for bodily functions, loud noises, and bad manners.

The Smart Princess, And Other Deaf Tales

A unique and much-needed collection, The Smart Princess takes readers inside the fantasies, dreams and disappointments of young people who are deaf. This book is written and illustrated by winners of the Ladder Awards, organized by the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf. In one tale a princess runs away when her intolerant aunt forbids her to sign. Another story looks at the experience of being a deaf child at a hearing school. Two strangefriendrs, one giant and one tiny, become friends despite their difficulties in seeing each other. In another, a spaceship lands on a planet of the Deaf, forcing hearing astronauts to reconsider their ways. And in a poetic adventure, an imaginary tiger wreaks havoc.

See the review at WOW Review Volume 5, Issue 4

Waiting For No One

Taylor Jane Simon is an eighteen-year-old girl with Asperger’s Syndrome who has a refreshingly different view of the people she encounters and the life she wants to have. Young adult readers will identify with Taylor’s struggle for independence and self-control, and empathize as she outlines the ways—both positive and negative– that her Asperger’s Syndrome affects her daily life. Connecting with a play by Samuel Beckett, Taylor explores a fear of solitary existence while reaching out to a world at times perplexing. Most important, Taylor wants to be seen as an individual, not as a stereotypical “person with special needs,” or a rare wild flower—images that haunt her from the past. A cameo performance by Taylor’s new gerbil — Harold Pinter– adds further emphasis to themes of existentialism and humour.

See the review at WOW Review Volume 5, Issue 4