If you’ve browsed the YA shelves lately, you will have probably chanced upon a thick-ish book with a black and white cover. The title is written in old-fashioned script. The photo on the cover is of a pudge-faced girl in what looks like a turn of the century shift, a sort of tiara shading herContinue reading “Book review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”
Author Archives: linabranter
Why telling your kids to follow their dreams is stupid
So I watched the new episode of Glee the other night. Warning: spoiler alert. Oh, and a little explicit language. If you haven’t seen it, it features an intervention on behalf of Finn, Mercedes and Santana on the part of Will and Sue. Why? because the end of their senior year is approaching and theyContinue reading “Why telling your kids to follow their dreams is stupid”
On Living longer than my Father
Numbers are funny. I am often shocked by them. They don’t have much meaning by themselves, but pack quite a punch when applied to our own lives. I like to tally up the years since a certain event: 24 years since I have known my husband. 17 years since we’ve been together. 13 years sinceContinue reading “On Living longer than my Father”
My new Favourite Poet
I have a new favourite poet. His name is Bruce Taylor. He was born in 1960. He lived in Montreal for a while and now lives in Wakefield with his family. That’s all I really know. When I googled him, the information on him was as slim as a wheat field after a horde ofContinue reading “My new Favourite Poet”
March Break: St. Adèle Chapter
Before March my break my friend sent me a link to a Dealfind at Le Chantecler, a fancy (by my standards, which admittedly, are not fancy at all) hotel in St. Adèle, a small town in the Laurentians. For $119, it included a room with two double beds, two adult ski lift tickets to aContinue reading “March Break: St. Adèle Chapter”
The Case Against Shoe Laces
So I have a friend. Well, She is really my daughter’s friend, but I think of her as my friend too. Most Fridays, we get together with her mother and her to celebrate the end of the week. We order pizza for the girls. Sometimes we watch Modern Family. Feta and salad and copious amountsContinue reading “The Case Against Shoe Laces”
The Political education of our children: some thoughts on Something Fierce
I recently read the 2012 Canada Reads selection, SomethingFierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter by Carmen Aguirre and it got me thinking about my own politics. And consequently, the job I am doing instilling a political consciousness in my own children. If you haven’t read it, you should. It is a riveting, eye-opening revelation ofContinue reading “The Political education of our children: some thoughts on Something Fierce”
Three Historical Novels + One Steampunk for the Middle School Child
I have taken it upon myself to try and read all the books in the school’s English Curriculum. These are divided between books the whole class reads and books that only sections of the class read for their reader’s circles. The latter are divided by student interest and/or student reading level. Of course, I haveContinue reading “Three Historical Novels + One Steampunk for the Middle School Child”
Documentary and Discussion Episode 2: Play Again
Last Friday we had our second edition of our Documentary and Discussion group. The snow was blowing, the pizza took two hours to arrive, but did it quell our appetite for pertinent polemics? Of course not. Though my children greeted the prospect of the evening with a very loud rolling of the eyeballs, they gotContinue reading “Documentary and Discussion Episode 2: Play Again”
YA Reading Continued…
To complete my feverish reading for a potential all school-read, I read two more titles. To recap, the books had to fit the criteria below: 1. Under 350 pages. 2. No movie version 3. An appropriate read for grades 7 to 11 (I know. Kind of impossible, right?) 4. Has themes that can be discussedContinue reading “YA Reading Continued…”
Lina Branter 