A trio of paperbacks for animal lovers
With barely three weeks left in their summer vacation, kids are likely coming down from that initial holiday euphoria and starting to complain that there’s nothing new to do. Or maybe you’re packing up for a trip out of town, and want to make sure that you’ve got something to keep your middlegraders occupied in that lakeside cabin if it rains — or, heaven forbid, if there’s no cellphone service or Wi- Fi.
Board games still work, but so do books. Below, three paperback titles worth tucking into your suitcase or handing to your child if he/ she is at loose ends, especially if that child is an animal lover:
Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea, by Lisa Martin and Valerie Martin ( Algonquin Young Readers, 249 pages, $ 9.95), is a surprisingly engaging novel, likely set in the 1800s, about feline brothers in Lunenburg, N. S., who end up on separate sailing vessels and get enmeshed in sometimes dangerous adventures.
Cecil, a stocky black cat, is first to go to sea, invited along on a fishing boat for daily outings. His brother Anton, a sleek grey cat, is grabbed by the harbourmaster and offered to the captain of a barque, the Mary Anne, to control the rats on board during a lengthy sea voyage. Cecil tries, unsuccessfully, to rescue him, and Anton suffers through an initially miserable voyage, made bearable only after he does battle with a rat and leaves it for the cook to find. Cecil, meanwhile, is told by their mother to find his brother, so he sneaks onto a seagoing clipper ship.
American authors Lisa Martin and her niece, Valerie, avoid turning their book into a cloyingly sweet animal story by keeping the human and animal characters distinct and, to some degree, apart from each other; the cats can “talk” together, and with various other creatures that appear in this book ( like dolphins, a large lizard, a cormorant and an almost mythical whale), but not with the humans in their midst. Storms rage, pirates board the clipper ship, Anton gets stranded on an island, then finds his way onto another ship where he is befriended by a small mouse named Hieronymus, and for a long time it looks as if the brothers will never reconnect and make their way home.
They do, of course, before the story ends. In fact, a sequel — Anton and Cecil: Cats on Track — is already available in hardcover ( 257 pages, $ 22.95). Illustrated in black and white by Kelly Murphy. For ages 8 to 12.
Evie Brooks is Marooned in Manhattan, by Sheila Agnew ( Pajama Press, 219 pages, $ 12.95), is the story of a 12- year- old girl living in Ireland who is orphaned when her mother dies ( her father having been out of the picture for many years) and who reluctantly agrees to spend the summer with her uncle, Scott, as long as she can return to Ireland in the fall to live with her godmother. Scott, a veterinarian in Manhattan, is dating Leela, a divorce attorney Evie describes as “beyond painful,” who does her best to get the girl out of Scott’s life, even when it is clear to the reader that the life Evie is building in Manhattan is the one she should stay with.
Throughout this story, the animals that move through Scott’s workday turn out to be the creatures that help Evie cope with her mother’s passing. They give her a new focus and, as the summer progresses, so do the friendships she forms with Kylie, Greg and his brother, Finn. In the end, despite Leela’s truly spiteful efforts, Scott and Evie come to terms with the fact they might not be a traditional family, but they are family all the same. Leela’s chickens eventually come home to roost; Scott extricates himself from that relationship; and Evie opts to stay in Manhattan — and faints one day when she hears her dad is in Scott’s waiting room. So we know there will be a sequel. For ages 9 to 12.
Saving Crazy, by Karen HoodCaddy ( Dundurn, 206 pages, $ 12.99), is a sequel — the third book ( after Howl and The Truth About Brave) in the Wild Place Adventure Series by an Ontario author with a special interest in environmental issues. Robin, like Evie, is coming to terms with the death of her mother; unlike Evie, her father ( Gord, a veterinarian), is very much in the picture, as is her grandmother, Griff, and Zo- Zo, her best friend. That friendship takes a bit of a beating, however, when both girls set their sights on the same guy, McCoy, who takes a shine to Robin — but for somewhat selfserving reasons.
Saving Crazy ( a title that left me scratching my head; presumably it refers to the work Robin’s family does on behalf of wildlife and the environment) opens with Robin, her brother and her dad driving home after having visited Grandpa Goodridge in Winnipeg. It’s August, swelteringly hot, and Robin can’t wait to get back to Ontario and The Wild Place, an animal shelter she founded with Zo- Zo. She’s especially eager to leap into the lake near her home, and is horrified to discover when they get there that the normally clear, blue water is now a sludgy, slimy, smelly green — the result, her dad tells her, of an algae bloom, and possibly toxic. Environmental issues weave their way throughout this story, but not so that they become tiresome or overly preachy. In fact, many of the issues raised add an element of intrigue and excitement to a novel that also touches on more traditional teen issues.
When Finn Rapier appears on the scene, the plot takes an interesting turn; a former love interest of Griff ’s, he is clearly patterned after Paul Watson, the environmental activist who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ( the book is dedicated to “Paul Watson and his whalesaving crews”). Things get really exciting when Robin, Zo- Zo and Griff join Finn on board his ship, the Sea Serpent, and they end up confronting a Japanese whaling ship. Their encounters with one whale in particular will make readers who began with the Cats at Sea book feel as if they’ve come full circle. For ages 9 to 12.