To the MOON
The eponymous character in Miss Moon: Wise Words from a Dog Governess by Janet Hill ( Tundra, 48 pp, $ 22, ages 4 – 8) lands an unlikely job on a small island off the coast of France, looking after 67 dogs. ( The book was originally published in French as Mademoiselle Moon in 2013 through Les Éditions Marchand des Feuilles.) The prim and proper Miss Moon has learned valuable lessons over the course of her employment, which are here shared alongside ornate oil paintings with a luxuriousness usually reserved for, well, cat people. The lessons themselves are a generic guide in etiquette and whimsy (“Practice the art of conversation,” “With a splash of imagination, anything can be fun”), a loose narrative thread that ties the book together. The accompanying illustrations tell enough story, giving these cuddly pups individual personalities and just the right amount of goofiness. The dogs are dressed up in Halloween costumes on one page, riding a tandem bicycle on the next, each page seemingly n competition with the previous one to outdo it in adorableness. Sure, it might be pandering to a certain type of budding dog lover, but it does it so well.
Victoria Mahler, the 16- year- old protagonist in Under the Dusty Moon by Suzanne Sutherland ( Dundurn, 232 pp, $ 15, ages 14 and up), is trying to carve out her own identity. Her mother is Micky Wayne, the lead singer in a ’ 90s “Canadian famous” alt- rock band Dusty Moon. Micky acts as Victoria’s best friend and biggest nuisance, a daily reminder of the free-spirited adventure seeker that Victoria will never be and often the more immature one in the relationship. When Micky leaves during the summer to tour Japan, Victoria grabs the chance to finally make something for herself. She pursues a budding romance with geeky classmate and falls in with a group of feminist video- game makers. There are some subplots that are underdeveloped ( Victoria’s relationship with her prickly grandmother feels like a missed opportunity), but through it all is Victoria’s consistent drive to push forward. Set against the true-to-life background of downtown Toronto, Sutherland’s novel is a well-crafted portrait of the punk rock potential found in unlikely sources.