Contemporary Authors

• Menace and Mischief Stoddart Kids (New York, NY), 1999

1. Menace and mischief LCCN 00709269 Type of material Book Personal name Gunnery, Sylvia. Main title Menace and mischief / Sylvia Gunnery. Published/Created Toronto ; New York : Stoddart Kids, 1999. Description 109 p. ; 18 cm. ISBN 0773674772 CALL NUMBER PZ7.G9724 Me 1999 FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

• Road Signs That Say West - 2017 Pajama Press, Toronto
• Game Face - 2013 James Lorimer, Toronto
• Emily For Real - 2012 Pajama Press, Toronto
• Out of Bounds - 2011 James Lorimer, Toronto
• Personal Best - 2011 James Lorimer, Toronto
• The Writing Circle - 2007 Pembroke Publishers, Markham
• Just Write! - 1998 Stenhouse Publishers, Portland
• Taking Sides - 1991 Scholastic Paperbacks, New York
• We're Friends, Aren't We? - 1986 Scholastic, New York
• I'm Locker 145, Who Are You? - 1984 Scholastic Book Services, New York
• Chewing Gum and Other Crimes - 1960 Scholastic Book Services, New York

• TD Canadian Children's Book Week - http://bookweek.ca/author-profile-sylvia-gunnery/

  Author Profile: Sylvia Gunnery

  APPLY NOW
  Touring In: British Columbia (Interior)

  Craft: Author

  Genre: Beginning Readers, Early Chapter Books, Junior Fiction, YA Fiction, Teen Fiction

  Ideal Audience Size: 50 (for presentations); 15 (for workshops)

  Maximum Audience Size: 75 (for presentations); 25 (for workshops)

  Grades: Grades 4-12

  Special Equipment: LCD projector or SmartBoard for PowerPoint presentation. When possible, a flip-chart and a small display table would be useful.

  Shortlisted for the 2014 Hackmatack Award
  Presentation Information
  The Story Behind The Cover
  Picture all those many novels on library shelves and in bookstores. How did those stories begin? What steps did the authors take to finally get all the way to “the end”?

  Using her more recent novels as examples, including Road Signs That Say West (Pajama Press 2017), Sylvia Gunnery explains how stories develop from the first spark of an idea, through the writing process (especially the revision stages), then the cover designs, and finally the publication of a book ready for readers. A PowerPoint of visuals complements this lively and informative presentation with lots of room for students to comment, ask questions, and share their own experiences.

  Recommended for Grades 4 – 12.

  Just Write!
  In this introductory writing workshop, students will create their own fictional characters and experiment with ways to get them talking and walking across the page. The strategies Sylvia Gunnery shares have been developed over her many years as an author and as a teacher of writing. Each activity takes students deeper into their own stories and encourages individual writer’s voice. By the end of this workshop, they will have a strong sense of who their characters are and where their stories are going. Follow-up lessons can be provided.

  Recommended for Grades 4 – 12.

  Book List
  Road Signs That Say West
  (Pajama Press, 2017)

  Game Face
  (Lorimer, 2013)

  Emily For Real
  (Pajama Press, 2012)

  www.pajama press.ca

  Personal Best
  (Lorimer, 2005 and 2011)

  Out of Bounds
  (Lorimer, 2004 and 2011)

  The Writing Circle
  Pembroke Publishers, 2007

  Biography
  Sylvia Gunnery has been writing ever since she could hold a pencil. But even before that, she made up stories and told them to her older sister across the darkened bedroom they shared in their home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In grade 4, her best friend Donna bought one of her stories for a bag of chips–her very first sale!

  Many years later, she began to take herself more seriously as a writer and attended summer workshops at the Banff Centre under the instruction of W.O. Mitchell, Alice Munro, and others. Since then, she has published over 20 books for teens and younger readers, including her newest YA novel Road Signs That Say West (Pajama Press 2017). Two books in her Lorimer Sports series, Out of Bounds and Game Face, were nominated for the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award.

  A recipient of a Prime Minister’s Teaching Award, Sylvia shares her successful classroom strategies in The Writing Circle (Pembroke Publishers 2007). She has also created Revision Plus (Curriculum Plus 2008), a student resource that encourages young writers to think critically about their draft writing and to make meaningful changes.

  Through writers-in-the-schools programs, festivals, and conferences, Sylvia gives readings and does workshops with young writers and with educators across Canada. She was honoured with a legacy membership by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia in 2016 and has served several terms as the Atlantic representative for The Writers’ Union of Canada.

  Sylvia lives at Crescent Beach on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

  Awards
  Game Face

  Shortlisted for the 2014 Hackmatack Award
  Out of Bounds

  Shortlisted for the 2005 Hackmatack Award
  Menace and Mischief

  Winner of the 2000 Lila Stirling Award (Canadian Authors Association)

  Praise
  “Sylvia’s personal skills allow her to connect with young people, interact on a knowledgeable level and engender a lively dialogue on writing, revision and literature. She uses her own writing experiences, relating how she conceives an idea and follows through. Her energetic and dynamic personality creates a truly wonderful hands-on experience for everyone – students and teachers alike.”

  —Mary Eva, high school ELA teacher, Montreal, Quebec

  “The students are still talking about your visit. Sometimes it can be very difficult for presenters to engage our students but you did a wonderful job. I really hope they continue to embrace their voice and put pen to paper.”

  —Freddy Phillips, grade 7-9 teacher, Sheshatshiu Innu School, Sheshatshiu, Labrabor

  “Over the past number of years, Sylvia Gunnery has been collaborating with Forest Heights Community School on writing workshops for grade 10 students with academic challenges. She brings credibility to workshops as our students know she spent many years in the classroom as a teacher of writing. During the workshops, she writes with the students and admits to the struggles she has in editing her work to make it better. Students witness first-hand what writing is like and are more willing to engage in the writing process themselves.”

  —Bob Hazelton, high school ELA teacher, Chester Basin, Nova Scotia

  “I just wanted to share with you the fantastic experience that the students at West Northfield Elementary had with Sylvia Gunnery! Her presentation was engaging, informative and ENTERTAINING! Wow, she is a fountain of incredible ideas. Absolutely incredible.”

  —Sheila Walters, literacy teacher, West Northfield, Nova Scotia

  “Sylvia Gunnery has been instrumental as an advisor and mentor for WRITING ON FIRE, a creative writing program enabling youth to work with professional writers to develop their own writing and build a support network for the future. Her passion for youth writers never fails to inspire, encouraging and challenging them to find their own voices.”

  —Norene Smiley, co-ordinator WRITING ON FIRE, Pugwash, Nova Scotia

  “Sylvia’s knowledge of the craft of writing and her ability to develop and facilitate sessions that meet the needs of a variety of skill levels were instrumental in making the workshop series a resounding success. She created a respectful, safe environment for attendees to develop their writing skills. Sylvia was encouraging, intuitive, and professional. The feedback we received from participants in regards to her instruction was extremely positive.”

  —Veronica Purcell, co-ordinator, Mahone Bay Fiction Writing Summer Series 2015, Nova Scotia

• Canadian Review of Materials - http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/eppp-archive/100/201/300/cm/html/1995-2000/cm.b24/profiles/gunnery.html

  Quoted in Siudelights: “John David Merchant, a very close friend and a former teacher who had become a book rep for Scholastic, suggested, ‘You’re always telling stories about school. Why don’t you write some?'” she recalled. “I went, ‘Hmmm, I never thought of that,’ sat down and ‘poof,’ I’m Locker 145, Who Are You?”
  “There’s a tradition of storytelling that’s quite Maritime,” she told Jenkinson. “When I was growing up, we would sit around the dinner table at home, my parents, sister Barb, and my grandfather and godmother who also lived with us, and ‘talk.’ I would tell them stories of what happened at school, and I quickly learned to embellish and make people laugh.”
  While my books start with someone I know, there’s also a bit of me in every single one.”
  “I mixed up the zany stuff … with the serious stuff,” “kids would stay with my story and come out the other side realizing some truth about limitations to what they’d call ‘joking around.'”

  \Sylvia Gunnery.
  Profile by Dave Jenkinson.

  Sylvia Gunnery Sylvia Gunnery's writing is for the birds. Well, one bird in particular. "I have two cockatoos and two love birds. When I'm typing away, I say to Cory, one of the cockatoos, 'Want to write a book?' and he flies over and sits on my shoulder. If I'm in bed reading a hardcover book, Cory will sometimes sit on my hand and complain when I turn the pages. I live alone, and, while it's nice to live alone, it can be a lonesome thing, especially as a writer because you live inside your head so much. It's a bit schizophrenic."
  Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on October 17, 1946, Sylvia completed all her public schooling in that city. "While I took a B.A. at Acadia University, I also completed a secretarial science diploma. As I was one of the first two women in my neighbourhood to go to university, my dad said, 'If I'm going to spend all this money to send you to school, you have to learn how to type.' To Dad, women who typed more easily got jobs. Then I went to Dalhousie and did a B.Ed. and later, having gone to the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1976, I returned to Dal for an M.Ed. in Curriculum Development and Writing. The Banff School with W.O. Mitchell was just 'huge.' As a teacher, I became so strong because I suddenly knew how to teach writing. A lot of people teach writing from a false surface, and they don't allow kids to understand what writing's for and where it comes from. Banff taught me that."
  To date, Sylvia's four YA novels have all treated the various developmental tasks which adolescents encounter during their middle school years, but, in particular, she has examined diverse aspects of adolescents' need to develop new relationships with people their own age while changing their relationships with their parents. Sylvia's skill as a storyteller she attributes, in part, to geography. "There's a tradition of storytelling that's quite Maritime. When I was growing up, we would sit around the dinner table at home, my parents, sister Barb, and my grandfather and godmother who also lived with us, and 'talk.' I would tell them stories of what happened at school, and I quickly learned to embellish and make people laugh. Barb and I shared a bedroom, and, when we turned off the light, Barb, because she was older and could control me, would make me tell her a story. I would invent them, and Barb probably slept through half of them."
  Early schooling also played a role in Sylvia's becoming a writer. "My elementary school teachers knew and understood me. They encouraged me to write. Mrs. Walton, my principal at Halifax's Mulgrave Park Elementary School, read one of my stories on the PA and suggested to me that I become a journalist. For ages I said I was going to be a journalist until I looked it up and thought, 'I don't want to write stuff that happens. That's no fun.' Mrs. Walton didn't think to say I could write stories. When I hit junior high, we didn't write nor did we in high school or university, and so I put it all aside for basketball, boys and fun. However, when I graduated from university, every time I went on holidays, I found myself buying a new blank book and writing about the holiday but stretching it just like I did around the kitchen table. By then I was about 28 or so, and I said, 'I do want to write.' I saw an ad in Quill & Quire and went to Banff." I'M Locker 145 cover
  "Following Banff, the first stuff I wrote was adult short fiction, and I was published in Canadian Fiction magazine and Grain. I was trying to get my short stories out there but was not being successful. During the year I took to do my Master's at Dalhousie, I won prizes for a short story and an essay and felt really good. John David Merchant, a very close friend and a former teacher who had become a book rep for Scholastic, suggested, 'You're always telling stories about school. Why don't you write some?' I went, 'Hmmm, I never thought of that,' sat down and 'poof,' I'm Locker 145, Who Are You?. John was going to Toronto for a meeting and offered, 'I'll take your manuscript with me and hand it right to the editor.' When he came back, he said, 'Sylvia, the editor opened her bottom drawer and said, "There's my novel. Everybody's got a novel.'" However, Scholastic later wrote me saying, 'It's 95% there." Taking Sides
  "After I'd written Locker 145, I was visiting a school where a girl asked, 'How come there are no sports books for girls?' Having been an athlete in my youth, having played volleyball on the 1961 Richmond Junior High Halifax City Champs and having been the coach at Timberlea Junior High School, I 'knew' volleyball. I said, 'I'm your man. I can do this,' and so Taking Sides started to form in my head as a girls' book about volleyball, but not as a 'jock book.' I started writing it and picturing Zena, a grade 9 girl on my Timberlea volleyball team. Zena was a very fine athlete but not a good student academically. She was kind of overweight too, but on the gym floor, she just had such confidence, such sportsmanship, such ballet."
  "All my books start with somebody I know, and I have to write for a while until that face changes and fades and fiction takes over. I wish I could be an artist and sketch how the change happens gradually until 'boom' there's this new person. So Taking Sides' Lea started out as Zena who lost finesse, lost weight, and became a grade 7 student. All these things were happening when I thought, 'Zena is black; Lea, my main character, is black. OK Gunnery, what do you know about "black"?' Suddenly I realized, 'This is not a volleyball book you're writing. You're really writing something else you experienced at Timberlea, and what you experienced in a school of 220 kids, 40 blacks, is the racism that the blacks show the whites and the whites show the blacks."
  "I had to explore that culture and make sure I understood what I thought I understood. I was brought up in the north end of Halifax near the black community of Africville which got wiped out. My first teacher was a black teacher, and so it wasn't a coincidence that I was starting, as a writer, to explore that community that I had touched on all my life but had not been a part of. And the biggest thing I had to face was my own racism. Nobody likes to say that they're racist, and I certainly was too polite to be openly racist, but who were my black friends? Nobody. I came to understand that my 'racism' really wasn't what people in this day would call racism. It was an unfamiliarity, a shyness, a feeling that I noticed 'blackness' every time because I didn't understand it. Taking Sides made me understand it, and now I don't see black like I used to."
  "Part of my way of understanding the black side of the culture inside my culture was to speak to the black students. One of them said, 'You're writing about me.' 'No,' I replied. 'But you can help me out if you could read some stuff.' One of the scenes I gave her was the kitchen scene where, after Lea has hit Monica, the parents are talking 'past' her. After the student had read the scene, she asked, 'Can I take this home?" I thought, 'Oh my god! What am I getting into here?' but I agreed. She came back the next morning and said, 'My father has a message for you,' and I really did panic because I thought, 'Oh yeh. White woman tells black person's story.' But his message was, 'Has that woman been in our kitchen?' I gave her the biggest hug."
  "When Scholastic saw the first draft of Taking Sides, they said, 'We like it, but the teacher is unbelievable,' and I laughed and replied, 'Well, I'm not going to change her too much because I kind of just put myself in there. You have to believe that there are people that sensitive out there. Let's not always have teachers as the cliche insensitive persons.' I did sit on the school's steps with kids who were going to harass another student, and, as a way of letting that kid walk past, I did pretend I didn't know why they had all gathered there. Scholastic also said, 'We don't like how Monica doesn't change at the end and that she gets the prize,' to which I responded, 'You know, that's one of the things about racism. A lot of people don't change, and a lot of them become winners. I'm not changing that part of the novel either." We're Friends Aren't We?
  "While my books start with someone I know, there's also a bit of me in every single one. I was in love with a guy who had a motorcycle, and I was the high academic so there's a lot of me in We're Friends, Aren't We?. I think you have to be in every book or else the book isn't going to make it. While I'm the teacher in Taking Sides, it's my former junior high volleyball coach's body, her pearls, her starched blouse. It's her body and my personality. With Chewing Gum and Other Crimes, in my late 20's, early 30's, I used to be the stage manager of a theatre troupe, so I know whereof I speak when I say: 'Cue this.' 'Up that.' 'Lights down.'"
  "When it comes to writing, I'm not a plotter. I'd hate that. I tried to write Harlequin Romances once with a friend who had been published and wanted a writing partner. I worked with her for a couple of years, and we failed because my soul wasn't there. We plotted them out, but once it was plotted out, what the heck's the point? The surprise of wondering is missing. I can recall sitting at my dinner table with a friend and saying, 'This friendship between Elizabeth and Woody in We're Friends is driving me nuts. She's so self-centred. I don't know whatever would help her realize that Woody is a friend. Suddenly I saw Woody dead, and I started to cry, 'What have I done?' And my friend suggested, 'You're the writer. Don't write it." 'But,' I replied, 'it's already happened.' I went into my bedroom, and I wrote and cried and finished the scene and said, 'Thank God it's over. I won't have to cry any more.' But, because I didn't have a computer at the time, with every new draft, I cried again." Chewing Gum
  "Another example of my non-plotting occurred in Chewing Gum and Other Crimes. I had no idea I was going to write about marijuana. That book came out of one of my students whose single-parent dad was always saying, 'He's lazy,' and I said, 'Your son is not lazy. Look at this and this.' But it seemed like the dad would never change his opinion and that stayed in my head and Alex grew out of it. The day it occurred to me to put marijuana into the book, I was driving alone to visit my parents who live an hour outside Halifax. It's funny how the brain works when you're not thinking about something. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning, and I 'saw' this kid standing in a washroom reading a book. I felt like pulling the car over and 'watching' the movie in my head. Then I just blanked it, thinking, 'Wait until you get home to write this.'"
  "And when I got home and started writing, the boy was reading a book, and then I thought, 'He's selling dope, and I'm going to put this in the novel.' When I'm writing a book, I don't wonder about who's going to do what. If I'm going to write about that youth culture, then my imagination will give me the stuff from the culture, and it'll have to go in there. It can't be taken out because somebody outside the culture doesn't like to look at it." Locker 145
  Sylvia hasn't always been pleased by her books' covers and observes, "When I go into schools, kids will talk about covers right away. I really disliked the original cover on Locker 145 because, not only are the colours so bland, but Brenda, the character standing behind Jodi, is supposed to be fat. The new edition's cover is the suggestion I originally had but never gave Scholastic because I was a timid 'new' writer. Since Locker 145, I've said, 'This is what I want on the covers' because I 'know' kids will not only judge a book by its cover but, once they really identify with those cover characters, they keep going."
  "With We're Friends, I wanted a motorcycle on the cover and went to one of my students who always had motorcycle magazines. 'Kenny, I'm putting a motorcycle in my book. Would you pick it out?' and Kenny asked, 'Well, what's the guy like?' I replied, 'I don't want to tell you too much about him, but he drives a motorcycle, doesn't do that well in school, but he's OK.' Kenny came the next day with a picture of one of those motorcycles that looks like it got away from itself at the front. 'No way,' I said. 'I want a couple of scenes where Elizabeth's on it. If I'm going to write this book, I've got to get on that bike in my mind, and that'll scare me to death. Aren't there any 'pretty' motorcycles?' Kenny looked at me a little disgustedly, but then he let me flip through the magazine. I picked a yellow bike, and, in retrospect, the colour was probably too wimpy, but I didn't want Cass to be such a cliched bad guy that he'd be on a bad guy's bike."
  "One of the things I say to students is that writing a book is like getting ready for school in the morning. You jump out of bed and get all fixed up. You don't put your nose on the mirror to see how you look. You stand back. Writers have their nose on the mirror the whole time no matter how far you think you step back. In fact, the most delightful stages of writing for me are that first stage when I'm so pressed up against the mirror and then that intellectual distance when I'm in that fifth or sixth draft and I'm just starting to hear the rhythms and it's become another kind of puzzle, an intellectual puzzle. But we really are so close to what we are writing that we don't always see."
  "For example, when I sent Scholastic We're Friends, the editor said, 'The first of it's slow,' which is very polite talk for 'boring.' And I thought, 'Slow? I love those characters.' And that was the problem. My original opening scene had Woody quitting smoking. As early as my second draft, I knew Woody was going to die, and so as I was fine tuning the book, it was quite tender to me that Woody had made this decision, but it took the editor's remark to trigger me to realize that I wasn't removed enough. What had been pulling me through all those other drafts were those tender feelings and my not wanting readers to know Woody was dead."
  "Since 1993, I've been teaching grades 10-12. Before that, I taught junior high: English and PDR, "'Personal Development and Relationships' (aka 'Sex, Drugs and Rock'n Roll'), social studies and health. It's wonderful to have had those years of junior high experience because most of the kids I taught at that level were then in front of me as my high school students. Because I'd known them before, I could recognize what was different and not just leap into the strange 'culture' of the high school. I use that word, 'culture,' a lot. A few years ago, the Writers' Union of Canada was talking about voice appropriation. I'm always so frustrated by such talk because I feel that, if I'm an artist, if I'm going to write, am I not then going to explore other cultures?"
  "I never really thought of the teen culture as separate because I was in it so much, but I've turned 50, and I'm getting 'wise.' I'm also getting to the point where kids tease me, call me 'Granny' and things like that. I don't look like a granny, but it's their way of saying, 'You're not on our team,' and I worry that my books may not represent their culture. I have to look real hard to make sure I'm really representing it."
  "I always think of my writing as a mirror. What I want to do is say to teenagers, 'Here you are. This is who you are, and you count. You don't have to be from New York. This is you in Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and somebody in New York, if they wanted to read it, might relate a bit.' If I'm going to mirror them, then it's those little fine points on the surface of the culture that I have to stay tuned to so they recognize who they are. It's whether the character's skirt is a certain length, or her shoes have great big huge heels or her lipstick is bright red, those are the things where readers will say, 'Aha, I recognize her, and, because I can recognize her, I'll believe her tears.'"
  "The book I'm working on right now started with a really troubled young man (let's call him 'Jack') with a shaved head and plaid jacket who was in my high school class. He'd flunked a grade so he's almost 18. I had 30 pages written before I realized it was 'Jack' I was tuned into. I didn't know that at first. As a high school teacher, I'm looking at the kids and their sense of 'where the heck do I belong?' That's such a huge issue with kids today. When I first met 'Jack,' you could see how fragile he was. I guess he'd just come out of a lot of bad drug abuse and an awful time. He said, 'If you'd known me last year, you wouldn't have liked me.' So he's the one who's sent me on this next quest." A late Friday afternoon incident between Sylvia and 'Jack' involved his asking, "Do you ever look at the sky and see all these stars and think, 'What's the point of me being here?'" Sylvia's response became what she describes "as the kind of thing that grabs inside. You know the story has started, but you don't know how many years it's going to take you to be true to it."
  As to other future projects, Sylvia says, "Scholastic has rejected a couple of my manuscripts recently. One was a picture book for little kids, and I just think I'm not picture book experienced enough yet. I've done a rewrite that they haven't sent back, but I think they will, and that's OK. I don't think I've got enough of what it takes to be there, but I worked very hard on it, and I still believe in it. Maybe I'll gain the skills through these experiences to do well.
  A manuscript that was originally rejected by Scholastic has now found a home. "'Menace and Mischief' is for a younger audience than my other novels --ages 8 - 12, I'd say. Actually, I started this book about seven years ago when I found a novel I'd been trying to write was just too depressing for me to 'stay inside' for any length of time. My dad had died a year before, and it was time, personally, for me to cheer up. So I really played with this book -- became downright silly at times and laughed out loud about some descriptions and word plays. Last month, when I was checking the gallies, I was still laughing. Now, lots of people have not found it nearly as funny as I have, but therein lies my state of mind. Ha. For example, there's a scene where CJ has been called to watch TV with his parents and they know something which he doesn't know, and that something is about to be announced on the cable TV channel. CJ 'noticed that his mother had a very weird grin on her face, like she'd tied a camel to the back veranda and was just waiting until someone walked out there to discover it.' Now that cracks me up. But I'll understand if you're sitting there scratching your head in wonderment.
  The title of the novel, 'Menace and Mischief' comes out of the basic reason I wanted to write this book: too often younger people will not see distinctions between 'just joking around' and harassment. In 1990, an eighth-grader in my friend's school died when he was body-checked at a noonhour gym activity. I've actually included a similar event in this novel. But I didn't want the novel to be depressing, as I have said. So I mixed up the zany stuff (like lost hamsters and boa constrictors) with the serious stuff (like intimidation, and physical violence), hoping kids would stay with my story and come out the other side realizing some truth about limitations to what they'd call 'joking around'. That's why Scholastic didn't like the book, as a matter of fact. They said they thought I had two novels here, not one. Budge Wilson, in a phone conversation, asked me if I thought they were right and that started a five-minute tirade about how the mixture of the two themes was exactly the point of the whole book!! Budge ordered me to send the manuscript immediately to Stoddart before I lost confidence. I did, and in spring '99 my book will be 'out there'. Yaaaaaa."
  "Scholastic has asked if I would work on a series and even suggested, 'With Chewing Gum, why don't you go on to Benjamin?' But, like with my other books, the job is done. I'm not curious about Benjamin. I can picture places he goes and things he might do, but I'm not sufficiently curious about him and the issues that'll come up in his life. So I'm not going to do the series. It won't be good writing because I won't be there enough."
  "I'm growing as a writer for sure. I think I wrote temporary books, not temporary characters, but temporary books. When I went to Banff in 1976, I didn't know what voice was, let alone believe that somebody would listen to my voice. Rather than write my own environment, which was the junior high school, I was trying to write something else that I perceived someone might want to read. What I learned at Banff was voice, and I started to write from my environment, and it's successful because it's honest. My 'soul' is in there, and I believe in it." Crossing the Line
  1998 did see the arrival of Crossing the Line which appeared to be a new Gunnery book but really was not. "It had been over ten years since We're Friends, Aren't We? had been published when Scholastic called to tell me they wanted to give it a new face and a new name for 1998. My job, in the summer of 1997, was to go through the novel and 'update' anything which gave it that decade-ago feeling. When I had finished my job, there were 111 changes, exactly! Most were quite minor because we weren't changing the characters or their situations."
  "One change which was made many many times had to do with graduation -- in 1985, my students referred to the graduation dance as 'the prom'; but in 1997, it was 'grad' or 'grad dance.' Only once was I able to leave that old-fashioned term in the updated version of the novel and that was when Woody's mom was asking him if he had a date for the prom. She'd say 'prom,' and I can see Woody rolling his eyes but not correcting her. Another minor change was that, in 1997, I had to stuff all the characters' books into 'backpacks' whereas in 1985, most students simply carried them loose in their arms."
  "I did begin to notice that my writing style of 1985 was not exactly my current style. A few times, I felt that I was too wordy, describing, for example, how people talked. Now, the words they speak and perhaps their body language convey more clearly what I hear as they speak. And I'm more brief in conversations these days, too. So I cut a bit of chat that had been going no where."
  "There was one change which really struck me as a sign of just how much technology can creep into (and out of) our vocabulary. As Elizabeth was leaving her surprise birthday party with her parents, everyone was saying their goodbyes. One person said, "See ya round like a turntable." That had to go! And it sure couldn't be replaced by "See you around like a cd!" Ha. When in doubt, cut it out!" Just Write!
  "I have a long way to go in my writing because I'm a really strong teacher. I spend a lot of time in provincial development workshops, and I do a lot of professional writing." One dimension of that professional writing has been the publication of Just Write!, which is subtitled, Ten Practical Workshops for Successful Student Writing. "This professional book for teachers was a very long time in the making. It started, in fact, with some students in my grade 9 class in 1988. I wanted to publish a book about classroom writing in the voices of the student writers, so I convinced about a dozen students who had been in my grade 8 class and now were in my grade 9 class to each take on a chapter as their term writing assignment. For a while, Scholastic did show some interest in the project, but ultimately they felt that teachers were not keen about hearing about classroom practice from students."
  "In 1995, I was invited to be part of a team of teachers who would work on the new language arts guides for Nova Scotia. My job in particular was to look at writing goals. After so much concentration on WHAT students should be learning, I felt very strongly that there needed to be some suggestions to teachers about the HOWs of all of that. It was not an easy book to write, at first, because I didn't want to sound like someone shouting, 'Me, me, me!' This is where some of my close teaching friends helped out: they told me to write as if I were explaining to them what goes on in my classroom. I took their advice and found the third draft of the book much more fun to write. Finally, Mary Macchiusi of Pembroke Publishers called and said, 'Welcome to the Pembroke family!'"
  "Now I make time for fiction writing on weekends and on holidays. However, if I don't have a story started to the point where that story now has to be told, that's the hardest writing time. So I try to push real hard in the summer to click past that, and then I just find the time because the story's there in my head and I have to do it. But I'm getting 'old,' and I come home from school beat and I might have 75 papers to mark. Consequently, I haven't given the time to my writing that my heart would like. I hope I can be a little old lady writer and do well."

  Books by Sylvia Gunnery.

  Chewing Gum and Other Crimes. Scholastic, 1987. Grades 6-9
  Crossing the Line. Scholastic, 1998. Grades 6-10.
  I'm Locker 145, Who Are You? Scholastic, 1984. Grades 6-10
  Just Write! Pembroke, 1998. Professional.
  Taking Sides. Scholastic, 1991. Grades 5-9.
  We're Friends, Aren't We? Scholastic, 1986. Grades 6-10.
  *This article is an updated version of a 1997 "Profile" which was published in Resource Links, 2(2), 56-59.

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Print Marked Items
Gunnery, Sylvia: EMILY FOR REAL
Quoted in Sidelights: “somewhat opaque,” “genuinely touching at its tear-inducing, hopeful end.”
Kirkus Reviews.
(July 15, 2012):
COPYRIGHT 2012 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Gunnery, Sylvia EMILY FOR REAL Pajama Press (Children's Fiction) $14.95 8, 15 ISBN: 978-0-9869495-
8-6
After being dumped by her boyfriend, an emotionally shaken 17-year-old high school senior makes friends
with an angry young man and discovers that the secure family she always considered rock-solid is riddled
with lies and secrets. This is a story about familial ties-ties of blood, ties of love, ties that bind. It's also
about family lies and the way these lies affect core connections. Although protagonist Emily Sinclair's
family is small, it's complex and is comprised of a variety of household situations: intact, divorced, step,
gay, straight, illegitimate and adoptive. The story, which rolls unevenly, is set in motion when Emily's
grandfather dies, and the family learns that he had both a longtime mistress and an illegitimate daughter.
And that's not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Sinclair family's surprising but believable
secrets, and their eventual revelation shocks Emily to the quick. The other story thread concerns Emily's
realistically depicted budding friendship with Leo Mac, a new classmate with a plateful of family problems
of his own, and their testy but ultimately supportive relationship. The characters are somewhat opaque for a
story about relationships-this is particularly true of Emily's mother-and the mood of the story is gray.
Nevertheless, it is genuinely touching at its tear-inducing, hopeful end. (Fiction. 12 & up)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Gunnery, Sylvia: EMILY FOR REAL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2012. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A296121371/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e5535a9e.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A296121371
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Quoted in Sidelights: “important journey of discovery, personal and philosophical, with important and realistic results.” Gunnery, Little added, “sees youth as something to be treasured and travel as something with purpose rather than a simple means to a destination.”
Gunnery, Sylvia: Road Signs That Say
West
Lesley Little
Resource Links.
22.5 (June 2017): p24+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
[G]
GUNNERY, Sylvia
Road Signs That Say West
Pajama Press, 2017. 224p. Gr. 7-12.
978-1-77278-023-9. Pbk. $14.95
What starts out as a daring cross-Canada romp evolves into an important journey of discovery, personal and
philosophical, with important and realistic results.
Three sisters from Nova Scotia begin a voyage of discovery in their mother's silver Honda while their
parents are touring Europe. They are headed for the west coast and plan to be back in Nova Scotia before
their parents' return. At least, that's the plan at the outset.
The girls bring emotional baggage along with their tent and sleeping bags and it is this emotional baggage
that impacts their travels. Hannah, the eldest at 19, has mysteriously dropped out of university, gone to Italy
as an au pair, and returned under a cloud of suspicion and sexual innuendo. Megan is determined to succeed
at university and qualify for the Varsity swim team. Clair is still in shock over the suicide of a fellow
student and happy to be doing anything that will distract her from the deep worries that has created.
From the outset, Hannah is the ringleader, Clair is happy to accompany her, and Megan is opposed to much
of what transpires. Megan's contrarian nature is at odds with her natural grace and beauty but her sisters
react more to her nature than her outward appearance. The journey provides each of the sisters an
opportunity to reveal and deal with her demons; Hannah sends her sisters home after they reach Vancouver
and heads to Whitehorse to continue managing hers. Megan heads home to university and Clair
accompanies her, clear in her intention to become a mental health counsellor. The sisters all leave
Vancouver on a better foot than when they arrived.
Author Sylvia Gunnery has portrayed this trip as a portrait of Canada's better self; the one that sees youth as
something to be treasured and travel as something with purpose rather than a simple means to a destination.
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The people the three sisters meet on their journey are believable and real and that added dimension gives the
narrative much more depth than initially expected.
Thematic Links: Travel; Canada; Sisterhood; Conduct of Life; Adolescence; Sexual Politics
[G] Good, even great at times, generally useful!
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Little, Lesley. "Gunnery, Sylvia: Road Signs That Say West." Resource Links, June 2017, p. 24+. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500500918/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f41dca85. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A500500918
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Quoted in Sidelights: “predictable.” She remarked: “Most readers looking for a road-trip story would be fine with the basic plotline; however, this story lacks character development and excitement.”
Gunnery, Sylvia. Road Signs That Say
West
Jane Gov and Hadley Willman
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.2 (June 2017): p65.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
1Q * 2P * S
Gunnery, Sylvia. Road Signs That Say West. Pajama Press, 2017. 216p. $11.95 Trade pb. 978-1-77278-023-
9.
Three sisters take a road trip from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, traveling from place to place, meeting random
people who inspire them to open up and be honest--with one another, with others, with themselves. Hanna,
the oldest, wants to forget about what happened at university and her job in Italy, where she was accused of
sleeping with her boss. Because of a friends recent suicide, Claire, the youngest, is haunted by nightmares
and worries about the mental health of another mutual friend. Not wanting to be left behind, Megan, the
middle sister, goes along for the ride, but not without complaint. Believing that this trip could help them
forget their troubles, the sisters use this opportunity to have one last memorable time together before
everything changes and they all grow up.
Road Signs that Say West is predictable. Most readers looking for a road-trip story would be fine with the
basic plotline; however, this story lacks character development and excitement. Perhaps it is the omniscient
third-person narration, or the fact that there are too many characters to follow, or perhaps it is because the
voices of the three sisters are not distinct enough and run together. The novel begins with half-stories and
unclear exposition. The plot is difficult to follow, the scenes are jagged, and many supporting characters are
unnecessary and stale. There are too many secrets and the narration is so bare in details that readers are left
confused and disconnected.--Jane Gov.
Road Signs That Say West tells the bland story of three sisters on a road trip. It is missing a plot, provides
excessive stereotypical teen-speak, and offers an unsatisfying ending. Everything is all tell and no show.
The author has a good idea about dealing with mental health issues, but it comes across messily, as though
added as an afterthought. 1Q, 2P.--Hadley Willman, Teen Reviewer.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Gov, Jane, and Hadley Willman. "Gunnery, Sylvia. Road Signs That Say West." Voice of Youth Advocates,
June 2017, p. 65. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497860322/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=dd9ada6a. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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Quoted in Sidelights: Though full of potential, the thin plot is a poor vehicle for the character development and dynamic relationships that are key to road-trip stories.”
Gunnery, Sylvia: ROAD SIGNS THAT
SAY WEST
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Gunnery, Sylvia ROAD SIGNS THAT SAY WEST Pajama Press (Children's Fiction) $11.95 5, 1 ISBN:
978-1-77278-023-9
While their parents are on vacation, three white sisters go on the road trip of a lifetime.It isn't clear at the
outset why they've made this sudden decision or what they plan to gain. Megan, the middle sister, is clearly
against the whole idea, though she goes along with it. Their quest has no apparent goal, and most of their
high jinks occur off the page. Gunnery's focus on the interstitial moments could have been inspired. The
quiet hours between adventures would be the ideal time to display introspection and tenderness among the
sisters. Instead, the author reveals each girl's inner turmoil through stilted exposition and dialogue that feels
suited for scripted interventions on daytime talk shows. The weak narrative arc muddles the important
themes of the book, which barely addresses Megan's fractured relationships with boys and her sisters.
Hanna's trauma over events at her university and during her time in Italy, alluded to on the very first page,
comes out in spurts until the final chapter. The author grants the most time to Claire's grief over her friend's
suicide, but that too is painted with broad strokes. Though full of potential, the thin plot is a poor vehicle for
the character development and dynamic relationships that are key to road-trip stories. (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Gunnery, Sylvia: ROAD SIGNS THAT SAY WEST." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A487668639/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1b8d9f8e.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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Game Face (Sports Stories Series)
Joan Marshall
Resource Links.
18.5 (June 2013): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
GUNNERY, Sylvia
Game Face (Sports Stories Series)
James Lorimer & Co., 2013, 128p. Gr. 5-8. 978-1-4594-0375-8. Pbk. $9.95.
14-year-old Jay has played basketball for the Cougars in the town he and his family had to move to until
their house in Richmond Nova Scotia was fixed alter a fire. Once he returns to Richmond to play for the
Richmond Rockets, he is accused of being a traitor by a former friend and MVP. Colin. Jay is none-the-less
elected by his team-mates to be captain of the Rockets and makes a new friend in Kyung Li, a good
basketball player recently immigrated from the large city of Seoul. South Korea. Jay does his best to
motivate the team, but even with Kyung's help is stymied by Colin's anger and oppositional behaviour. Jay
solves the problem by offering to share the team captain position with Colin.
Jay is a strong character whose life revolves around basketball. He is determined to improve and to do well
at the sport itself, but also to learn how to be a great leader. He is open to making new friends, and is
cheerful and laid hack with his team-mates, while remaining respectful of his coach. Jay is a great older
brother to Sam and loves his parents and grandfather, a retired lobster fisherman. Secondary characters like
the talented Coach Willis, the principal Mr. Haley. Jay's lather and grandfather and even Colin's mother are
all seen through the eyes of Jay as concerned adults to be respected. But like many young teens Jay feels he
must solve his own problems without in involving the adults. His internal self-talk is very well done and
reveals his doubts and a sharp sense of humour.
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Kyung, the other main character, is very well drawn, from his formal English to his longing for home and
his determination to adapt and do well on the basketball court, lie proves to be a true friend to Jay.
Although the only character carrying a cell phone and texting appears to be Colin's younger sister. Jay and
Kyung both use Facebook and google their research. It is interesting that the problem between Jay and
Colin does not erupt on Facebook but takes place in person at school and at home.
The small town Nova Scotia setting, aside from the lobster fishing opening day, could be any. Canadian
town as most of the action takes place in gyms and schools.
The basketball scenes, from practices to critical games, are excellent and will draw the intended readership
into the book. The coaching is firm, goal oriented and upbeat while the basketball action itself is typical,
fast paced down to the last second. That all of this can he accomplished while keeping the reading level at
grade 3.4 is amazing.
Thematic Links: Basketball; Team Dynamics: Leadership
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Marshall, Joan. "Game Face (Sports Stories Series)." Resource Links, June 2013, p. 26. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A336288015/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=64089dd9.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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Out of Bounds
Deb Nielsen
Resource Links.
10.2 (Dec. 2004): p14.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
GUNNERY, Sylvia
Out of Bounds
James Lorimer & Co. Ltd., 2004. 98p. Gr. 4-6. 1-55028-826-1. Pbk. $8.95
In Out of Bounds, Sylvia Gunnery examines the emotions and growing pains of a young man, Jay Hirtle,
dealing with change in a very realistic manner. This story would be appealing to boys because it looks at the
situation in a way that boys could relate to without sounding flowery or preachy.
When the Hirtle family home is destroyed in a fire, Jay and his family have to relocate to a new town and
Jay's world is turned upside down. Suddenly he is faced with changing schools and, even worse, playing
basketball against his former team. As the family struggles with the difficulty of losing their home, Jay also
faces changes in his best friend and his girlfriend. Jay comes through like a star by facing these challenges
with courage and poise.
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Sylvia Gunnery illustrates realistic family dynamics and even the youngest character, Jay's little brother
Sam, is portrayed as credible. Out of Bounds is an honest look at some difficult situations that arise from
coming of age. Using basketball as the backdrop is definitely something to which all boys can relate. The
acknowledgment of Jay's courage is an important element to the book. Out of Bounds offers an important
lesson for all of us, especially for young people--although life sometimes gives you challenges it also gives
you choices. You may not be able to choose what happens to you but you can choose your reaction to it.
Through family support and by remaining true to yourself all things are bearable. It is refreshing for a book
to deal with a realistic situation in an honest way without glossing things over in a make-believe perfect
way.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Thematic Links: Basketball; Courage; Acceptance; Friendship; Coming of Age; Change
Nielsen, Deb
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Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Nielsen, Deb. "Out of Bounds." Resource Links, Dec. 2004, p. 14. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A127279376/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=65c34ff0.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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The Writing Circle
Claire Hazzard
Resource Links.
13.3 (Feb. 2008): p48.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
Good, even great at times, generally useful!
GUNNERY, Sylvia
The Writing Circle
Pembroke Publishers Limited, 2007. 128p. 978-1-55138-217-3. Pbk. $24.95
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In the opening chapter of this book, Sylvia Gunnery suggests that writing is not always the solitary pastime
we may imagine it to be. She stresses that 'writers confer with each other, they socialize, they talk about the
works of other writers, they discuss publishing, and they share their works-in-progress.' To this end,
Gunnery suggests that curriculum goals in writing can be met when students gather in small groups, or
writing circles, to discuss their words and offer suggestions. Gunnery suggests that this can work both on a
small, and large scale, and that encouraging a community of writers in one's classroom will benefit all,
particularly those who are reluctant writers.
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The author offers rules, ideas and protocols for establishing a community of writers, or writing circle in the
classroom. She has tips and ideas for fostering writing, and achieving writing goals. In particular, she
stresses the need to read; reading can be a source of inspiration or a way of modelling good writing practice,
and writers cannot write if they are not readers. Gunnery also emphasizes the need for revision and selfassessment,
particularly as a group exercise, and offers some strategies to make this work effectively within
the writing circle.
Teachers in elementary and middle grades will find this book both an interesting read, and a source of
useful and inspiring lesson ideas. In addition, high-school English teachers will find this a useful book to
browse through for ideas. Although not an essential purchase for the professional resource collection,
teachers looking to try something new in their classroom would find this book of use.
Thematic Links: English Language; Group Work
Hazzard, Claire
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hazzard, Claire. "The Writing Circle." Resource Links, Feb. 2008, p. 48. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A176652892/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e07658d0.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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Personal Best (Sports Stories)
Brianne Plach
MBR Bookwatch.
(Dec. 2007):
COPYRIGHT 2007 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Personal Best (Sports Stories)
Sylvia Gunnery
James Lorimer & Company
317 Adelaide Street West, Suite 1002, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1P9
ISBN 9781550288964, $8.95, 2006, www.lorimer.ca
What could be more exciting than to be a part of a basketball camp with a bunch of other boys who love the
same sport? This is a bright spot too, since Jay, and his family, is forced to live with his grandfather since
his family lost their house in a fire. Jay is all excited to be a part of the Acadia University Basketball Camp
in Nova Scotia. He gets to stay in an actual college dorm and be away from home for a whole week. What
makes it even better is the fact that his best friend Mike is going to the same camp.
What starts out as being probably the most thrilling thing that has ever happened in Jay's life, takes a
horrible turn. Mike's older brother, Chad, who is supposed to be the boy's coach and mentor, is not at all
what a mentor should be. It will take some work on the part of the boys to make it through a tough week.
Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Chad used to seem like such a great guy. It takes the boys to
make a difference in Chad's life.
"Personal Best" is an exciting continuation of the story which was first introduced in Sylvia Gunnery's book
"Out of Bounds." I am anxiously waiting to see if Ms. Gunnery decides to continue Jay's story in another
book.
Plach, Brianne
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Plach, Brianne. "Personal Best (Sports Stories)." MBR Bookwatch, Dec. 2007. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A173513732/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c9d46db3.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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Personal Best
Lesley Little
Resource Links.
11.4 (Apr. 2006): p19.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
Good, even great at times, generally useful!
GUNNERY, Sylvia
Personal Best
James Lorimer & Company Ltd., 2005. 112 p. Gr. 4-7. 978-1-55028-896-4/1-55028-896-2. Pbk. $8.95
Being the youngest and shortest participant in a fantastic summer basketball camp on the campus of Acadia
University really isn't the biggest worry of Jay's life, but it's up there, until he discovers two things: First,
how you approach a hurdle is more important than the hurdle itself, and second, that applies to cowardice,
in all its forms.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
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Jay is 13 and on his way to a week at basketball camp at Acadia University. His best friend Mike is also
going, and Mike's older brother Chad is a junior coach; Jay's coach, as it turns out. Jay sees a side of Chad
he is not comfortable with, first on a reckless drive to the city, and second as a sharp-tongued coach who is
more interested in winning than helping the team achieve success.
The upshot of all this is that Jay finds a friend, an older and admirably self-possessed player, who shows
him how to focus on his training, and demands from him only the best. But Jay achieves his own personal
best off the basketball court, when he runs several miles on a deserted country road for help after Chad
crashes the car, and Mike is seriously injured. His efforts save Mike's life.
Personal Best is a sequel to Out of Bounds, Sylvia Gunnery's contribution to James Lorimer & Company's
Sports Stories Series.
Thematic Links: Basketball; Self-Esteem
Little, Lesley
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Little, Lesley. "Personal Best." Resource Links, Apr. 2006, p. 19. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A146114293/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b54b6086.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
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Just write! Ten practical workshops for
successful student writing
Resource Links.
4.3 (Feb. 1999): p22.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
Pembroke Publishers Ltd., 1998. 1-55138-103-6. Pbk. $14.95
This book serves as a manual of ideas, strategies and practical suggestions for teachers of writing and
composition in the secondary schools. Through the notion of the "writing workshop" the author provides
directions for shaping the writing curriculum. The focus is very much on the partnership between teacher
and student throughout all stages of the writing process, the teacher serving as guide/advisor in the
explorations of each student.
The book draws on connections between writing and many other aspects of the curriculum - reading, group
discussion, drama, research. It is filled with techniques for organizing and structuring the writing workshop,
strategies for motivating students to write, tips for helping students edit and revise their work and activities
to encourage students to share their writing with others. It also provides ideas for assessment, methods for
dealing with characterizations and story structure and chapters that focus on specific forms of writing -
poetry, drama, survey/interview based writing and thesis writing.
It is through the inclusion of case studies, samples of student writing and teacher feedback, and numerous
accounts of classroom interactions that this book becomes a useful tool for the teacher in the writing
classroom. This book demonstrates very effectively how the teacher can help students become proficient
writers.
Thematic Links: Writing
C. Lyn Currie
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Just write! Ten practical workshops for successful student writing." Resource Links, Feb. 1999, p. 22.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A30223216/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5832f70e. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A30223216
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Quoted in Sidelights: “light hearted and whimsical. .. delightful to read.”
Menace and Mischief
Resource Links.
5.1 (Oct. 1999): p25,28.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
GUNNERY, Sylvia
(G)
On the student scene, a grade 7 student, Raymond pines after a sweet heart from kindergarten. Trying to
help the romance along, a friend writes a silly love letter to Julie and signs Raymond's name. Julie is not
impressed as she is being courted by the school bully, Wilson who causes "accidents" to happen to
Raymond. After Raymond is left unconscious from one of these bouts, Wilson's mother sends her son off to
boarding school.
The romance between two teachers blossoms into marriage.
This light hearted and whimsical read will appeal to students who want to see the funny side of life at
school. The writing style is very smooth and delightful to read.
(G) Good, even great at times, generally useful!
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Menace and Mischief." Resource Links, Oct. 1999, p. 25,28. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A30448559/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=86f6d21a.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A30448559
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Reluctant reader roundup: sports
Booklist.
110.1 (Sept. 1, 2013): p108.
COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Sports remains one of the most popular themes among reluctant readers, and the following novels--all
featuring accessible language and sentence structures--make particularly good suggestions for kids who find
reading a struggle. Ed.
Forever Hot / Truly Fine. By Stephanie Perry Moore. Sept. 2013.320p. 5addleback Educational, paper,
$14.95 (9781622506835). Gr.7-10.
Hot words and high feelings mix in this melodramatic start to the Grovehill Giants series. Two high/low
narratives bound back-to-back cover the same events from the points of view of a hottie cheerleader and a
hunky football jock. In Forever Hot, Skylar joins the cheerleading squad at her new school while boiling
about her widowed dad's remarriage; in Truly Fine, star running back Ford catches his divorced mom
making a "booty call" on his coach. Amid much mouthing off and telling off, as well as peer bonding and
rivalry, the two juniors click. A subplot about the recovery of Skylar's little stepsister from her abusive
father adds interest. What's missing here, beyond offhand references, is actual football or cheerleading
action--but teen issues are presented in nongraphic ways, and readers fond of stories laced with
confrontational rants and intense heart-to-heart exchanges will find this kickoff to the series just the ticket.--
John Peters
Forward Pass. By Lorna Schultz Nicholson. Sept. 2013. 144p. Lorimer, $16.95 (9781459403734); paper,
$9.95 (9781459403727);e-book, $7.95 (9781459403741). Gr.9-12.
Parmita, star soccer goalie at an elite Canadian high school for athletes, is looking to make the National
Team, and her assistant coach, Caroline, will help her--but only if she gives in to Caroline's advances. Parm
is uncomfortable, to say the least, but doesn't quite know how to handle the situation. After all, her dream is
to go all the way to the Olympics. But when another girl on the team starts to be targeted, too--and possibly
others--Parmita and teammate Sophia hatch a plan to catch Caroline in the act. Of course, exposing Caroline
means Parmita will have to be honest with everyone in her life, including her East Indian father: she's a
lesbian. This latest title in the Sports Podium Academy series, each of which features a different sport and
athlete, has a somewhat quick and easy resolution but should appeal to sports fans and high-school students
reading below grade level.--Ann Kelley
The Franchise. By Patrick Jones and Brent Chartier. Nov. 2013. 112p. Lerner/Darby Creek, paper, $7.95
(9781467714969); lib. ed., $27.93 (9781467713757); e-book, $20.95 (9781467716758). Gr. 9-12.
As in other books in the series, The Opportunity, a teen is offered a dream internship in an exciting, highprofile
field. Here it's Latrell, a statistics whiz, who has developed a strategic football algorithm, but no one
in the NFEs Los Angeles Stars has the time for or interest in his project. Linebacker coach Frank "the
Franchise" Foley becomes a father figure to Latrell, and when he tries Latrell's computer program, the Stars'
season begins to turn around. Told in first person, the fluent, conversational narrative incorporates general
football and computer terminology. The primary focus is on personal relationships, ethical decisions, and
values, without moralizing. Characters are broadly drawn; it's good guys Latrell and Frank pitted against the
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heartless, money-obsessed "suits." Aimed at reluctant readers and using short chapters, an enticing plot, and
an admirable protagonist, this is a provocative, ethically satisfying glimpse of the gritty underside of
professional football. --Linda Perkins
Game Face. By Sylvia Gunnery. Sept. 2013. 128p. korimer, $16.95 (9781459403765); paper, $9.95
(9781459403758); e-book, $7.95 (9781459403772). Gr. 5-8.
The cover photo, title, and tagline might lead readers to assume this is a guidebook for improving one's
game of basketball, but not so. That said, the lessons Jay Hirtle learns and shares with his teammates are
ones that any sports participant can take to heart. After playing basketball for a rival school the previous
year, Jay comes back to the Richmond Academy Rockets to find that his former best friend, Colin, has it in
for him. To make matters more stressful, Jay, rather than Colin, has been elected captain of the team. Coach
expects Jay to set a stellar example both on and off the court, and Jay wonders how he can live up to this.
Kyung, the new student from Seoul, just might have some fresh ideas, but can Jay pull the team together?
An abundance of dialogue makes for a fast-paced read with personal angst that rings true. For a look at how
racial tensions lead to the same conflict, try Matt Christopher's 7-he Basket Counts (1968).--J. B. Petty
Replay. By Steven Sandor. Oct. 2013.128p. Lorimer, $16.95 (9781459403826); paper, $9.95
(9781459403819); e-book, $7.95 (9781459403833). Gr. 3-6.
Tiny Warren Chen is an unlikely football hero. Though he loves to watch the game on television, he is far
too busy working in his family's Chinese restaurant in Alberta, Canada, to practice, and his diminutive size
does not allow him to play many positions. Yet his coach is impressed with Warreffs inexhaustible efforts
on the practice field and gives him a spot on the team. When he is stopped a half-yard short of the goal line
on a game-deciding play, Warren uses trickery to coax the referee into calling a touchdown. Instantly, he has
the respect of his family and his entire school, but he cannot escape the nagging truth of his newfound
popularity. Sandor's experience as a sportswriter and broadcaster are evident, creating an authentic basis for
the story line. He effectively weaves strong life lessons about winning, losing, and fair play into Warrens
story in a manner that is subtle and still highly engaging.--Erin Anderson
Topspin. By Sonya Spreen Bates. Nov. 2013. 160p. Orca, paper, $9.95 (9781459803855). Gr. 7-10.
"In Australia, tennis is a year-round sport," explains Kat. The recent Canadian transplant and "selfconfessed
tennis junkie" finds herself at the center of a drug-testing conspiracy. When her doubles partner,
Miri, starts slipping away from their hotel room in the evenings, instead of resting for their matches at the
Optus Junior Tour, concern (and nosiness) disrupts Kat's game which also distracts Hamish, Miri's tennisstar
boyfriend. Bates doesn't hold back on action, whether athletic or otherwise. Cheating, blackmail, and
drugs make for a scandalous romp in the usually squeaky clean world of tennis. Matches are recalled at
breathless speed, and while Kat's future in tennis will likely be as a spectator, she is an enthusiastic narrator
and keeps the stakes of each bout high. The prose is sometimes disposed to repetitive turns of phrase--the
characters in particular seem to have an issue with dropping their jaws--but tennis fans should find plenty to
cheer about in this sporty endeavor.--Courtney Jones
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Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Reluctant reader roundup: sports." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2013, p. 108. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A345457271/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=45493125.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A345457271
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Page-turners: high-interest fiction for
struggling readers
Publishers Weekly.
260.32 (Aug. 12, 2013): p59.
COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Game Face
Sylvia Gunnery. Lorimer (Orca, dist.), $16.95 (128p) ISBN 978-14594-0376-5; $9.95 trade paper ISBN
978-1-4594-0375-8
Basketball is elevated to a lofty status in this Sports Stories entry, written at a third-grade level. Jay Hirtle
has returned to Richmond Academy after temporarily playing for a rival junior high when his family was
displaced by a fire. By a narrow vote, he's now captain of the team, putting him in position to assist the
coach, run practice, encourage new players, and temper an angry, egotistical teammate. Unfortunately, the ,
weight of Jay's responsibilities and the coach's earnest toughness feel overwrought. The drill-filled run-up
to the first game and the jostling of player roles comprise most of the plot, which may leave fans of the
sport wishing for a bit more game-day action. Simultaneously available: Double Play by Sara Cassidy. Ages
10-13. (Sept.)
Leaping at Shadows
Megan Atwood. Lerner/Darby Creek, $7.95 trade paper (112p) ISBN
978-1-4677-1483-9
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Ballet dancers become ghost-busters in this first book in the Dario Quincy Academy of Dance series, which
is written at a fourth-grade reading level and set in a prestigious, potentially haunted boarding school.
Madeleine faces challenges as a scholarship student arriving after the semester starts, but she quickly proves
herself with her graceful talents. She and her new classmates bond during midnight explorations of the
Academy's spooky basement tunnels in search of stolen keepsakes. Atwood uses a light touch to create
pleasant characters and a suspenseful premise, never letting the sinister notes weigh too heavily on the
proceedings. Future mysterious adventures await: Stolen Luck, The Cursed Ballet, and Twin Dangers are
available simultaneously. Ages 11-up. (Aug.) Gary Robinson.
Little Brother at War
Gary Robinson. Book Publishing Company/7th Generation, $9.95 trade paper (120p) ISBN 978-1-939053-
02-2
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The tension between respecting Choctaw tradition and embracing change are at the heart of Robinson's
strong addition to the PathFinders series about Native American teens, written by Native authors. Randy is
pressured to pursue high school' sports, like his father and recently deceased war-hero brother before him.
But the 16-year-old discovers that he loves--and has a talent for--Choctaw stickball or toli, an ancient game
similar to lacrosse that isn't a school sport and that his father thinks is a relic. Written at a fourth-grade
reading level, the story captures the believable friction in Randy's family and introduces a bit of American
culture that will be new to many readers. Simultaneously available: Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner by
Tim Tingle. Ages 12-16. (Aug.)
My Side
Norah McClintock. Orca, $9.95 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-45980511-8
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
McClintock dissects a violent cyber-bullying incident from the viewpoints of the victim and an associate of
the perpetrators in a gripping entry to the Orca Soundings series, written at a fourth-grade reading level.
Chronically shy and now traumatized, Addle describes her nerve-wracking return to high school following a
terrifying prank played on her by her former best friend and a group of girls, which they filmed and emailed
to the entire student body. In the book's second section, Neely, Addie's old BFF, explains what really
happened. Though the story ends abruptly, without real resolution, McClintock builds realistic and
frightening suspense, and the girls' accounts deliver intense emotion to which teens can relate. Ages 12-up.
(Sept.)
Forward Pass
Lorna Schultz Nicholson. Lorimer (Orca, dist.), $16.95 (144p) ISBN 978-1-4594-0373-4; $9.95 trade paper
ISBN 978-1-4594-0372-7
Parmita Kapoor, an Olympic soccer hopeful and aspiring surgeon, stars in this volume of the Podium Sports
Academy series about elite teen athletes, which is written at a thirdgrade reading level. Quiet and focused,
Parmita juggles her studies and training as she struggles with her sexual identity and unwanted and
inappropriate attention from a female coach. Exciting soccer action, hot-button issues (conservative.
Christian views, differing attitudes toward homosexuality, sexual abuse), and teen angst find balanced
footing within Parmita's experiences in a story that will leave readers with plenty of food for thought. Ages
13-up. (Sept.)
Forever Hot/Truly Fine
Stephanie Perry Moore and Derrick Moore. Saddleback, $14.95 trade paper (344p) ISBN 978-1-62250-683-
5
Like Moore and her husband's Lockwood Lions series, this flipbook-style first title in the Grovehill Giants
series presents romance-fueled teen drama from two points of view; the action centers on the cheer squad
and football team of the Lions' cross-town rival high school. In Forever Hot, new student and cheerleader
Skylar deals with mean girls at school and accepting a stepfamily after her mother's death from cancer.
Truly Fine finds running back Ford Frost battling a roster of woes while trying to woo Skylar. Sports action
gets short shrift, and the dialogue and narration sound stilted and unrealistic, despite a reliance on slang. A
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barrage of problems, from child abduction to steroid use, receives quick and trite resolutions. Ages 15-up.
(Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Page-turners: high-interest fiction for struggling readers." Publishers Weekly, 12 Aug. 2013, p. 59. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A339853176/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4d91ba15. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A339853176

"Gunnery, Sylvia: EMILY FOR REAL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2012. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A296121371/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Little, Lesley. "Gunnery, Sylvia: Road Signs That Say West." Resource Links, June 2017, p. 24+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500500918/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Gov, Jane, and Hadley Willman. "Gunnery, Sylvia. Road Signs That Say West." Voice of Youth Advocates, June 2017, p. 65. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497860322/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. "Gunnery, Sylvia: ROAD SIGNS THAT SAY WEST." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A487668639/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Marshall, Joan. "Game Face (Sports Stories Series)." Resource Links, June 2013, p. 26. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A336288015/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Nielsen, Deb. "Out of Bounds." Resource Links, Dec. 2004, p. 14. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A127279376/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Hazzard, Claire. "The Writing Circle." Resource Links, Feb. 2008, p. 48. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A176652892/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Plach, Brianne. "Personal Best (Sports Stories)." MBR Bookwatch, Dec. 2007. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A173513732/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. Little, Lesley. "Personal Best." Resource Links, Apr. 2006, p. 19. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A146114293/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. "Just write! Ten practical workshops for successful student writing." Resource Links, Feb. 1999, p. 22. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A30223216/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. "Menace and Mischief." Resource Links, Oct. 1999, p. 25,28. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A30448559/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. "Reluctant reader roundup: sports." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2013, p. 108. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A345457271/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018. 3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521956275596 2/2 "Page-turners: high-interest fiction for struggling readers." Publishers Weekly, 12 Aug. 2013, p. 59. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A339853176/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.

• University of Manitoba
  https://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol23/no32/roadsignsthatsaywest.html
  Word count: 719

  Quoted in Sidelights: “In a YA world full of fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian fiction.” it fills a need for “complex stories about realistic characters and their lives,” “While there is nothing boring about their adventure, there is also nothing that jumps off the page as improbable or unlikely.”
  “an interesting but believable road-trip story.”
  In Sylvia Gunnery’s novel Road Signs That Say West, Hanna persuades her younger sisters, Megan and Claire, to join her on a parent-free road trip across Canada. As each girl deals with her own set of problems-- past, present, and future-- the sisters learn more about themselves, about the lives and problems of others, and about the importance of letting go and moving forward. Between crashing a wedding, hitting a dance club (and an ER), helping a hitchhiker paint a house, and learning to trust their instincts about dangerous people, the journey is not necessarily what they expected. With a cast of interesting yet believable characters, Road Signs That Say West gives a realistic look into the lives and relationships of three very different yet inextricably linked sisters.

  Road Signs That Say West is a novel that will absolutely find its way to the shelves of the junior high library I run. In a YA world full of fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian fiction, I have a large number of readers looking for what we call people stories: complex stories about realistic characters and their lives. The sisters in this story are believable and familiar without the author’s resorting to clichés. Hanna is a typical protective eldest sibling, hiding her painful secrets from her younger sisters. She clearly wants to follow her own path but struggles with the thought of leaving them behind. Claire tries to keep up with her older siblings in typical youngest-child fashion. However, she is also dealing with the tragic loss of a close friend, something that neither of her sisters truly understand. Middle sister Megan may be a little bit overlooked and underdeveloped, but isn’t that the way of the middle child? While we eventually get backstories for the other two sisters, there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason for Megan’s constant negativity.

  The situations that the girls find themselves in make for an interesting but believable road-trip story. While there is nothing boring about their adventure, there is also nothing that jumps off the page as improbable or unlikely. My junior high readers generally like to see some of themselves or their experiences in the novels they read, and this book would certainly accomplish that for many of them. For those buying books for a younger audience, there is some mature content in this novel; it’s done subtly, though, and is always pertinent to the story.

  Road Signs That Say West reads quickly and cleanly, with simple yet engaging language. It’s broken up into sections; there are smaller passages within the chapters, and 6-8 chapters within each of the three parts. This structure makes the novel manageable for struggling readers without affecting the flow of the story or making it choppy. It’s written entirely in third-person present tense, presumably to make it feel as if the reader is travelling with the girls. Overall, this choice works; one standout example would be in Part Two, Chapter Three, when Claire is lying in bed listening to a rainstorm pass overhead. That said, there were other times when a first-person perspective might have been beneficial.

  On a personal note, there are few things I enjoy more than seeing my hometown mentioned in works of literature. Gunnery’s novel opens with a fitting quote from Islander Catherine McLellan’s song “Lines on the Road”. A few chapters in, there is a reference to the university in Charlottetown. A reader in Southern Manitoba will recognize the name Pinawa, and one in Saskatchewan might recognize Weyburn. Baddeck, Edmundston, Jasper, and Mount Robson are among the other places named as the girls travel west across Canada. The mentions of various cities and landmarks across the country is a perfect way to draw readers into the story.

  Highly Recommended.

  Allison Giggey is the teacher-librarian at an intermediate school in Prince Edward Island.

• Quill and Quire
  https://quillandquire.com/review/emily-for-real/
  Word count: 436

  Quoted in Sidelights: “is a satisfying soap opera for teens who don’t mind adults (even octogenarians) being part of the action,” “cardboard character,” , “because Emily’s family drama provides ample entertainment.”
  REVIEWS
  « BACK TO
  BOOK REVIEWS

  Emily for Real
  by Sylvia Gunnery

  Breakups majorly suck, and the main character of Sylvia Gunnery’s latest novel is going through a particularly sucky one. Emily’s boyfriend has dumped her for a university girl (a French university girl at that), leaving the 17-year-old heartbroken and miserable. Things get worse when Emily’s grandfather dies and his mistress reveals their affair at his funeral, bringing several family secrets to light. Emily feels completely alone and confused until she finds friendship with a new student named Leo.

  While Emily and Leo’s relationship is often at the centre of the action, it ends up being the least compelling part of the story. Emily constantly remarks on Leo’s anger-management issues, though we never see him get very angry. She also frequently comments on his sense of humour, though he doesn’t often crack jokes. As a result, it is difficult to care much about Leo and his laundry list of clichéd issues that include an alcoholic mother and an absentee father. He functions more like a cardboard character in a didactic educational film than a meaningful presence in Emily’s life.

  The novel doesn’t really need this supposedly funny-yet-angry guy, because Emily’s family drama provides ample entertainment. Grandparents do not usually play a particularly juicy role in YA fiction, but the adultery high up in Emily’s family tree is only the beginning of the intrigue that continues to surface until the end of the novel.

  Gunnery’s style is enjoyably terse and direct, so Emily’s first-person reactions to the various family bombshells never feel overwrought; observations like “crying is not cathartic” are short on words but high on impact. Like sands through the hourglass, Emily for Real is a satisfying soap opera for teens who don’t mind adults (even octogenarians) being part of the action.

  Reviewer: Shannon Ozirny

  Publisher: Pajama Press

  DETAILS
  Price: $14.95

  Page Count: 220 pp

  Format: Paper

  ISBN: 978- 0-98694-958-6

  Released: April

  Issue Date: 2012-4

  Categories:

  Age Range: 12+

  JOB BOARD
  Editor
  Toronto
  Acquisitions Editor
  Toronto
  Social Media Coordinator
  Toronto
  Paid Internship opportunity
  Toronto

• University of Manitoba
  https://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol11/no7/outofbounds.html
  Word count: 1010

  Out of Bounds. (Sports Stories; 70).

  Sylvia Gunnery.
  Toronto, ON: James Lorimer, 2004.
  98 pp, pbk. & cl., $8.95 (pbk.), $16.95 (cl.).
  ISBN 1-55028-826-1 (pbk.), ISBN 1-55028-827-X (cl.).

  Subject Headings:
  Basketball stories.
  Fires - Juvenile fiction.
  Loyalty - Juvenile fiction.

  Grades 4-8 / Ages 9-13.

  Review by Tanus Tosh McNeill.

  *** /4

  excerpt:

  While they waited for Burke to come into the gym and get practice started, Mike Murphy made sure the ball was thrown to Jay a couple of times so he could take some shots. Each ball swished through the hoop. The smooth feel of the gym floor under his sneakers, the hollow sound that echoed against the walls and high into the rafters when he bounced the ball, the alert energy he felt in his legs and down his arms to the tips of his fingers – all this was as natural to Jay as taking a breath.

  When he was introduced to the rest of the team, he tried memorizing the names: Jacob, Russ, Vince, Alex, Greg, Chris, Rob, Mac (whose name was really Chris too). Burke told everyone to shake hands with their new teammate and they did. Most of them seemed okay with a Richmond guy playing for Centreville. Jay figured it was probably easier for the regional champs to relax when someone from another school joined their team. Or maybe Burke had somehow warned them, given them the “his loyalty is with us now: speech.

  Burk blew the whistle and made a circle in the air with his raised arm. “Everyone do the loop ten times! Let’s go!”

  The latest book in the “Sports Stories” series, Out of Bounds keeps that competitive spirit going. For 13-year-old Jay, it is tough enough having his house nearly burnt down, but life turns unbearable when he discovers that he can no longer play for his school basketball team. Jay suddenly sees his friends from a different vantage point, and he decides to take charge of his own life. This decision is difficult for Jay, but it helps him to become a more confident individual.

  The story opens with Jay’s life being perfect. Jay loves basketball, and he plays well. His best friend, Colin, is also on the Richmond School basketball team. Jay has a girlfriend, Allie, who provides him with moral support. Everything is great until Jay’s house catches on fire and the family is forced to move to Jay’s grandfather’s house. Suddenly, Jay can no longer play for the Richmond team because his grandfather’s house is out of the school area. If Jay wants to finish out the basketball season, he must sign up to play with their team’s rival, the Centreville Cougars.

  Out of loyalty to the Richmond team, Jay refuses to play basketball for his new school. Predictably, Jay makes an unexpected visit to his former school, and he discovers that Colin and Allie have begun dating and that his team no longer needs him. These devastating realizations force Jay to look more critically at his friends. Jay slowly accepts the fact that Colin is an underhanded player, a poor loser, and a dishonest friend. For Jay’s own happiness, he decides to play with the Centreville team. The story reaches its climax when Jay and Colin meet on the court. Jay has difficulty staying focused on the game, and he ends up fouling out. The Centreville team loses the game, but they will proceed to the regionals despite the loss. Jay’s new teammates think he has thrown the game until the basketball coach points out that it took courage on Jay’s part to put on a Centreville uniform and play against his former teammates. To conclude the story, Jay’s new teammate and friend, Mike Murphy, agrees with the coach, and Jay and Mike’s families end the book by going out for pizza together.

  Jay is an average teenage boy who loves basketball. He demonstrates loyalty to his school basketball team and to his friends. He has a solid sense of fair play, although he does not confront Colin about his unsportsman-like behaviour. Jay’s budding confidence crumbles on his date with Allie. These silly dating traumas could be humourous, but the situations seem forced and as a result the whole scene seems flat.

  Written in the third person, with an adolescent boy as the central character, this book will be of interest to boys. All the close relationships in the novel are between the male characters, whether it is Jay with Colin, his teammates, his father, grandfather, or his younger brother. Even Jay’s dog is male. The themes of basketball, team sports, and competition will attract the sports-minded reader. Other possible themes include friendship, family, and courage. Unfortunately, the story ends quickly, and the reader may feel that the ending is incomplete.

  This book will meet older reluctant readers’ needs because it is relatively short in length, is written at a grade 5 reading level, and has attractive cover art. Some of the language is stilted, but Jay’s inner struggles regarding his friends, his allegiance to his former school, and his love for the game of basketball help to move the story along. At the end of the book, there is a long list of other sports books in the “Sports Stories” series to help students make future selections in this same genre.

  Out of Bounds is an average read. The on-court action is appealing for sports enthusiasts. Students who have had to change schools will understand Jay’s struggles. Also readers will easily relate to Jay’s sense of betrayal concerning his friends. Younger middle-years readers and reluctant readers who enjoy sports books will enjoy this book.

  Recommended.

  Tanus Tosh McNeill is a teacher-librarian at Van Walleghem School in Winnipeg, MB.

• University of Manitoba
  https://umanitoba.ca/cm/vol14/no15/thewritingcircle.html
  Word count: 1071

  CM . . . . Volume XIV Number 15 . . . .March 21, 2008

  cover
  The Writing Circle: A Powerful Classroom Structure That Supports Writers and Promotes Peer Interaction-From Brainstorming and Sharing Drafts to Finding Their Unique Voices and Becoming Confident Writers.

  Sylvia Gunnery.
  Markham, ON: Pembroke, 2007.
  96 pp., pbk., $24.95.
  ISBN 978-1-55138-217-3.

  Subject Headings:
  English language-Composition and exercises-Study and teaching (Elementary).
  English language-Composition and exercises-Study and teaching (Secondary).
  Group Work in Education.

  Professional.

  Review by Pat Sadowy.

  *** /4

  Helping students to improve as writers has long been a fundamental goal of schooling. Teachers work hard to be better teachers of writing, always looking for ways to motivate students and build students’ skills as well as their own teaching skills. It is toward such ends that Gunnery presents her orientation to writing instruction, an orientation that has grown out of her own experiences in writing, in teaching writing, and in being a student of writing. Her vision is based on students working in small groups that she calls writing circles. After introducing her basic orientation, she provides a rationale for it and shows teachers how it is intended to work. The remaining chapters provide specific support for teachers as they support novice and developing writers. Gunnery’s main foci are prewriting and revision. She devotes a full chapter to each, as well as devoting a chapter to the complex task of development of voice in writing. Her book is directed to teachers, and I see it being useful for work with middle years classes, high school classes, and formal or informal writing courses with adult writers.

  Writing circles are excellent structures for middle years children and older teens if applied in the open spirit that Gunnery intends. She does not advocate a forced "circle time" each day but suggests that eventually students will learn to flow in and out of their circles as necessary, opting at other times for independent writing time or one-to-one time with a classmate or teacher. The degree of choice and the opportunity to show genuine responsibility are key elements in the growth of students as persons overall, as well as writers.

  The book has many strengths. The style and length make it accessible. The content is practical and clearly supported. The tone is positive, hopeful, and encouraging. Overall, the suggestions are very respectful of learners, opening instruction to allow them much freedom in their own learning. However, Gunnery does not negate the crucial role of the teacher in a writing circle model. She delineates the teacher’s role clearly. This is especially important in a model that can appear to an onlooker to be an abdication of teaching. Gunnery acknowledges firmly a place for direct instruction, for boundaries, and for expectations. She clearly connects a writing circle program to curricular goals.

  While Gunnery offers some ideas for assessment, with strength in student self-assessment, her book is not a complete manual for all aspects of writing instruction, nor is it intended to be. It is more an enticement towards altering one’s point of view toward greater student interaction and greater student-and-teacher interaction. For those teachers whose direction is already toward interaction, this book is a scaffold for implementation. Teachers who come to this book, whether experienced or not, will already have had some introduction in their pre-service education to basic concepts such as the writing process and writers’ workshop models, as well as literature circles. Gunnery’s work can help to hone that knowledge and activate it in a practical way.

  At least as far back as 1974, when James Gray and his colleagues initiated the Bay Area Writing Project, writing instruction for teachers has had group sharing as a central element. Although writing circles are not new, Gunnery’s vision goes beyond writing circles as response groups. While much writing circle time is certainly to be spent on the sharing of members’ own works for response, Gunnery advocates that there should be opportunity, too, to investigate together such questions as: How do published authors begin their short stories? What initially motivated certain individuals to become writers? How do authors of novels write dialogue? Writing circle members might research such questions as they occur naturally within their groups and might then present findings to the class as reports or strategic mini-lessons.

  The book contains only 88 pages within its chapters, and several of these pages are summary sheets or reproducible forms, both very useful for the teacher. A novice teacher could easily read the book over a couple of times and then begin to plan a writing program for the coming year. An experienced teacher could use Gunnery’s ideas to modify aspects of an existing program. The structure of the book, using many subheadings and with each subsection delineated by dotted lines, suggests that an experienced teacher could focus on any one subsection at a time and incorporate its ideas into pre-established plans that have been successful.

  Gunnery’s book is supported by a thorough index and a small bibliography that includes some of the pedagogical classics (e.g., Nancie Atwell, Harvey Daniels, Donald Graves) as well as other more personal materials that illustrate Gunnery’s values. Her ideas come across as invitations rather than mandates. If implemented, they would likely serve to improve students’ products and also students’ enjoyment of writing time and would do so for the weakest and the most competent. Early in the book Gunnery claims, "The writing circle is neither an ‘enriched’ nor a "remedial" experience–it is, at the same time, both these things" (p. 6). Writing circles benefit all writers, and anyone who reads it will see the many ways in which her entire book is a celebration of diversity.

  Recommended.

  Pat Sadowy is a Senior Instructor at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, where she teaches curriculum and instruction courses in language and literacy at the middle years level.

  To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

  Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
  Published by
  The Manitoba Library Association
  ISSN 1201-9364 Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

• University of Manitoba
  https://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol6/no4/justwrite.html
  Word count: 419

  ___ CM . . . . Volume VI Number 4 . . . . October 15, 1999

  cover Just Write! Ten Practical Workshops for Successful Student Writing.
  Sylvia Gunnery.
  Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers Ltd., 1998.
  96 pp., paper, $14.95.
  ISBN 1-55138-103-6.

  Subject Heading:
  English language-Composition and exercises-Study and teaching (Secondary).

  Professional.
  Review by Joanne Peters.

  *** /4

  excerpt:

  It's the beginning of first term. You and the writing students have months ahead to fill ... with what? The blackboard's clean, notebooks are fresh and empty, pens are ready. There are so many directions to choose from when writers work towards finding meaning ....
  Each writer chooses a place to go. They want a guide who recognizes the value of their explorations and who will come along on the trip, offering help when needed. [But] writers don't want a map to follow, a retracing of the footsteps someone else has made.

  Most classroom language arts teachers want to guide their students in their writing process, but it is all too easy to fall into "mapping": providing a series of steps, a "recipe" (pardon the mixed metaphor!) that students can follow. As a published writer of young adult fiction, and a teacher of junior and senior language arts, Sylvia Gunnery knows how to guide, and Just Write! is an excellent guide-book for teachers, whether new or experienced. The 11 chapters of the book take readers from the rationale for running a workshop-based classroom, to ways of getting student writers started, guiding students through revision, and finally, to celebrating the writing produced in the workshop with a "literary feast." Gunnery offers sound, classroom-tested ideas for working in two genres which often challenge writing teachers the most (poetry and drama) as well as ways to incorporate writing process techniques into literary essays (she calls them "thesis papers"). The author is also frank about the challenges faced by her and her students in many of their writing projects, and excerpts of students' responses provide authentic commentary. Just Write! is compact and affordable and deserves a place in personal and professional collections for language arts teachers.
  Highly recommended.

  Joanne Peters is a teacher-librarian at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, MB.

  To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

  Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

  Published by

• University of Manitoba
  https://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol6/no5/menace.html
  Word count: 603

  Quoted in Sidelights: “provides a young reader with humorous situations, serious issues and conflict resolution,” “is also an example of high quality writing,”
  CM . . . . Volume VI Number 5 . . . . October 29, 1999

  Menace and Mischief.
  Sylvia Gunnery.
  Toronto, ON: Stoddart Publishing Co. (Distributed by General Distribution Services), 1999.
  109 pp., pbk., $6.99.
  ISBN 0-7736-7477-2.

  Grades 5 - 7 / Ages 10 - 12.
  Review by Harriet Zaidman.

  **** /4

  excerpt:

  It was dark in the empty classrooms and hallways of Haliburton Junior High. Too dark to see the clock on the wall of Mr. Saunders' classroom. It was 2:38 a.m. Hobo stepped into her exercise wheel and ran. She ran uphill, up, up, and up, getting nowhere. She might've been thinking about how frustrating this was, or she might've been imagining racing up knolls and slopes of a forest. Or she might not have been thinking at all.
  Down through the blackness of the hall and around the corner was the science lab. There, in a glass cage, was Ms Harrison's pet boa constrictor, Miss Hiss, thick and still, curled warmly against herself. A dream rippled the scales of her beautifully patterned skin.
  It's always a pleasure to discover a young adult book that deals with an important teen issue and is also an example of high quality writing. Such is the case with Menace and Mischief by popular Nova Scotia author Sylvia Gunnery. This is a book that provides a young reader with humorous situations, serious issues and conflict resolution in the plot, as well as crafted writing skills to suit the plot developments. C.J. and Raymond are two boys who both yearn for the heart of Julie, a classmate in Grade 7. Wilson, a developing bully in Grade 9, also likes her and decides to eliminate the competition. Wilson's intimidation techniques result in serious injury to Raymond. A humorous subplot involving two teachers, a missing hamster and a python adds interesting twists to the junior high situation. After the crisis is resolved, Gunnery includes a plausible epilogue that informs the reader about what happened to the characters in later years.
  Gunnery presents the subplots through short vignettes that are funny and intriguing. They provide a picture of the junior high setting. The main plot also includes humour, but when it comes to the serious issues, Gunnery writes directly and honestly. The issue of bullying and the consequences it has on everyone involved is portrayed through Raymond's reflections about what is happening to him, through Raymond's parents and through Wilson's realization about what kind or person he is becoming. The seriousness of the crisis is reflected in the excellent prose that makes this situation very real:
  What can a mom think as she sits so quietly beside her child, when the only life she can detect is in the fragile warmth of his hands and the shallow breathing in and out? A flicker of light on a machine is no comfort.

  Young adolescents would be attracted to read Menace and Mischief. The book provides them with the opportunity to think through important teen issues they may experience in junior high and high school.
  Highly recommended.

  Harriet Zaidman is a teacher-librarian in Winnipeg, MB.

  To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

  Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

  Published by
  The Manitoba Library Association
  ISSN 1201-9364

• Quill and Quire
  https://quillandquire.com/review/menace-and-mischief/
  Word count: 388

  Quoted in Sidelights: “The many abrupt shifts in this book keep the reader more off balance than entertained,”
  REVIEWS
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  BOOK REVIEWS

  Menace and Mischief
  by Sylvia Gunnery

  The cast of characters here is lengthy. This is the story of CJ, Raymond, and Julie (three Grade 7 students), Hobo (their homeroom hamster), Miss Hiss (the science lab’s boa constrictor), Wilson (a Grade 9 bully), Mr. Saunders (the English teacher), Ms. Harrison (the science teacher), Mrs. Warren (the night custodian), and what happens to them over the course of a few days – which is quite a bit.

  CJ and Raymond have romantic feelings for Julie. So does Wilson. CJ plots to get Julie interested in Raymond to divert her from the bully Wilson. A baseball poem written by Mr. Saunders accidentally ends up in CJ’s math book, is discovered by CJ’s father, and entered in a local poetry competition. Both the hamster and snake escape and wander through the school. Wilson and two buddies bully Raymond, finally causing him to end up in a coma. At this point, the plot, which has been comic in tone, takes a serious turn. While Raymond is comatose, we learn about Wilson’s considerable stress at home. Before Raymond recovers, Wilson’s absent mother sweeps in and removes him to a private school, where his life will be reformed. Romance blossoms between the two teachers. CJ surprises Mr. Saunders when the baseball poem wins the competition.

  These many plot threads tie up neatly in an epilogue, which tells, among other things, that Wilson becomes a neurosurgeon. The story shifts point-of-view constantly, making it hard to form a bond with anyone. It’s also unusual to place a life-threatening accident in a comic novel for this age group. Some fine writing occurs in this section, but the mood swing is disorienting. Altogether, the many abrupt shifts in this book keep the reader more off balance than entertained.

  Reviewer: Janet McNaughton

  Publisher: GB Publishing

  DETAILS
  Price: $6.99

  Page Count: 80 pp

  Format: Paper

  ISBN: 0-7736-7477-2

  Released: Mar.

  Issue Date: 1999-5

  Categories: Children and YA Non-fiction

  Age Range: ages 8–12

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