Just What Kind of Mother Are You?

This showed up two days before I left for family vacation in the Dominican Republic and it was the absolute perfect fit for those airport down hours and the lounge chairs at the beach. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? is a captivating page-turner that you need to get right now, or at very least add to your must haves for summer cottage season. Without giving any spoilers away at all, Paula Daly has taken every mom's nightmare of losing a child, shaken the plot up every so slightly, tossed in a hefty dose of shocking plot twists (I never saw them coming.) and a hint of psychological thriller. All of that combines to create a dynamite fictional adventure that starts when an overburdened and exhausted working Mom loses her friend's child while she is supposed to be watching her. Ratchet up the guilt meter, because what could be worse than an already drained mama feeling like she was the cause of everyone's distress?

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? was the perfect beach read for me this week. I couldn't put it down and got sunburnt hands but only on the sides (reader's sunburn) from holding the book and being totally immersed this week. In fact I feel like this one lends itself to potentially being a runaway 2013 hit and a clear bestseller this summer. The topic matter is universally appealing to pretty much every working mother in every first world country. The writing is solid and the plot twists come at breakneck speed.

Lisa Kallisto is a working mother of three, managing married life just barely, and parenting her kids, most days just adequately enough, while running an animal shelter and struggling to carve out adult friendships as well. She is married to a man who adores her, a man who drives a taxi for a living. She grew up, the narrator tells us, in her father's second family. Her childhood comes to a fast end when her dad's first wife arrives in her neighbourhood one day asking to see his "bastard." Her visit culminates in a suicide attempt in front of the child. She tells little Lisa to make sure she tells her father about the visit and then slits her wrists in front of her, having sent the other wife out to fetch some sugar for tea.

Kate Riverty is Lisa's neighbour. She appears to have it all under control, the Mom with the best kids, the PTA fundraising queen, the most accomplished wife who works hard to keep her family immaculate and, yet there is just the slightest hint, she is a bit too perfect. Lisa works far to hard to aspire to the ideals that Moms like Kate set and then one night when Kate's daughter is supposed to be sleeping over at Lisa's home, she drops the ball and Kate's daughter Lucinda disappears. In their small town  pedophile has been lurking and one young girl has already turned up raped and disoriented. Kate, Lisa and their rest of the town worry Lucinda is the next victim.

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? has it all. The plot is fast, the characters are well rounded and this concept is not one I have seen perverted well in fiction form until now. So what complaints do I have, if any? This is a nearly perfect thriller that captivated me from start to finish. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? doesn't have the kind of lyrical writing that you will recall for weeks and months or rhapsodize over at book club. There are few poetic flourishes and that's more than okay, because that style of writing would be out of place here. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? is a story well told, executed with great timing.

Paula Daly is a mother and physiotherapist. This is her first novel. Let's just say I hope she is not a one hit wonder, because this is a great read.

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly, Fiction, published by DoubleDay Canada, is $22.95 in paperback, 314 pages. This gets my full $$$$$ out of $$$$$. Loved it.

The Poisoned Pawn Review

Peggy Blair's first novel The Beggar's Opera knocked my socks off. In fact, after a lengthy period of duty reads I remember stating publicly on twitter that her novel gave me back my will to read again. So, when I noted with pleasure that she had breathed life back into several of her colourful characters from that first book and dropped them squarely into another thriller, well I was extremely anxious to get my hands on it.

Happy to note Peggy Blair is no one hit wonder. Lucky for me, because I absolutely adore her ragtag circus group of misfit main characters who unravel homicides against the decaying and magnificent backdrop of historical Cuba. The Poisoned Pawn is a more than worthy sequel to the book I called one of my top five reads of 2012.

The Poisoned Pawn is Peggy Blair's second novel featuring Inspector Ricardo Ramirez. Ramirez is hands down one of my favourite literary characters of the last decade. He speaks to me and, is rich in his motivations and psychological drive. I believe every step he takes and every inner thought process the author details coming from him. He is three dimensional, flawed and incredibly human. Rich characters are a specialty for Blair and atmosphere is her canvas, which she paints stunningly

This sequel starts once again with a bang, a woman has died on a plane ride back to Cuba. Her illness manifests the moment she leaves Cuba and by landing she has expired mysteriously. It's the holidays and the body is revealed to be that of Hillary Ellis, wife to Mike Ellis, the detective accused of killing a Cuban boy in The Beggar's Opera. The Poisoned Pawn picks up essentially where The Beggar's Opera left off and moves interestingly into Ottawa revealing a new character, Detective Pike, a novelty because of his aboriginal status. Pike is, we soon learn, the only aboriginal detective in Canada. Soon the plot twists into the devastating theme of residential schools and crimes that took place against aboriginal children. Meanwhile women are dying of some mysterious poisoning in Cuba.

Ramirez struggles again in this novel with ghosts, literally haunted by his victims and tortured by the reality of corruption in Cuba. Blair weaves the tiniest hints of magic realism throughout The Poisoned Pawn in a way that adds to character and plot and builds intrigue. The Poisoned Pawn is a very worthy sequel to a magnificent debut. It secures Peggy Blair's spot in the league of top notch Canadian authors. I look forward to following her career for many more years.

Peggy Blair was a lawyer for 30 years specializing in aboriginal affairs. She lives in Ottawa. This is her second novel. The Beggar's Opera won the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize Reader's Choice Contest and was shortlisted for the Crime Writer's Association Debut Daggar Award.

The Poisoned Pawn, by Peggy Blair, published by Penguin Books, 2103, $22.00, softcover Toronto, 318 pages. This one gets $$$$ out of $$$$$.

Bookkeeping For Canadians for Dummies

This time of year Canadians and Americans both suffer the same terrible stressful fate. Tax season. It is a blight on all activity and can be daunting rounding up all those receipts and T4s. This year, at thriftymommastips.com I am up to my eyeballs trying to sort through what gets claimed, what doesn't get claimed and how to estimate and accurately record blogging income. That could be a whole other book, I think. No matter how much time you have to prepare, no matter what career you are in - many of us are never really ready for tax season.

When I spied Bookkeeping for Canadians for Dummies up for review recently, well I thought maybe, just maybe it would help lend insight into the tricky business of taxes. So, I sought it out and jumped into the scintillating text. Just kidding. This is not Fifty Shades for tax season.

The book starts with a laugh which pretty much summed up my approach to taxes. The first cartoon by Fifth Wave says: "I'm mathematically dyslexic. But it's not that unusual. 100 out of every 15 people are." 

I enjoy how well organized this For Dummies series of books are constructed. Every topic is neatly indexed and contained in a chapter with the occasional funny cartoon interspersed. The index and table of contents are great tools to guide your reading and research. If that doesn't do it for you there is also a glossary and the handy icons help simplify tips, warnings and examples.  I can easily seek out the specific item I need guidance on and quickly flip to that page or chapter. That's crucial for keeping tax season simple. Also the icons help me to skip over parts that aren't relevant to my situation. 

I am clearly no tax expert and this book didn't magically turn me into one. I found it very difficult to get through some of the specifics. I am probably now even more convinced that I need help and I am more motivated to ask for a professional to guide my taxes. But at the same time, I know more than I did when I started this book. Bookkeeping for Dummies for Canadians is not a book you read at bedtime or  from cover to cover, but it is a handy reference tool. I often come back to the accounts receivable and accounts payable terms for instance when I am doing my own business affairs here. When I have a reference point I can remember which is which and how to organize. That's where this book comes in handy. It's almost like a dictionary for translating bookkeeping terms. 

In the end I am still a tax dummy after reading this book, but I understand a few more of the terms now that I did before. I also have a great guide to help me look up and translate what the tax person is saying. Maybe it's just me, but I have a small mental block for tax season. I am at least smart enough to know that I need help. That's half the battle. Good luck with your taxes this year. If you need just a little help, then this would be a great reference tool for you. If you want to understand more about your taxes by next year, then buy this now and get studying. 

Bookkeeping for Canadians For Dummies, second edition is by Lita Epstein and Cecile Laurin, John Wiley and Sons, Canada, Toronto, 2013. $29.99 368 pages.

This one gets $$$$ out of $$$$$. It is still quite complex.

I received a copy of this book for review purposes. My opinion is all my own.

Shadow Girl: Young Adult Book Review #adoption

One of my greatest literary indulgences these days is YA literature. I am increasingly blown away by the quality literature coming from authors working in this genre. Shadow Girl is one new paperback novel I couldn't wait to get my hands on because of the adoption, foster care and poverty themes that run throughout. The promotional blurb alone led me to believe it would captivate both myself and my daughter, Payton. Together, we review appropriate young adult books here because she is as voracious a reader as I am.

Paula:

Shadow Girl is a beautiful story, sad and gentle, with some small alarming moments that provide a genuine insight into how far too many young people and children live in North American society. It is a substantial social issues and coming of age story that revolves around how to negotiate that territory when you are basically alone in the world left to fend for yourself. Jules is 11 and her father is an alcoholic. We are told early on that her mother left the duo and no reason is provided for that, but this lack of background on Mom is not a detractor to the plot.

Jules father is emotionally abusive to her when he is drunk and overwhelmed. His character, to me, was accurate, more concerned about his next drink and his next girlfriend or party. Unfortunately Jules is left many nights all by herself at home and she develops quite a tough shell. She spends many afternoons hanging out at the local shopping mall where she gets to know a salesperson who will change her life in more ways than one.

After a lengthy bender, Jules father discovers that she has been apprehended by Children's Aid. This begins a different section of Jules' life. She is devastated to be taken from her father, despite the fact that he hasn't been a parent to her in any respect for many years.

I enjoyed the author's skill in showing details through the narrator's eyes. Morrison never over explains or tells the reader what to think. For instance she describes the face of the father's new girlfriend as puffy and red in a way subtle enough to inform everyone she too is likely an alcoholic or addict.

I could have handled more from this story and felt it ended a bit too neatly and a bit too quick. I am not a fan of literary and television accounts of foster care and fully understand there are all sorts of people who take care of kids in all kinds of cities throughout North America, but many depictions of foster care are inaccurate, in my experience. Obviously, an antagonist and conflict were necessary to drive the plot, but I think the author might have used a more creative tool than the insensitive foster parent cliche.

While I really enjoyed the naive narrator in Shadow Girl and have no problem recommending this for any child over the age of nine, I had minor issues with it as an adult. I found Jules to be a very gentle version, almost a muted down version, of most children I know who have come through the child welfare system. She remains naive and sweet and never really loses it. She escapes her foster care situation every chance she gets and she escapes her father's home as well, but I expected more from a child raised by an alcoholic and shuffled through homes at a crucial age in her development. It seemed to me the real life Jules would have been acting out one heck of a lot more than this character did.

Patricia Morrison is a Canadian who lived in Toronto for many years but now lives in British Columbia with her family. She worked for the Ministry of Children and Families for many years in child welfare. This is her first novel.

My rating is $$$$ out of $$$$$. ( This is the kind of book that could easily be built into school curriculum. It is gentle and provides a great insight into poverty for young adults.)

Payton: (in her own words)

Shadow Girl is an emotional book, filled with happiness, sadness and anger, even frustration. It is set in 1963. I think this is probably similar to what one of my friends experienced when she was living with her birth family, before she was apprehended and placed in foster care in Ontario. The main character Jules is the same age as me. She has many of the same moods as I do and I completely understand her emotions. I feel the same way sometimes. When I read these books I like to put myself in the character's shoes, just as I would if I were acting in a play. I like doing this because it helps me to feel what they are feeling. At times this was difficult with Jules because her life is sad, but I liked her imaginative spirit and how well she used it to express herself in the book. She made a lot of forts to keep herself feeling safe and she imagined all sorts of things like being a princess, a brave knight, a warrior and a superhero.
Jules is very creative.

I wish that every child who went into foster care could move quicker to adoption but still had rights to see their birth family when able to do so. More people should read books like this so they understand children who are in the child welfare system. I will probably lend Shadow Girl to many of my friends.

I had trouble putting this book down during free time at school and when I was reading on the school bus. The main character is very compelling. I liked that she was my age. It made me sad to read about her relationship with her Dad. I would read more by this author because she created a great character in Jules. She was strong and creative and she escaped her foster home often because she said it was a house full of strangers. I was hoping for a happy ending for Jules and her Dad.

Shadow Girl is by Patricia Morrison, Tundra Books, $12.99, paperback, 2013, 217 pages.

Payton's rating was $$$$ 1/2 out of $$$$$. (Loved it.)

What on Earth is a Wishjack or Shampoon?

The Kid Dictionary will help you - uncool parent - transform your vocabulary into kid currency. Stuff of legend that makes children and adults everywhere laugh. So, after you finish your wardrodeo this morning with squirmy toddler, read my book review to find out if you have a Kidgilante, a Scamplifier or a Hairricane.

I love dictionaries. I am a purist at heart though, so I often find it jarring when people make words up, or turn a verb into a noun, or vice versa. For a couple of years I freelanced as a proofreader/editor to make more money when I was on contract at a newspaper in southern Ontario still waiting on an actual staff position with benefits. I was a book reviewer back then too. It was fun work that appealed to my sense of grammatical order and rules. Then one day someone sent me an ad to proofread that stated something like: Grow your money. Now this was 10 years ago and frankly the phrase was fingernails on chalkboard for me. Apparently it was visionary because now this type of usage is everywhere and it is okay. In recent years, I have overcome my purist perfectionist tendencies - unless we are talking about spelling. I mean, really, spell check people. No excuses. Some of you grammatical purists may find this humorous, quirky, fun dictionary of kid things, events and ideas a little unusual and maybe even jarring. But it is comedy, pure and simple. The Kid Dictionary is also an entertaining little trivia type book that has won a place on my tween daughter's overflowing book shelf and makes her laugh endlessly.

The Kid Dictionary is filled with words that you may never have heard of such as: Wishjack: defined as the act of highjacking your sibling's birthday cake so you can blow out the candles and make your own wish. It is also remarkably clever - Churchuckle is the thing kids do when they laugh maniacally at an inappropriate time when they are supposed to be silent (as in at church.) It is laugh out loud funny.

Creator Eric Ruhaltor works in television and studied economics at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. His biography states that his education taught him he had no interest in economic theories and principles and so, he became a writer. He works in television in New York City and lives in New Jersey with his wife, three children and assorted animals.



The Kid Dictionary gets a $$$$ out of $$$$$ for making me and my children laugh.

In answer to the original question above: Shampoon is the thing kids do when they step out of the shower with shampoo still obviously in their hair. A Kidgilante is the kid that reports you from the backseat of the car every time you run a red light or commit some legal infraction. A scamplifier is a little kid that yells everything. A Hairricane is an event we have here every day! Otherwise known as that mess of bed-head tangles and the ensuing screams of horror and temper tantrums that result when Mom or Dad tries to brush hair.

The Kid Dictionary, by Eric Ruhalter is published by Sourcebooks, New York and is $9.99 US, 215 pages long, available in stores and at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

I received a copy of this book to facilitate review. My opinion is all my own and 100% honest.

Top Five Brainfood Reads 2012

We had some fabulous books here this past year and before the month of January vanishes, I wanted to share some of our favourites with you. I am developing a passion for young adult fiction and luckily my daughter seems to share the love of reading. Payton spent more than a few hours spinning some of the reviews here this year. Many thanks to her for reading along with me and for helping out on occasion.

This is our Top Five Great Reads List from 2012.

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

2. Life With Lily - Book One - Great Books For Tween Girls

3. The Beggar's Opera 

4. Lone Wolf 

5. The Virgin Cure


As I type this I need to confess that I finally broke down and bough Fifty Shades of Grey, while in the airport in Las Vegas. So, next year maybe it will make the list and maybe not. I have started the book and it's a page-turner for sure. So tell us, what was your favorite book last year?

Shades of Truth: Top Notch Young Adult Fiction Review

Lately we've had a run of good luck with several great youth books for my oldest daughter. There are numerous historical fiction accounts that we've been treated to and enjoyed here on the pages of thriftymommasbrainfood. This novel Shades of Truth is not historical fiction, but it is inspirational Christian young adult fiction and my daughter quite enjoyed it. Shades of Truth is by Naomi Kinsman and it is intended to be the first in a series.

Guest Review by Payton Schuck

Shades of Truth is about a girl named Sadie who moves away from her friends. Her family moves from California to Owl Creek, Michigan. Her Dad is a mediator and he gets a job trying to bridge the gap between researchers and bear hunters. He buys a gun to fit in with the rest of the hunters. Sadie feels strongly about this and tries to persuade her Dad to get rid of the gun. The bears in Michigan have become a problem for residents. They are rooting through the town's garbage and scaring younger children. Some residents think they need to shoot the bears to protect their families. There is a scientist named Helen who is studying the bears and documenting their behaviour, their denning sites and how many cubs they have. She argues they should not be shot and wants to keep studying them.

Sadie's Mom has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and it makes her exhausted often. They are at the point where they have given up on treatments because they keep failing and causing their hopes to be dashed.  Sadie's Mom starts to get better the more time she spends outside and she seems to do better in Michigan than she did in California.

At school, Sadie has trouble fitting in and a few of the kids tell her she should move out of town. Sadie is sad about the move, but eventually she makes a friend named Ruth who takes her to a youth group where they talk about God and how he influences life. Sadie is entranced by the group and keeps going even when the friendship gets rocky. Sadie soon sees that praying and speaking to God can help you in many ways. She sees God as a constant and reliable voice and friend.

This is a story of her spiritual awakening. Sadie discovers God. She also discovers art. She starts shading and sketching with her art teacher Vivian. She focuses on drawing eyes and starts with her Mom and Dad's eyes and then begins drawing bear's eyes and bullies eyes. She sees this as a great way to express herself. Just by shading, she can show if the eyes are sad, scared, angry, surprised. She learns to show how she feels without using words.

This book is very inspiring and there is interesting communication back and forth between Sadie and her old friends. Their emails break up the story. There is also a lot of intriguing detail about trivia and nature in Shades of Truth. There are helpful tips here like how to get tree sap out of your hair. This book also gives helpful details about how to see the world differently.

Shades of Truth is by Naomi Kinsmen, Zonderkidz, by Zondervan, $7.99 and 205 paperback.
$$$$$ out of $$$$$ - this is our highest rating. Payton loved it. She called it very inspiring.

(Thanks to Payton for reviewing this one entirely on her own. We received no compensation for this review. Our opinions are all our own. We received a copy of the book to facilitate this review.)