Alan CumynCritiques

A wonderfully moving and strange tale. Cumyn handles the fantastical elements so well, right at the level of his readers. The adults, with the exception of one teacher and the stepmother of one friend, come across as suitably awful. The relationship with the Newfoundland at the center of the tale is charming.

Not what I was expecting at all. pleasently surprised at how much I enjoyed this.

I initially admired this novel for older children and young adults because it dared to go places that few kids’ books do. The sympathetic protagonist, Edgar, appears to be a child with fetal alcohol syndrome. His mother, Stephanie, is mess. She works unskilled jobs (bartending and waitressing), drinks too much, lies, sponges off others, and can’t manage very long without a man—sometimes any man will do. As the novel opens, she and Edgar are fleeing the Toronto home of her latest boyfriend, Roger. He’s not the worst of the guys she’s been with, but she will later have no scruples about telling horror stories about his treatment of her in order to cultivate the next man’s sympathy.

A friend of a friend has advised her of a house-sitting opportunity in Dawson City, Yukon. Stephanie declares to her young son that she’s eager to remake herself in an entirely new place. She tries to sell Edgar on the relocation by promising him that he will be caring for a dog, Benjamin—something that greatly excites the boy. Once they’ve arrived in the northern Canadian city, Edgar bonds immediately with the large elderly dog. He communicates easily (and sophisticatedly) with Benjamin and finds it increasingly difficult to communicate normally with other humans in their language. Instead, he produces barks and whines, and is only able to get more complex ideas across to people by writing on a notepad.

Before Edgar becomes an almost completely dog-identified-boy (for lack of a better way of putting it), he and his mother are befriended by their neighbour, Ceese, and his school-aged daughter, Caroline. Ceese has a lovely girlfriend, Victoria. Knowing his mother’s patterns well, Edgar anticipates that Stephanie will prove to be a destructive force in the couple’s relationship. Determined to do his best to prevent her ruining things yet again, one cold night he makes a rash and dangerous decision—one that involves the dog, Benjamin.

In my opinion, that part of the book, approximately the last quarter, is a mess. Any warm feelings I may have had towards the rather peculiar narrative that is North to Benjamin went entirely south. I found the conclusion super weird—unsettling and unsatisfying. I had a wonderful experience with Cumyn’s Owen Skye series, and so did many children I know. However, as well disposed as I am towards quirky kids’ books that are not formulaic and sometimes refuse to toe the line, I really cannot recommend this one.

You will either love it or hate it. It’s just that kind of book.
I’m on the love side. My reading standards are not high. I don't get mad at a book just because the characters are not plausible. So yes I enjoyed this book, The story about a girl who realizes she doesn’t have to be the person she thinks everyone expects her to be. Yeah it also has a hot pterodactyl exchange student, a horny one at that and yes the color purple is highly written about in this book. The story is about Sheils with a pterodactyl thrown in the mix sure it could have worked if you replaced the bird element with a new boy in school but really… aren't there enough of those books already?

On the one hand: this book is exactly what it says on the tin.

On the other hand: the fuck did I just read.

CBC published a list of 100 YA books that make you proud to be Canadian. I had only read 10 of them prior to this year so I was delighted to find a few more at a library book sale. This was one of them. I'm sure I would never have picked it up if it hadn't been for the list and I'm glad I did.

Stan is a 16 year old high school student trying to make the JV basketball team at school and wondering what to do about the new girl at school, Janine Igwash. Then he learns that JV basketball is cancelled for the year and Janine Igwash comes over to him during biology class and sort of asks him to a dance. He is dumbfounded and can't even reply to her. At home things are complicated too. His father left the family 5 years before because he got a young woman pregnant. His mother has a new boyfriend that takes up a lot of her time. Stan looks after his young sister, Lily, a lot but Lily is prone to spinning fantastic stories. When Lily says their father is coming for dinner with their half-brother, Feldon, Stan and his mother thinks it is just a story Lily made up. Imagine their surprise when they come home from a meeting with Lily's principal to find Ron and Feldon on their porch. It's a lot for a 16 year old to process especially when he just wants to get naked with Janine.

I really liked Stan. Yes, he thinks about sex a lot but he is also really sweet to Lily and he helps around the house and he has really deep feelings for Janine. Janine is also a great character. The book's title comes from the fact that rumour has it that Janine is tilted i.e. she likes girls. But Janine also really likes Stan and she is trying hard to figure out her own sexuality. Great book about all those hormonal feelings that teenagers have.

I'll admit I only chose this because of the title. The whole book consists of (mostly unsent) letters from a young boy named Owen to his girlfriend Sylvia, who has just moved away. Owen is always earnest, but the letters turn out funny as he and his brothers get into various sorts of mischief. The family has to learn to adapt when Owen's father quits his job to write a book. I think it must be aimed at kids under 10, but there is some mild adult subtext about the father's midlife crisis. The hapless Owen is a sympathetic character as he struggles with school (especially spelling) and with the changes at home. It was a fun story, and I would read the other books in the series if I came across them.

Books like this defy description. I was immediately drawn to the bizarre title and even more bizarre description. How could I not read something so crazy?! There have been a lot of teen werewolf and vampire romances (i.e. paranormal romance) but there have been little to none inter-specie's romance for teen readers. Young adults need not look further! Shiels, a nerdy, over accomplished braniac finds herself spiraling out of control her senior year in high school when a pterodactyl named Pyke comes to school. "An endangered life, a rare spirit, newly arrived from the great beyond." She finds herself oddly infatuated with him and her relationship with her boyfriend and her studies start to go to the wayside as she finds herself dreaming about Pyke's beak and other anatomy. At the school dance she boogies her way onto the stage where Pyke's band is performing and wrangle dances with him on stage in front of the entire student body. After that incident her nose is turned purple and she feels more in tune with the pterodactyl than ever, her high school likfe is about to get a lot more complicated. Why? "Because they had seen the real her, stripped of her title, her costumes, her armor, her aura - they had seen her in the wrangle dance, another of Pyke's girls. Chosen by him, marked by him, slave to him." Absurd, bizarre, and insane. I don't even know what to feel about this book.

Although a fair portion takes place at Ypres, a major part of the story is set in London while Canadian Private Ramsay Crome, who hails from Vancouver Island, is on leave. Canadian author Alan Cumyn skillfully conveys the contrast between the horror of Ypres and Crome's very civilized stay in London.

This exceptional author has not only depicted Ypres with startling accuracy, but of civilian incomprehension at that time. At the beginning I thought the graphic war zone account was going to be too horrific to get through, but this was an outstanding read: accurate, well-written, thought-provoking and sensitive. I have no hesitation in giving this one five stars.

Delightful. Only adults will "get" what's really going on with Owen's parents. Laugh out loud funny with a dark blue thread woven through.

While Cumyn includes scenes in the trenches, to me the best part of this title was those that described the life of the English civilians in England and how the war was or was not impacting their lives. He did great amounts of research to bring this to the pages of this very readable novel.

Owen Skye and his two brothers love to go on an adventure. Their adventures are always initiated by their crazy imaginations. From the Bog man to space ships and aliens, the Skye brothers are always busy with something. This book tells of their different adventures with ongoing stories of their socially awkward uncle who loves to live in the basement and Owen's love for his classmate Sylvia. Perfect for light reading for any middle school aged boys because of its humorous characters and short adventure plots.

A harrowing tale of torture and recovery, well worth a read or reread, particularly compelling since in the 10 years since the publication of this book, torture has been embraced by the so-called good guys.
Alan Cumyn is a very talented Canadian writer.