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February 22, 2022Monique Polak on Helping Kids Find Themselves While Exploring Parental Alienation in Her New Middle Grade Book
Everything in Justine's world has changed since her parents got divorced. She and her little sister Bea travel across Montreal from one house to the other, living two lives. But when Justine's mother ...
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May 15, 2017
Monopoly on memory
Recently on Instagram, I saw a picture of Warszawa Centralna railway station and I was overcome by the smell and the sound the picture evoked. It smelled of damp concrete, earth, dirt and engine oil, ...
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March 26, 2021
Monster
When I walked in, the four of them were seated at a folding card table. Behind a cardboard screen, the Dungeon Master sat shuffling his stack of wrinkled maps and notes. I pulled up a chair, though the ...
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May 14, 2009
More Duppy Business?
Many years ago I read a book called HEALING THE FAMILY TREE by a psychiatrist, Dr. Kenneth McAll. I won’t go into the theories he presents in the book (it’s still available, for anyone who’s interested) ...
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May 10, 2023More Funny Books, Please!
One of the most stressful questions I’ve been asked by kids is, “are your books funny?” This is a test disguised as a question. If I get it wrong, they won’t read my books. But what is an appropriate ...
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April 23, 2014
More Revision
A friend confesses that he could spend the rest of his life revising a handful of the same poems. One change leads to another. It’s like a glassblower unsure whether to make a swan or a squirrel, the ...
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July 04, 2025More Tips on Writing Book Reviews
One year ago, I wrote a column on getting into writing book reviews. The topic of book reviews remains ever-important, especially in a media climate where outlets to review grow smaller and smaller. In ...
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September 27, 2016Most Anticipated Books of 2017, Part 1
Some of my favourite writers have new books coming out next year, and I’m so incredibly excited to read them. I had a chance this week to interview Rebecca Rosenblum, about her new novel, So Much Love, ...
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September 28, 2016Most Anticipated Books of 2017, Part 2
Hi Open Book Readers,Following on from Part 1 of this series, I’m also incredibly excited about new books by Richard Rosenbaum (he has two coming out in 2017) and Chris Benjamin. I had a chance to interview ...
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May 06, 2016Mother's Day
As people, as writers, we are often formed or directed by crystallizing moments in our lives, brief happenings which nonetheless persist in our minds, or which port some lesson, or confirm for us a suspicion ...
