Children's Book Reviews

Being an avid reader I have taken on some reviews for Edwards Magazine. Here is a review of a young adult fiction book by Ann Walsh:

Posted on September 10, 2009 Author: ELR Category: Canadian, Fiction, Short stories, Young Adult
Published by Ronsdale Press, 2005
Dark Times by Ann Walsh is appropriately named. Dark Times is an anthology of 13 stories appropriate for a reading audience of 12 years of age or older. Ann Walsh cleverly chose stories with a common theme.
In reading the introduction and before delving into the individual stories, I was led to believe this was a collection of true to life stories and events, written with the sole purpose to offer solace and support to a young adolescent audience experiencing loss or grieving. I was to discover at the end of the book that I had been somewhat mislead.
Upon reading the contributors’ notes at the end of the book, I discovered the individual stories, even though effectively demonstrating the resilience of youth as they coped with the cruel realities of loss and grief, were actually ‘based on’ various authors’ momentary glimpses of the ‘what if’ in observing real life situations.
The stories are jam packed with emotions and they left me needing time between each one to recover, so to speak, and because of this it took me a long time to finish the entire book. Books typically have a beginning, middle and end. Dark Times is a collection of individual stories with many “beginnings”; “middles”; and “ends.” It is not a “feel good” book. Some of the stories, in particular “Cold Snap” by Diana Aspin ended abruptly, leaving a lot of unanswered questions. I beg to question if it would have been beneficial to understand how this particular story ended, if there was really an ending at all; or did the characters in this story continue to perpetuate sadness in their lives?
These stories are not for the faint of heart with their “dark themes.” They succeeded in invoking tears more than once, especially the stories involving children. But like a moth to a flame I found myself drawn back to them to read the next story and the next and the next. A compelling collection of stories but fair warning; keep a tissue box nearby.