The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 42

Saturday Books- 1 If 1 111 IMMSM masination runs free 3 7L 8 COVER ART from The Same Place But Different; author Tony Pratchett (Only You Can Save Mankind) in these faerie frolics Pi 1 XVit JJ1fis ttrp ill J1 1 By ANDREA DEAKIN lore. While John's parents are deeply troubled about the change that has come over his infant sister, Andrea, John has a vision that changes his life. While walking in the A 1 I Jar oggarts are ancient mis- (. nhlmmiic mimic tVint ottof.Vi park by the river, he sees his neighbor Mrs. Fordyce sitting in a rocking chair.

themselves to a family and i 1111 t. sawae piay an Kincis oi uicks on tied Johnny in conversa for young people. Robert Priest's novel Knights of the Endless Day (VikingPenguin, based en his original play, cleverly parodies the heroic epic. Ogo is one of three young knights looking for a dangerous mission. However, the king's little daughter Princess Illia, something of a budding enchantress, takes a fancy to the young knight, and Ogo ends up taking the infant to visit her mother.

After careless work at the crossroads, the three knights end up going in different directions, and Ogo finding himself in a lot more trouble than he could have imagined possible. Priest's use of the language is a pleasure, and he paces the narrative at a good clip. Vic Vaccoro's down-to-earth vigorous drawings add just the right touch. In Tony Pratchett's Only You Can Save Mankind (Doubleday, computer game whiz Johnny is startled when the screen goes blank and a message appears: We wish to talk. The ScreeWee captain engages the star- holding his baby sister.

Mrs. Fordyce has been dead for several months. Thus begins John's experiences with the world of faerie, the ancient dark beings who leave changelings to capture human beings and carry them off to their realm. Author Perry Nodelman links the life of his skeptical teenager with the mysterious beings whose parallel universe impinges on human life. There is tension in John's attempts to save his little sister and restore some sense of normalcy to their home; he must accept the unbelievable and face the impossible.

My one concern is that the jacket illustration will suggest the book is for younger readers and so put some young people off an interesting reading experience. Andrea Deakin is a Salmon Arm writer. them. The Boggart is not malicious, it enjoys good-natured sparring with the host family. Susan Cooper returns to the novel with The Boggart (Maxwell Macmillan, a faultless piece of writing.

When the last Scottish owner of Castle Keep dies, the castle, and attendant Boggart, pass to a family from Toronto. After visiting Castle Keep they unwittingly bring the Boggart back, and the Boggart's attempts to adapt to Toronto, along with the family's attempts to understand the Boggart, make for a fast-paced, funny, yet tender and moving story. Cooper develops and weaves together her characters, the most appealing of which is the ancient, bewildered Boggart. Cooper is a master of the art of writing tion. Suddenly the enemies have become real: they are beings who wish to survive, who wish to surrender.

Johnny's friends are helpless, unable to contemplate a computer game surrendering. Johnny realizes that these are beings who want to go home and he alone has to find a way to get them there. This is a very clever book facing one of the most difficult of humanity's dilemmas, put forward in a computer game. Yes, this is a highly readable romp, but it is very much more, and, like the previous books, will leave the reader with something to think about. Like The Boggart, The Same Place but Different (GroundwoodDouglas Mclntyre, $7.95) refers back to ancient European folk Especially for fathers, flaws and al EVERYtHIE By MARKE ANDREWS sgspiGf pro Vancouver's Art Bookstore 1 533 W.

Broadway at Granville 731-0553 you're like me, you look at such calendar highlights as Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day as creations of the greeting card indus- VA'A Very Latest In Summer Reading 4 pus Complex). In one of the most moving pieces, John Hall Wheelock mourns his father's deat imagining his old man on the garden-seat looked away into the quiet air, Knowing that if I did not turn my head 1 still might have him there." Fathers and Babies (HarperPerennial, by Jean Marzollo, attempts to guide fathers through the rituals of caring for an infant. All the basics are covered, aided by Irene Trivas's illustrations. Winners of the 1993 Canadian Authors Association literary awards will read from their work on June 20, at 2 p.m., at the University of B.C.'s Gage Tower Conference Centre. The winners are: Neil Bissoondath, for The Innocence of Age (fiction); Stuart McLean for Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada (non-fiction); Guy Van-derhaeghe, for his I Had a Job I Liked Once (drama); and Lorna Crozier, for Inventing the Hawk (poetry).

All received $5,000. Admission to the reading is $10. Also winning CAA awards, in the children's literature category are Phoebe Gilman for her body of work, R.P. Maclntyre for The Rink and Peter Carver for editing. Speaking of Lorna Crozier, the Vancouver Island poet has added yet another award, capturing the 1992 Pat Lowther Memorial Award for Inventing the Hawk, That honor, bestowed by the League of Canadian Poets, comes on the heels of her Canadian Authors Association poetry award and the Governor General's Award for Poetry.

goes through the torments and rewards of parenthood in chronological fashion. There's a lot of humor here in a doctor's waiting room, an anonymous grandmother asks Teitel if he ever worries about the size of his son's sexual organs and poignancy by the bucketful. Life's lessons jump out at the reader from everywhere from a community ice rink, where an over-zealous father berates his daughter for her timidness, from a child's birthday party, where Dad offends Offspring with his choice of music. The book has its insights, but this paternal reader suspects it only speaks to those who have been through the same experk ences. And maybe some of those people don't want to hear it.

After personally experiencing the horrors of the Little League coach, I don't think I want to relive them in a book. The title speaks for itself A Good Man: Fathers and Sons in Poetry and Prose (Random House, $26). Editor Irv Broughton has collected the works of male writers waxing paternal. David Bottoms has a poem about his father teaching him to bunt a baseball, when what he really wanted to do was hit home runs (this is one of many sports entries). Frank O'Connor writes an amusing musical-beds story about a child reluctantly learning that he cannot displace his father in his mother's chamber (the title: My Oedi- But if you take Father's Day which is June 20 seriously, and you're frantically searching for a gift for Dear Old Dad, then do we have a book selection for you.

Fathers (Stewart House, edited by Jon (The Portable Curmudgeon) Winokur, assembles a lot of famous people to write about their fathers. Author Michael Dor-ris's father died as a young soldier in the Second World War; his only connection to him is a single photo of dad holding child. Actor Jane Fonda remembers the time her father slapped her across the face for uttering the word "nigger." Singer Mel Torme recalls his small-of-stature father sticking up for him against a much-larger bully, and being pummelled for it, return- ing to the apartment in tears. Some of the comments are heart-warming, others chill the blood. Here's Jamie Lee Curtis on her father, Tony Curtis: "I don't expect to hear from him on my birthday or Christmas.

I see him when I see him. He's like a ghost." Ontario writer Jay Teitel leans on his experience as a journalist for From Here to Paternity (Penguin, A recreation (and, I would guess, a composite) of a typical day in the life of a father of three, Teitel BlvYrTIIECIDCKlhis Summer with Blackberry Books. After work, you ha all evening to drive (or walk) over to any of our three stores. There's no rush because we're open nine till nine every day. There's plenty of time to browse through all the best in Summer reading.

So relax and take your lime. We'll be here. Blackberry In 3 LOCATIONS OPiN9T09tVERYDAV I A I I I II. 1663 DURANLEAU STREET 685 6188685 4113 KITSILANO 2206 WEST FOURTH AVE. 733 1673 2855 WEST BROADWAY 739 8116739 8477 The Vancouver Sun, Saturday, June 12, 1993.