Penguin Random House Canada
Ava is a sensitive young girl sent away to spend the summer with her grandparents at their cottage on an island, a vacation she usually revels in.
But her mother is expecting twins, and the pregnancy is not going well. All Ava wants to do is be at her mother's side, but the grownups in her life know better – of course!
Once at the cottage, Ava becomes so wracked with anxiety about home that she finds herself unable to enjoy the long summer days with Nonno and Nonna.
She doesn't feel like swimming, a skill at which she excels. She becomes infuriated with the annoyingly cheerful neighbour's son, who keeps popping up wherever she happens to be.
Then, a bird dies in front of her during a wild summer storm, leading Ava to convince herself that her family is now cursed? It is up to her, she decides, to bargain the curse away and ensure the wellbeing of her family.
This enchanting story has excitement enough to be a page-turner and, at the same time, delivers the subtle message that growing up means learning there are things you cannot change and those you can and must take responsibility for.
Ava's struggles and triumphs are set among the enchanting landscape of the lakes and rivers, woods and scrub of Ontario cottage country, in all its changeable moods and weather.
Life at the lake has that sense of place recognizable to anyone who has spent even a day, or better still, several weeks at "the cottage." And this story is enhanced by the author's accompanying delicate watercolour illustrations, even to the line of surface water decorating the bottom of each page.
Alan Barillaro now lives in Vancouver with his wife and three children but, like Ava, fell in love with nature at age 11, when his parents bought a 'cottage' on Catchacoma Lake in the Kawartha Lakes region and where Alan spent idyllic summers canoeing, fishing, and exploring.
The author grew up in Markham and, as a teenager, had a part-time job cleaning equipment at The Animation House. This led him to enroll in Oakville's Sheridan College animation degree course at 16, graduating in 1996 to work in Pixar Animation Studios for the next 25 years.
His 2016 animated six-minute short, Piper, about a baby bird facing her fear of ocean waves, won the Oscar for best animated short film. Piper was screened before Finding Dory, the previous year's top-grossing movie.
Many of us can still recall with fondness the books and stories that captured our imagination as youngsters. While this reviewer's tween years are long, long gone, I still remember with affection those that fueled my imagination and captured my heart.
My bet is that Where the Water Takes Us by Alan Barillaro will become such a favourite!
