Matilda's Last Waltz


Book Description

Faced with the tragic deaths of both her husband and baby, Jenny is at her wit's end, with nowhere to turn. She soon learns that her husband has left for her, of all things, a sheep-station known as Churinga, in the Australian Outback. Although she thinks his final gift to her a strange one, Jenny thinks she might find solace in a trip out to Churinga. After all, what better way to feel close to her husband now than to visit a place he loved? But, like the grief she has tried to leave behind, the Outback she encounters is barren and the weather, hostile; however, Jenny is not one to turn around. Once there she hears of Churinga's last keeper, Matilda, whose identity becomes less and less clear to Jenny: the neighbors hold a grudging respect for Matilda's way with the land but are reluctant to speak of her to Jenny. And as Jenny spends more and more time on the farm, her predecessor's lingering presence looms ever larger. Then she discovers some old diaries and is bewitched by a tale more shocking than her wildest dreams could foretell. And the deeper she delves into Matilda's past, the more Jenny wonders whether inheriting Churinga has been a blessing or a curse, in Matilda's Last Waltz by Tamara McKinley.




The Mikado to Matilda


Book Description

In The Mikado to Matilda: British Musicals on the New York Stage, Thomas Hischak provides an overview of British musicals that made their way to Broadway, covering their entire history up to the present day. This is the first book to look at the British musical theatre with reference to those London musicals that were also produced in New York City. The book covers 110 British musicals, ranging from 1750 to the present day, including the popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic operettas during the Victorian era, the Andrew Lloyd Webber mega-musicals of the late twentieth century, and today's biggest hits such as Matilda. Each London musical is discussed first as a success in England and then how it fared in America. The plots, songs, songwriters, performers, and producers for both the West End and the Broadway (or Off Broadway) production are identified and described. The discussion is sometimes critical, evaluating the musicals and why they were or were not a success in New York.




Dancing Matilda


Book Description

This rhyming story follows a gleefully energetic kangaroo through her dancing day with a rhythm so infectious, readers will want to get up and dance themselves. Full color.




Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature


Book Description

Knowledge about carnality and its limits provides the agenda for much of the fiction written for adolescent readers today, yet there exists little critical engagement with the ways in which it has been represented in the young adult novel in either discursive, ideological, or rhetorical forms. Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature is a pioneering study that addresses these methodological and contextual gaps. Focusing on texts produced since the late-1980s, and drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, Kathryn James shows how representations of death in young adult literature are invariably associated with issues of sexuality, gender, and power. Under particular scrutiny are the trope of woman/death, the eroticizing and sexualizing of death, and the ways in which the gendered subject is represented in dialogue with the processes of death, dying, and grief. Through close readings of historical literature, fantasy fictions, realistic novels, dead-narrator tales, and texts from genres including Gothic, horror, and post-disaster, James reveals not only how cultural discourses influence and are influenced by literary works, but how relevant the study of death is to adolescent fiction--the literature of "becoming."




The Matildas


Book Description

Brilliant. Ambitious. A great detective. Matilda Garrigan is none of these in The Matildas, a quirky, funny mystery with duplicates, duplicity, and an amateur sleuth in way over her head! ​​​​​​​Tiny book publisher Mitotic Press takes novels from one Earth and publishes them on a parallel Earth, thanks to a portal in a basement conference room. They're a team of book thieves with a pretty sweet (and very secret) business--until someone anonymously threatens to reveal Mitotic's portal to both Earths. ​​​​​​​Matilda Garrigan quit her dream job at Mitotic Press after she was too late returning from a business trip to the other Earth to prevent her girlfriend's death. Mattie's good at running away from her problems, and she's certainly no detective, but when Mitotic comes calling, she reluctantly channels her inner Nancy Drew to find out who's behind the threat. ​​​​​​​Mattie's investigation leads nowhere—and, predictably, she gives up—but when more clues are found and bodies start piling up, Mattie realizes that the mastermind can only be— ​​​​​​​—someone who's already dead. ​​​​​​​To keep Mitotic's portal a secret—and finally tell the perfect woman how she really feels—Mattie faces angry ex-lovers, terrible music, identical killers from multiple Earths, and a mystery that grows weirder by the day.




Last Dance in Shediac


Book Description

A vividly wrought memoir, Last Dance in Shediac is a collection of the author’s personal memories of her mother—celebrated Canadian artist Molly Lamb Bobak—and a tender meditation on life and death. Molly Lamb Bobak (1922–2014) was the first woman to travel overseas as an official Canadian war artist. She was also the daughter of famous Canadian artist Harold Mortimer-Lamb, whose contemporaries included Emily Carr, A.Y. Jackson, and Jack Shadbolt. In this homage to her artist mother, Anny Scoones rounds out her mother’s public profile by revealing personal stories. Anny’s memories reveal the funny and touching details of her relationship with Molly, from the road trips they took together to the visits Molly would make to Victoria to visit Anny on Glamorgan Farm, and the lovely chaos that ensued when Anny’s five dogs would greet Molly in the car. Anny shares their little inside jokes and the memories they made together in a way that brings their connection—beyond mother–daughter bond to close friendship—to life for the reader. As her mother ages and becomes increasingly frail, Anny spends more and more time in Fredericton. Their road trips grow shorter, and Anny’s reflections on how it feels to finally watch her mother go are tender, heartbreaking, and memorable.




Last Dance


Book Description

Rachel Deering's dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer has to be put on hold when she finds out that she has diabetes, but the lessons she learns in managing her disease help her take control of her life.




Imperial Dancer


Book Description

Mathilde Kschessinska (1872-1971) was the mistress of three Russian Grand Dukes and the greatest ballerina of her generation. She is in almost every book about the Romanovs, but so many myths surround her that she has become the stuff of legend. After her own memoirs, this title aims to reveal the real story by looking at what she did not say.




Affect, Emotion, and Children’s Literature


Book Description

This volume explores the relationship between representation, affect, and emotion in texts for children and young adults. It demonstrates how texts for young people function as tools for emotional socialisation, enculturation, and political persuasion. The collection provides an introduction to this emerging field and engages with the representation of emotions, ranging from shame, grief, and anguish to compassion and happiness, as psychological and embodied states and cultural constructs with ideological significance. It also explores the role of narrative empathy in relation to emotional socialisation and to the ethics of representation in relation to politics, social justice, and identity categories including gender, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality. Addressing a range of genres, including advice literature, novels, picture books, and film, this collection examines contemporary, historical, and canonical children’s and young adult literature to highlight the variety of approaches to emotion and affect in these texts and to consider the ways in which these approaches offer new perspectives on these texts. The individual chapters apply a variety of theoretical approaches and perspectives, including cognitive poetics, narratology, and poststructuralism, to the analysis of affect and emotion in children’s and young adult literature.




Matilda


Book Description

Now a musical on broadway and streaming on Netflix! Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different but there she has to face Miss Trunchbull, a menacing, kid-hating headmistress. When Matilda is attacked by the Trunchbull she suddenly discovers she has a remarkable power with which to fight back. It'll take a superhuman genius to give Miss Trunchbull what she deserves and Matilda may be just the one to do it! Here is Roald Dahl's original novel of a little girl with extraordinary powers. This much-loved story has recently been made into a wonderful new musical, adapted by Dennis Kelly with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin.