Caroline Adderson – författare

Longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize • A Globe 100 Best Book of 2024 • A CBC Best Fiction Book of the YearShort stories about disparate characters consider what it means to find happiness.On New Year’s Eve, a pair of addicts robs a string of high-end parties in order to fund their own recovery. A recently separated woman relocates to a small northern town, where she receives a life-changing visitation, and a Russian hitman, suffering from a mysterious lung ailment, retrieves long-buried memories of his past. In the nineteenth century, a disparate group of women coalesce in the attempt to aid a young girl in her escape from a hospital for the insane. These are but some of the remarkable characters who populate these stories, all of them grappling with conflicts ranging from mundane to extraordinary. Caroline Adderson’s A Way to Be Happy considers what it means to find happiness—and how often it comes through the grace of others.

A funny new fable about artistic creation and chasing fame, imagined by award-winning author Caroline Adderson, and inspired by one of Japan’s most famous haikus, “The Old Pond.”Bashō, a 17th-century poet on an evening walk, stops to rest next to a murky old pond. Here, readers may expect he will encounter the frog that inspired his renowned poem:Old pond—Frog jumps inSplash!But before the frog came the mosquito, who smells blood: “My life?” she whines, “It could fill a book of poetry!” And before the mosquito came the lily, who perfumes the air, hoping to be immortalized in a poem. And before the lily came the carp, who flutters her tail in the poet’s face.In a twist that would have delighted Bashō, a Zen Buddhist, the fame-seeking creatures cause only their own suffering. Instead, the inspiration for Bashō’s poem comes from a frog that only wants a morning swim. Splash!Illustrator Lauren Tamaki, winner of the Sibert Medal, paints a memorable cast of characters with great wit and empathy. Her swirling inks bridge the story’s traditional setting and its lightly modern lesson about fame, inspiration, and art.Includes end matter with information about Bashō and haiku.Key Text Featuresbiographical informationbiographical notedialoguefurther informationhistorical contexthistorical noteillustrationsinformational noteliterary referencespoems Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

A middle-grade novel about two maybe-orphans and their unlikely friendship with a cranky old neighbor. At first Curtis isn't that worried when his mother doesn't come home from her all-night job at the local gas station. She'll be back, he's ten out of ten positive. Besides, Curtis is used to looking after himself and his five-year-old brother, Artie. But when the landlord starts pressuring them for the rent and the authorities start to investigate, it's more than a 12-year-old can handle. Just in time, Mrs. Burt, the cranky, lonely old lady who lives across the street, offers to take Curtis and Artie to her lakeside cabin for the summer. As summer sails by and the weather grows colder, Mrs. Burt seems to be preparing to spend the winter at the cabin, and Curtis starts to worry. Have they really all just absconded to the lake for a summer holiday? Or have the two boys been kidnapped?

Norman, Speak! tells the comical yet thought-provoking story of a boy and his family who adopt a dog that just can’t seem to learn the things other dogs do.Overwhelmed by dogs in need at their local animal shelter, a young boy chooses Norman, the stray that’s been there the longest. But, upon bringing him home, the family quickly learns that Norman won’t respond to commands. He doesn’t even know his own name.During a chance encounter with another dog owner in the park, the family is very surprised to learn the reason for Norman’s confusion; he “speaks” Chinese instead of English! And so the family enrolls in a language class, determined to understand their uniquely loveable pet.The humorous text, from award-winning author Caroline Adderson, and Qin Leng’s delightful illustrations combine to create a picture book that will be enjoyed by readers (and dogs) no matter what language they speak.

Nicola’s adorable little dog, June Bug, keeps getting into trouble. She steals the neighbor’s turkey, yanks down the Christmas tree and destroys Mum’s almost-finished giant crossword. Everyone is mad, and it looks as though June Bug’s days are numbered.Will doing a good deed make up for June Bug’s bad behavior?Nicola certainly hopes so. And when she and June Bug come across a new nursing home in the neighborhood, it feels like a Sign. They volunteer to become regular visitors at Shady Oaks, certain that June Bug’s cute tricks will cheer up the elderly residents.In fact, they could all use some cheering up. It’s the holiday, and yet everyone seems to be cranky and off balance. Nobody has put up any lights, Nicola’s grade five teacher is inexplicably crabby, and Nicola’s big brother Jared stays holed up in front of the computer playing Inferno 2, eagerly sending winged creatures into a fiery abyss. Even Nicola is not herself, and when a new girl, Lindsay, tries to be her friend, Nicola finds herself being uncharacteristically mean, because Lindsay seems to be one of those hair-and-jewelry girls who wants her own subscription to Bride magazine for Christmas.But Nicola’s mother won’t let her visit Shady Oaks by herself, so when Lindsay offers to go with her, Nicola agrees. And the girls discover that something unusual is going on at the home, where it seems that a few of the more remarkable patients are being kept against their will. Freeing them will bring out the very best in Nicola, and especially in June Bug.

In this poem addressed to a young child, author Caroline Adderson outlines the ten things a mother loves about her little one. From his scaly elbows and knees all the way to his twitchy tail, every inch of this little “monster” is itemized and admired.Gentle and humorous illustrations by Christina Leist show how one tired parent decides to participate in a bit of rowdy play at bedtime, with the result being a happily tired child and a mother who is even more in love with her offspring than she was at the beginning of the book.This satisfyingly unconventional bedtime story will encourage children and parents to appreciate each other just a little bit more every time they read it.

The delightful adventures of a visually impaired barn cat and his annoying flea, as they set off to experience the world and find themselves participants in some of the most remarkable events of the early twentieth century.Pudding Tat is born on the Willoughby Farm in 1901 — just another one of Mother Tat’s kittens. But it turns out that Pudding is anything but ordinary. He is pure white with pink eyes that, though beautiful, do not see well, and hearing that is unusually acute. He finds himself drawn to the sweet sounds of the world around him — the pattering heartbeat of a nearby mouse, the musical tinkling of a distant stream.Soon the sounds of adventure call to Pudding, too. But before he can strike out into the wide world on his own, he hears a voice — coming from right inside his own ear. A flea has claimed Pudding as his host. The bossy parasite demands that Pudding take him away from the lowly barn and the drunken singing of his fellow fleas. He doesn’t want adventure but a finer life — one where he can enjoy a warm bed and blood flavored not with mice, but with beef tenderloin and cream.Fortunately for this mismatched pair, the world is an extremely interesting place in 1901. Over the next decade and a half, Pudding and his flea find themselves helping to make history — a journey over Niagara Falls in a barrel, a visit to the Pan-American Exposition on the day President McKinley is shot, a luxurious stay in Manhattan with songwriter Vincent Bryan, a terrifying trip on the airship America, and a voyage on the ill-fated Titanic.Through each narrow escape, the call to adventure for the cat, and luxury for his disgruntled flea, beckons them on, right to the devastation of a World War I battlefield. Then Pudding is filled with a new longing, one that brings him, with his flea’s help now, full circle and back home.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

Winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the Governor-General's Award for fiction and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, Caroline Adderson's short fiction collection travels far and wide. From adolescent brothers marooned at an indifferent relatives cottage, to a Depression-era Ukrainian immigrant reading the drought-parched skies above Palliser's Triangle, to two friends trying to make sense of feminism in the eighties, Adderson captures her characters' cadences, conflicts, and consolations, their individual burdens and the mysteries they share. Adventurous, often funny, and impeccably researched, these stories chart their lives with compassion and intelligence.

Finalist, Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award (BC Book Prizes), 2016 #1 on the BC Bestseller List Since 2005, nearly 9,000 demo permits for residential buildings have been issued in Vancouver. An average of three houses a day are torn down, many of them original homes built for the middle and working class in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Very few are deemed significant enough to earn the protection of a heritage designation, but they are part of our heritage nonetheless and their demolition is not only an architectural loss. When these old homes come down, a whole history goes with them - the materials that were used to build them, the gardens, the successive owners and their secrets. These old houses and apartments are repositories of narrative. The story of our city is diminished every time one disappears. Based on the popular Facebook Page, Vancouver Vanishes is a collection of essays and photographs that together form a lament for, and celebration of, the vanishing character homes and apartments in the city. Vancouver Vanishes includes essays from Caroline Adderson, Kerry Gold, John Atkin, Elise & Stephen Partridge, John Mackie, and Eve Lazarus as well as poems from Evelyn Lau and Bren Simmers. Introduction by Michael Kluckner. The majority of photographs (b/w & colour throughout) are by Tracey Ayton and Caroline Adderson. The book is large format (9.25 × 10.25) with French flaps. Praise for Vancouver Vanishes: "provides a most useful contribution to the increasingly anxiety-ridden conversation that continues to grip this town over the subject of housing" (Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier) "a gorgeous but troubling commentary on the disposability of our young city's architectural history" (Shelley Fralic, The Vancouver Sun) "... a shared attempt to document and protest the rampant destruction of perfectly fine family dwellings in Vancouver for no reason other than speculative profit... difficult to debunk her contention that wide-scale destruction of wooden houses is antithetical to the conceit of Vancouver City council to make Vancouver into the greenest city on the planet." (BC BookWorld)