Sunday, September 20, 2015

Spirit level

Spirit level
by Sarah N. Harvey
Language: English
Victoria, British Columbia : Orca Book Publishers, 2016.
233 pages ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 9781459808164 ; 1459808169
Summary: An only child, Harriet (also known as Harry), has also never had a dad. Born to a “single mother by choice,” she was donor-conceived because her mother always wanted a child but did not want a relationship. This Harriet has always known. Never having been even slightly curious to find out if she had any donor siblings or even to try to contact her donor father, Harriet, now in high school, comes across a magazine article one day about a guy who sired 500 kids through sperm donation. It suddenly occurs to Harriet that she could be one of his kids. Having known about the Donor Sibling Registry, a service that matches donors, offspring, and siblings, since “before she could read” (because her mother purchased a lifetime membership when Harriet was young), Harriet decides to finally take a look to see if she has any half-siblings. She registers her information on the DSR and when she begins to receive emails from some of her half-siblings, she is excited to meet them, especially fifteen-year-old Lucy who also lives in Seattle and who, being the child of two moms, has also always known she was donor-conceived. One other half-sibling ends up in the picture though and that is eighteen-year-old Meredith who has come all the way to Seattle from Missoula, Montana in search of her sperm donor father. She has a hunch he is still in the city in which he donated sperm and she is hell-bent on finding him and she wants Lucy and Harriet to experience the quest with her. But Lucy and Harriet are not ready to find (or meet) their sperm donor father, instead content with having just met each other. Tensions begin to build between Harriet and Meredith, especially when Meredith’s best friend Alex, who has left Montana to accompany Meredith on her journey, starts to like Harriet and the two develop a relationship outside of the one each has with Meredith. When Meredith, despite being Harriet’s “sister” catches wind of Harriet's budding relationship with her best friend Alex, she takes out her jealousy on Harriet physically, landing Harriet severely hurt. It turns out that Meredith is deeply troubled, mostly because of the fact that, unlike Harriet and Lucy who have always known, she did not find out that she was donor-conceived until she was twelve years old. Feeling betrayed and lied to by her parents, she is profoundly hurt and acutely angry and now feels betrayed again by her half-sister Harriet. Is it better to have always known, like Harriet and Lucy have? Is it not painful to find out later in life that you are donor-conceived and that the father you always thought was your father was not your father at all? These are just some of the issues explored in this novel. There is no sex, violence, or foul language used in the book and it is recommended for ages twelve and up.
Subject headings:


  • Children of sperm donors -- Juvenile fiction 
  • Seattle (Wash.) -- Juvenile fiction 
  • Sisters -- Juvenile fiction
  Available: http://www.orcabook.com/Spirit-Level-P1091.aspx

A big dose of lucky

A big dose of lucky
by Marthe Jocelyn
Language: English
Victoria, British Columbia : Orca Book Publishers, 2015.
249 pages ; 21 cm. 
ISBN: 9781459806689 ; 1459806689
Summary: Since she was a day old, the only world Malou Gillis has ever known is the 16 years she spent living in the Benevolent Home. When a fire breaks out one night, completely burning the home to the ground, Malou is told it is time for her and all the other teenage girls living there to leave to make their way in the world. Before she goes though, Mrs. Hazelton gives Malou two clues to her past - a baby bracelet with the words "Baby Fox" inscribed on it and the town of Parry Sound,  about 5 hours from the orphanage where she grew up. Having nothing except the $138.00 that was given to her,  Malou sets off to see if she can find out who her parents are. A series of unusual coincidences lead her to a job at the hospital where she is pretty sure she was born, a piece of paper with seven names on it, which she finds in the hospital's record room, one of whom she suspects is her mother's, and an encounter with several young people who all share her brown skin color. But it isn't until Malou shows up in town that they will all learn how they are connected. It turns out they were all donor-conceived at that same hospital. Does that mean they are all siblings and that Malou was donor-conceived as well? And if so, how do two parents go through all that trouble to have a baby only for that baby to end up in an orphanage? Except for one graphic description of how exactly men make deposits in the case of sperm donation, there is no sex, violence, or foul language in this book. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/A-Big-Dose-Lucky-Secrets/dp/1459806689