Rebecca Johnson

Hi I'm Juliet and I'm 10 years old. And I'm nearly a vet Chelsea and I are helping our friend, Maisy, get her pony ready for the local show. But Midgie is more interested in eating than in learning to jump (sigh). Pony training is a bit more difficult than we thought We need some good ideas fast, or the show will be a total disaster.

A "smart, sharply observant, even gently funny" (The Washington Post) debut novel of heartache and joy Witty and surprising, Rebecca Johnson's first novel is about the unexpected links between one family and the world around them. Sophia and Darius have a well-worn marriage, two teenage daughters, and no foreseeable drama on the horizon. One morning, the two girls fight over the keys to the family car and set into motion an accident. The accident triggers a chain of events involving Harry, a still handsome B-list celebrity game-show host; Anton, a sexually repressed unemployed filmmaker; and Misty, who has reached month seven of what was supposed to be a six month campaign to make something of herself. Profoundly honest, this is a novel about the unpredictability of life, and the joy and heartache of how deeply one person's life can affect so many others.

Winner, 2003-2004 Harold Adams Innis Prize for Best English-Language Book in the Social Sciences, Canadian Federation for Humanities and Social SciencesIn the early 1990s, lawyer Beth Symes brought an equality challenge against the Canadian Income Tax Act, arguing that her childcare costs were a business expense. The case ignited public controversy. Was Symes disadvantaged on the basis of gender, or unfairly privileged on the basis of class? This book seeks answers to those questions through close attention to the Symes case, where class and gender interests clashed over the tax treatment of childcare. It looks at the history of legislative and litigative struggles, the dynamics of courtroom discourse, and the influence of broad social debates about children and the public/private divide. It reveals how frequently the rhetoric of choice, responsibility, and selfishness is invoked in response to women's attempts to place issues of childcare on the public agenda. Taxing Choices will interest all those who seek to use the law as a tool of social justice but are troubled by the perils posed by competing interests and conflicts involving race, class, gender, and ability.

Winner, 2003-2004 Harold Adams Innis Prize for Best English-Language Book in the Social Sciences, Canadian Federation for Humanities and Social SciencesIn the early 1990s, lawyer Beth Symes brought an equality challenge against the Canadian Income Tax Act, arguing that her childcare costs were a business expense. The case ignited public controversy. Was Symes disadvantaged on the basis of gender, or unfairly privileged on the basis of class? This book seeks answers to those questions through close attention to the Symes case, where class and gender interests clashed over the tax treatment of childcare. It looks at the history of legislative and litigative struggles, the dynamics of courtroom discourse, and the influence of broad social debates about children and the public/private divide. It reveals how frequently the rhetoric of choice, responsibility, and selfishness is invoked in response to women's attempts to place issues of childcare on the public agenda. Taxing Choices will interest all those who seek to use the law as a tool of social justice but are troubled by the perils posed by competing interests and conflicts involving race, class, gender, and ability.