Deep Girls tells stories that defy the conventions of young adult literature. The clichés of fictional relationships are tossed aside, and instead we read about girls whose relationships with their families are like the real relationships readers see in the world around them.

There are stories showing family members at their worst: a girl must stand up against expectations put on her by her parents and boyfriend; a sibling’s assault on a parent drives a young woman to dark thoughts, and admiration for a rule-bending classmate; an ill grandmother is cruel to her daughter.

There are stories about the search for strength: a father and daughter try to survive as a family after a tragedy; a family friend who was victimized by violence returns from a mental hospital; a mother shows her daughter the heart that lies beneath a passive exterior.

And there are stories about young women adjusting to their emerging sexuality (while reluctantly caring for a neighbour’s children, a teen turns her eyes to the kids’ father), and that of their parents (a father and daughter take a trip to a bar, and each turns their attention elsewhere).

Deep Girls is an astonishing collection of stories that are rich in tone and emotional complexity.

Threaded through this first collection are a sweetness and a hope which linger in spite of the dark wash of loss the poems bravely reconnoitre.

Seeking out enduring moments of beauty and human connection that redeem difficult remembering, Giacometti’s Girl attests to the ability of love, along with the passage of time, to heal and to allow for forgiveness and celebration.

Davies understands what makes people tick. Interweaving decades-old memories with some as recent as yesterday, she conjures vivid and believable portraits of family members and friends both living and departed, and of strangers both real and imagined. In language refreshingly direct, unforced and honest, she shares what she has lived and observed. Story, physical description, and conversation are the foundations upon which she builds her poems. Whether they depict a mother’s dementia, the tragic wake of suicide, the wonderment of first love or the “shocking thrill” of “widowed old age loving”, Davies finds phrases and images which allow us to register what we may have passed over, or to recognize some of the things we’ve experienced in a deeper or different way.

The Band of Merry Kids is a rollicking middle-grade adventure set in the mythical Age of Robin Hood.

Pip is a 12-year-old boy who idolizes Robin Hood and bristles at the injustice he sees around him. He also considers his father a coward — a mere wool merchant who pales in comparison to Robin and his Merry Men. Pip and his two cousins accompany Pip's father to a country fair. Pip makes some new friends — and fights some difficult battles — and it is here with his cousins and friends that he must face the greatest challenge of his life— saving an innocent family from the Sheriff's dungeon. Along the way, Pip also learns a shocking secret about his father.

The Robin Hood legend provides the over-arching morality for The Band of Merry Kids, which explores classic topics such as good vs. evil, father-son relationships, loyalty, friendship and bravery in a great historical adventure.