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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MAGGIE AND OTHER PEOPLE I HAVE KNOWN
Edna Staebler.
Volume 12 Number 1
Edna Staebler is best known for her popular cookbooks, Food That Really Schmecks (McGraw, 1968) and More Food That Really Schmecks (McClelland, 1979). Her earlier journalistic career, however, took her to a lot of interesting places and situations on assignment for Maclean's, Chatelaine, and Star Weekly. In this book are collected fourteen previously-published articles that span nearly twenty years of her career. They recount her visits to such far-flung parts of Canada as Nell's Harbour, Cape Breton, a Hutterite colony in Alberta, an Iroquois Reserve, and a French Canadian canal barge, to name only a few. Staebler's ability to capture dialect and the feelings of the people she writes about make her articles seem authentic and heartwarming. An introduction and epilogue update each article, but do not succeed in making their contents more timely. These charming stories immortalize different cultural fragments of Canada from the 1950s but are not totally accurate today. I can understand why many of her articles have been reprinted in school texts and anthologies. A class set of this book would be welcome in a grade 9 English or social studies class. It would be of little use in a school library as a research tool, though it is very readable. Fans of Food That Really Schmecks will want to read about how she gathered some of her famous recipes on a visit to a family of Mennonites in southern Ontario. Recommended for public libraries. Catherine R. Cox, Moncton H. S., Moncton, NB. |
1971-1979 | 1980-1985 | 1986-1990 | 1991-1995
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