PAY CHEQUES AND PICKET LINES: ALL ABOUT UNIONS IN CANADA. Mackay, Claire. Toronto, Kids Can Press, 1987. 104pp, paper. ISBN 0-921103-32-8 (cloth) $19.95, 0-921103-34-4 (paper) $12.95. CIP Grades 5 and up Reviewed by John D. Crawford Volume 16 Number 4 1988 July This book is a sympathetic account of the historical development of trade unions in Canada. Pay Cheques and Picket Lines is designed to introduce children at the intermediate level to a topic previously only treated in a cursory manner in school textbooks. Like other potentially difficult topics, trade unions tend to be considered in a very bland manner in school materials. This particular book presents the facts of the past in a manner that underlines the cruelty and reactionary attitudes to trade unions while at the same time managing to avoid cynicism. The book has a number of strengths. Among these are the illustrations, which should have some effect on young readers, who will see their counterparts from the past looking out at them. The text also contains numerous examples to which young readers will be able to relate. The organization of the content is simple and effective. A section entitled "What Happened When" provides a very good time line; an index rounds out the volume. Perhaps a glossary would have been useful. The most compelling feature of the book seems to me to be the sad reminder it provides of the casualties of the union struggle: the thousands of victims of industrial cruelty and carelessness. This book should inform children about an often neglected but important part of their heritage and perhaps enable some of them to avoid repeating the errors of the past. John D. Crawford, Blanshard School, Victoria, B.C.