Dark questions have been muttered around the snow-filled halls and alleys that constitute CM's working environment lately: Why has it been so long since there's been an editorial? Doesn't Duncan care anymore? Has he lost his drive, his passion, his bitterness?
Armed with a modem, lap-top, and a generous long-distance budget, there's no reason to ever be out of touch with your job. Or, if you like, there's no reason to fool yourself into thinking you can get away and have a vacation.
If you have ideas to get this new section of the magazine running, would like to commiserate about the end of my holiday, or have any other comments, suggestions, or complaints, as always, just send e-mail to the address beneath my name.
-- Duncan Thornton, Editor
cmeditor@mts.net
*I did get out once, only to find that in Banff everything is more expensive. Also, some parts of the ground are higher -- much higher -- than other parts.
Proud to Be a Poopini.
Dave Sindrey. Illustrated by Chum McLeod.
Toronto: Napoleon Publishing, 1995. 30pp, paper, $10.95.
ISBN 0-92914-138-5.
Grades K - 3 / Ages 4 - 8.
Review by Jennifer La Chapelle.
excerpt:
At school, Pogo Poopini wouldn't wear the sparkly costume that his mother had made him. Pogo wore jeans and T-shirts just like everybody else.
He didn't tell anyone about his pet anteater Lucie, who could walk a tightrope. Pogo was worried that people would think his family was weird.
Pogo Poopini is a boy with a problem: how to keep his friends from knowing that his family is made up of circus stars? Pogo copes by leading two separate lives, until the inevitable Open House at his school. When a fire breaks out during this event, the Poopinis prove their worth by helping Miss Garbonzo and her students escape. Pogo lends his own circus skills to the drama, and learns that being different can also mean being very special.
Recommended.
Jennifer La Chapelle is the head of a multi-branch public library in Ontario. In addition to an M.L.S., she holds degrees in Political Science, English, and History.
Wacky Word Games.
Margie Golick. Illustrated by Jane Churchill.
Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers Limited, 1995. 32pp, paperback, $4.95.
ISBN 1 55138 029 3.
Grades 3 - 4 / Ages 7 - 9.
Review by Lorraine Douglas.
excerpt:
The Nose KnowsWhen two or more words sound the same but have different meanings, they are called "homophones." Sniff out a homophone, or sound-alike word, for each of these words.
Son
hair
wring
tails
.......
This playful and engaging puzzle book features word games: rhyming, alliteration, scrambled words, and several other kinds. The presentation is lively and there are comic illustrations to help children solve the puzzles.
Recommended.
Lorraine Douglas is Youth Services Coordinator for the Winnipeg Public Library.
Street People Speak.
Ruth Morris and Colleen Heffren.
Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press. 150pp, paper, $9.95.
ISBN 0-88962-364-3.
Grades 10 - 13 / Ages 14 - Adult.
Review by Kathleen L. Kellett-Betsos.
excerpt:
"Did you ever watch a streetcar go by, and see the whole streetcar look at you with disgust? I have been on that corner, and seen those looks. They should think, `Thank God, through the grace of God, I am not there.' Because the same thing could happen to them."
This book is a timely antidote to the abundant myths we've all heard about life on the streets: "Those people choose to be there; they're all lazy drunks anyway; they don't care about anyone or anything" and, most of all, "it couldn't happen to me and mine." Ruth Morris, a Ph.D in sociology/social work from the University of Michigan, and Colleen Heffren, a community educator and poverty activist, have based this book on interviews of eighty-two street people, taken from as wide a variety as possible in terms of sex, age, race, family situation, and length of time on the street.
Recommended.
Kathleen L. Kellett-Betsos is a French Professor at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto.
Freedom Had a Price.
Producer/Director: Yurij Luhovy.
National Film Board of Canada: 1994. VHS, 55 minutes.
Grades 7 - 13 / Ages 11 - Adult.
Review by Patricia Maruschak.
Towards the end of Freedom Had a Price, Professor Lubomyr Luciuk comments that Canadians have come to see the years of World War I as a time when Canada forged itself as a nation, yet the contributions of non-English or French Canadians have been almost completely ignored. Producer/director Yurij Luhovy's film is a first-rate attempt to expose the cracks in this vision.
Highly recommended.
Patricia Maruschak is a Winnipeg teacher.
Hands of History.
Directed by Loretta Todd.
Studio D, National Film Board of Canada: 1994. VHS, 52 minutes.
Order number: 9194 001.
Grades 7 - 13 / Ages 11 - Adult.
Review by Adele Case.
Hands of History is a visually beautiful film with an historical component. Director Loretta Todd, who has an aboriginal background, celebrates the renaissance of women in much of the mixed media art and craft forms that can be found in Canada. All of the artists who appear in the film are women, and their backgrounds are in tribes in British Columbia (Stol:o, Gitskan) and east of the Rockies (Chippewan, Blood). Todd has tried to show the early life and early influences of each artist, and clearly these strong, determined women have had to cope with varying degrees of discrimination in a society that has neglected their cultural heritage.
Recommended.
Adele Case is a high-school teacher who lives in West Vancouver.
Tom Murray, the coordinator of the the math puzzle, has been kind enough to give CM permission to run the weekly Little Math Puzzle Contest (inspired by The Great Canadian Trivia Challenge.)
Royal West Academy (a high school) in Montreal, Quebec is sponsoring a little math puzzle contest.
This contest is open to all participants but is designed for students in grades five through ten. English will be the language used for all problems and if their solutions relate to a language, the language will be English.
This will be the last question before Christmas we will start up again when school begins in January. Have an enjoyable holiday.
You can find archives of old questions and winners lists on our web page. We have lost the winners list for the second puzzle and would be pleased to have it forwarded to us from anyone who still has it.
We can also be found on the Web at: http://www.odyssee.net/~academy/mathpuzzle/mathpuzzlecontest.html
Each week a new puzzle will be presented and the answers and winners from two weeks earlier will be posted. Answers are to be received by 8:00 a.m. eastern time the following Friday.
The answers will then be judged, and a correct answer, along with the winners' names, will be posted with the puzzle two weeks later.
Both individual students and entire classes are welcome to participate.
Do not to send your answers to CM.
Instead, please send
all answers to Andrea Pollock and Alex Nazarov at the following
address:
With your solution please include your names, school, grade, and e-mail address, and your city.
What are the next two numbers in the set?
30, 27, 9, 12, 9, 3, 6, 3, 1, ___, ___
The values change with a pattern in the operations with 3:
-3 /3 +3 -3 /3 +3 -3 /3 +3=4 -3=1
And the unspecific
What are the next two letters in the sequence?
F, M, A, M, J, ___, ___
Send your response by 8:00 a.m., Friday, December 22nd to:
Andrea Pollock and Alex Nazarov
math_puzzle@rwa.psbgm.qc.ca
Royal West Academy, Montreal West, Quebec.
Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
Welcome
Book Reviews by Author
Book Reviews by Title
Audio/Video/CD-ROM Reviews by Title
Volume 2 Index