Table of Contents
Book Reviews
Proud to Be a Poopini.
- Dave Sindrey. Illustrated by Chum McLeod.
- Review by Jennifer La Chapelle.
- Grades K - 3 / Ages 4 - 8.
- Wacky Word Games.
- Margie Golick. Illustrated by Jane Churchill.
- Review by Lorraine Douglas.
- Grades 3 - 4 / Ages 7 - 9.
- Street People Speak.
- Ruth Morris and Colleen Heffren.
- Review by Kathleen L. Kellett-Betsos.
- Grades 10 - 13 / Ages 14 - Adult.
Video Reviews
- Freedom Had a Price.
- Producer/Director: Yurij Luhovy.
- Review by Patricia Maruschak.
- Grades 7 - 13 / Ages 11 - Adult.
- Hands of History..
- Directed by Loretta Todd.
- Review by Adele Case.
- Grades 7 - 13 / Ages 11 - Adult.
Features
- The Little Math Puzzle
-
CM
Editor
Duncan Thornton
e-mail: cmeditor@mts.net
-
CM
Executive Assistant
Peter Tittenberger
e-mail: cm@umanitoba.ca
From the Editor
A Few of Your Favourite Things
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?
No, it's just that I've been in Banff. Through the miracles of
electronic publishing, I was able to spend the last two weeks in the
mountains at an intensive workshop for writers of radio drama while
continuing to work on CM in the hours I should have been
sleeping. Just as if I'd never left Winnipeg!*
This brings up the topic of this week's editorial (you were
beginning to wonder, weren't you?): the mixed blessings of the new,
electronic world.
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.
Like those ads where a proud grandfather uses a cell-phone to
let everyone know about the fish his grandson just caught. Seems sort of
sweet until you see the other one with the couple out for a picnic and
Mr. Up-to-Date is barking something unheard into his cell-phone ("Buy
low! Sell high!") while his lovely date swings romantically, and
unheeded, on his other arm. There's the future in a nutshell.
But I'm sure there's something good about electronic life or I would
have found another line of work, or joined the monkey-wrench gang, or
something.
So what I'm asking you to do, CM readers, is to help
me in my moment of doubt: send in letters about your most (and least)
favourite things on the Internet. Particularly Canadian things.
You see (to really get to the point), because we plan to start
running regular reviews of other Internet resources and web-sites along
with the usual run of books, videos, CD-ROMs, and so on, we'd appreciate
all the leads we can get. Internet sites and services pop up way too fast
for us to keep track of without help from our readers.
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.
Book Review
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.
Few and far between are the children who will reach adulthood
without experiencing in some small measure the fear that friends will
perceive some aspect of their family life as bizarre. Proud to Be a
Poopini, Dave Sindrey's first book, will help children understand
that differences can be a source of pride.
Told in the third person, the story flows smoothly throughout. Yet
Sindrey's plot devices at times reveal his novice status as an author.
Chum McLeod's art work, on the other hand, shows the refinement one would
expect from the illustrator of eight children's books. The colours and
layout add substantially to the book's appeal. In particular, her
depiction of the bearded Aunt Marge fills out this well-developed
secondary character.
This imaginative use of a circus theme to explore the age-old issue of
self-esteem will find an enthusiastic audience.
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.
Book Review
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 Knows
When 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.
The book is intended for home use as it contains a number of puzzles
in which letters are written in spaces. The whole family will enjoy the
word games and several are quite challenging. An answer key is included.
This is a good value for parents interested in a family activity with
their children. Teachers would also find some good examples of
imaginative ways to present these concepts in a classroom.
Recommended.
Lorraine Douglas is Youth Services Coordinator for the Winnipeg Public
Library.
Book Review
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.
Through personal accounts about life on the streets, the ins and
outs of hostels and drop-in centres, the street people interviewed make
it clear that being homeless is very rarely a matter of choice. More
compelling than mere statistics about nameless individuals, these
interviews elicit compassion and understanding. One particularly eloquent
speaker is Jerry, a bright kid whose relatively well-off parents, unable
to cope with his rebelliousness, handed him over to Children's Aid at the
age of fourteen. Men such as Chuck and Tom recount their experience of
hitting the bottom when their marriages broke up and they were cut off
from ex-wives and children.
Carol and her child ended up living in a hostel after her husband
abandoned them. When his wife died, Sol began drinking, which lead to
problems at work, then loss of his job, and, eventually, life on the street.
André had to bring his wife and baby to a family hostel after he
lost his fifteen-dollar-an-hour job. Many complain about this trap: job loss leads to homelessness, which in turn makes it next to impossible
to get a job. Other factors include mental illness, systemic
discrimination against native peoples, alcoholism, and illiteracy. Most
of all, homelessness is the result of a lack of affordable housing, in
part, because of the gentrification of city neighbourhoods and the loss
of single-room occupancy housing.
In their chapter on possible solutions to the problem of
homelessness, Morris and Heffren stress that more hostels, however
essential these may now be to many of the homeless, are not the answer.
Their suggestions include increased nonprofit and low-income housing, an
increased minimum wage, a minimum income for those with children, and a
tax credit for each child.
Despite an irritating number of typographical errors, this book is
important because it gives an authentic representation of life on the
street, through interviews and photographs and poems written by street
people. Its presentation of the plight of the homeless and possible
solutions to poverty would be a good starting place for discussion in
secondary school classes from grade ten on.
Recommended.
Kathleen L. Kellett-Betsos is a French Professor at Ryerson
Polytechnic University in Toronto.
Video Review
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.
Freedom Had a Price thoroughly documents the
internment of five thousand Ukrainian immigrants, labelled enemy aliens
by the Canadian government, between 1914 and 1920. The film effectively
interweaves eye-witness accounts, narration, historical overviews, and
lots of original photographs to provide a vivid picture of life in the
internment camps.
This film would be an excellent supplement to junior or senior high
units on World Wars I and II, but for students to truly benefit from the
information provided some understanding of the issues of racism and
prejudice and how they can be manipulated during times of war is
necessary. Comments about the internees by "real Canadians," such as
"They were in the place where they should be. They were prisoners and
they were enemies of ours," and unbelievable photos of the looting of
German-Canadian clubs are almost painful to sit through but, if carefully
presented, Freedom Had a Price could help answer students'
inevitable question about the Holocaust: "Why did people let this
happen?"
Freedom Had a Price is an intelligent, well-made film
that would be a valuable asset to any thorough history course.
Highly recommended.
Patricia Maruschak is a Winnipeg teacher.
Video Review
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.
The film follows four aboriginal artists. Jane Ash Poitras works
with paint, print making, and collage. Her works have been shown in
Canada, the United States, and Germany. Joane Cardinal-Schubert works
with mixed-media, and some of her productions have chalk-board
explanations that help to put a viewer into the context in which she
created the work. This powerful artist has been vocal in criticising
colonialism. Rena Point Bolton has worked from childhood in weaving a
myriad of baskets. She comments that artists have "carried the culture
of the people." Bolton has personally revived the forgotten art of
Tsimshian weaving, and she now teaches her craft, from the early work of
searching for suitable seaweeds, bark, or grasses, to the preparation of
the material, and finally through all stages of the weaving process. Todd
enlivens the section on Bolton with black-and-white footage of
early basket weavers, who often sold their wonderful creations for tiny
sums to supplement the family income. The last artist profiled, Doreen Jensen, is a
founding member of the K'san Village and Native Artists' Centre. Jensen
makes her own tools, and has created works as varied as masks, button
blankets, bentboxes, jewellery, and prints.
The prime focus of this film is to show adolescents and others the
range of native art, art that can help aboriginal people reclaim their
heritage. Fittingly, Hands of History introduces the belief
that out that parents or grandparents can speak to their descendants
through totems. But even non-native people can share in the feeling of peace possible
when viewing fine totems that show faces, birds, and animal forms.
Because the documentation of Indian art was originally anthropological, "women's art" was often not recorded, or was considered mere craft work. This film
will help to dispel that notion, as the works displayed show the talent,
the wonderful facility with colour, and the simplicity and strength of
works that vary from masks to blankets, from baskets to collages,
from dance dresses to mats.
This film should have wide appeal in schools, both in social studies
and art classes. Hopefully, it will also encourage many young native
girls in particular to explore their past, and to seek out fulfilment in
studying and creating their own art.
Recommended.
Adele Case is a high-school teacher who lives in West Vancouver.
Feature
The Little Math Puzzle Contest
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
Contest Format:
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:
math_puzzle@rwa.psbgm.qc.ca
With your solution please include your names, school, grade, and
e-mail address, and your city.
Question #13 from two weeks ago was the following:
What are the next two numbers in the set?
30, 27, 9, 12, 9, 3, 6, 3, 1, ___, ___
Answer #13:
The values are 4, 1
The values change with a pattern in the operations with 3:
-3 /3 +3 -3 /3 +3 -3 /3 +3=4 -3=1
The Winners - Solvers of Puzzle #13
- Mrs. Harris's 4/5 class
St. Margarets Ont.
- Mme. Keith's gr. 9B and 9C - Sussex Junior High
- Steven Weerdenburg - Mrs. Robertson's Gr. 3
Gregory Hogan School - Sarnia, Ont.
- Frank Spano - Mrs. Pitt's class
Gregory Hogan - Sarnia, Ontario
- Halina Waverchuk's Group 3 Math class,
Venture High School, Montreal.
- Marcheta Gallant's Math Classes 9-1 and 9-3.
Labrador City Collegiate - Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador
- Grade 6A students
L. E. Reinsborough School, Dalhousie, N. B. Canada
- Chris Machado grade 8
Gregory A. Hogan school.
- Grade 9 Math Class
Oyen Public School
- Mrs. C. Ager's Grade 7/8 Class
St. THerese's School - Sarnia, Ont.
- Chris Zamrykut, Chris Sklepowich Grade 10
Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School - Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada
- T. Burnie's Grade 7/8 class
St Ann School, Toronto, Ontario
- The Junior Enhanced Learning Class of Mrs. Marilyn Bruton
Ellwood Memorial Public School - Bolton, Ontario
(submitted by Don Brown, Principal)
- Abby Stimson, Grade 9
Dalhousie Regional High School
- RJ Gough, Matt Lindhout Grade 7
Horse Lake Elementary School - 100 Mile House, B.C.
- Ryan Cook, Vincent Spano, Evan Powell, Andrew Bain
Ms. L. Laudonio's grade 5 class
Gregory A. Hogan School - Sarnia, Ontario
- William Heppel, Shawn Proctor - Grade 6
St. Joseph School, Huntingdon, Que.
- 6D - Ecole St.Avila
Winnipeg, MB
- John Gamble, Katharine Gasbarini - Grade 8 Mrs. Delorme's class
Gregory Hogan School - Sarnia, Ontario
- Meagan Edwards, Sosie Beurklian - Mrs. Valenzuela's class
Sherwood Secondary School
- Kevin Cull, Steven Peckham, Kevin Waterman, Debbie Foley,
Grant Wells, Chris Burke, Glen Winsor - Ray Smith and his students
Ken Woodward, Hollywood Rd. Middle School, Kelowna, BC
- Grade 8 Math Class
Hedges School - Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Mike Scheiers grade six.
Cathcart Public School - Sarnia, Ont
- Mr.Burger's Grade 7 class
St.Therese school - Sarnia ,Ontario
- Nick Jacob 12 yrs. old gr. 7
Sarnia ,Ontario
- Shannon Pronk G6
Mcadam Aveune School in - Fredericton ,N.B.
- Lisa Ing, Katie Mills, Adam Gaudry, Alida Pokoradi, David McFarland
Mr.Czerneda's Grade 6
C.H.Bray School - Ancaster
- Gabrielle Kern, Kurtis Nelson, Shannon Trainor, Sara Lavoratore, Paul Murray, Keith Lyon, Sam Villeneuve, Adrienne Donkers, James Timmington
Mr. J. Cowley's 6TH Grade class.
Sacred Heart Elementary School - Sarnia, Ontario
- Andrew Timmers, Peerke Aarts - Mr. Van Lieshout's Grade 7/8 class
St. Peter Canisius School - Watford, Ontario.
- Daryl Johnson, Danny Weiss in Ms.Robinson's Grade 4/5 Class
St.Benedict's School,Sarnia
- Ashley Parise, Kristen O'Donnell from Mrs.Hamilton's grade 7-1 class
Florenceville middle school. - Florenceville N.B.
- Scott Harris, Michael shynkaryk, Grade 7
Camilla School - Riviere Qui Barre, Alberta
- Mandy Dizon, Michelle Halsall - Mrs. Quinn-Vaillant's Grade 8
Our Lady of Mercy School - Sarnia, Ont.
- Jane Scaplen's grade 6 French Immersion class
Sacred Heart Elementary - Mrystown, Newfoundland
- Carla Sadler in 8C, Erica Synnott in 9D, Mrs.
Bunn (our Kindergarten teacher) and Mr. Korsunsky
(junior high language arts and social studies teacher).
- Carl, Claira, Kim, Steven - Grade 5
Sheridan Public School - Oakville, Ontario
- Diana Picanco, Nicholas Martiniuk
Mrs. T. Ridland's students
Our Lady of Mercy School, Sarnia
- Jason Stein (6W), Ka Ying Ching (8C) - Onward to Excellence
Yorkhill Elementary School - Thornhill, Ontario
http://www.interlog.com/~yorkhill/home.html
And the unspecific
- Rudi, Jordan, Erika, Andrew and the rest of
Mr. Davis's grade five class.
- Jennifer Kerel - grade 9, math (Mrs. Miller's)
- Greg Robertson 81, Ryan Neil 81
capslib@sentex.net (Lawrie Key)
- Nancy.Rohatinsky@ei.educ.ab.ca
Puzzle #15
This week's Question #15 is the following:
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:
math_puzzle@rwa.psbgm.qc.ca
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
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Book Reviews by Title
Audio/Video/CD-ROM Reviews by Title
Volume 2 Index