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Colouring the Road - Adventures in Everyday Life.
Donna Doyle.
Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 and up. *** /4
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excerpt:
I stared from the fifth grade row. We were here to praise Christ but my worship was all for Sister Dominica. She was the school principal, the choir leader and my idol. Although only five feet tall, she had the commanding presence of one destined to lead. One look from those piercing blue eyes and her will was done. Sister Dominica had the face of an angel, as finely formed as the tiny porcelain figurines which graced her desk. Her habit was as neat and as exact as her demands. I dreamed of one day being just like her. I would wait after school to run errands for her. If I were lucky she'd let me carry her bag to the car. Usually she'd sit at her desk and listen to Mantovani records until her car arrived. There was the magic of an unknown world about her. I would stand at the back of the room trying to study my catechism so that she would choose me to teach the younger grades. But mostly, I studied Sister Dominica.
This little book is made up of twenty-two articles originally published in various periodicals. The author, Donna Doyle, lives on Isle Madame on Cape Breton Island. Her book is an upbeat collection of her own experiences, well-laced with touches of humour and homespun philosophy. There are nostalgic reflections on her grandparents' Iona home, graduation from teachers college, pregnancy, departure of her first-born for school, the commercialization of Christmas, difficulties in getting published, television arriving on Cape Breton Island, and other memorable experiences. Disillusionment surfaces when an idolized, beautiful nun cruelly treats an impoverished little friend, and when Ben Johnson cheats to win a medal in the Olympics.
A very pleasant book to read at bedtime or for recreational reading in a doctor's office, Colouring the Road may be of limited value in a high school library.
Recommended with reservations.
Joan Payzant is a retired teacher and teacher-librarian living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © 1997 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
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - MAY 23, 1997.
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