Going to the Fair.
Bears: Polar Bears, Black Bears and Grizzly Bears.
Stories - Artists' Workshop series.
Cougar Cove.
A Place Not Home.
Money to Burn.
The Tuesday Cafe.
Stars.
Historic Nelson: The Early Years.
Under NeWest Eyes: Stories from NeWest Review.
The Teacher's Complete and Easy Guide to the
Internet.>
All Aboard! Cross-curricular Design and Technology
Strategies and Activities.
Great Careers for People Interested in Travel and
Tourism.
By Design: Technology Exploration and
Integration.
Mathematics, Science, and Technology Connections.
Portfolio of Teaching Ideas for High School
Biology.
1986 Notable Canadian Materials: Young Adult
Fiction
The Toilet Paper Tigers.
Canadian Police Officers.
The Wild Ones
The Riggs Institute: Discover What Hasn't Been Taught by
English in America at the Teacher Training Level for 60 Years!
URLSrUS.
Sheryl McFarlane. Illustrated by Sheena Lott.
Victoria: Orca, 1996. Unpaged, paper, $7.95
ISBN 1-55143-062-2
Preschool - Grade 2 / Ages 5 - 7.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.
***/4
excerpt:
"Erin's eyes are as bright as the lights from the exhibition grounds and she can barely tear herself away from the window. The night lasts a thousand years. When she finally sleeps, Erin will dream first prize with a pumpkin grown to twice her size."
In recent years, children, both urban and rural, have been provided with a number of excellent opportunities to participate vicariously in various aspects of country living via picture books such as Andrews' and Reczuch's The Auction and Bannatyne-Cugnet's and Moore's A Prairie Alphabet and A Prairie Year. In Going To The Fair, the author/illustrator team of McFarlane and Lott share yet another segment of the cycle of rural life as they present a child's-eye view of a day at a local agricultural exhibition. McFarlane's narrative device is a young girl, Erin, who has entered her pumpkin for judging at the fair, and she is excited, yet apprehensive, about learning the results. To sustain the suspense, McFarlane has Erin meet three of her friends at the fairgrounds, and young readers receive a playful guided tour as the child quartet gradually makes its active way through the fair's sites and events. Finally Erin is the recipient of good news, and the book concludes with Erin's looking forward to next year's fair when her white third place ribbon might be replaced by a winning blue.
Using a horizontal design, the book's facing pages consist of Lott's full-colour realistic watercolour illustrations occupying one full page while McFarlane's brief text on each facing page is accompanied by a small black and white drawing related to a text detail. The stop action quality of Lott's artwork effectively captures the hustle and bustle of the fair while the illustrations' details evoke the autumn exhibition's sounds, smells and textures. This third collaboration of author and illustrator merits inclusion in libraries serving early years students.
Recommended
Dave Jenkinson is Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.
Deborah Hodge. Illustrated by Pat Stephens.
Toronto: Kids Can Press Limited, 1996. 32 pp, hardcover, $14.95.
ISBN: 1-55074-269-8.
Grades K - 6 / Ages 4 - 12.
Review by Brenda Partridge.
****/4
Did you know:
"...bears can get cavities from eating too much honey? ...all baby bears have blue eyes? ...bears are related to dogs?"Deborah Hodge has written a new information book about the grizzly bear, the polar bear and the black bear. To make research about this popular animal easy and enjoyable for children, the author organized the information into fourteen two-page chapters, such as "Bear Food", "How Bears are Born", "How Bears Protect Themselves", "Bears and People" and "Bears Around the World".
The material is presented in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand, yet very thorough fashion. Adding to the precision and clever presentation are many "bear facts", each marked by a bear symbol and clearly displayed in a separate box with a yellow background. At the end of the book is a glossary, called Words to Know in which, vocabulary such as hibernate, mammal and warm-blooded are explained. For example:
hibernate: to spend the winter in a deep sleep. A hibernating animal cannot be wakened.To be an effective research tool for younger children a book needs not only a precise table of contents but also a sufficient index. This edition gets full marks for ease of information location. For her first book, Deborah Hodge has found a format that meets the needs of educators and students.
Much credit must also be given to the illustrator Pat Stephens. Without her accurate, appealing, colourful illustrations, this book would not have the same appeal; or, be suitable to as wide a range of users who may include younger children who are unable to read the text. Every page is illustrated and most pages are solidly coloured to the edge of the paper, giving Bears a picture book appeal. Close-up inserts are used to demonstrate internal features of the bear's body and a map of North America clearly demonstrates where bears live.
With the combination of useful, easy-to-understand information and effective illustrations, Bears achieves a high rating. It would be a welcome addition to any elementary school library, public library or home library shelf. Bears: Polar Bears, Black Bears and Grizzly Bears is a part of the "Kids Can Wildlife Series". Other titles include: Wild Cats, Whales and Wild Dogs.
Highly Recommended
Brenda Partridge is a teacher-librarian at Percy Centennial Public School in Warkworth, Ontario.
Penny King and Clare Roundhill.
Niagara-on-the-Lake: Crabtree, 1996. 32pp. paper, $21.95 hardcover, $10.95
paper.
ISBN 0-86505-852-0 hardcover; 0-86505-862-8 paper.CIP
Grades 2 - 8 / Ages 6 - 14.
Review by Lorraine Douglas.
***/4
This interesting introduction to art features the retelling of famous stories from the past. These include the story of the Bayeux Tapestry; the Ramayana; the story of the 'Willow Pattern'; A Midsummer Night's Dream; and the Frog Princess. Art work which suits the telling each story accompanies the telling. For example, Arthur Rackham's illustrations for Cinderella are shown and the technique of creating silhouettes is explained. Follow-up art activities are clearly described for each project. With the Cinderella story, the authors explain how you could make sponge prints of glass slippers or crown; shadow pictures; and drawings based on an event in the story.
At the end of the book a separate section gives more information on the artists and pictures. This book is a part of a series which includes Portraits, Animals, and Landscapes. The set was first published in England and would be of great interest to elementary level art and language arts teachers wanting to extend literature through art. The activities and stories are geared for different levels. For example, The Frog Princess could be used with primary level children while the Ramayana could be used with older children.
Highly Recommended
Lorraine Douglas is Youth Services Coordinator for the Winnipeg Public Library.
Julie Lawson.
Victoria B.C.: Orca Book Publishers, 1996. 38pp., paper, $7.95.
ISBN 1-55143-072-X
Grades 3 - 7 / Ages 8 - 12.
Review by Helen Norrie.
***/4
Eleven-year old Samantha (Sam) Ross has flown from Toronto to spend a month of
the summer holidays with her fourteen-year old twin cousins in a remote area on
the north-west coast of Vancouver Island. It does not take long for her to
realize that her cousins feel she is a nuisance and that she doesn't understand
fishing, boating, and the West Coast life style.
In addition, Robyn, her girl-cousin, enjoys making Sam the butt of her jokes and dubs her "Gullible" when she falls for one tall tale after another. Sam finally decides to spend her summer exploring on her own, and on one of her jaunts into the woods she comes across a mother cougar and two cubs. When no one will believe she has seen them, Sam persists in studying everything she can about cougars anyway. Rewarded when the cougars appear again, it is Sam who helps identify them. She also learns some valuable lessons about the danger of having wild animals close to man's habitat --- dangerous to both animals and people.
This is a very pleasant read and should appeal to animal-lovers, especially girls. It is also an excellent character study of a young, sensitive girl who has never been in wilderness country before. The following excerpt shows how Julie Lawson makes us aware of her nervousness soon after her arrival:
Sam couldn't sleep. First, there was the worry. Before going to bed, Robyn handed her a flashlight and whispered, "Don't forget- outhouse rules after lights out. And if you hear a scratching in the middle of the night, it's only the ghost in the attic. Unless it's the bear."Julie Lawson is a Victoria author who has written The Dragon's Pearl, White Jade Tiger and Fires Burning. She seems very much at home writing for the 8-12 age group.Second, there was the quiet. Where was the familiar sound of traffic? The hum of the streetlights? Where was the light? It had been easy to fall asleep last night. Jet lag had seen to that - But now.. .
She turned her pillow to the cool side, curled up and tried counting sheep. It didn't work.
Maybe if she counted the worries. One the bear, two the ghost, three the outhouse, four the fishing rod, five tomorrow, six the day after, seven... Her heart began to thump, and she realized that counting her worries was only making her more awake.
Recommended
Helen Norrie taught for 18 years as a teacher-librarian in a number of Winnipeg schools. She is teaching a course in Children's Literature at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba in the winter term, 1997. She writes a regular monthly column on children's books for the Winnipeg Free Press.
Eva Wiseman.
Toronto: Stoddart, 1996. 177pp. paper, $6.95.
ISBN 0-7737-5834-8.
Grades 4 - 8 / Ages 9 - 13.
Review by Helen Norrie.
***/4
A Place Not Home, is a promising first novel by a new Winnipeg writer, Eva Wiseman. Nelly Adler has just celebrated her 13th birthday in her home city of Budapest when the events of the Hungarian Uprising of October, 1956 make it dangerous for her family to remain in their home. Their father decides that she and her sister, with their mother and father, must try to escape from Hungary while the Austrian border is still open.
Leaving behind their home, their friends and almost all their possessions, Nelly's family make their way by train and then by foot across the border, with plenty of suspense. After spending some time in a refugee camp in Austria, they decide to come to Canada and eventually settle in Montreal.
What makes this a refreshing change from many wartime "escape" stories are the many little "natural" touches which ring true to Nelly's age and personality. She is incensed when she cannot phone to tell her best friend goodbye. Stifling under several layers of clothes, worn so it will not be obvious they are running away, she gets her father released from the secret police by threatening to throw up in the police station. In the refugee camp she cannot resist stealing a beautiful cake from the camp kitchen to help celebrate her little sister's ninth birthday, but she pays for her misdeeds by washing dishes for a week. When she arrives in Montreal and finds she is treated as a "D.P." (Displaced Person) and shunned by her classmates she persuades her parents to let her buy saddle shoes and a plaid skirt so determined is she to get to know them.
Nelly is a resourceful, brave and spunky heroine to whom young people can relate. But while she is an admirable person, she is not a saint, being often tired, bored or upset by their ordeal. In other words, she is very human. The relationship between Nelly and her family is also a warm and supportive one.
We are always very aware of how Nelly is feeling, as can be seen from this excerpt from their Atlantic crossing:
Last night I dreamed I was riding a roller coaster in Vienna. Up and down, climbing, plunging, over and over again until I became nauseated and dizzy. Mother woke me by turning on the cabin light, and I realized that I wasn't in an amusement park but in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean aboard a ship during a violent thunderstorm. We could hear the raging of the wind and, through the porthole, we could see the splashing of the black waves, which obscured our view of the angry ocean.Eva Wiseman was born in Hungary and came to Winnipeg as a child. No doubt many of the events related in this book are biographical or based on first-hand accounts by family or friends.
A Place Not Home is a book which should appeal especially to girls and would be useful in classrooms where there are students who have recently arrived from other countries, as it gives an excellent description of how Nelly feels on arriving in a strange country where she does not speak the language and is without friends.
Recommended
Helen Norrie taught for 18 years as a teacher-librarian in a number of Winnipeg schools. She is teaching a course in Children's Literature at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba in the winter term, 1997. She writes a regular monthly column on children's books for the Winnipeg Free Press.
E. M. Goldman.
Toronto: Puffin Books, 1994. (pbk. 1996) 212pp. paper, $4.99
ISBN 0-14-036B32-9.
Grades 5 - 9 / Ages 10 - 14.
Review by Helen Norrie.
****/4
Money to Burn is a sure-fire winner for school libraries, and should particularly appeal to boys, with an exciting plot, humorous characters, plenty of suspense, and non-stop action. Matt and Lewis are two thirteen-year old boys living on a small island off the British Columbia coast. School is just out for the summer and the boys face two long months of boredom since they have no money to go anywhere and no prospect of getting jobs to earn any. Then they discover a suitcase full of money, at the same time as an unidentified stranger drops dead near the town golf course, and police are looking for a known drug dealer.
The boys decide that the money almost certainly belonged to the dead man and that he must have been the wanted drug dealer. They argue that they can keep the money as it wasn't obtained legitimately anyway, so they don't reveal their find. But when they try to decide how to spend the money they realize they cannot spend money without arousing suspicion.
Matt and Lewis come up with a novel way to solve this problem and to be able to go on every young person's dream spending spree as a result. They come back to earth, however, when a mafia associate of the drug dealer comes looking for the money and traces it to the boys. They also realize that the money has come close to destroying their friendship.
In the following passage Matt and Lewis come to some new understanding of what the money has meant to them:
Lewis snorted.E. M. Goldman, is the author of a young adult novel called Detective, Tenth Grade and a play, The Perils of Cinderella or, The Vampire's Bride. Like her fictional characters, she lives on a small island off the B.C. coast."We have what we want. If the rest of this money is going to get us into trouble, we don't need it anymore."
"Speak for yourself!" Louis yelled "You've always had everything."
They stared at each other.
Lewis' voice lowered "I never in my whole life had a new bike. Not once. You always did."
"I didn't know it bugged you."
"Yeah," said Louis. He began looking around the room again, searching for any evidence left behind "Well, neither did I."
Highly Recommended
Helen Norrie taught for 18 years as a teacher-librarian in a number of Winnipeg schools. She is teaching a course in Children's Literature at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba in the winter term, 1997. She writes a regular monthly column on children's books for the Winnipeg Free Press.
Don Trembath.
Victoria, B.C.: Orca, 1996.
121pp. paper, $7.95.
ISBN 1-55143-074-6. CIP
Grades 6 - 9 / Ages 11 - 14.
Review by Irene Gordon.
***/4
The book opens with 15 year old Harper Winslow in court charged with setting a fire in his high school. When the judge sentences him to write an essay entitled "How I Plan to Turn My Life Around" as part of his punishment, his mother signs him up for an evening writing class called The Tuesday Cafe. What Mrs. Winslow does not realize is that "...the Tuesday Cafe is a writing class geared towards adults with special needs, learning disablities, or those wanting to improve their literacy skills."
Surprisingly, Harper, who has felt ignored by his super successful and busy parents, comes to feel at home in the class of adults, most of whom would be considered failures by society. At each class the students were expected to share their writing with the rest of the class. When Harper very reluctantly reads aloud what he had written during the first class, for one of the first times in his life people really seemed interested in what he had to say and praised something he had done.
The remainder of the book describes the month Harper has to spend working on his essay for the judge. It details his experiences with his classmates in The Tuesday Cafe and his high school counsellor as well as his evolving relationship with his parents.
This is a quiet, thoughtful, well-written book which I highly recommend. Because it is a book in which nothing very exciting happens, however, it will only appeal to a limited group of readers. It should be of interest to young people who enjoy writing in particular.
Highly Recommended
Irene Gordon is a teacher-librarian at Westdale Junior High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently co-editor of the MSLA JOURNAL published by the Manitoba School Library Association.
Eric Walters.
Toronto: Stoddart, 1996. 315 pp. paper, $6.99.
ISBN 0-7736-74470.
Grades 6 - 9 / Ages 11 - 14.
Review by Jennifer Sullivan.
***/4
excerpt:
Just over from the fire was a pile of wood, cut up into fire-sized pieces.In Stars Eric Walters explores the same territory as he does in his earlier novel for teens Stand Your Ground. In both, he portrays two basically good kids who have been dealt a rough hand in the game of life. Fourteen-year-old Joseph is the street-smart, wise-cracking protagonist of Stars. His father is an abusive alcoholic, his mother deserted them both, and his best friend is Jonnie Campbell, a gangster who encourages Joseph to steal expensive cars.I took two chunks and tossed them on the fire. Sparks and ashes burst out and floated up into the sky. I watched them drift upward into the heavens.
I shook my head in amazement at all those stars, like little embers that had escaped from earlier fires. I thought of something that the psychologist guy had said to me at the hospital. He said that after a trauma, after coming close to dying, you looked at things through new eyes.
I didn t think I was looking with new eyes, but I knew I was looking at a new world.
Eric Walters has had first-hand experience dealing with troubled teens. He is an elementary school teacher and has also worked as a family therapist and a social worker.
While Joseph is in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained in a high speed car chase, he meets Gord, a kindly and dedicated social worker who recruits him for a program called Stars (Striving Through Adventure to Develop Responsibility and Success). Together, with a group of boys facing similar problems, Joseph reluctantly joins the Stars program, where he learns about the wilderness, about survival and about himself.
This is a conventional novel about a teen coping with problems. Joseph is an appealing narrator; sensitive and quick-witted, but his rehabilitation is formulaic. His cynicism and hard edges gradually and predictably give way as he confronts and overcomes the challenges of the landscape, and learns to rely on others. Another detractor is the under-developed cast of supporting characters. Joseph's father is inexorably bad. Gord, Stan, and Maureen are uncompromisingly good - their prime motivation seems only to be the rehabilitation of their young charges. The other boys in the group, with the exception of Kevin, are not fully drawn. We don't discover much about their backgrounds, or what will happen to them after their six weeks in the bush.
Surprisingly, the sometimes weak characterization does not inhibit the fast-paced and exhilarating plot. When it relinquishes its didactic tone, Stars is a well-written and appealing adventure story.
Recommended
Jennifer Sullivan has a Master's degree in English Literature and works for the Canadian Children's Literature Service in the National Library of Canada.
John Norris.
Lantzville, B. C.: Oolichan Books, 1995.
319 pp, paper $21.95, bound $36.95.
ISBN 0-88982-150-X (paper), ISBN 0-88982-151-8 (bound) CIP.
Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 to adult.
Review by Joan Payzant.
**/4
excerpt:
"It is evident that the purpose of this work has been, not to present the facts of Nelson's past in the form of an academic history, but rather to infuse those facts with the breath of life, to make us 'be there' as we are when we read a story; for the history of Nelson is a story, a saga, worthy in its humble way to be sung as was Homer's epic of Troy."Author John Norris has previously written "Old Silverton" and "Wo Lee Stories". When I read the Table of Contents I was attracted by the style in which they were presented; for instance "Chapter 16 - A chapter bursting at the seams in its attempt to encompass events which were occurring on the west arm of Kootenay Lake at a rapidly accelerating pace in 1888." Where had I seen that type of chapter description before? I guessed that it was an old-fashioned style that I had come across quite often, but my husband identified probably the most familiar author to use it - A.A. Milne in his "Pooh" books. Unfortunately, the long-winded chapter descriptions continued throughout the entire book when they could have done with an enormous amount of condensation.
Not being familiar with the Kootenay area, I had difficulty following the early, endless peregrinations of the main characters because the map facing page 13, was inadequate and too small. The Walla Walla trail was written about, but where was it? Surely not as far south as Walla Walla itself?
The publisher cheated the reader in the reproductions of early photographs. The author goes to great lengths to describe in detail photos on pages 195 and 212, and I tried desperately to identify them, but without success. There were a few gripping and lively descriptions and quotations, such as Norris' description of Bob Yuill's trip to Nelson on New Year's Eve; the building of the Nelson courthouse; the report of the Provincial Sanitary Inspector in regard to Nelson's facilities or lack thereof. This story of Nelson ends with its incorporation and the election of its first Mayor, John Houston. The time span of this history is from 1882 to 1897.
I know a book like this demands a tremendous amount of research and dedication, and the author has done the groundwork well in what is clearly a labour of love. John Norris' philosophising and speculating as to cause and effect wander throughout the book mirroring the roving characters of whom he writes. For people who are familiar with Nelson and surrounding communities perhaps it will be more gripping reading, but for schools I would recommend it as a reference book only, making use of the chapter end notes, the bibliography and the fairly detailed index.
Recommended with reservations.
Joan Payzant is a retired teacher-librarian, living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Edited by Paul Denham and Gail Youngberg.
Saskatoon, SK: Thistledown Press, 1996. 207 pp., paper, $19.95.
ISBN 1-8895449-55-3.CIP
Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 - adult.
Review by Gina Varty.
***/4
excerpt:
The standard saying in this town is: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes, it'll change." Living in this town means never knowing what to wear when you get up in the morning and then having to change your clothes four times a day anyway.from "This Town" by Diane Schoemperlen (p. 51)
Such is life on the prairie, such is life in most of Canada, and such is the nature of Under NeWest Eyes. For if the story you are reading doesn't suit you, wait a few pages and it'll change.
This book is a collection of 20 stories to celebrate 20 years of fiction writing in the NeWest Review, which was launched in 1975, to "provide a forum for Western Canadians to talk to each other about themselves, about their culture...." to develop the indigenous voice of the prairies." (p.9).
In addition to Western writers, the editors of Under NeWest Eyes have included authors from outside the prairie region. Resulting in a rich collection of voices writing on diverse subjects. A cultural mosaic of stories arranged chronologically as they appeared in the Review. The collection includes notes on the 13 female and 7 male contributing authors.
Death, desire, and daily living are three common themes running throughout the book. Two of the "death" stories are an early tale by Governor Gereral's Award winner Rudy Wiebe, entitled "Home for the Night" in which a young man flying home remembers the past and must come to terms with the present. And "Music Lessons", by lesser-known author Bonnie Burnard, about the gift a young piano student gives her teacher.
Ontario native Jake MacDonald's "Becoming", which features mild-mannered Nimitz, who longed to live in his element, water, complete with fins and gills (?!) will linger long after a first reading. As will Sharon Butala's "Belle in Winter", a story about a mother of seven who longs for a love she's never experienced.
A little touch of Paris is provided by novelist and playwright Guy Vanderhaeghe's story "Cafe Society", in which a trio of men converse at a sidewalk cafe. You will crave an illustration as you read "The Wedding I Never Attended", by Ed Kleiman, as you are invited to look at a photograph of the story-teller's brother's wedding.
Many snapshots of urban living are presented in Diane Schoemperlen's "This Town", as she presents a mosaic of aspects central to a cultural identity: entertainment, hobbies, love and death. Subjects also common to stories by Ken Mitchell, Sandra Birdsell, Edna Alford, Rosemary Nixon, and other creative Canadians, selected by two accomplished editors and found (in) Under NeWest Eyes.
Recommended
Gina Varty is an actor, poet and librarian at the Audio Visual Educational Library, United Church of Canada, Edmonton.
Toronto: Trifolium Books Inc. 336pp softcover, $29.95
CDN
ISBN 1-895579-85-6
by Ann Heide and Linda Stilborne
Whether You're Reluctant to Get onto the Internet or an Avid Enthusiast...
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By Sarah Ellis
Volume 16 Number 1
1988
The year 1986 was a surprise. Writing early in the year, Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books, which had published no fiction at all in the previous year, said that it was worth noting that sales of juvenile fiction, especially of new and lesser-known writers, were very disappointing. Then 1986 came and went and we were left with a splendid range and quality of titles. In the area of young adult literature a respectable sprinkling of books took the giant step beyond the bland, the safe and the predictable.
Of the titles that interested me in 1986, Last Chance Summer* was the most unexpected surprise. Diana Wieler, a new writer, uses an element of common currency in young adult fiction, the rebellious adolescent, and makes the jaded reader (me) realize why this is such a rich theme for a novel when it is not homogenized for the market, as so often happens. Marl Silversides is a troubled kid who is sent to a farm as his last chance before an institution. The basic story is that he makes a friend, a simple thing but with wide-ranging effects.
This situation could have resulted in one of those tough-dissolving-into-sentimental kind of young adult novels where everyone has a heart of gold. But Wieler avoids the pitfalls. She doesn't make the social worker a condescending airhead. She tries something harder and more real in characterization. She doesn't sum it all up in some cliche from a T-shirt. She doesn't tell what is happening, she shows it. In scenes where the boys get haircuts, clean a van, and play cards, she demonstrates that growth and change happen in ordinary times, not just during car chases, fights, and confrontations, though she has those, too, and writes with economy and deftness. Last Chance Summer is an example among many of why Western Prairie Producer Books is a publisher to watch.
From one of our newest writers to one of our most long established: James Houston's The Falcon Bow did engender rather mixed reviews, and I, too, have some reservations. The links between it and its predecessor The White Archer are a bit cumbersome. But Houston captures me with the sheer fascination of the world he describes, that white arctic world with its dashes of red -- the eye of an attacking walrus, the feet of a sea-duck, the rosy cheeks of a baby. The passage to adulthood in our culture has a lot to do with the acquisition and mastery of possessions. In Houston's Arctic this passage is stripped down to the essentials: food, transportation, clothing, heat, shelter. And Houston describes these beautifully. The details of packing eggs into skin bags filled with eiderdown for travel, of licking the ivory on a snow-cutting knife to make it smooth while building an igloo -- he describes this so well that for a moment I think I could do it. And it is that feeling of confidence and competence that must be really attractive to young adults in our world. where life skills are things like balancing a cheque-book, and where the passage to adulthood is marked by getting a social insurance number. In one great scene Kungo, the protagonist, takes apart a kayak to reassemble it into a sled. I couldn't help thinking of a generation brought up on transformers. In the world of Falcon Bow such transformations have a purpose: survival.
In Blaine's Way** Monica Hughes does something quite innovative in a young adult novel, something I'll wager gave the marketing department at Irwin a few sticky moments. She tells the story of a boy from age six to manhood and even, by using the framework of a flashback, of him as an old man. I think this framework of reminiscence is what makes the book work so well. An author cannot afford to be nostalgic. Nostalgia saps a story of immediacy. But an old man, telling his life story into a tape recorder for his newborn great-grandson, is going to sound nostalgic. And his memories of a boyhood in the dirty thirties, of going away to war, and of coming home disabled are going to be rambling and slightly romantic. Through the device of the flashback Monica Hughes also manages to do something a young adult author can almost never do. She can give advice. Here is Blaine at the end of his life:
Just don't forget that greed leads to suffering; . . . But there's always freedom to change. And now it's yours, my grandchildren, and yours, young Blaine, the first of the next generation. It's in your hands to make this a better world. (p. 215).
In current young adult writing it seems that we are often so concerned with stylishness that we don't risk things like actually imparting wisdom any more. Hughes takes this risk and succeeds.
In Karleen Bradford's Nine Days Queen*** we don't possibly have the best historical fiction ever written about Lady Jane Grey, who was queen of England for nine days in 1554. But it is real historical fiction, demonstrating the art of taking the known facts, fleshing out the characters and incidents, solving such problems as what to do about historical language, and treading the fine line between remoteness and historical distortion. In short, it answers the demands of both history and fiction. In Canada we don't have much of this tradition, probably because our own recorded history is so recent. And I found Bradford very good on the history. She sorted out the political intrigues rather well and I'm a slow learner in this area. The important thing about this book is that it shows that Canadian publishers and writers now feel that Henry VIII is as appropriate a subject for our attention as Cartier. One more step out of the parochial. I think Karleen Bradford will be a writer to watch as she expands her writing horizons.
Last, and for me best, is Janet Lunn's Shadow in Hawthorn Bay****. This book is representative of a number of welcome trends in Canadian children's writing that I could discuss-the broadening of our choice of settings and subjects the vast improvement in the physical quality of our books and the growth of an individual writer. This is Janet Lunn in her full maturity as a writer. I want to go right to the heart of the matter, to romance. We all know that young adult romances are the economic success story of the eighties. And I've read the odd one myself. What strikes me about most of them is how lacking they are in passion. In these books adolescents are only the market; they are not really the subject of the books. The rich mine of adolescent passion and confusion is, in the series books, almost completely untapped.
Not so in Shadow in Hawthorn Bay. What is it that motivates a young girl to leave her horde, her family, her country, to travel thousands of miles to a new, unknown and unwelcoming land? It is the love of Duncan, Duncan her cousin, Duncan the dark. There are echoes here of Wuthering Heights and of the highly pitched and carefully controlled writing of Mollie Hunter. In comparison, the usual young adult romance is as bland as a Kraft slice. This book made me remember my adolescent thirst for romance. It shook me out of my adult cynicism. Of course, there is much more in Shadow in Hawthorn Bay. There is an adroit use of history and landscape, fine creation of minor character, the not-a-step-wrong pacing, and, most of all, Lunn's writing. Her words are specific, rhythmical and plain. The more emotional the moments the simpler she becomes. This is the book I want as a permanent legacy of 1986.
* Reviewed in Canadian Materials vol. XV/I January 1987 p.2l.
Gordon Korman
New York: Scholastic, 1993. 195pp, cloth,
$15.95
ISBN 0-59046230-X. Distributed by Scholastic Canada.
CIP
Reviewed by Dave Jenkinson
Volume 22 Number 1
1994 Jan/Feb
Korman's nineteenth book contains the delightful blend of ingredients that his pre- and early teen audiences have come to expect --humorous happenings involving likeable, zany characters placed in familiar, but somehow wacky, settings.
Told from the perspective of left fielder Corey Johnson, a wannabe pitcher, the book covers a season of the "Toilet Paper" Tigers, a Spooner, Texas, little league team sponsored by Feather-Soft Bathroom Tissue Inc. The Tigers, the draft's nine "loser-leftovers," are ineptly coached by Professor Pendergast a sixty-year-old physicist who, while a small particle expert knows absolutely nothing about baseball.
The Professor had only decided to coach because he thought his baseball involvement would allow Kristy, his visiting granddaughter, to meet some young people. New Yorker Kristy quickly reveals a Jekyll and Hyde personality. With her grandfather present, she is his "little princess," but in his absence, she becomes a diamond dictator. Kristy's control over the Tigers resides in the "candid" picture she snapped of the jockstrap-clad boys changing. The body-conscious adolescents wilt before Kristy's threat to paste copies of the unseen photo on every locker in their new junior high school.
Following an introduction to Coach/ Professor Pendergast, each of the book's remaining nine chapters focuses on one of the team's players and "Coach" Kristy's attempt to make that player a better contributor to the Tigers. For example, second baseman Tuba Dave Jablonski, a superb hitter, never reaches base safely because of his weight-impaired running. Tuba's adherence to Kristy's solution, a diet of stewed crabgrass, is closely monitored by his blackmailed teammates.
As Korman's middle school fans have come to expect this cast of oddballs and misfits eventually emerges winners but not before experiencing some hilarious happenings.
Highly recommended.
Grades 3 to 6 / Ages 8 to 11
Dave Jenkinson teaches children's and young adult literature in the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Paulette Bourgeois
Illustrated by Kim LaFave Toronto, Kids
Can Press, 1992. 32pp, cloth, $11.95
ISBN 1-55074-060-1. (In My
Neighbourhood series). CIP
Reviewed by Gillian Martin
Volume 20 Number 6
1992 November
Canadian Police Officers is one of two new additions to the "In My Neighbourhood" series about members of every Canadian community. It is filled with information about Canadian police officers as well as the Canadian legal system, which Bourgeois has made easily accessible to the young child. LaFave's illustrations add to the presentation of this information and are particularly noteworthy because of the positive presence of female role models in the legal profession (including a female judge).
The book, however, does have an organizational problem. The work is divided into three parts--a short story about how a young girl helps police find stolen bicycles; an explanation of the various jobs police do as well as how they dress and travel; and the "Stay Alert ... Stay Safe" safety rules, which the police often speak about to school children.
While the transition between the first two parts is fairly smooth, the switch from the second to the third part is abrupt. Perhaps if each section had been given a title, this problem would not exist. Nevertheless, this is definitely a book for young readers learning about their Canadian community.
Pre-school to Grade 2 / Ages 3 to 7
Gillian Martin Noonan is a teacher-librarian living in Old Perlican, Newfoundland
URL: http://www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cerc/WildOnes
Review by Michael Wilkinson.
Reprinted from the EdRes mailing list.
Description:
The Wild Ones is an ever-growing on-line educational network providing teachers and their students opportunities to design and work on collaborative investigations with moreore than two hundred schools already linked.
The Wild Ones is the most recent addition to the Wildlife Preservation Trust (WPTI) family. WPTI was founded by the naturalist and author, Gerald Durrell. An integral part of The Wild Ones is a supplemental newsletter, "The Wild Times" published every trimester (September, December, and March). Each issue portrays an animal, a researcher and includes student poetry, artwork, and articles.
Evaluation:
"The Teacher Connection" provides teachers with tie-in classroom activities and projects facilitating the hands-on learning process.
The site provides information on endangered species, the opportunity to communicate with researchers studying endangered species, and a childrens forum to exchange ideas concerning wildlife preservation.
For a limited time, subscriptions will be offered free of charge. Teachers interested in their class becoming members of The Wild Ones should fill out and return the "Subscription form" through our World Wide Web site.
Review by Carolyn Knutson.
Reprinted from the EdRes mailing list.
Description:
This site describes, in detail (with graphics), a multi-sensory, direct instruction and explicit phonics method of teaching listening, speaking, penmanship, spelling (with complete phonetics, syllabication, and 28 rules of orthography) composition, reading, comprehension, vocabulary development, basic grammar and analytical thinking skills PLUS all auditory, verbal, visual and visual-motor cognitive subskills. The Riggs Institute advertises it as a practical method of establishing the basic skills which make acquiring a real "whole language" capability well within reach of virtual all learners of whatever age and/or ability.
Additionally, they present a home page "interest index" ranging from learning disability helps to the reading research and several enlightening "position papers" relating to the present phonics/whole language debate.
Evaluation:
The only site I have found which has addressed the current problem with specific and detailed information on what we need to know to teach the English language in a virtually "foolproof" way to people of all "learning styles," AND what we need to do (inform ourselves) to change the deplorable state of American education which begins with the ability (or lack of ability) to speak, read, write, spell and enjoy our own language. A "MUST" site for those who want to be fully informed and enabled be they schools, teachers, parents, taxpayers, board members, educational reformers, textbook selection committees, foundations, corporate literacy directors or legislators.
URL: http://cspace.unb.ca/nbco/urlsrus
Review by Myke Elliot.
Reprinted from the EdRes mailing list.
Description:
URLSrUS is a mailing list created in the summer of 1995 with the original aim of allowing students and educators to distribute interesting and helpful Internet site addresses. Our focus has broadened in the past year as the list has grown to include hundreds of members from over 15 countries.
For subscription information, hit the Web site.
Evaluation:
URLSrUS is a well-managed, spam-proofed educational list which the list owners are anxious to see expand. It offers educators and students the opportunity to exchange Internet site addresses which they may find in the course of day-to-day research, exploration or just "surfing" with peers around the world. While not a conversation list, URLSrUS can provide the initial spark for online discussions among list members.
Traffic on the list is fairly low, as the list has a small number of subscribers at this time, but is predicted to come to life as the academic season approaches.
e-mail: cm@umanitoba.ca
Copyright © 1996 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