My Dinosaur.
Canadian Wild Flowers and Emblems.
Canadian Wild Animals.
The Peacock's Pride.
Lilly to the Rescue.
Duff the Giant Killer.
Go for It, Carrie.
Lord of the Animals: A native American creation myth.
Project Disaster.
Buffalo Sunrise: The Story of A North American Giant.
Amazing Grace: The Story of the Hymn.
Writing on Trial: Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words.
Mark Alan Weatherby.
New York, NY: Scholastic Press, 1997.
32 pp., hardcover, $15.95.
ISBN 0-590-97203-0.
Grades preschool - 2 / Ages 4 - 7.
Review by Alison Mews.
**** /4
excerpt:
My dinosaur lifts me to my window. He waits until I am under the covers. Then, quiet as a mouse, he heads for home. At breakfast, I yawn. How did you get leaves in your hair? my mother asks me. I played with my dinosaur last night, I tell her. That's nice, she says. I look outside the window but my great, old friend is gone. He will come back again when the moon is full, I know... My dinosaur always does.My Dinosaur is a gentle bedtime fantasy of a little girl who, when the moon is full, goes adventuring with a huge, benevolent dinosaur. With the story being told in the first person, readers experience a child-eye view of a special friend so enormous that only parts of him are visible in most double-page spreads. The sweet rosy-cheeked girl is shown holding onto his tail for a jubilant dip in the water or standing on his upturned nose to touch the stars, while a paternal and protective dinosaur eye watches. The dreamy illustrations, that Weatherby states are rendered in "acrylics, metallic paints...and fairy dust," are at variance with the matter-of-fact text recounted by the child as if explaining an actual event. This stylistic combination lends verisimilitude to the fantasy and, coupled with the disbelief of her mother the next morning and the reality of leaves in her hair, gives children a delicious sense of sharing a secret. The parental reaction and leftover evidence have also been used successfully by Marie-Louise Gay in Rainy Day Magic and Dorothy Joan Harris in Dinosaurs in the Park. Children will also undoubtedly notice the stuffed dinosaur in the girl's bedroom and her dinosaur wallpaper, details which serve to reinforce the fantasy rather than explain or diminish it. Non-threatening and sweetly satisfying, this bedtime adventure will be loved by the Barney set.
Highly recommended.
Alison Mews is Coordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Nfld.
Colleayn O. Mastin. Illustrated by Jan Sovak.
Kamloops, BC: Grasshopper Books, 1997.
32pp., cloth and paper, $19.95 and 11.95.
ISBN 1-895910-16-1 [cloth]
1-895910-18-8 [soft cover]
Grades preschool - 3 / Ages 5 - 8.
Review by Luella Sumner.
**** /4
Canadian Wild Animals.
Colleayn O. Mastin. Illustrated by Jan Sovak.
Kamloops, BC: Grasshopper Books, 1994, rev. 1997.
32pp., cloth and paper, $19.95 and 11.95.
ISBN 1-895910-12-9 [cloth] 1-895910-14-5 [soft cover]
Grades preschool - 3 / Ages 5 - 8.
Review by Luella Sumner.
**** /4
excerpt:
SkunkEach animal and flower in this pair of books is introduced by a little poem which is followed by a prose description. Those flowers that are provincial emblems are so identified as are provincial birds and trees. The information is presented in a light, interesting fashion which is calculated to turn the young reader on to the further study of nature.
The creatures we call skunks
Are famous for their smell;
And all across the country
These little stinkers dwell.They are black and white and furry,
Just as cuddly as can be,
But if by chance you get too close,
PHEW - EE!
The colour illustrations are stunning. Unfortunately, in the volume on animals, some of the illustrations spread across both pages, thereby cutting the picture down the middle and distorting it.
This series is an excellent one for libraries. The information on each flower or animal is self contained on a page, making it easy for younger readers to access and absorb it. The index to each volume is an added attraction. Other titles in the series include Arctic Animals, Trees, Endangered Species, Birds, and Ocean Creatures. Colleayn Mastin has also written The Magic of Mythical Creatures, and Jan Sovak is an internationally acclaimed illustrator.
A portion of the sales for this series is being donated to the Canadian Nature Federation.
Recommended.
Luella Sumner is Head Librarian, Red Rock Public Library, Red Rock, Ontario.
Melissa Kajpust. Illustrated by Jo'Anne Kelly.
Winnipeg, MB: Hyperion Press, 1996.
Unpaged, board, $19.95.
ISBN 1-895340-12-8.
Grades preschool - 4 / Ages 5 - 9.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.
**** /4
excerpt:
One day, long ago, Peacock strutted through the forest with his royal blue crown held high. In the flickering light, his long back feathers created a magnificent blue-green fan that shimmered like sapphires and emeralds. He stopped beneath a banyan tree that grew near a water hole and turned his heavy plumage slowly, hoping to attract the admiration of a group of birds sitting on the branches above him. But the birds had more immediate concerns.In this Indian pourquoi tale, when a viper continues to linger near the area's only water hole, the jungle birds face a dilemma: dying from dehydration or from being eaten by the treacherous snake. Vain Peacock tells the birds that his "hypnotic beauty will easily defeat" the snake for "my fan has a thousand eyes that will stare Old Viper into a trance. I'll then seize him by the neck and kill him." Peacock's actions will carry a price, however: "If I succeed, everyone must acknowledge me king of the water hole." Despite some misgivings, the birds agree, and Peacock dispatches the snake as promised. In the weeks that follow, the King of the Water Hole becomes increasingly imperious in his demands. Finally the birds decide that they must rid themselves of him. A Koel, a timid, plain black bird, challenges Peacock, saying, "Would you agree...to give up your kingdom if I can prove that my beauty is every bit as great as yours?" Seeing the drab bird before him, Peacock readily agrees. When Koel begins to pour forth a remarkable song, an impressed Peacock admits "that it is as beautiful as my feathers," but he still believes that his own "song will be every bit as beautiful." Unable to produce anything more than a discordant two-note shriek, a chastened Peacock must acknowledge he has been bested, "and that is how Peacock came to drag his train of feathers behind him, no longer blinded with pride."
Kelly's watercolour and gouache illustrations fill the pages with an abundance of colour and capture the lushness of India's forests. A concluding "Author's Note" provides useful background information for adults and older child readers. This well written story, with its "pride-goes-before-a-fall" moral, is a most worthwhile addition to the folklore shelves.
Highly recommended.
Dave Jenkinson teaches children's and adolescent literature courses at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.
Brenda Bellingham. Illustrated by Kathy Kaulbach.
Halifax, NS: Formac, 1997.
64 pp., paper, $5.95.
ISBN 0-88780-386-5.
Grades 2 - 4 / Ages 7 - 9.
Review by Irene Gordon.
*** /4
Duff the Giant Killer
Budge Wilson. Illustrated by Kim Lafeve.
Halifax, NS: Formac, 1997.
64 pp., paper, $5.95.
ISBN 0-88780-382-2.
Grades 2 - 4 / Ages 7 - 9.
Review by Irene Gordon.
*** /4
Go for It, Carrie
Lesley Choyce. Illustrated by Mark Thurman.
Halifax, NS: Formac, 1997.
64 pp., paper, $5.95.
ISBN 0-88780-392-X.
Grades 2 - 4 / Ages 7 - 9.
Review by Irene Gordon.
*** /4
These three novels for beginning readers are just a sampling of the 25 or more titles in Formac's "First Novels" series, contemporary Canadian stories about boys and girls encountering and dealing with situations common to elementary school children. The regular mass market paperback size, as opposed to the larger trade format usually used for readers of this age, should especially appeal to the intended readers. This series from Formac seems to be geared to slightly younger readers than Scholastic's "Shooting Star" line.
In Lilly to the Rescue, Lilly is trying to find a new best friend, but her bossiness and over-protectiveness alienate the two people she most wants to like her.
On Monday morning I called for Minna. Maybe she was too shy to come over on her own. I didn't bother about Kendall.
"I'm not going to school today," Minna said. "I'm sick."
"No you're not," I said. "You're scared." "Being scared makes you sick," Minna said.
That was true." You don't have to be scared of Theresa Green," I said. "I'll walk with you."The closer we got to school, the slower Minna walked ... Usually I don't hold Pop's hand. I'm too old. But when I do, his hand is big and warm and makes me feel safe.
"Hold my hand," I said to Minna.
She snatched her hand away. "I know I'm small, but I'm not a baby," she yelled.
She was spitting mad like a little cat. (Pages 25-26)
In Go for it, Carrie, 10-year-old Carrie wants roller blades more than anything, but her family cannot afford to buy her a pair. She discovers some in a pawn shop for $20 and persuades the owner of the shop to give them to her for $10. She finds that learning to roller blade is not as easy as it looks, but finally, with the encouragement of her friend Gregory who has Down's Syndrome, she learns.
In the humorous and rather improbable Duff the Giant Killer, Duff and his best friend Simon are recovering from the chicken pox. They are not allowed back to school, but they are well enough to get into a lot of trouble. First Duff wakes up everyone in both houses when he decides to phone Simon at 5:20 a.m. Then they decide to act out the play, Jack the Giant Killer, and a neighbour calls the police because she thinks the boys are having a real fight and that Duff has killed Simon.
Highly recommended.
Irene Gordon, who retired at the end of June after spending the last 14 years working as the teacher-librarian at Westdale Junior High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, presently co-edits the Manitoba School Library Association Journal.
Fiona Finch.
London, ENG: Frances Lincoln, 1997.
Unpaged, hard cover, $19.95.
ISBN 0-7112-1107-8.
Grades 2 - 5 / Ages 7 - 10.
Review by Luella Sumner.
**** /4
excerpt:
Long ago, Coyote created the world and all the creatures in it. Then he sat on the river bank and gathered a council of animals around him.This retelling of a Native American Miwok myth with wonderful, bold, full colour illustrations is intriguing and entertaining. Coyote, who has created the world and the animals, now wants to create the Lord of the animals. He asks all the other animals for advice, and they each want to give the new Lord their own attributes. When they all fall asleep for the night, Coyote seizes the opportunity to create the Lord with the talents he wants; and, that is why Man is keen of sight and hearing, and cunning - just like Coyote!
"We must decide how to make the Lord of the animals," he said. "If he is to rule over us, he has to be a very superior creature.
" "I agree," purred the mountain lion. "The Lord of the animals must be strong, and he must be swift and silent."
"No, no," said the grizzly bear. "He must have a big growl."
Fiona French has produced a very entertaining story. Two sources for the myth are listed: The Folk-lore record, Volume V, (London, 1882), and The Voice of Coyote, (Little, Brown and Co.), Boston, 1949]. This book would be an excellent addition to a library collection.
Recommended.
Luella Sumner is Head Librarian, Red Rock Public Library, Red Rock, Ontario.
Sylvia McNicoll.
Richmond Hill: Scholastic Canada, 1996.
87 pp., paper, $4.50.
ISBN 0-590-73742-2.
Grades 3 - 5 / Ages 8 - 10.
Review by Irene Gordon.
**** /4
While the novels in the "Shooting Star" series are intended for readers in early elementary school, usually grades two to four, Project Disaster will find a slightly older audience. Neil is finding life difficult. His mother is having a baby; his four-year-old sister, Tara, is getting extra attention from his father and visiting grandparents; he has to share his bedroom with Tara; and the adults are always (he thinks) taking his sister's side against him.
For a class project on pets, Neil is trying to train his goldfish to jump out of the water and take food from his hand. His project is ruined when his fish dies because Tara had overfed it and he hadn't cleaned out the bowl immediately. Reading Charlotte's Web gives him the idea of doing a project on spiders instead.
"My pet Charlotte has two jaws, eight eyes and eight legs," I began..." She has poison glands in her two jaws and when she sinks her fangs into her prey, she paralyzes them....Charlotte wraps the silk coming from her spinneret around her prey. Spider webbing is almost as strong as nylon. Here, I'll try to get her to spin some for you."
I took the screen cover off the mouth of Fido's old bowl. Then I stuck my pencil into the bowl. The class was really paying attention. Jenny Sommers' mouth hung open.
I loved it.
Ever so slowly, Charlotte climbed onto my pencil. I lifted the pencil high into the air and gently shook Charlotte off.
Miss Rosonoff picked that second to turn around and check out my pet. I don't know how it happened, but somehow Charlotte landed on Miss Rosonoff's bare arm.
Miss Rosonoff managed not to scream but the girls at the front did it for her. A funny noise came from deep in Miss Rosonoff's throat...
In a flash she shook Charlotte onto the floor and stomped on her. Miss Rosonoff twisted her foot back and forth.
I dropped the fish bowl and it shattered.
CRASH!
"Neil," Miss Rosonoff said in a high funny voice, "You get a broom and clean that up."
For a second or two I just stared at her. There was no sound in the classroom except my breathing. Then I blinked.
"No way," I said quietly. "Clean it up yourself." (Pages 55 and 56)
Things go from bad to worse. Neil runs out of the school and heads for home. As he goes through the park, he sees his grandfather (Opa) and Tara. He calls to his grandfather who does not hear him. Feeling completely neglected and miserable, Neil decides that he will feel better if he goes to sit in Opa's beloved Firebird car. One thing leads to another, and, just as his police officer father arrives home, Neil and the car roll down the driveway, cross the street and hit a school crossing sign.
Project Disaster deals in a humorous, contemporary and Canadian way with the lives of elementary school children. Like many Canadian children, Neil has parents of two different ethnic backgrounds, German and French.
Highly recommended.
Now retired after 14 years as the teacher-librarian at Westdale Junior High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Irene Gordon serves as co-editor of the Manitoba School Library Association Journal.
Diane Swanson.
Vancouver, BC: Whitecap Books, 1996.
58 pp., paper, $14.95.
ISBN 1-55110-378-8.
Grades 3 - 6 / Ages 8 - 12.
Review by Ian Stewart.
*** /4
excerpt:
....tribes held many celebrations and ceremonies to honor the buffalo and to draw on the powers they believed it had. Of all the animals they respected, the buffalo ranked among the highest. It was a symbol of food and shelter; it was sacred...
...some [rich] Europeans came to hunt across North America just for fun... ...Railroad companies, which had been laying tracks across the plains, offered people cheap trips to hunt buffalo. As the herds passed the trains, people opened their windows and fired their guns. Sometimes the train stopped and the passengers stepped out to shoot. But they left most of their prey to rot by the tracks.Diane Swanson is the winner of the 1995 Orbis Pictus Award for children's nonfiction and the author of many children's books. Buffalo Sunrise, a Canadian Children's Book Centre Choice, will certainly be nominated for nonfiction awards, as well.
The book's chapters fully explore the life, habits, importance and virtual destruction of the buffalo. Students learn that 60 million buffalo roamed the North American plains in the 18th century. These "Woolly Giants" were the "Great Provider" for Aboriginal peoples. Because it was difficult and dangerous to hunt this "Mighty Prey," great planning and skill were needed in organizing the hunt. By the end of the 19th century, there were only 1000 left in the world, but buffalo are "Rugged Survivors." and, with the establishment of national parks and game preserves, this "Helpful Ghost" now numbers over 200,000.
In addition to a number of modern photographs of buffalo in the wild, the archival illustrations and 19th century magazine sketches, paintings by Currier and Ives and Peter Rindisbacher, are an excellent complement to the text.
A most worthy addition for school and classroom libraries needing books on specific animals or additional materials for the Canadian social studies/history collection.
Recommended.
Ian Stewart is a Winnipeg Public Library Board Trustee.
Linda Granfield. Illustrated by Janet Wilson.
Toronto, ON: Tundra Books, 1997.
Unpaged, board, $17.95.
ISBN 0-88776-389-8.
Grades 4 and up / Ages 9 and up.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.
**** /4
excerpt:
"The ship I was on board as a passenger was on a trading voyage for gold, ivory, dyers wood and bees wax. We were off the coast of Newfoundland. On these banks we stopped half a day to fish for cod. I went to bed that night in my usual security and indifference, but was awakened from a sound sleep by the force of a violent sea which broke on board us; so much of it came down below as filled the cabin I lay in with water. This alarm was followed by a cry from the deck, that the ship was going down or sinking. The sea had torn away the upper timbers on one side. It was astonishing, and almost miraculous, that any of us survived to relate the story. We had but eleven or twelve people to bale the water with buckets and pails."The creative duo that produced In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae are back with another stunning offering. From its engaging full-colour cover to its informative map endpapers, Amazing Grace is a superlative example of bookmaking and design. Despite the book's limited length, Granfield's text provides more than adequate information about the life of the hymn's author, the eighteenth century slave ship captain and cleric, John Newton, and the dramatic March 24, 1748, happening which rekindled his religious belief. As well, Granfield also offers many details about the period's flourishing slave trade and the conditions faced by both captives and their seafaring captors. While "Amazing Grace" initially appeared as Hymn 41 in Newton's 1771 collection, Olney Hymns, it did not achieve any fame during his lifetime. Granfield also explains that the story behind the music which is associated the words is much debated. Wilson's dramatic full-page oil illustrations capture the action and emotions of the text and are complemented by her smaller black and white decorative drawings which are scattered throughout the book. The hymn's words and music are also supplied.
Despite the book's outward picturebook appearance, its contents are for a more mature audience of grade 4+. Church libraries, as well as school and public libraries, need to make Amazing Grace a "must" purchase!
Highly recommended.
Dave Jenkinson teaches children's and adolescent literature courses at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.
Diana Brydon.
Toronto, ON: ECW Press, 1995. Distributed by General Distribution Services.
pp., paper, $14.95.
ISBN 1-55022-1817.
Grades 12 and up / Ages 17 and up.
Review by Rory Runnels.
*** /4
excerpt:
Famous Last Words emphasizes interpretations and the multiple possibilities for making meanings that arise from our individual interactions with its textual constructions of our past. But it also insists that interpretation must lead eventually to judgement, to the taking of stand, through for each of us that stand may be on different ground.In Writing on Trial, Diana Brydon, who teaches Canadian and postcolonial literature at the University of Guelph, examines Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words. This short book in the "Canadian Writers Series" is both a good critical examination from Brydon, herself, as well as a wide-ranging look at other critical opinions assembled by her (though some of these don't get as full a hearing as this reviewer would like).
In the film Metropolitan, which is about a group of Manhattan rich kids, one of the boys explains that he only reads good literary criticism but not the book the criticism is about. With good literary criticism, he says, it's like reading the book without having to read it. The girl to whom he expounds this theory is incredulous and contemptuous of it. I suspect Ms. Brydon would be as well, though it is a popular assumption today. The clear assumption from her study is that you should have read Famous Last Words, and better have read it, if any intelligent discussion is to take place. The irony here, of course, is that Famous Last Words deals with (brilliantly, I think) historical characters and various theses of how a particular history happened: most people feel they can postulate some opinion because they will have heard at least part of the 'real' story, and that surely seems available for everyone to comment on, even if they haven't read a book, namely Findley's, on it. Ms. Brydon deals with the 'real' story as well as explicating Findley's artful use of it with balance and insight. In particular, her description of the lead character's "testament" and argument of the novel (pages 37-39 in Writing on Trial) is masterly.
Brydon's main technique, right for this book, is, as she puts it, stresses "its (Famous Last Words) reliance on intertextuality, by which I mean the way that one text assimilates, echoes, and incorporates words, images, and ideas from other texts". Sometimes this leads to a good insight followed by muddled thinking, but, in trying to encompass so much, this is bound to happen.
No matter. Brydon's reading is a careful, surefooted, if sometimes prosaic, critique; perhaps overview is more accurate. It will give you a sense of the book, and how one may approach its complexities. In some ways, Famous Last Words is a labyrinth of a novel. Writing on Trial might provide a good road map into, if not through, the book.
Recommended.
Rory Runnells is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Playright's Association.
The Publisher reserves the right not to declare a winner.
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
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