Canadian Women Now and Then: Guest Review

This review was written by Elizabeth Cook.

 

Written by Elizabeth MacLeod
Illustrated by Maia Faddoul

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0061-5

80 pp.

Ages 9-12

2020

I saw this book on a shelf and was interested to see who would be represented inside.  I am so glad I picked it up. Once I opened the cover, I couldn’t put it down. I love how this book is organized. Each double-page spread is organized by a theme such as doctors. One side of the page focuses on an important Canadian woman who spearheaded change in the past and the other side highlights a contemporary woman who continues to be inspirational or influential in their respective fields, hence, the “Now” and “Then” title for the book. This format will engage young readers to learn about the history of women in Canada, but also to find current connections to people they may hear about in the news. The range of vocations selected for this book is excellent. The book highlights women in the roles of culture keepers, activists, Paralympians, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, military members, and so much more.  

From Canadian Women Now and Then by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Maia Faddoul

Elizabeth MacLeod has kept the text brief for each entry. Trying to narrow down the amazing lives of these women must have been a daunting task. Each featured woman has about three to five paragraphs devoted to explaining their lives and achievements. The text is engaging and it kept me reading such that that I completed the book in one sitting. I was drawn in by the stories of these women. Each person is highlighted to show their significance and it sparked my curiosity to do more research on my own. Knowing that every woman who has helped to pave the way for future generations could not be included in the “Then” sections, Elizabeth MacLeod added a text box that features more amazing women with brief notes about their historic roles, thereby offering another great starting point for a reader to conduct further research on that topic. The book also includes a brief timeline of significant events for women throughout history in Canada. I am sure many children will also choose to go forward to research many wonderful Canadian women or events represented in this book. Moreover, Elizabeth MacLeod included quotes from the women showcased and these really spoke to me and I am sure they will inspire young readers to be brave and bold in their lives too. 

 

The artistry in the portraits done by Maia Faddoul is beautiful. The style of the portraits of the women is simple but realistic. Because the pages are dominated by text and white space, Maia Faddoul's artwork really draws your eyes. I also really love the colour palette used throughout the book, for headings, borders and in the portraits. The colours are rich but muted. Because of a lack of bright primary colours, the book feels more significant.

I am excited to add this book to my school library collection. The many contributions of women throughout history have often been ignored and are largely underrepresented in our books on the shelves. I am glad that all students will be able to learn about the fabulous women that have helped shape Canada and that these women will now be represented in  library collections everywhere.

~Elizabeth Cook is a teacher-librarian in the Halton District School Board. She is an avid reader and fan of Canadian literature. 

Internment in Canada: A youngCanLit book list

On August 22, 2014, the 100th anniversary of Canada's first internment operations will be commemorated with the unveiling of 100 plaques across Canada.  These historical plaques will be unveiled at 11 a.m. at Ukrainian, Croatian, Serbian, German, and Hungarian churches and cultural centres, museums and other public venues.

While the internment of Canadians of different nationalities began with the enactment of the War Measures Act at the onset of World War I, there are too many individuals and families that were labeled as enemy aliens during both world wars that we should not forget this blemish in our history.  As such, I've prepared a list of youngCanLit and NFB films that either focus on the tragedy of internment or include characters that have been interned.  The majority of these resources involve the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II, but please recognize that the commemorative plaques are specifically the work of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation to help everyone... Remember, Learn, Never Forget Them. (Further details are available at http://www.internmentcanada.ca/news-events.cfm)

As an aside, I'll be reviewing Marsha Skrypuch's newest book, Dance of the Banished, (listed below) in which a young Alevi Kurd from Anatolia is interned during World War I in a camp in Kapuskasing.  That review will be posted on August 22, and Marsha Skrypuch will answer some questions about her book in a post the following day.


PICTURE BOOKS

Flags

by Maxine Trottier

Illustrated by Paul Morin

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

27 pp.

Ages 8+

1999

Naomi's Tree
by Joy Kogawa
Illustrated by Ruth Ohi
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 8-11
2008

Silver Threads
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 6-8
2004





FICTION

Beautiful Goodbye
by Nancy Runstedler
Dundurn
146 pp.
Ages 10-12
2013

Caged Eagles
by Eric Walters
Orca Book Publishers
256 pp.
Ages 12-15
2001
Sequel to War of the Eagles

Cherry Blossom Winter
by Jennifer Maruno
Dundurn
174 pp.
Ages 10-13
2012

Dance of the Banished
by Marsha Skrypuch
Pajama Press
288 pp.
Ages 12+
August, 2014

Lesia’s Dream
by Laura Langston
HarperCollins
208 pp.
Ages 11+
2003

My Anastasia
by Sharon Stewart
Scholastic Canada
249 pp.
Ages 11+
1999

Naomi's Road
by Joy Kogawa
Illustrated by Ruth Ohi
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
120 pp.
Ages 9-12
2005

Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk, Spirit Lake, Quebec, 1914 (Dear Canada)
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic Canada
243 pp.
Ages 11-14
2007

Sabotage
by Karen Autio
Sono Nis Press
293 pp.
Ages 11-13
2013

Stones for My Father
by Trilby Kent
Tundra Books
170 pp.
Ages 9-13
2011

Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1941 (Dear Canada)
by Susan Aihoshi
Scholastic Canada
209 pp.
Ages 10-13
2012

War of the Eagles

by Eric Walters

Orca Book Publishers

224 pp.

Ages 12-15

1998

When the Cherry Blossoms Fell
by Jennifer Maruno
Napoleon
112 pp.
Ages 9-12
2009

The Whirlwind
by Carol Matas
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 12-14
2007

Winds Through Time: An Anthology of Canadian Historical Young Adult Fiction
Ann Walsh, ed.
Beach Holme Publishing
162 pp.
Ages 10+
1998






NON-FICTION

A Child in Prison Camp
by Shizuye Takashima
Tundra
102 pp.
Ages 10+
1976

A Curious Cage: Life in a Japanese Internment Camp 1943-1945
by Peggy Abkhazi
Sono Nis Press
167 pp.
Ages 14+
2002

Italian Canadian Internment in the Second World War (Righting Canada's Wrongs)
by Pamela Hickman and Jean Smith Cavalluzzo
Lorimer
111 pp.
Ages 14-17
2012

Japanese Canadian Internment in the Second World War (Righting Canada’s Wrongs)
by Pamela Hickman and Masako Fukawa
Lorimer 
160 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

The Kids Book of Canadian Immigration
by Deborah Hodge
Illustrated by John Mantha
Kids Can Press
64 pp.
Ages 8-12
2006

Kobzar’s Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, ed.
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
199 pp.
Ages 13+
2006

This Land We Call Home
by Alison Lohans
Pearson Education
189 pp.
Ages 11-13
2007

On a Canadian Day: Nine Story Voyages Through History
by Rona Arato
Illustrated by Peter Ferguson
Maple Tree Press/Owlkids Books
96 pp.
Ages 9-13
2009






FILM

Barbed Wire and Mandolins
Directed by Nicola Zavaglia
Produced by Sam Grana
National Film Board of Canada
46 min., 45 sec.
Ages 14-17
1997

Freedom Had a Price
Directed and produced by Yurij Luhovy
National Film Board of Canada
55 min.
Ages 12+
1994

Obachan's Garden
Directed by Linda Ohama
Produced by Selwyn Jacob and Linda Ohama
National Film Board of Canada
94 min.
Ages 13+
2001



################################

Additional books more appropriate for adults, such as Blood and Salt by Barbara Sapergia (Coteau, 2011), are available but not listed here because of their unsuitability for youngCanLit readers.  But do seek them out for greater depth into the history of internment in Canada, sadly a less than proud part of our heritage.

The Boundless

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-443410328 

336 pp.

Ages 10-16

April, 2014

"ALL ABOARD... The Boundless for a mesmerizing adventure of historical proportions, with death-defying leaps of faith, Sasquatch encounters, illusions of the fourth dimension and murderous employees looking for the gold after death.  Leaving now for its first journey. Get on board now to be one of the first to enjoy this newest series by award-winning author Kenneth Oppel."

Life changes for Will Everett and his family after Will helps in the hammering of the last spike of the CPR railway in British Columbia and his father saves the life of Cornelius Van Horne, president of the CPR, in an avalanche.  Three years later James Everett is in charge of the Boundless, the seven-mile long train of spectacular design created by Van Horne, who is now ensconced in a secured and guarded funeral car near the front of the train.  And, on its maiden voyage, Will is enjoying the amenities of first class and looking to reacquaint himself with a young wirewalker/escape artist, Maren, travelling with Zirkus Dante, the circus of Mr. Dorian, the man who'd captured a young sasquatch after that avalanche years earlier.

Beyond the incredible opportunity of travelling on the longest and most powerful train in the world, essentially pulling a city of nine hundred and eighty-seven cars, Will enjoys the opportunity to experience the towns of vendors that arise to service the train's passengers, the wilds of the Canadian landscape with its supernatural creatures including the muskeg hag, the Wendigo and the sasquatch, and convince his father that he should be allowed to attend art school in San Francisco.  But Will places himself in a dangerous position when, at a stop, he recovers a key dropped by the funeral car's guard moments before the man is stabbed by a man Will recognizes.  Barely catching the caboose at the end of the train, Will must use all his skills and wits and trust a few new friends if he is to stay alive and find his way back to his father in the locomotive.

The Boundless is an endless adventure of hopping train cars, outsmarting murderous fiends, marvelling at unforeseen inventions, surviving encounters with mythical creatures and trusting some and not others, including a first love.  Never does Kenneth Oppel make you believe that Will can easily survive this drama.  Readers will be holding their breaths wondering which fall will kill Will or leave him in the Boundless' wake. Or whether Mr. Dorian's plan will save him or put others in jeopardy.  Or whether every brakeman on the Boundless is a threat.  Or whether Will's father, miles away at the front of the train, knows anything of the goings-on in the funeral car and beyond.  And I'll be surprised if you don't start wondering which pieces of Canadian history are valid and accurate. Cornelius Van Horne, Sam Steele, Simon Fraser and Donald Smith and others make appearances in The Boundless, though they are legitimate characters who helped in the making of our nation.  But what of the golden spike?

Yep.  The Boundless has all that and more. And only reading Kenneth Oppel's newest steampunk will allow you some opportunity to answer those questions or at least make an attempt at it. So get on board with reading The Boundless, a phenomenon of engineering and text, courtesy of the imagination and pen of one of Canada's finest writers for young people. 

Northwest Passage

by Stan Rogers

As seen by Matt James
Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-153-3

56 pp.

All ages

September 2013

Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage...
                                                             – Stan Rogers, 1981

And so begins a journey.  A journey of  explorers to find a northern route to Asia.  A journey for singer-songwriter Stan Rogers to discover the multitude of pulse points of our nation. And yet another journey.  That of Matt James, award-winning illustrator of I Know Here (Groundwood, 2010), in his visual interpretation of the Stan Rogers' 1981 song that many believe may be the epitome of a Canadian ballad.

Ballads are perfect for wrapping up history in story-telling, and the selection of Northwest Passage for an illustrated book is inspired.  Matt James' acrylic paintings easily transport the reader from the beautiful but dangerous iridescent turquoise waters of the Arctic through the snow-clad or barren lands of the tundra and our mountainous regions.  There are sightings of narwhal, snowshoe hare, polar bear, bear and buffalo.  There are crisp cold nights, and bright sunny days, overcast skies and impenetrable fogs. There are the travellers on old sailing ships, the coureurs de bois and Aboriginal People in canoes, First Nations on horseback, Canadians in planes and musicians in Rogers' yellow touring van.  And there are those points in history and the characters who gave substance to the ballad: Sir John Franklin, David Thompson, Alexander Mackenzie, and others, all included in the double-spread titled, "A Gallery of Explorers."

Matt James' selection of Northwest Passage is all the more profound for the number of young readers who will never get to experience Stan Rogers' talent first-hand.  But, though thirty years have passed since Rogers' death, Matt James has refreshed his memory with eloquence and colourful passion.  Northwest Passage, the book, will have Canadians such as myself revisiting the song, over and over and over again, while introducing younger readers to Stan Rogers' legacy, hopefully compelling them to search out his music and biographic information at the Stan Rogers and Fogarty's Cove website http://stanrogers.net/ or elsewhere.

While no young reader wants to hear this, I believe that Northwest Passage will be a unique teacher resource for melding language and music with Canadian history, supported by the wealth of additional content about the First Arctic Peoples, the explorers, especially Franklin's expedition, and the European settlement of Canada.

The Geomancer's Compass

by Melissa Hardy
Tundra Books
978-1-77049-292-9
254 pp.
Ages 11-15
2012

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.  Alexis de Tocqueville

It's 2018 when thirteen-year-old Miranda's great-great-grandfather Charlie Liu, respectfully called The Grandfather, dies (choking on a moon cake!) and she first hears that her family has been cursed.  Her maternal grandmother, A-Ma, takes all the misfortunes that have befallen the Lius as evidence that evil spirits are plaguing the family.  And the evidence is striking: Miranda's father is debilitated after being struck by lightning; her mother suffers from excruciating muscle pain; her little brother Liam has life-threatening respiratory problems; her brother Sebastian is going blind; her Auntie Ev is now wheelchair-bound; her cousin Brian deals with ADHD and dyslexia; her Uncle Phil was killed when an icicle fell and pierced his jugular; her cousin Oliver suffers from agoraphobia and is at a private clinic; and her cousin Aubrey had an eating disorder that has put her in hospital again.

Three years later, germaphobic Miranda is attending St. Izzy's school for computer geniuses and interning at CanBoard, a company involved with augmented reality (AR) in Calgary when she is summoned home to Vancouver with the news that her dying A-Ma needs to see her.  A-Ma gives Miranda The Grandfather's geomancer's compass, known as a lo p'an, which is used by geomancers to identify and balance subtle energies in people's lives.  Miranda is instructed to safeguard the compass and to lift the curse from the family.  It seems that in the early 1900's The Grandfather's twin brother, Qianfu, was beaten to death in Moose Jaw for falling in love with a white waitress, Violet McNabb.  After burial, his bones went missing and were undoubtedly buried in a place with bad feng shui, resulting in Qianfu's rebirth as an e gui, a hungry ghost filled with pain and craving.  Miranda's mission is to travel with her cousin Brian (who can drive, is strong, is appreciative of the old ways, and can handle things Miranda is paranoid to touch) to Moose Jaw and help find Qianfu's bones.

So begins the mission of the two Liu cousins as they seek a part of their family's past while employing the futuristic tools of Miranda's techie passions.  In Moose Jaw, they take the tours of the underground tunnels, one focusing on the bootlegging gangsters and the other on the experiences of the Chinese immigrants such as The Grandfather and Qianfu.  Using a feng shui network and I-spex (to see computer-generated imagery), Miranda and Brian make contact with an avatar who is unquestionably The Grandfather.  The avatar elaborates on the tour guide's commentary about his business, the Azure Dragon Tea and Herb Sanatorium (still owned by the Lius because no one wants to buy a haunted property), and the prejudices leveled against the Chinese. Finally Miranda has an appreciation for The Grandfather and what he and his family endured.

"My life was incredibly easy compared to theirs; I owed them everything, especially The Grandfather.  Where I had seen a slightly smelly, possibly senile Yoda action doll, way past his expiry date, there had been nothing less than a giant." (pg. 116)

But it still takes some crafty problem-solving, a little golfing, and a porta-potty debacle, along with a little help from The Grandfather avatar and a homeless man, before Miranda and Brian can fulfill their destinies, even if circumstances are not as they expect.

Melissa Hardy melds the past and the future into an unexpected storyline in The Geomancer's Compass while enlightening readers about some Chinese traditions and concepts, including those unmindfully adopted by others, such as feng shui and chi.  While I had been under the mistaken belief that The Geomancer's Compass was a tool from medieval times (okay, I was wrong), I was delighted to realize the book bridged Canadian history (even if it isn't all flattering) with science and fantasy.  While many readers may not be as enamoured with history as I am, I was engrossed with details about Moose Jaw's underground tunnels, about the gangsters who established business in Canada during Prohibition and how Chinese immigrants braved their mistreatment.  Sadly, this is the history that "illuminates the future" (see the quote from Alexis de Tocqueville above).  Luckily Miranda is able to use her tech skills to help right the wrongs of the past, which consequently allows her to see beyond herself (her germaphobic nature definitely reflects her self-absorption) and appreciate her valuable heritage.  Just as a lo p'an is used to balance energies, The Geomancer's Compass capably balances the past and the future while harmonizing the Miranda's rich essences.