Although the book contains some interesting imagery, it has a number
of problems.
Not recommended.
A. Edwardsson is in charge of the Children's Department at a branch of
the Winnipeg Public Library. She has a Bachelor of Education degree and a
Child Care Worker III certification, and is a member of the Manitoba
branch of the Canadian Authors' Association.
Book Review
Her Story II:
Women from Canada's Past.
Susan E. Merritt.
St. Catherine's, ON: Vanwell Publishing, 1995. 172pp, paper, $14.95.
ISBN: 1-55125-022-5.
Grades 5 - 10 / Ages 9 - 15.
Review by Catherine Cox.
***/4
Her Story: Women from Canada's Past, Susan Merritt's first
book in this sequence, was named a Canadian Library Association Notable
Book for 1993. Her Story II is a second collection of
biographies of sixteen Canadian women born before or around 1900. Merritt
chooses well-known heroines like Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, Dr. Maude
Abbott, and Agnes Macphaill, along with less famous but regionally
representative women like Catherine O'Hare Schubert, Margaret Duly, and
Pitseolak.
The beautiful cover illustration is a reproduction of "A Meeting of
School Trustees" (National Gallery of Canada). Illustrations in the book
are black-and-white photographs, many of which are of historical
significance. Sometimes they portray life as it was at the time, rather
than the actual subject of the essay.
Written for young readers, one is at first surprised by the short
sentences and simple descriptions used by the author. From the outside,
it does not look like a children's book.
The point of view is definitely feminist. The author celebrates the
heroism of pioneer women, but cannot resist taking potshots at the male
medical fraternity that took childbirth out of the hands of midwives like
Marie-Henriette Lejeune Ross. Merritt gives plenty of background in the
course of her biographies (some of which are scarce of actual
biographical material), which makes her book a work of history as well as
a collection of life stories.
Highly readable.
Recommended.
Catherine Cox is a Teacher-Librarian at Moncton High School.
Book Review
Sointula -- Island Utopia.
Paula Wild.
Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 1995. 223pp, cloth, $28.95.
ISBN: 1-55017-128-3. CIP.
Grades 10 and Up / Ages 15 to Adult.
Review by Joan Payzant.
***/4
excerpt:
After three days and nights of celebrating, exploring and bonfires
on the beach, the settlers gathered to name the site of their utopia.
"Sointula" (Harmony) was chosen over Makela's previous suggestion of
"Kodiksi." Beckman proposed a colony flag featuring a white outline of
Malcolm Island on a blue background. On the island would appear a golden
"kantele," a small harp that holds a prominent place in the "Kalevala"
and is a symbol of Finnish culture.
Inspired by the idea of Sointula, all who had come north on the
Coquitlam spontaneously decided to remain. Since the two cabins
were already full, tents were ordered to house the overflow. As the
island had no post office, Makela agreed to return to Nanaimo where he
would run the "Aika" (a newspaper) and process membership
applications. The future seemed bright for the colonists; there was wood
to build with, berries to eat and song birds everywhere. Halminen wrote
later, "Everyone worked so hard, with this group it truly seemed
possible that we could build a utopia."
This book is a history of the Finnish community of Sointula on Malcolm
Island, which is situated in Queen Charlotte Strait between the mainland
of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Matti Kurikka, a Finnish
Socialist and charismatic leader was appointed president of the Kalevan
Kansa Colonisation Company Limited. Authorities in British Columbia, on
behalf of the Crown, granted land on Malcolm Island to the Finnish
company in November 1901.
Shortly before this, the group of Finns who had brought Kurikka to
British Columbia had arranged for the establishment of a newspaper, the
"Aika" (Time), which Kurikka operated. Through the paper, and in
lecture tours, Kurikka spread the word to his readers of the plan for a
commune on Malcolm Island. In spite of difficulties arranging for paid
employment for prospective settlers, the colony eventually started. What
follows is an intriguing story -- the initial enthusiasm of the settlers,
the difficulties that they encountered, Kurikka's visionary schemes, and
the accumulation of overwhelming debt. Kurikka solicited help from a
friend in Finland, Austin Makela, a Marxist. He joined the Kalevan Kansa
company, and later took over as President when Kurikka resigned after the colonists became disenchanted with him.
Sointula residents joined the Socialist Party of Canada in 1907, but
split with the British leaders in 1911 because of differing aims. In 1912
the Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada (FSOC) formed. During the
First World War, "Socialist" was dropped from the name because of
governmental pressure, with the new name shortened to Finnish
Organization of Canada. This, in turn allied with the Worker's Party of
Canada, which was also renamed to form the Communist Party of Canada.
A large hall, the Finnish Organization Hall, served the community
for political meetings, debates, and concerts. In spite of a fire in
which eleven members of the community died, and constantly difficult
finances, Sointula was a happy place by 1937. Its people were like one
large family; no doors were ever locked, and recreational activities had
been organized -- a band, drill teams for both women and men, a library,
and dances every Saturday night. A Co-op store was also a social centre,
a gathering place to exchange daily news.
Life on the island changed dramatically after World War II. Cars,
radios, telephones, and alcohol brought the outside world to Sointula.
Finnish was no longer the only language, though it was not until one
teacher banned the use of Finnish inside the school that children learned
English formally, according to government regulations.
The next change came when young Americans, draft dodgers from the
Vietnam War, arrived on Malcolm Island. Their desire to "get back to the
land" caused an upheaval in the lives of the Sointulans. It took
adjustment on both sides for a new pattern of living to evolve, but today
both the original Finns and newcomers respect each other. Although life
will never be the same in Sointula, its residents still considered it a
delightful home.
The author, Paula Wild, has done an excellent job of collecting
material from many sources to write this history. It is generously
illustrated with photos, has three appendices, a good bibliography of
sources, and a comprehensive index.
Sointula will be especially useful in British Columbia
libraries, but will interest anyone who is fascinated by utopian ideals,
Canadian politics, Finnish immigration, or biographies of
unusual leaders. This last category is well illustrated by Matti Kurikka
and his Finnish contemporary Austin Makela.
Recommended.
Joan Payzant is a retired teacher/librarian living in Dartmouth,
N.S.
Book Review
Poets in the Classroom.
Edited by Betsy Struthers and Sarah Klassen.
Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers, 1995. 128pp, paper, $12.95.
ISBN: 1-55138-055-1. CIP.
Professional.
Review by Catherine Cox.
***/4
This is a book about how to teach poetry writing to young people. It is a
collection of essays written by real poets like Ted Plantos, Fred
Cogswell, and Robert Gibbs (to name only three). Each poet writes on
particular strategies or poetic forms that interest them.
The book is in three parts. Part one, "In the Beginning," contains
explanations of how the teacher can help transform children's enthusiasm
for poetry into practical activities. Lola Sneyd describes the concrete
poem; Ted Plantos shows how to recognize images; George Swede looks at
Haiku. Part two, "Finding the Form," deals with traditional structures,
picture poems, and free verse. Part three looks at "Ideas for Poems" and
presents strategies for motivating students to write poetry. Richard
Stevenson writes about the poetry workshop; Robert Gibbs writes about
journalism; Sarah Klassen discusses models.
This is a little book full of great ideas. Each essay is short (for
the busy teacher) but with a lot of meat that could be digested and
expanded by creative teachers who take the time to look for new ideas.
The material could be for any grade level, from two to thirteen.
Recommended.
Catherine Cox is a Teacher-Librarian at Moncton High School.
CD-ROM Review
Canadisk '95
Granit Technologies Inc.
Distributed by Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1995. CD-ROM, $99.00.
Grades 5 - 13 / Ages 11 - 18.
Review by Harriet Zaidman.
*/4
Encyclopedias on CD-ROM are all the rage in schools these days. Kids want
to use the new technology so much they are often surprised to find that
there is more information the printed version of a publications. In
response to this demand encyclopedias, almanacs, and every subject area
are now presented on CD-ROM.
The way information is presented is crucial if the user to make the most use of it. Canadisk '95 is a
collection of Canadian facts organized in too simplistic a manner to make
it useful to most users.
Installation of the Canadisk was an experience in
itself. Here's a suggestion the instructions don't tell you: for those
with extra drives, keep typing "Fail" when your receive a message
telling you that the computer cannot read the extra drives. Finally, it
will read the drive in which the CD is installed. The
Canadisk requires 640k memory, and responds fairly
quickly.
The main screen is called The Control Room. This screen
offers the user several choices: The Timeline, Census, Election,
Election '84 and '88, and a Gallery. You enter key
search words, and select Boolean search operators to narrow or expand the
search. The number of matches is displayed, and matches can then be
posted to a workbook or viewed immediately. Accessing a match provides a
screen with the appropriate information listed by date, person, event,
location (city, province, country), and key-word and reference sources.
But the information a search turns up is not presented in a complete
sentences; it is curt and without a context or analysis. To obtain
complete information on any topic it would be necessary to view many
entries, from a few up to a few hundred. The information provided is
superficial, and does not give the user a sense of the history of the
event, or person being searched. It is annoying to see merely the date,
name, event, and so on, listed on each match. And each match does not
necessarily relate to the match previously viewed.
The justification for the short information bits is to prevent
students from plagiarizing, to force them to turn the information into
their own words. However, the effect is to rob the topic of its colour,
its relation to people, other events, or the time in which it occurred.
Adults might be able to supply the context themselves, but that is
precisely what the students for whom Canadisk is intended
do not have the resources to do. And history is a dry subject without
context.
The Election and Elect '84 and '88 sections
reveal similarly presented information. Every constituency in the country
is listed, with the complete statistics on the votes received by each
candidate. But any sense of the issues or the mood of the electorate is
missing.
The brochure accompanying the Canadisk suggests searches for Pierre
Trudeau, but the user quickly becomes bored typing in all the search
words and Boolean commands, and accessing each individual match.
Searching for information on Jacques Cartier proved to be similarly
tiring. A more logical presentation of information would be to have
articles on each topic. A search could then take the user to a specific
part of an article, as it does on many CD-ROMs. Students must learn how to take
notes themselves anyway. That is not an easy task, but it is an
unavoidable lesson.
The Statistics button provides a wealth of census
information. However, it too is presented in a stilted manner. In the
list of categories it even lists the country being examined (one would
hope it is Canada). Statistics are never too much fun to read, but could
have been presented in a more interesting manner and related to the other
topics in the Canadisk. Graphs with year to
year comparisons would also have made it more relevant.
The Gallery is a collection of images gathered from numerous
archives, museums, libraries and art galleries, and so on.
Canadisk advises the user to write to the sources of each
of these pictures to get a copy of any pictures needed (addresses are
listed). It is not possible to print them (similarly, it is not possible
to print from the Coats of Arms, Flags, or Flowers
options).
The pictures show the reality of Canada at different stages of
history. A few more would have helped to complete the story. Winnipeg,
for example, is shown in 1873, 1879, and 1893. Winnipeg did change
rapidly during those years, but today's Winnipeg should have been
depicted as well to inform the user of what the city is like. Montreal
is shown in 1555, 1650, and 1967. You would expect a more recent picture
from a modern publication such as Canadisk.
Documents can be sent to the Workbook, charts constructed and
printed out, but posting each match is laborious. Teachers will have
heart attacks watching students print out individual matches, each only
ten or fifteen lines long, using reams and reams of paper.
Canadisk has much to offer, but users now expect
information to be more easily accessible. The method used by
Canadisk has generally been discarded by similar reference
CD-ROMs in favour of the encyclopedia-type article with links to other
topics. It is hard to imagine that students will spend much time using
this CD-ROM when others are more user-friendly.
Canadisk is also available in French and its brochure
states that annual subscriptions are available, as well as access to the
Canadisk World Wide Web site.
Recommended with reservations.
Harriet Zaidman is a teacher-librarian in Winnipeg.
Video Review
Canada Remembers:
Vol. 1Turning the Tide:1939 to D-Day.
Vol. 2The Liberators: D-Day to the Rhine.
Vol. 3Endings and Beginnings: 1945.
National Film Board of Canada, 1995.
3 hours (two 1/2 hour segments per
volume), VHS, $49.95.
ISBN: 0-7722-064-2.
Grades: 10 - 13 / Ages 14 - Adult.
Review by Ian Stewart.
****/4
Canada Remembers is not a controversial documentary work.
It stays well away from the morally questionable or otherwise flawed
strategy of allied military planners. The devious political policy makers
of Ottawa, Washington, London, and Moscow do not rate a mention. This
film is about something more important than battles, politics, and
economic policies. Canada Remembers concerns itself with
the will, the worth, the adaptability, and the humanity of a nation's
people.
With Canada Remembers, the National Film Board of
Canada, in association with Veterans Affairs Canada, has produced a
magnificent and moving tribute to the ordinary Canadian's contribution to
the defeat of Nazi evil and to the building of a nation.
"We believed," said Farley Mowat, a young lieutenant in 1939,
"that beyond all the propaganda there was a virulent evil to be stopped
and we devoted ourselves to that cause." Canada's armed forces and those
who "kept the home fires burning" recreated the nation through their
incredible national effort.
Through the use of archival films and photographs, and first-person
recollections of Canada's male and female veterans, merchant seamen,
nurses, factory workers, farmers, and those who were children, the film's
creators aim to connect young Canadians with the meaning World War II
had, and continues to have, to a generation that will soon pass into
history.
The volumes run chronologically through the six war years. Volume 1,
Turning the Tide: 1939 to D-Day begins the story of Canada's
transformation from a depressed rural nation to a modern, urban society with
an industrial economy. It portrays those Canadians who
fought and died in the Battle of Britain, and in battles in the North
Atlantic, in Sicily, in Asia, and at Dieppe, and on convoy duty. Volume
2, The Liberators: D-Day to the Rhine continues the story of
Canada's soldiers battling their way through France, Holland, and
Belgium, and of the war effort at home that supported them. Volume 3,
Endings and Beginnings tells the story of the war's end, and the
social and economic effect the war had on the generation of men and women
that lived through it. It provides a basis for further discussion on the
"new" Canada of the post-war era.
Many men, whether they were farmers, small-town boys, or
city-dwellers, joined the armed forces. Women's roles were transformed as
they joined the auxiliary military services, learned to run the family
farm, or entered the swelling industrial work force. But the films also
show that Canada was not a perfect place.
The institutionalized racism of the 1940s is not ignored, nor is the
overt sexual stereotyping Canadian women faced in the factory and the
armed forces -- and at home, when the men returned from active duty.
"Life," said a farm wife whose husband was in Europe, "ran on the radio
news schedule; the safety of those overseas was always on our mind."
Canada faced the grim reality of war, and war is an ugly thing. Its
horrors are not glossed over in Canada Remembers. But the
images of death and the veteran's emotional stories are honest and told
with deserving dignity and nobility.
Canada Remembers ought to be used in schools. It is a
valuable supplement to any Canadian or modern history program, and to
Remembrance Day observations. The presentation of the dramatic material
will hold students' interest and should produce a great deal of
discussion. Each segment begins with a short review of the previous one's
conclusion to aid classroom continuity. A teacher's resource guide, which
includes background material, questions, and a short bibliography, is
included with the collection. The bibliography is particularly well
suited to high school and public library collections. The technical
quality of the production is excellent.
Any social studies department or high school library that does not
spend $49.95 to include Canada Remembers in its video
collection does a disservice to its students and to the war-time
generation.
Highly recommended.
Ian Stewart has an M.A. In history from the University of Manitoba,
and has been variously employed as a bookstore manager, substitute
teacher, teaching assistant, librarian, and bartender. He is currently
working at a Winnipeg elementary school and the University of Winnipeg
library.
Visit the National Film Board of Canada web site
for more information about these or other NFB videos.
Notable Web Sites
Every week, CM presents a brief collection of
noteworthy, useful, or just interesting sites we've turned up and actually
checked.Please send us URLs and evaluations of any web-sites you think
deserve the exposure.<
- Mir Space Station
- http://www.maximov.com/Mir/mir2
.html
-
"The Maximov Web site has launched a MIR Space Station page with great
photos and a text detailing the history, design and current activities of
the station by science writer Mark W. Curtiss."
Source: Ted Resnick, Online Communications Specialist, The Magellan
Internet Directory
From the site itself:
"Mir is the culmination of the Russian space program's efforts to maintain long-duration
human presence in space. The permanently
manned space station regularly hosts 2 to 3
cosmonauts (on occasion up to 6 for shorter
periods of up to a month). At present, Mir is a
complex of different modules that have been
through many mutations; modules get added and
moved around, like a giant tinker toy in the sky"
Boy, it seems like a lot of space-program sites get reviewed here . . .
- Canadian Teacher-Librarians' Resource Page
- http://www.inforamp.net/~abrown/
- By and large we don't put sites that are devoted to listing other
sites here (someone has to put some content on this Internet
thing!), but Alan Brown's Resource Page is pretty handy. Sections on
Associations, Authors and Illustrators, Awards, Booklists, Journals and
Magazines, Newsgroups and Listservers, Publishers & Booksellers &
Wholesalers, and Reviews, among others.
Go to Titles and Series, and you'll get links that include "The
Page at Pooh Corner." Go to Reviews and you'll come to links
like, well, gosh, us. Seems pretty well considered doesn't
it?
- Battlefields
-
http://sol.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk/pages/schools_online/schools/Hinchinbrooke
/btl/btlembark.html
-
An excellent school-produced site about the First World War:
"The pages include a record of our school trips to the Somme and to
Flanders, with photographs and diaries by our students. There are extracts
from the diary of an ex-pupil of the school who died in Flanders and
letters about the war from Belgian pupils who we contacted by e-mail. A
full itinerary of our visit is given and there are links to other WW1
sites
around the world."
- Marconi Celebration
- http://eagle.uccb
.ns.ca/steve/marconi/marconi.html
- No, not pasta; Marconi, the inventor. Historians often
overlook Canada's role in important developments like basketball, the
atomic bomb, annoying power-rock trios, and, of course, radio. This site
commemorates Marconi's pioneering work on the latter in Cape Breton.
Photographs, maps, schematics.
- From the Ground Up
- http://www.gatewest.net/~green/
- The From the Ground Up page from Green and Growing began as a
teachers' lesson guide on food, agriculture, and sustainable development
(reviewed in the last print edition of CM).
"This on-line version is divided into five lessons; The History of
Agriculture and a Description of Sustainable Development; Soil;
Agriculture and Chemicals; The Real Cost of Food;
and Everything's Connected. It's accepted as curiculum by Manitoba and
Alberta's departments of education."
It's not the prettiest site you'll see, and it but the lesson plans are
thorough, detailed, and useful, even without the accompanying video. And,
as they say, "Everything's Connected."
News:
RUTH SCHWARTZ AWARD CELEBRATES 20TH YEAR
Finalists Announced for Prize in Children's Literature
Toronto, April 2, 1996 -- The finalists for the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award were announced today in Toronto. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award recognizes authors and illustrators who demonstrate artistic excellence in Canadian children's literature. The award is presented in two categories: young adult/middle reader books and picture books for children up to age ten.
This year there are five finalists in each category
The winning books will be selected by juries composed entirely of children from two local Toronto public schools. In the young adult/middle reader book category, the winning author will be awarded a $2,000 prize. In the picture book category, the author and illustrator of the book will share a $3,000 prize.
The winners will be announced by the Ontario Arts Council on May 25 at a special twentieth-anniversary event co-hosted by the Ontario Arts Council Foundation, The Ontario Arts Council and the Canadian Children's Book Centre at the Lillian H. Smith Branch, Toronto Public Library. The event will feature readings by past Ruth Schwartz winners -- who include some of Canada's best known writers for children. The prizes will be presented to the winners at this event.
The Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award was established in 1976 in honour of the late Ruth Schwartz, a respected Toronto bookseller. The administration of the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award is shared by the Ontario Arts Council Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council which selects the jury, and the Canadian Booksellers Association whose members select the short list of books.
The 1996 Finalists
For Young Adult/Middle Reader Books
- The Dark Garden by Margaret Buffie (Kids Can Press)
- Out of the Dark by Welwyn Wilton Katz (Groundwwod Books)
- Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case by Mordecai Richler (McClelland and Stewart)
- The Onlyhouse by Teresa Totten (Red Deer College Press)
- The Maestro by Tim Wynne Jones (Groundwood Books)
For Picture Books
- The Moccasin Goalie by author and illustrator William Roy Brownridge (Orca Book Publishers)
- The Killick by author and illustrator Geoff Butler (Tundra Books)
- How Smudge Came by Nan Gregory, illustrated by Ron Lightburn (Red Deer College Press)
- The White Stone in the Castle Wall by Sheldon Oberman, illustrated by Les Tait (Tundra Books)
- Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt by Barbara Smucker, illustrated by Janet Wilson (Lester Publishing)
For additonal information about the award, please contact:
Jane Craig
OAC Communications Manager
(416) 969-7404 or toll free in Ontario at 1-800-387-0058
For additonal information about the May 25 event, please contact:
Jeffrey Canton
Program Coordinator
Canadian Children's Book Centre
(416) 975-0010
-
CM
Editor
Duncan Thornton
e-mail: cmeditor@mts.net
-
CM
Executive Assistant
Peter Tittenberger
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
WELCOME | BOOK REVIEWS BY AUTHOR | BOOK REVIEWS BY TITLE
AUDIO/VIDEO/CD-ROM REVIEWS | VOLUME II INDEX
Ten Mondays for Lots of Boxes.
National Film Board of Canada