| ________________ CM . . . .
Volume VIII Number 3 . . . . October 5, 2001
The books are well designed. Each heading
is colour coded and labeled along the top of its pages. The font is
plain, clear and large. The fascinating archival and vibrant present
day photos break the text up well and often overlap each other to produce
a more informal, accessible look. The closing pages are designed to
look like tabbed index cards. The shadow of famous local buildings is
superimposed on the headings in each book.
The facts in these books are accurate. The
books are, however, overviews, and the reader should not expect the
kind of detail available in an encyclopedia article, for example. This
series is a blend of history and present day. The contributions of native
people are carefully mentioned in all of the books. The choices for
the famous people section, present and past, are gender balanced, and
the people come from sports, government, the arts, science and business.
Each book has a distinct flavor of the city it represents. Ottawa,
for example, clearly shows the city's strong connection with government.
In Iqaluit, the land and the culture clearly identify this Arctic
city.
The "Key Event" time line in the section titled
"The Past" in each book contains some photos without captions that will
prove confusing for the reader. In its enthusiasm for all things French,
the Quebec City book only briefly mentions the defeat of the
French and does not mention the language laws that call for French only
on signs. From a Manitoban's point of view, it is also interesting to
see Gabrielle Roy, one of Manitoba's famous writers, described as a
famous person from Quebec. Surely, too, there are other cultural groups
in Quebec City, not just English and French, as new immigrants come
to our cities from all over the world (as mentioned in the other books
in the series). There are no prairie cities in this series yet. Valuable
additions to the series would be information about Winnipeg, Toronto,
Vancouver and Halifax.
This series will be useful to the elementary
students who study Canada's regions and their representative cities.
Recommended.
Joan Marshall, now the teacher-librarian at Ft. Richmond Collegiate,
was the teacher-librarian at Henry G. Izatt Middle School in Winnipeg
when she penned this review.
To comment on this
title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © 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 NEXT REVIEW | TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - October 5, 2001.
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