Canada Books

Yellowfly's Mystery

Will and Arthur are walking down the railroad tracks when they see a body. They think it's a dog at first, but then they see it's a body. When they get closer they see it's Yellowfly, the Indian war hero. He is all beaten up and injured badly. They call the authorities and they take him to the Hospital. It's in the 1950's and in Grayson, Canada. Arthur is Indian and Will is white. Will try's to find out who beat up Yellowfly. It's a very painful mystery, but he thinks he can solve it.

This is a really good book. It was very exciting mystery about how a boy named Will is trying to solve a very hard mystery. He finds gopher tails and he dumps manure on his two suspects. He fights all three of who he thinks beat up Yellowfly. This book should be in all school libraries and in all of the public libraries, because it is good and is entertaining. This book would make you feel good after you finished it.

"Across the Steel River" is an accurate portrayal of life in a small prairie town. Although the story is fiction, the descriptions of the landscape, the town and the people, are very convincing. It was easy to picture it all in my mind. The story, set in the 1950's, is about two boys, unaffected by the rampant racism surrounding them, who embark on an adventure together as best friends. The book has a nice flow to it, is easy to read and has some wonderfully poignant moments. I found that once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down and yes, I actually got tears in my eyes at one particularly touching passage. It is a thoughtful, insightful tale that had me questioning my own morals and prejudices. Don't be fooled by my sentimental review though - it is still high adventure that leads you down unexpected paths to a thrilling conclusion. This is not just a book for young adults - it can be enjoyed by any age.

this book showed how life can be for both a native and a white boy in the praries. I really enjoyed how the author came into lives of the main characheters. This book showed how destructive people can be just because of the coulor of your skin. I just say no wonder people have grudges against white pepole. I am sorry for the bad writing but I do not want to drone away about a book. This book showed me emmence joy and sadness but it was overall a great read.

Polar Bear Puzzle is a great addition to the other Adventures of Riley books. I have had the pleasure of meeting the author and illustrator and am very impressed with the clever illustrations that combine real photos with the drawn characters. Our grandchildren love the book. I especially appreciate the inserts that give facts on each page. The kids all seem enthralled with the story and information. It is a great combo of story and informational text.

The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book has been honored by this distinguished award.

Reviewed by Leslie Granier and Nicholas Lopez (age 5) for Reader Views (12/07)

This book tells the story of how the number of polar bears is decreasing due to increased temperatures on the Earth's surface. Riley, a nine-year-old boy, travels to Canada to visit his uncle who does whatever he can to help the polar bears, including giving them medical checkups. During this trip, Riley learns the importance of people doing whatever they can to stop global warming so as not to endanger polar bears and other species that rely on cold temperatures and ice formation for their survival.

The cover of the book indicates it is suited for age four to eight. Nicholas, who is five-years-old, really did not understand many of the concepts. He could not see how recycling a newspaper can help save the polar bears. He thought it was "scary that Riley got so close to the mean, hungry bear," but "it was nice he wanted to help him find food."

There are many interesting facts presented by scientists and members of ecological groups throughout "Adventures of Riley: Polar Bear Puzzle." I think older children (8-11) will be more interested in this book's content because they have some scientific background and can relate more to cause and effect. They are also better able to organize recycling projects and influence their parents and other adults to change their harmful habits and develop ways that are safer for all life forms. The story has an important message for people of all ages and should be utilized in classrooms to help the next generation become more aware of possible problems that may arise in the future.

Any literature or history aficionado would enjoy this book. I have recently gotten interested in this area of the world and have just finished a historical fiction novel called The Tenderness of Wolves and a movie entitled Snow Walker that opened my eyes to this frozen area of the world and its inhabitants. The author has completed a tremendous amount of research into Mr. Hearn's life and adventures, but the anecdotes he tells make it come alive. I forgot to cook supper tonight because I was so engrossed!

Exploration stories often focus on the tropics. David Livingstone, Albert Russel Wallace, Richard Burton and others are readily recalled. The polar quests of Amundsen, Cook, Peary and Byrd probably follow in popularity. The upper latitudes seem almost overlooked. With little land mass approaching Antarctica and its pole, Canada and Russia are left for investigation by the enquiring mind. Having offered the life of one such wanderer in John Rae, McGoogan now reaches further back in time and place to reveal the life of Samuel Hearne. It's a fine study of a dedicated man.

McGoogan's lively narrative traces Hearne's Royal Navy career, then follows him to the Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] station of Prince of Wales Fort. With the Canadian Arctic still a terra incognita, various quests were under consideration - the Northwest Passage and/or an inland sea leading to Asia being prime contenders. A more specific ambition arose with indications of a vast copper resource near the Arctic Sea. Hearne pursued this rumour by trekking across the Canadian tundra to find it. Various interludes occurred along the way.

Hearne's expeditions to the Arctic seem pre-ordained to failure. Having but a hazy notion of what confronted him wasn't a hindrance. Bureaucracy proved the more serious impediment. The British attitude toward indigenous peoples compounded faulty notions of requirements for such a trip. With no idea of how Native Peoples? societies were structured, British HBC agents blundered into one crisis after another. In today's world, for a man to suggest that women must accompany the expedition to perform specialised tasks would bring down the wrath of the Human Rights Commission. In the 18th Century rise of the HBC in Canada women performed essential roles. No Native Peoples? women meant no Native Peoples? men. No men, no expedition. McGoogan explains all these circumstances without apology or condemnation. It's a professional historian's approach, worthy of full praise.

The other aspect of British imperialism's shortsighted view is the relationships among Canada's Native Peoples. Hearne and others would counsel peace to those who had been warring when the British still painted themselves blue. These animosities were not easily quelled and might break out without warning nor discernible reason. Hearne was confronted with this near the mouth of the Coppermine River. McGoogan, relying on Hearne's own account, describes the massacre of an Inuit settlement leading to the naming of "Bloody Falls". The event remained fixed in Hearne's memory for the remainder of his life.

Hearne, seeking an ephemeral copper lode, traversed immense stretches of the Canadian North. With various teams, but particularly relying on a Dene negotiator, Matonabbee, Hearne viewed the Arctic Ocean, the first European to reach it overland. The copper wasn't there, nor, in Hearne's opinion, was there any possibility of a Northwest Passage. He saw the Great Slave Lake, but when he later reported on his journey, skeptics were confounded by how far west it lay. Canada's vastness overwhelmed chair-bounded geographers. Hearne wasn't simply seeking mineral wealth. He recorded copious observations on plant and animal life in the region, as well as collecting information on the native peoples. More than just an adventurer, Hearne is credited by McGoogan as being one of earliest naturalists.

Hearne's return to England was less than satisfactory. An account of his travels netted him not a penny - he died before publication. One event, a likely meeting with Coleridge at a boy's school, may have led Hearne to become the source of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. While the notion is McGoogan's speculative idea, it's plausible enough to be valid. It certainly provided a good, if unexpected, title for the life of an Arctic explorer. McGoogan presents that life vividly, with only minor, forgiveable, embellishments. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book by Ken McGoogan recalls Peter C. Newman's fascinating books about the Hudson's Bay Company: Caesars of the Wilderness and The Company Adventurers. I think that schoolchildren should be reading these books rather than dry old history tomes. And, if all you have read are these history textbooks, then I suggest you give yourself a chance to revisit these amazing explorers. The story of Samuel Hearne is magnificently told by Ken McGoogan and it will have you thirsting for more stories of the amazing men and women (yes, women!) who lived, fought, loved in a cruel land. It was a book I could not put down.

Richard Van Camp
Angel Wing Splash Pattern

Richard Van Camp is a storyteller. It seems to be a part of his blood.

Sometimes English, the English words we use, take away from how we can feel as Aboriginal people. Our stories often are weighted down with English translations of Aboriginal expression. I know it's one of the ways we can relate experience to each other but sometimes, most times, the English words master the heart involved. Luckily, though, every so often, there is someone who can break through these clouds and share all of who they are through the words they choose. I think Richard Van Camp is one of these people. A storyteller of the most ancient kind, I think he can hear the words flow throughout his blood. Angel Wing Splash Pattern is stories about moving past those clouds. The stories are about Indian experience; Indian stories written with a Dogrib voice, with a proud voice. These are different stories, different than the usual stories about Indians, and to me, even different than the usual stories written by Indians about Indians, because of the amount of truth inside of them. While I was reading them I couldn't help but read them aloud and I got so caught up in the power of these words that I think they wanted to make me Dogrib so I could hear them better.
Frenchy recommends this book to everyone looking for the right words, inspiration and beauty, and to everyone looking for something entertaining. Amazing stories told by an amazing storyteller, but that would be the easiest description. ...

"A superb collection"

Angel Wing Splash Pattern has received a glowing review by Matthew Firth in latest issue of The Danforth Review.

"Angel Wing Splash Pattern is a superb collection and such a welcome relief from the usual, middle of the road, CanLit crapola. There is no middle class, Toronto-centric mewling going on here. And thank Christ for that! Van Camp's fiction is stripped down, yes, but also thoughtful, wise and compassionate."

For the full review go to: [website]

"Van Camp has a real respect for the sacred and the profane in these close-to-the-bone stories. People take on their difficult lives with spunk and a sense of humour, and, perhaps more importantly, he engenders an irrepressible sense of hope where the prognosis might otherwise be bleak."
--Malahat Review Fall 2002 issue by Lucy
Bashford.

What differentiates Bonnie Traplin's memoir of her years spent in the pristine backcountry of the Yukon is her uncompromising honesty. In fact, most of the book is relayed in actual letters to her mother, hyphenated by Bonnie's commentary, further descriptive passages, and significant future events relative to the text. She has a simple, straight forward way of relaying her personal history without embellishing in a grandiose fashion so common to personal memoirs. In fact, Bonnie doesn't really have a need to embellish as her story is indeed larger than life in many ways.

When Bonnie and her husband first moved to the north, they were greenhorns, which helps the reader to relate to their trials and tribulations as if they were the reader's own. In terms of Bonnie's honesty, she is brutally humble about her own abilities, often highlighting her clumsiness, which is a hoot, and her fears. She also offers exquisite descriptions of the virgin timber mountains and the beauty of the wildlife, so much so that she even makes this Florida girl yearn to be in below zero degree weather!

All in all, this was a quickly devoured book that I would recommend to anyone, especially anyone with experience or at least a curiosity with living in the backcountry.

If you love adventure and the wilderness, then this book is for you! This is one of the best adventure books that I have ever read. Bonnie Traplin has a way of absorbing you right into the story and making you feel as if you were there. This book also gave me reflections of my own experiences that I had in the wilderness. You will feel every emotion known while reading her story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a true adventure.

This book is a funny, tragic, heartfelt memoir of a woman's life in the far north. The hardships are hard to believe, but the realistic writing takes the reader to the Yukon Territory, where the author spent so many years as a hunting guide. If you liked The Egg and I, you'll like this book.

The Art of the Impossible is, indeed, a very good introduction to the political philosophy of a great leader. Every lecture and article contained in this volume holds fabulous, almost poetic passages, and offers insights into the difficulties of leading a nation away from the physical and psychological devastation of communism. On some occasions Mr. Havel looks at his own position from a critical point of view, something we don't see very often in this kind of work.

This is a rather optimistic book, and every person who aspires to making our world a better - and safer - place for everyone, should definitely read it. It does not, however, provide us with solutions, but this is not what this work was intended for in the first place. What it does is identify the areas of politics we ought to concentrate on. The passages in which he argues for an increased participation of "intellectuals" in politics is particularly enlightening.

A commendable collection of lectures and essays, beautifully translated, which offers us a glimpse of a truly admirable man.

The essays and speeches contained in this book provide an excellent introduction to Vaclav Havel, one of the most intelligent and conscientious political figures of this century. His discussions about democracy, forgiveness, the future of the former Soviet Union, the future of the Czech Republic and other themes are thoughtfully composed and eloquently expressed. No review that I can write can do justice to this man's incredible vision for his country, our world, and our future.

I hope Havel's own words (he is one of the few presidents who writes his own speeches, consistently with his life motto "living in the truth") will inspire you to buy and read "The Art of Impossible" and other books written by this humble and couragoues man. From Havel's writings one can learn much about history, politics, philosophy,psychology and art/theatre. Moreover, everyone reading Havel's works with an open mind and heart will be challenged to reflect on his/her own place in this world.

"For forty years on this day you heard, from my predecessors, variations on the same theme: how our country flourished, how many million tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were,
how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding before us. I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you. (New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 1, 1990)

"But this is still not the main problem. The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we got used to saying something different from what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only for ourselves. Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility and forgiveness lost their
depth and dimension, and for many of us they came to represent only psychological pecularities, or to resemble long-lost greetings from the ancient times, a little ridiculous in the era of commuters and spaceships. ...When I talk about contaminated moral atmosphere, I am not talking just about the gentlemen who eat organic vegetables and do not look out of the planes windows, I am talking about all of us. We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unalterable fact of life, and thus we helped to perpetuate it. In other words, we are all-though naturally to differing extents-responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery. None of us is just its victim: we are all also its cocreators. (New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 1, 1990)

"...we must accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone, to do something about it. We must not blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue but also because it could blunt the duty each of us faces today, that is, the obligation to act independently, freely,reasonably, and quickly. ...Freedom and democracy require participation and therefore responsible action from us all. (New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 1, 1990)

"We agree that the basic prerequisite for a genuine friendship between our nations is truth, a truth that is always expressed, no matter how hard." (The Visit of German President Richard von
Weizacker, Prague)

"Interests of all kinds-personal, selfish, state, national, group, and if you like, company interests-still considerably outweigh genuinely common and global interests. We are still under the sway of the destructive and thoroughly vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation, and not just a part of it, and that therefore everything is permitted to him. There are still many who say they are concerned not for themselves but for the cause, while they act demonstrably in their own interests
and not for the cause at all. We are destroying the planet that was entrusted to us. We still close our eyes to the growing social, ethnic, and cultural conflicts in the world. From time to time we say that the anonymous megamachinery we have created for ourselves no longer serves us but,rather, has enslaved us, yet we fail to do anything about it. In other words, we still don't know how to put morality ahead of politics, science and economics. We are still incapable of understanding that the only genuine core of all our actions-if they are to be moral-is responsibility. Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where all our actions are indelibly recorded and where, and only where, they will be properly judged. The
interpreter or mediator between us and this higher authority is what is traditionally referred to as human conscience. If I subordinate my political behavior to this imperative, I can't go far wrong. If on the contrary, I am not guided by this voice, not even ten presidential schools with two thousand of the best political scientists in the world could help me. (A Joint Session of the U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., February 21, 1990)

After reading "The Art of Impossible" I would also recommend the following writings:

Havel, Vaclav. Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965-1990. Translated by Paul Wilson. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

Sire, James W. Václav Havel: the intellectual conscience of international politics: an introduction, appreciation, and critique. Downers Grove: IVP, 2001.

From the very first pages of the prologue, Amanda Boyden's novel puts its lips to your ears and whispers the sweet, sweet nothings of New Orleans. Though the characters and perspectives shift from chapter to chapter, it is this first, plural voice that carries the reader through the novel, a Greek chorus shouting out both tragedy and triumph, drunk and joyous and weeping. In a world where this city's name is always echoed by the name of a storm, Boyden chooses a different chord to strike. Home. She chooses to paint the city, not with red circles on doors or with the faint grey lines of water marks, but with voices, voices of struggle and pain, hope and joy. She chooses to listen to its people, not at their moment of loudest despair, but in their times of unsung victory. She chooses to tell their stories, knowing that a city is not made up of one event but of multitudes. She chooses imperfections and failures, as it is the ugliest, rowdiest ducklings that make the most elegant of swans. In short, she chooses New Orleans. As it was, as it remains, in the blood and bone of her people, and as it will be again, Amanda Boyden chooses New Orleans. As do I. As should you.

I can think of perhaps five other books that so consumed my days and then kept me up at night by lamplight. And I can think of no other novel that so beautifully renders in the reader's imagination the city of New Orleans.

Amanda Boyden accomplishes no easy feat in this novel. The novel is told in five distinct voices, and I found myself rooting for and then against and then, once again, for the five protagonists at various points in the story. The characters are incredibly complex. Like anybody else, they are flawed, but they are not without their redemptive merits. And, as Hurricane Katrina gathers force in the Gulf and the book comes to a heartbreaking climax--well, I won't ruin the ending, but I will say that this book will stick with you long after you've put it down (and, if you're reading experience was anything like mine, you'll finish the book about two days after you first picked it up).

My highest possible recommendation.

It is no mean feat for a fiction writer to own characters of varied cultural identities, each adding personal nuance to a helter-skelter patchwork of personalities that make up Orchid Street in New Orleans, from a transplanted Minneapolis family to new East Indian neighbors to the mixture of black and white families that make up an eclectic, low-key neighborhood, including a local bar, the Tokyo Rose. Boyden frames her cast with a deft touch, defining subtle differences and similarities as they interact, beginning in the summer of 2004, through the threat of Hurricane Ivan, the Katrina disaster just over the horizon for these unsuspecting folks. Orchid Street is pure New Orleans, a city of divergent tastes and interests with a big heart and a penchant for celebration. Here the slightly more affluent reside near the less fortunate, sidewalk barbeques drawing people from their homes, the summer heat, ice-cold beer and the easy camaraderie of life old and new, always in transition. Everybody has their problems; life is tough, but they look out for one another when the occasion calls for it.

With a tough-talking, street wise Richard Wright style of narrative, Boyden takes no prisoners, her protagonists explicitly defined: Ed and Ariel, he a Buddhist househusband, she the general manager of a French Quarter hotel, La Belle Nouvelle, catering to a clientele of edgy rappers and their outrageous entourages; the elderly neighborhood fixtures, Roy and Cerise Brown, a couple of great generosity and kindness, Roy often setting up his barbeque for the neighbors, Cerise preparing her spicy fare; Philomenia (Prancie) Beauregard de Bruges and her cancer-riddled husband, Joe, she with a plan to alter the serenity of Orchid Street with an excessive bounty of food, he languishing in a dark bedroom awaiting the end; the Gupta's, the newest folks on the block, Indira in her brilliant saris, the mild-mannered Ganesh taking everything, including Ivan, in stride; Sharon Harris and her excitable brood, a gaggle of grandbabies overflowing the ramshackle dwelling; and Sharon's son, Daniel, street name Fearius, a young man with gangsta ambitions, running drugs and desperately building up street cred, recently graduated from box cutter to gun.

From the opening chapter, when we meet the misguided Fearius, it is clear that trouble is brewing, that each home on Orchid Street hides its own problems and heartaches; all of these people will interact until a bloody resolution. What will be the catalyst and who will be left standing, lives still intact? Boyden fully inhabits these characters, moving seamlessly from one to another, always aware of the family challenges and the cultural pressures that cause a young man with no future to exceed the boundaries of reason. Small dramas inform the plot, from marital infidelity to the unbalanced, slow-burning rage of a disturbed woman, good intentions overriding the most egregious behavior of a few. A freak accident, the threat of a hurricane and various family disturbances build an atmosphere of inevitability to this taut tale, but the author remains firmly in control, her multi-faceted, all-too-human characters familiar and accessible, pre-Katrina. The future devastation of Katrina looms over Orchid Street, a microcosm of this quintessential American city. A great spirit drives this place, indomitable in the face of nature's destruction, and of man's. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

I found myself searching for more information after reading this excellent work. Maracle obviously knows of what he speaks and he educates us New Yorkers about the historical timeline and the present and future concerns of the confederacy in a way that no high school social studies teacher ever did for us.

i spent two weeks on the six nations rez that brian maracle centers his book on. maracle recounts his experiences upon returning to the rez, which include fixing his home (check out the chapter with the broken water pump!), and of course encountering rez bureaucracy.

maracle explores the problems that face his community but does not accept a defeatist attitude, rather he adopts a humorous perspective.

this was a great read. thanks to my dear friend nonwasichu for lending me the book, for your hospitality, and for the icecream.

As a person from this reserve who was not raised there but in a city I can relate to the experiences of the author. The descriptions of the mishaps and triumphs of living "back home'" had me feeling like I had moved back too. Very entertaining and insightful as well as educational. A lot of things are explained and a lot of myths are laid to rest. I wish more people had access to this kind of information, written in a way that's a joy to read instead of the authoritative Í Know All info usually out there about natives and reserves written by experts.

I really, really, really like this book. I love the pictures too. It tells you a lot about steps and how to become a healthy dancer. Also, it tells you a little bit about pointe.

This survey of ballet dance for young performers provides a fine introduction for kids just beginning to explore the potentials of ballet. Black and white photos of students in action accompany tips on positioning, pointe work, allegros and ballet classes. A fine guide recommended for young newcomers to ballet.

A wonderful example of beautiful ballet technique and poise. It is a friendly and simple introduction to the basics of ballet for any beginner. My sisters and I really learned a lot from this book. I highly recommend this to any aspiring ballet dancer.

The first graders at The Children's School loved this book. They thought it was funny and cute. They said that it "teaches us that having fun is better than winning." If they could, they would give it one thousand stars! A good book to read if you are interested in poems.

This is a good book to use to introduce young children to chapter books. It contains nine short chapters. Good book to use when beginning a unit on poetry (teachers) or reading poetry books (parents) together. Poor George gets writer's block--something we all can relate to. Mr. and Mrs. Bean as well as Jenny and Anna have no trouble with writing--how frustrating! Family love and unity come into play. Children will be motivated to try their hand at writing their own poetry.

I worked as a school librarian for a number of years and this is my favorite Betsy Byars book of all. It is a tender, yet funny, story of how every child has talents and is worthy of love. It's a great read-aloud or independent reader -- I used it for third grade on up.