In “The Bee Tree” young Mary Ellen is tired of reading and wants to be running and playing outdoors. Her grandfather wisely takes her outisde on an exciting bee chase to find honey. The author-illlustrator describes and shows the frolicking adventure as Grandfather and Mary Ellen invite various neighbours whom they meet on the way […]
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A Question of Loyalty, by Barbara Greenwood, takes place in 1837, during the time of the Upper Canada Rebellion, led by William Lyon Mackenzie. Deborah is a teenager who finds a wounded young “rebel” (Dan) hiding in her family’s barn. Her family is on the other side of the conflict, and yet as she (and
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When one wants an accurate account, one needs accurate sources, such as eyewitnesses, or reading from someone’s own journal (as long as it matches eyewitness accoutns.) In her book “Hold the Line,” Tamara Lich, who through no design of her own became the face and voice of the Canadian Freedom Convoy, tells how she got
Years ago children used their imaginations to make a town called “Roxaboxin” – made up of stones, old wooden boxes, and deserted glass on a sandy, rocky hill in their neighbourhood. When these children grew up, one of their children, Alice McLerran, wrote a delightful children’s book about it that is bound to inspire children
Faces of Tomorrow is a boardbook for babies and toddlers written by Mary Gordon; the photographs are by her daughter, Melanie Gordon. (I always love a mother-daughter team!) There are words in five languages on the left-hand pages – those are for the parents. On the right-hand pages are phototgraphs of babies’ faces. Those are for
This picture book with the long name (“Christina Was a Little Girl With no Puppy” is a picture book hot off the press written by my son Jonathan, for his niece (my granddaughter) Christina. It’s the simple and true story of a little girl wanting a puppy, whose current circumstances don’t allow her to have
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Most of us have read the stories of the loveable “Winnie-the-Pooh” – “Finding Winnie” is the true story of this most famous bear, told by the great-granddaughter of the man who saw a bear cub at the train station and bought him off a trapper. This man, Harry Colebourn, was a veterinarian in Winnipeg and
“The Winged Watchman” is a wonderful book by the very talented chilren’s auther, Hilda Van Stockum. It is the story of a Dutch boy and his family during the last year of the Nazi occupation. It has the perfect amount of tension, humour, hardship and adventure that makes a great children’s novel. (It’s a very
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“The Ordinary Princess” is an absolutely delightfully written tale of a princess who started out as the perfect golden-haired beauty just like her six sisters who preceded her, but then was given the gift of being “ordinary.” Her extraordinary beauty disappeared, and really, she had a pretty good time of it. She did end up
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“Farmhouse” is a new book by the award winning author, Sophie Blackall. It’s a story told in delightful rhyme about a farmhouse in which lived a large family. The story of the farmhouse continues after all the children in the family grow up and move away, leaving the house empty. With the people gone, it
