Authors

Adele Dueck’s book Racing Home is a 2011 OLA Best Bet!

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Congratulations to Adele Dueck, whose novel Racing Home has been chosen by the Ontario Library Association as one of 2011’s Best Bets for Children and Young Adults!

Books are chosen for their literary merit and their appeal to their intended audience, in this case middle grade readers.

The OLA summarizes the book as follows:

Racing Home
Written by Adele Dueck | Coteau Books
Erik did not want to leave his grandfather’s farm in Norway. But he must adjust as his new stepfather moves the family to the Canadian west. This is a richly detailed and engrossing portrait of pioneer prairie life seen through a young boy’s eyes.

Call of the Fiddle

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Call of the Fiddle, by Wilfred Burton and Anne Patton
Call of the Fiddle, by Wilfred Burton and Anne Patton

Authors: Anne Patton and Wilfred Burton
Illustrator: Sherry Farrell Racette
Publisher: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2011

Book 3 in the trilogy: Fiddle Dancer, Dancing In My Bones, Call of the Fiddle.

Call of the Fiddle is the third and final book in the trilogy of a young boy as he learns to embrace his Métis heritage through storytelling, family love, and jigging. It follows Fiddle Dancer and Dancing in My Bones.

Order from McNalley-Robinson or  The Gabriel Dumont Institute.

Hum Piffle Piffle…Preview Dianne Young’s Dear Flyary!

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Dear Flyary, by Dianne Young
Dear Flyary, by Dianne Young

Dianne Young’s awesome new picture book Dear Flyary is available in bookstores everywhere. But you can preview the story and the cute aliens that inhabit it at the Kids Can Press website.

After you go there, click on “Spread” on the left sidebar to see inside the cover. Or click on “Book Trailer” for an animated version.

Award-Winning Book inspires Award-Winning Quilt

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Canadian Shield Alphabet quilt
Canadian Shield Alphabet quilt

Myrna Guymer’s book The Canadian Shield Alphabet, which won a Science  Journalism award in 2008, has inspired the creation of an award-winning quilt!

Here it is, with one panel for each letter. Congratulations to both Myrna and the quilter.

Myrna Guymer reads Canadian Shield Alphabet

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Myrna Guymer at a school reading
Myrna Guymer at a school reading

Myrna Guymer loves to do school readings with her book The Canadian Shield Alphabet. Here she is at a reading in Melville in spring 2011.

Myrna says “The costume is my voyageur shirt and Metis sash. I also wear beaded moccasins. I take samples from nature: birch bark and items made from bark; roots, spruce gum, deer moss, and many different rock samples, core samples, and I often give each child a chunk of rock with sparkles – pyrite – that they think might be gold (they love it).

Racing Home gets 3-1/2 stars in CM Review

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Racing Home, by Adele Dueck
Racing Home, by Adele Dueck

Adele Dueck’s novel Racing Home received 31/2 out of 4 stars in a review from CM magazine. The reviewer said:

Adele Dueck’s latest novel, Racing Home, is a fascinating work of historical fiction that explores the unique experiences of early twentieth-century immigrants in Saskatchewan through the character of 12-year-old Erik Brekke…While the main appeal of the story is in the details of settlers’ lives and their incredible daily experiences, the story is successful as a novel because of the realistic characters through whose lives the reader learns about the history.

CM says the novel is Highly Recommended.

Read the full review.

Racing Home reviewed by Canadian Teacher Magazine

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Racing Home, by Adele Dueck
Racing Home, by Adele Dueck

Canadian Teacher Magazine has this to say about Adele Dueck’s novel Racing Home:

Building a sod house, digging a well, breaking the sod, ploughing the fields, fishing and snaring rabbits to supplement the diet are all skills that the reader learns about as Erik and his family adjust to their new life. This book would well support the study of pioneer life on the prairies, immigration to Canada, and many other areas of the Social Studies curriculum at multiple grade levels.

To find out more, read the full review.