FernFolio » Non-Fiction

Boy in Motion: Rick Hansen’s Story by Ainslie Manson and Renné Benoit

fernfolio — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:22:11 +0000

As a young boy, Rick Hansen was never still. He took part in all kinds of sports, and loved fishing. At fifteen, however, Rick’s life changed when he was thrown from a truck in an accident and became a paraplegic.
For a while, Rick figured he would never enjoy his favourite activities again, but his dad told him, “There is no sure word as can’t,” and soon he was back at school and driving a specially-adapted car. He was also sitting on the sidelines helping to coach teams at his high school. When he was in Grade 11, a pioneer in wheelchair sports visited his school and encouraged Rick to get involved. Soon he was playing wheelchair table tennis and basketball, and was participating in track and marathon events.
With his Man in Motion World Tour, Rick Hansen became the foremost advocate of sports and accessibility for Canadians with physical disabilities. Written by Ainslie Manson, and beautifully illustrated by Renné Benoit, this is an inspiring story about a great Canadian.
FernFolio Editor

Fire on the Water -The Red-Hot Career of Superstar Rower Ned Hanlan by Wendy A. Lewis

fernfolio — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:24:15 +0000

Growing up on the Toronto Islands in the 1860s, Ned Hanlan dreamed of rowing. The son of a poor Irish immigrant, he had neither the well-to-do background nor the big, bulky physique of most rowers of his day, but Ned possessed natural athletic ability and the will to win.
Ned Hanlan won his first big race, the Championship of Toronto Bay, at the age of eighteen, and rapidly came to the notice of the city’s rowers and their fans. Soon afterward, he won the Lord Dufferin Medal, Ontario’s top prize for single-scull racing, and attracted the attention, and support, of a group of local businessmen who worked together to foster his rowing career. With the proper training and money to buy the right equipment, Ned Hanlan was soon racing for the right to call himself Champion of Canada. Races in the United States, England and even Australia followed; the man from the Toronto Islands became Canada’s first sports super hero.
With his athleticism, his focus on training, and his humorous antics during races, Ned Hanlan thrilled and charmed rowing fans throughout his career, and for many Canadians came to represent a nascent national pride. Fire on the Water celebrates a great Canadian’s accomplishments and allows a new generation to learn about this intriguing man.
FernFolio Editor

Arctic Memories by Normee Ekoomiak

fernfolio — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:39:39 +0000

Born in 1948, Normee Ekoomiak lived in a snow house in the winter and in a tent made of animal skins during the summer months. With his family, he followed the animals, moving to the sea ice in the winter to hunt seal, to the river in the spring to fish for Arctic char, and inland in pursuit of the caribou during the warmer months.
In Arctic Memories, he shares his childhood experiences of traditional Inuit life, and gives insight into the spiritual beliefs of his people through his art. Accompanied by his reflections in Inuktitut and English, are drawings, paintings and embroidered pieces that celebrate the daily lives of the Inuit, both children and adults. Ekoomiak’s work details life in the snow house, games to provide entertainment and build strong and healthy bodies, and the circle of nature among Arctic creatures.
It also explains the traditional Inuit spiritual beliefs through pictures of Sedna, goddess of the sea, and Okpik, who protects all living things in the North. Ekoomiak’s scenes of the nativity point to his Christian faith, one that exists side by side with his traditional Inuit beliefs.
Particularly interesting are Ekoomiak’s pictures, The Body Needs to Travel, in which he explains how the Inuit spread around the Arctic Circle, and Ancestral Hunters, where he depicts hunters killing a wooly mammoth in a painting completed a year before the remains of a wooly mammoth were discovered in the Arctic!
is a wonderful celebration of Inuit culture and history. Both the art and accompanying text provide a window into the lives and beliefs of the Inuit people.
FernFolio Editor

In My Backyard by Margriet Ruurs and Ron Broda

fernfolio — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:56:57 +0000

Step into Margriet’s backyard and take a look at some of the many animals and plants found there. From snakes and wasps to mice, spiders and bats, in winter, spring, summer and fall, Margriet helps the reader to explore her garden and its visitors at all times of the day and night, and in all seasons. Margriet Ruurs’ simple and evocative text flows over the tongue like poetry.
Ron Broda’s paper sculpture illustrations are wonderful. Particularly striking are the white paper sculptures of a swallow, bats hanging under the eaves, and baby mice curled up in their nest, where the magic of Broda’s artistry can be fully marvelled at. Children in Grades 1, 2 and 3 will enjoy looking for the ladybug that hides in many of the illustrations, and finding the next animal to be featured curled under a bush or basking on a rock awaiting its moment in the sun.
In My Backyard concludes with a section that provides information about each of the animals celebrated in the book.
FernFolio Editor

Tibet: Our Lives, Our Stories by the Tibetan Book Club of Parkdale Public School

fernfolio — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:44:43 +0000

In recent years the community of Parkdale, in Toronto, has become home to many immigrants from Tibet. In 2006, with the help and encouragement of their school principal and some teachers as well as adults from the Tibetan community, a group of students at Parkdale formed the Tibetan Book Club and set out to write a book about their experiences as young immigrants from Tibet, a homeland none of them have ever visited but to which they all feel a deep and abiding attachment.
Beautifully illustrated by drawings, watercolours and photographs rendered by book club members, Tibet: Our Lives, Our Stories, chronicles their memories of refugee life in Nepal and Northern India, their cultural traditions and celebrations, and their long journeys to a new home in Toronto. Many of these students spent years living with relatives, while their parents travelled to Canada, found jobs, and then began the long process of sponsoring their children. They speak movingly of arriving in Canada overjoyed and nervous at the prospect of being reunited with their parents, and tearful after saying good-bye to the only families many have ever known.
New lives in Toronto have meant adapting to a new language, new customs and traditions, and new challenges and opportunities. Some write that their parents struggle in physically-demanding and low-paying jobs in order to offer their children a better future. All of them have set high goals for themselves, and want to make those parents proud. Each writer states that they feel very lucky to be living in Canada, and all express the profound wish for a free and independent Tibet.
This lovely book is a must read for those who want to understand more about Tibet and its people, and the experiences of young immigrants to Toronto, or to learn just how successfully young writers can share the stories of their lives.
FernFolio Editor

The Paper Bag Princess: The Story Behind the Story by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko

fernfolio — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:11:58 +0000

You love it; so do I. Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess is one of the great classics of Canadian children’s literature. This fairytale about Princess Elizabeth who sets off to find and rescue Prince Ronald, after a dragon destroys her castle and carries away the prince, has been read and enjoyed by millions of children all over the world. Dressed in a paper bag and armed only with her courage and her wits, Elizabeth proves that what counts is character, not appearance.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Paper Bag Princess, author Robert Munsch and illustrator Michael Martchenko, have written a book to explain how this story came to be – where the ideas came from, how Munsch and Martchenko worked with the publisher, Annick Press, to edit and illustrate Munsch’s words, and what readers, both young and old, have had to say about it. It includes the original story, complete with all of Martchenko’s wonderful illustrations.
This is a terrific book for anyone who loves The Paper Bag Princess, or who is interested in how a book comes to be!
FernFolio Editor

On Earth by G. Brian Karas

fernfolio — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 23:59:04 +0000

Written by G. Brian Karas, On Earth is a terrific non-fiction text about Earth’s rotation and its voyage around the Sun. With colourful illustrations and simple but clear text, Karas explains day and night, the seasons, and the changing length of day and night as the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward and then away from the Sun. Appropriate for children from 4 to 8.
FernFolio Editor