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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Laura Secord story inspiring in new juvenile novel
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Lionel Shriver displays a low opinion of the media in The New Republic. (CP)
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CONNIE Brummel Crook of Peterborough, Ont., is known for her historical novels for young people, including a trilogy on Nellie McClung. It's appropriate that in this 200th anniversary year of the war of 1812, she has published a novel about one of the heroes of that war, Laura Secord.
Crook's juvenile novel Acts of Courage: Laura Secord and the War of 1812 (Pajama Press, 272 pages, $15 paperback) follows Laura from a school girl in Great Barrington, Mass., to her life after the family relocates to Upper Canada, where she marries James Secord.
Much of the novel describes Laura's life before the war and includes the questionable introduction of a fictional attachment between Laura and a boy attached to a rebel army in Massachusetts. He turns up conveniently as Lieutenant FitzGibbon, in charge of the British forces in Queenston.
The events leading up to the war and its important battles are well told. Laura's famous trek through swamps and forest to warn the army of the approaching American troops is not only chronicled but substantiated by several pages of historical notes in the appendix. But wasn't there a cow in the original story?
Readers 10 and up will doubtless find Laura's story inspiring.
-- -- --
Youngest readers (ages two to five) will enjoy a different version of an Easter story in New York author Rachel Vail's picture book Piggy Bunny (Feiwel & Friends/Raincoast, 32 pages, $17 hardcover).
Liam is a piglet who has an unusual ambition: he wants to be the Easter bunny. Only his grandma believes it is possible and manages to make Liam's dream come true. Toronto artist Jeremy Tankard brings animation and humour to the book with his oversized illustrations.
-- -- --
For sheer brilliance of colour, however, check out David's Trip to Paraguay, the Land of Amazing Colours with story and pictures by Miriam Rudolph (CMU Press, 32 pages, $22 hardcover). It is based on the true story of David Reise, who travelled as a young boy from a farm near Altona to a Mennonite community in Paraguay.
At each stage of his journey he is introduced to new colours: the blue-green ocean, red and yellow boats in Barbados, purple flying fish, and ochre sand. As they travel up the Paraguay River, David sees green crocodiles, red riverbanks, white and pink buildings and violet water hyacinths. When David reaches his new home, he finds blue skies, a brilliant yellow sun and green fields.
Rudolph, who is David's granddaughter, was born in Paraguay but now lives in Manitoba. Her illustrations are done like children's paintings, with great splashes of colour and naive figures. The text is in both English and German.
-- -- --
Playing Like Timothy, by Johannes Waldner (Hutterite Brethren Book Centre, 30 pages, $12.50 paperback), is set in yet another community in Manitoba, the Baker Hutterite Community near MacGregor.
Timothy tries to play goalie with the older boys on their outside rink, but somehow he never seems to stop the puck. It takes a sympathetic and talented mother to discover the problem and to help Timothy fit in with his older siblings and friends.
Aimed at ages four to eight, the straightforward text is suitable for beginning readers, and the hockey theme will add to its popularity.
This is a first picture book for Waldner, who lives at the Baker Hutterite colony. Victor Kleinsasser, who is a middle-years teacher at the Crystal Springs Community near St. Agathe, has illustrated Timothy's story with unsophisticated watercolours that catch the essence of this feel-good story.
Helen Norrie is a former teacher-librarian in Winnipeg. Her column appears on the third weekend of the month.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 17, 2012 J9
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