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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

CHILDREN'S BOOKS: World Cup book scores with readers

By: Helen Norrie

Posted: 07/17/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

If you know someone who followed the World Cup, it's not too late to get them Match! World Cup 2010 (Match Magazine, 95 pages, $15 hardcover).

Published by a popular sports tabloid in the U.K., this jam-packed volume is a mixture of players' biographies, team statistics, gossip and outstanding photos of soccer stars.

Find your favourite country, all 32 teams, or your favourite player; they're all here in living colour. Young would-be soccer stars will pour over this publication.

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While the threat of HIV/AIDS in young people has lessened in the last decade, there are still those like the young man in Patrick's Wish, by Karen Mitchell with photographs by Rebecca Upjohn (Second Story Press, 24 pages, $8 paperback), who contacted HIV through tainted blood transfusions.

This non-fiction book, aimed at ages seven to 10, is told through the eyes of Patrick's younger sister, Lyanne. Patrick was a hemophiliac living in North Bay, Ont., who required frequent transfusions but lived an active, athletic life until he died at the age of 23.

Lyanne stresses how normal Patrick's life was until he became ill, and how she wants to carry on his wish to find a cure for HIV/AIDS.

There are plenty of photographs of Patrick tobogganing, visiting Disneyland and hugging his Dalmatian dog. They help spread Lyanne's message that HIV isn't something you catch easily. Her family has started a non-profit foundation, Patrick4Life.

Mitchell is an elementary school principal, while Upjohn is a photographer and filmmaker living in Toronto.

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Fearless Female Journalists by Joy Crysdale (Second Story Press, 120 pages, $11 paperback), highlights the careers of 10 outstanding international female journalists.

Part of this publisher's Women's Hall of Fame series, Crysdale's book starts with the story of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a woman born in Delaware in 1823 who became the first black woman editor in North America.

It ends with an account of Thembi Ngubane, a South African woman afflicted with AIDS whose diary of her illness reached more than 50 million people via radio and whose blog connected with even more before her death in 2009.

There are also accounts of Canadian journalists Doris Anderson and Barbara Frum, American interviewer and talk-show host Katie Couric, and Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

A Toronto journalism professor, Crysdale writes in an easy-to-read style that will interest readers nine to 13 or possibly older.

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Originally a Winnipegger, Gwen Smid now lives in Ottawa and found success with her first book, Mary Meets Manitoba.

Her second offering, Mary Meets Ontario (Peanut Butter Press, 32 pages, $18 hardcover), also tries to describe the chief geographical features of that province in a humorous way for very young children.

With the help of her magic atlas, Mary travels across Ontario, finding that the Great Lakes are losing their water.

Is it the fault of the beavers? No, they are the ones who eventually tell Mary the secret of the sink hole at the bottom of Lake Superior.

Don't use this book for scientific knowledge (Fish staying alive in puddles? Water draining out of lakes?), but if it's just fun you want, plus an overview of Ontario's many lakes and cultural icons, then this book is a good bet.

With entertaining pictures by Winnipeg artist Sonia Nadeau, it is designed for youngest readers aged three to nine.

Winnipegger Helen Norrie is a former teacher/librarian. Her column appears on the third Saturday of the month.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 17, 2010 F7

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