CM Volume 1 Number 18

Volume 1 Number 18

October 13, 1995

Table of Contents

From the Editor

Launch!

Book Reviews

The Gypsy Princess.
Written and illustrated by Phoebe Gilman.
Review by T.S. Causabon.
Kindergarten - Grade 3 / Ages 5 - 8.

Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case.
Mordecai Richler. Illustrated by Norman Eyolfson.
Review by Lorraine Douglas.
Grade 3 - 5 / Ages 7 - 9.

The Old Brown Suitcase: A Teenager's Story of War and Peace.
Lillian Boraks-Nemetz.
Review by Janie Wilkins.
Grades 5 - 10 / Ages 11 - 16.

Audio Review

All One Earth:
Songs for the Generations.
Michael Caduto.
Review by MaryLynn Gagne.
Grades 3 - 6+ / Ages 8 - 11+

News

Canadian Children's Book Week 1995.
Book Week Kits
Canadian Children's Book Week 1995:
Manitoba Tour

Feature

The Great Canadian Trivia Contest.

CM
Editor
Duncan Thornton
e-mail: editor@mbnet.mb.ca

CM
Executive Assistant
Peter Tittenberger
e-mail: camera@mbnet.mb.ca

Book Review

The Gypsy Princess.

Written and illustrated by Phoebe Gilman.
Toronto: North Winds Press, 1995. 32pp, cloth, $15.99.
ISBN 0-590-24441-8.

Kindergarten - Grade 3 / Ages 5 - 8.
Review by T.S. Causabon.

excerpt:

Cinnamon left the banquet hall and went down to the great gilded gates. Opening them cautiously, she stepped onto the rough road that led away from the palace.
The wind whispered, ``Cinnamon, Cinnamon." She wanted to follow, but it was too hard to walk in the high-heeled princess shoes. Cinnamon turned back.
That night, as she tossed and turned upon her soft princess bed, her old auntie again appeared in her dream.
``Who are you, my child?" she demanded.
And Cinnamon answered, ``I cannot remember."
The next morning, Cinnamon was more restless than ever. The bars of the palace gates seemed like the bars of a gilded cage.

Phoebe Gilman, the award-winning creator of Something from Nothing, has written a parable about Cinnamon, a Gypsy girl who lives in a caravan, reads fortunes in a crystal ball, speaks to the wind, and dances with a bear. Of course, what she really wants to do is dance with princes, like the blonde Princess Cyprina.

And when Princess Cyprina herself comes to Cinnamon's caravan to have her fortune told, she is so intrigued by the dark Gypsy girl that she invites Cinnamon to come and live and play in the palace with her . . . as Princess Cinnamon.

What Cinnamon discovers, of course, is that it's much more interesting being a wild Gypsy girl than a princess (though it takes several pages before she finally tries leaving the palace barefoot).

Gilman's illustrations are striking -- a note at the front says that they were ``built up in layers of oil and egg tempera on gessoed watercolour paper" to give them their luminosity -- and full of rich, romantic detail (mermaids swimming towards a pirate ship, say, or the miniature painting inset in every text page). And the book's design takes advantage of them by using an appropriate fairy-tale style. Each text page faces a painting in an elaborate frame. The frames, as Tolkien pointed out, are important; they are part of what creates the sense that Faërie is a different sort of place, one you can't just bring snapshots back from.

But the illustrations are stronger than the writing of what is ultimately a very simple tale with no villain, danger, or real conflict. Cinnamon's Gypsy life is so much more interesting than her princess life that we're impatient for her to figure it out too and go back home. (The paintings of the Gypsy life are richer and more vital as well, particularly the final two of Cinnamon once again dancing with her bear.)

That the real romance is in the Gypsy caravan rather than in the vapid gilded princess life is both the book's moral and its weakness. Still, the illustrations, and the glimpses of the Gypsy world (really a nineteenth-century ideal of Gypsy life, of course), will be enough to charm many young readers.

Recommended with reservations.

T.S. Causabon is a children's author and freelance writer living in Winnipeg.

Book Review

Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case.

Mordecai Richler. Illustrated by Norman Eyolfson.
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995. 137pp, cloth, $17.99.
ISBN 0-7710-7471.

Grade 3 - 5 / Ages 7 - 9.
Review by Lorraine Douglas.

excerpt:

``Yikes," said a terrified Jacob Two-Two. ``He's heading our way. What should I say? What should I say?"
Mr. I.M. Greedyguts stopped immediately before their table. ``I beg your pardon," he said to Jacob Two-Two, ``but would you happen to be related to the World's Best Midget Photographer?"
``My friend here doesn't understand English," said Mr. Dinglebat.
``It's just that he looks so familiar," said Mr. I.M. Greedyguts. Is it possible that I have met the kid at the White House, where I am frequently invited?"
``He's no kid," said Mr. Dinglebat, pretending to be insulted. ``My companion here is seventy-two years old."
``Holy smokes," said Mr. I.M. Greedyguts.
``Let me introduce you to Jacob Zweizwei, the World's Most Celebrated Shrinking Man...."

Readers who have met Jacob Two-Two in his previous adventures -- Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, and Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur -- will love his new venture into the world of spy-craft.

The family still lives in Montreal, but has a new neighbour -- X. Barnaby Dinglebat, a Master Spy. Jacob is attending a private school and his troubles begin with the new principal, Mr. I.M. Greedyguts. Greedyguts fires the school cook, Mrs. Bountiful, and replaces her with Perfectly Loathsome Leo Louse, who spoons up slop. Wacky humour abounds as Jacob tricks Leo in a card game by calling ``Mr. Clairvoyant," and Jacob becomes adept at spying by reading the secret backwards messages from Dinglebat.

The pace becomes frenetic as Jacob and Child Power embark on a mission to uncover the kickback scheme Greedyguts has set up with Leo.

This saucy addition to the series will appeal to readers who like cheeky humour and Dickensian villains and heroes.

Recommended.

Lorraine Douglas is Youth Services Coordinator for the Winnipeg Public Library.

Book Review

The Old Brown Suitcase:
A Teenager's Story of War and Peace.

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz.
Brentwood Bay, BC: Ben-Simon Publication,1994. 148pp, paper, $11.95.
ISBN 0-914539-10-8.

Grades 5 - 10 / Ages 11 - 16.
Review by Janie Wilkins.

excerpt:

I am eleven.
It is a sunny November day, but I am cold.
An endless dark line of us moves slowly through a gate in the tall brick wall. People carry on their backs or push in carts all that remains of their life's belongings. They enter the ghetto beneath the cold eyes of German soldiers and Polish police. A cruel silence reigns over us despite the voices, the shuffling of feet, the grinding of wooden carts against the cobblestone street, and the clanging of pots and pans. The faces of the people around us are frightened Some are crying as they walk.
I walk with my parents, my hand is numb from the weight of the old brown suitcase. It contains all I have: one chipped porcelain doll, two books, my ballet costume, and some clothes.
My father carries two large cases, and a knapsack, while Mother holds my sister. Basia is only two years old.
We step through the gate away from the sunlight, into the grey shadow of the ghetto.

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz makes an impressive debut as an author for children and young adults with the publication of The Old Brown Suitcase. Although this novel is a work of fiction, it is also semi-autobiographical; the author has drawn on experiences and memories from her own childhood during World War II to create a stirring story. This is a novel sure to evoke an emotional response in all who read it.

The Old Brown Suitcase really has two story lines, told in alternating chapters. The narrator is Slava, a fourteen-year-old girl who has just arrived in Montreal with her family. It is 1947 and Slava's family -- the Lenskis -- have emigrated from their beloved Poland to begin life anew in Canada. They have lost almost everything important during the war, including Slava's younger sister, Basia.

Slava must adjust to life in a new country: she needs to learn a new language and adapt to a foreign culture and school system. She must also cope with the memories of her childhood. Slava is a survivor of the Holocaust who has witnessed horrific events during her fourteen years, Through a series of flashbacks, the reader discovers the ``other" story and learns about Slava's childhood in Poland before and during the war. Slava's adjustment to life in a new country is eased by several special friends and teachers. Despite the misfortunes and hardships in her life, Slava proves herself to be a creative individual with a strong will to live.

Slava is a realistic character with a fully developed, multi-facetted personality. Readers of all ages will be able to empathize with her as she adjusts to her new life and accepts the events of her old. Teenage readers in particular will identify with Slava's struggle to gain independence and exert her own sense of style and personality.

The writing is straightforward and descriptive. Without being excessively graphic, Boraks-Nemetz gives the reader enough detail to comprehend the horror of the persecutions Jews suffered during World War II. However, the frequent transitions from the story of Slava's present to the flashback chapters covering various periods before and during the war are not always smooth, and sometimes disconcerting. But the use of alternating chapters allows the author to address two very important topics: the difficulties that immigrant children adapting to life in a new country face; and the atrocities of the Holocaust.

The typesetting and layout of the text are appropriate and easy to read. The cover, however, may not appeal to the eye of a young adult reader. Additional colour or different background would have helped keep Junior and Intermediate readers from passing over this book because of its dull cover.

The format and content are ideal for a class novel study. A variety of topics -- the Holocaust; multiculturalism, prejudice, war, and refugees, to name a few -- could be the basis of discussions or thematic studies. The novel has many curricular uses and teacher's guide is available.

Slava's story is one that the current generation needs to hear. The Old Brown Suitcase is a BC Book Prize Winner and it would be an excellent addition for school, public, and personal libraries.

Recommended.

Janie Wilkins is currently on leave from her position as an elementary school teacher in Kingston, Ontario to earn a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario.

News: National

CANADIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK 1995

BOOK WEEK KITS Thousands of children and adults across the country are gearing up for Canadian Children's Book Week -- November 18th - 25th. Now in its nineteenth year, Book Week is the most important nation-wide festival of books and reading.

Celebrate Canadian Children's Book Week with the BOOK WEEK KIT. Based on the theme Picture This! this jam-packed kit includes:

Book Week Kits cost $20.00 (includes GST and shipping). To order your BOOK WEEK KIT today, please call Manitoba Book Week Coordinator Cheryl Archer at (204) 667-7032 or (204) 668-1611 fax. Or to find your local Book Week Coordinator, click here.

News: Manitoba

1995 Canadian Children's Book Week

Manitoba Tour
November 18 - 25, 1995

The Canadian Children's Book Centre has proclaimed November 18-25 as Canadian Children's Book Week. Now in its nineteenth year, Children's Book Week introduces thousands of young people to some of our best authors and illustrators, and more than thiry-five thousand children and adults will participate in Book Week events -- including school and library readings, book signings,workshops, book fairs, and more.

This year's theme is Picture This: celebrating Canadian children's book illustration. Illustrations provide an immediate entry into books, and are a wonderful and exciting way to visually explore the world of the imagination. Picture books, illustrations in non-fiction books, and book covers delight and inform readers of all ages.

Touring Manitoba for Children's Book Week will be: Janet Wilson, Ontario illustrator of more than thirty books for children including Jess Was the Brave One (Penguin, 1995) and In Flanders Fields (Lester, Fall 1995); Martin Springett, also from Ontario and the illustrator of many book covers and picture books such as Mei Ming and the Dragon's Daughter (Scholastic, 1990) and Who (Orca, 1993); Ishbel Moore, Manitoba author of historical fiction for nine- to twelve-year-olds, such as Branch of the Talking Tree and Summer of the Hand; and Linda Holeman, new Manitoba author of Saying Goodbye (Lester, 1995), a short-story collection for young adults.

To celebrate the beginning of Children's Book Week in Manitoba, the Canadian Children's Book Centre (Manitoba Branch), and the Manitoba Reading Association are hosting a luncheon at the Roundtable Restaurant in Winnipeg on Saturday, November 18th. The four illustrators/authors touring Manitoba for Children's Book Week will be giving presentations during the luncheon. Cost is $25.00 per person, and advance pre-paid registration is required. Please call Chantal Olinkin at 334-8824 by Friday, November 3, 1995.

To raise funds for The Canadian Children's Book Centre, an art auction featuring the works of more than one hundred Canadain children's book illustrators will be held at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto on November 18th. Please call Manitoba Officer Cheryl Archer for details on how Manitobans can participate in this auction.

For more information regarding Children's Book Week, contact Cheryl Archer, Manitoba Liason Officer for the Canadian Children's Book Centre at (204) 667-7032, or (204) 668-1611 (fax).

For a listing of writers touring other parts of Canada for Children's Book Week, click here.

Feature

"The Great Canadian Trivia Challenge"

Steve Caldwell, the coordinator of the Trivia Challenge, has been kind enough to give CM permission to run his weekly Great Canadian Trivia Contest, a great way to motivate students to spend some time in the Library. Here's this week's question, the answers and winners from September 29, and how the contest works:

IMPORTANT NOTE:

For those of you who access us by way of The Village in Ontario please note that we're having a lot of difficulty with The Village. We have been able to only intermittently receive the Village and cannot send to it. Therefore we might have missed some correct answers this week and they will be recognized when we receive them. In light of this could respondents please use the

Steve_Caldwell@colby.on.infoshare.ca

address. We apologize to those who use The Village to receive the weekly question.

CORRECTIONS & APOLOGIES:

Among the winners last week I incorrectly said that:

Amanda Lambert, Brenda Minten, Stacy Ballard & Jennifer Lammers were from Gregory A. Hogan in Sarnia, when in reality they are in Mr. Vanlieshout's Gr.7/8 class at St. Peter Canisius School in Watford Ontario.

Danny Ray and Jerry Don Kelly of Alma Middle School were from Alma, Arizona when in fact they are from Alma, Arkansas.

My apologies to all concerned.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

What important Canadian city was originally named ``Pile of Bones"?

DUE DATE FOR THIS ANSWER: 22 October, 1995

SEND IN YOUR ANSWERS:

Remember, don't post your answers to CM. Instead, send your answers to Steve Caldwell at one of the following e-mail addresses (if possible please use the first of these addresses as The Village is having a few problems):

Steve_Caldwell@colby.on.infoshare.ca
or
stepcald@village.ca

In addition to your e-mail address, please send us your school's name and the grade and/or class that you are in, as well as your postal address.

September 29's Question was:

This year, for the first time, a Canadian won the Indy Car auto racing championship. The Indy Car championship, for 1995, was a series of 17 races, 1 in Australia, 2 in Canada and 14, including the Indianapolis 500, in the United States. What is the name of this young Canadian?

Bonus question: The answer to the above question is the fourth different Canadian to win an Indy Car race. What was the name of the first Canadian to win an Indy Car race?

ANSWER:

This year's Indy Car champion is 24 year old Jacques Villeneuve. The bonus question is a little tricky and that is the reason it was a bonus question and not a two-parter.

The first Canadian to win an Indy Car race was Jacques Villeneuve, who is the current champion's uncle. Many respondents answered Gilles Villeneuve, the current champion's deceased father. While Gilles Villeneuve was the first Canadian to win a Formula 1 race, he never participated in Indy Car races.

The other two Canadians to have won Indy Car races are Paul Tracy and Scott Goodyear.

*WINNERS:

  1. Jeb Aarts & Mark Timmermans, Mr. Vanlieshout's Gr.7/8 class, St. Peter Canisius School: Watford, Ontario
  2. Steven Tellier & Mario Clewlow, St. Robert School: London, Ontario
  3. Mrs. A. Serrao-Seppeisa's Gr.7/8 class, St. Raphael's School: Toronto, Ontario
  4. Nicholas McBride, Gr.8, R.G. Sinclair Public School: Kingston, Ontario
  5. Danny Ray, 7th grade keyboarding class, Alma Middle School: Alma, Arkansas
  6. Jerry Don Kelly, 7th grade keyboarding class, Alma Middle School: Alma, Arkansas
  7. Jane Scaplan's Gr.6 French Immersion class, Sacred Heart Elementary School: Marystown, Newfoundland
  8. Mrs. Cantalini's Gr.7/8 class, Gregory A. Hogan School: Sarnia, Ontario
  9. Benny Machtinger, Yorkhill Elementary School, Thornhill, Ontario

Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364