CM May 10, 1996. Vol II, Number 30

Table of Contents

Book Reviews

CDNTime to Eat:
Animals Who Hide and Save Their Food.

Little Wonders:
Animal Babies and Their Families.
Marilyn Baillie. Illustrated by Romi Caron.
Review by Luella Sumner.
Grades K - 4 / Ages 5 - 9.

CDNCanada: Its Land and People.
Don Massey and Patricia Shields.
Review by Michel F. Kallio.
Grades 4 - 6 / Ages 8 - 11.

CDNThe Reluctant Deckhand.
Jan Padgett. Illustrated by Amanda Forbis.
Review by Leslie Millar.
Grades 5 - 6 / Ages 10 - 12.

CDNNotes Across the Aisle.
Edited by Peter Carver.
Review by Grace Shaw.
Grades 9 and Up / Ages 13 - 18.

CDNFear of Words:
Censorship and the Public Libraries of Canada.
Alvin M. Schrader.
Review by Maryleah Otto.
Professional / Post-Secondary.

CDNThe Reluctant Deckhand.
Teacher's Guide.
Review by Leslie Millar.
Professional.

Video Reviews

CDNThe Reluctant Deckhand.
Written and Directed by Jan Padgett.
Review by Leslie Millar.
Grades 3 - 6 / Ages 8 - 12.

CDNRun, Sockeye, Run:
The Life Cycle of the Sockeye Salmon.
Diana French.
Review by Janice Foster.
Grades 4 - 10 / Ages 9 - 14.

Friends of CM

Canadian Library Association

News

Margaret Buffie Wins for The Dark Garden

From the Editor

We're putting this issue of CM together on a short schedule, because Peter and I are involved as presenters at the 1996 M.L.A. Conference. The upshot is that we're too busy talking about the Internet to spend much time on it; thus, there's no ``Notable Web Sites" feature this week.

And just a note about an omission: in our review of Don't tell anyone, but -- UFO experience in Canada, CM failed to credit William Gabriel for the cover design and much of the interior illustration. Our apologies.

As always, please send any comments to the address beneath my name.

-- Duncan Thornton
cmeditor@mts.net

Book Review

Time to Eat: Animals Who Hide and Save Their Food.
ISBN: 1-895688-36-1 (cloth) / 1-895688-30-2 (paper).

Little Wonders: Animal Babies and Their Families.
ISBN: 1-895688-37-X (cloth) / 1-895688-31-0 (paper)

Marilyn Baillie. Illustrated by Romi Caron. Toronto: Owl Books, 1995 (Distributed by Firefly).
32pp, cloth $14.95 / paper $5.95.

Grades K - 4 / Ages 5 - 9.
Review by Luella Sumner.

***/4

excerpt:

A young male meerkat stands on guard. He sniffs the air for the scent of a fox. He scans the desert sand for the shadow of an eagle's wing. When he's sure there is no danger nearby, a soft chirp and purr from him tells the others, ``it's safe." Out of an old termite's nest tumble five playful meerkat kits. Their baby-sitter, a young female, is right at their side. She plays with them and grooms them. The kits suckle milk from her. Some day she might have her own babies. But for now she is much too busy baby-sitting.

THESE TWO TITLES are from the new Owl Books series ``Amazing Things Animals Do. . . ." Author Marilyn Baillie and illustrator Romi Caron have produced a pair of books sure to interest children and parents alike.

Baillie, a former editor of Chickadee Magazine, has edited and compiled previous science books from Owl. Caron studied painting and drawing in Prague before emigrating to Canada in 1990. She has worked as an assistant animator, and created illustrations for the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The text of the books can be difficult. Words like ``predator" and ``antennae" mean that children under ten will probably need help, or will want the books read to them. But this will be no hardship for the adult reader, as the facts about animal habits and behaviour are fascinating.

Each book begins with an illustration with hidden secrets that the reader is challenged to find, and ends with a quiz about the animals described. (The secrets and the answers are also given.)

Dr. Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards of Queens University served as consultant for the books. This makes it surprising that there is at least one misleading statement -- the section on the emperor penguin in Little Wonders says, ``There are always some adult penguins around to keep the chicks . . . safe from animals that would like to eat them." But there are no land animals in Antarctica where the emperor penguin lives; there are seals and whales in the ocean that might prey on penguin chicks, but the reference is to chicks on land. A comparison of the text with other sources didn't reveal any other apparent inaccuracies.

Little Wonders: Animals Babies and Their Families tells of twelve different animals or birds with strange or amusing ways with their babies. For example: the sea otter wraps her baby in a strand of kelp to keep it from drifting away in the ocean; the crocodile mother gently carries her youngsters to the water in her great mouth; and the red-billed hornbill hides her babies in a hollow tree with the entrance plastered over with mud.

Time to Eat: Animals Who Hide and Save their Food tells of another twelve wild creatures who store food for later consumption: the spider wraps her tasty insect supper in silk to snack on later; the leopard drags her prey up into a nearby tree, safe from hyenas; and the beaver stockpiles tasty branches for the long cold winter.

Recommended.

Luella Sumner is a librarian in Red Rock, Ontario.

Book Review

Canada: Its Land and People.

Don Massey and Patricia Shields.
Edmonton, Reidmore Books, 1995. 242pp, paper, $21.95.
ISBN: 1-89073-89-8.

Grades 4 - 6 / Ages 8 - 11.
Review by Michel F. Kallio.

****/4

THIS SECOND EDITION of Canada: Its Land and People has been completely rewritten and updated. The book's large size (27 x 21cm), easy-to-read typeface, 250 colour photos, and 75 new maps make it a welcome addition to any school library.

From the introduction to the conclusion (with its challenging questions about various photographs of Canada), this book is a delight to the eye.

The chapters are grouped geographically: ``Prairie and Plain," ``Canada's North," ``The Great Lakes Lowland," and so on. In each chapter, the reader meets a family of Canadians and learns about their lifestyle, helping students understand their neighbours in other parts of the country. Readers also learn how where you live affects how you live.

The chapters also briefly discuss the history of each area to help show how the local economy, lifestyle, and architecture were shaped by time. Temperature and precipitation records help convey what living in different regions of the country is like.

Highly recommended for both school and public libraries.

Michele F. Kallio is a former teacher/librarian living in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.

Book Review

The Reluctant Deckhand.

Written by Jan Padgett. Illustrated by Amanda Forbis.

Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press/National Film Board, 1995. 122pp, paper, 8.95
ISBN: 1-895766-01-X.

Grades 5 - 6 / Ages 10 -12.
Review by Leslie Millar.

***1/2 /4

excerpt:

As one whale sank below the surface of the water, another whale would rise up, the sun glistening off its white and black body. A puff of vapour rose in the still air. Then two whales surfaced together, a mother with her baby close at her side. As they sank below the surface, yet another huge body exploded out of the water, flinging spray high into the air.
Tess had seen orcas before. They passed by Lund, always far out in the strait. But now she was in the water with them, in their own element. And she was in a tiny kayak. The whales were bigger than the kayak, and the were moving quickly, much faster than the kayak could.

JAN PADGETT IS A WRITER and film-maker who lives in Powell River, B.C. She wrote and directed the animated film The Reluctant Deckhand, and wrote this companion novel as well (both the film and the accompanying teacher's guide are also reviewed in this issue). Although she has written several short stories, The Reluctant Deckhand is her first novel.

The Reluctant Deckhand is the account of a ten-year-old girl's summer on a her mother's fishing boat, working the waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. At first, Tess is resentful and reluctant to spend her summer on the Henry Bay, away from her best friend Candice, from the beach, and from the Sea Fair, where the basket she had made over the winter was going to be entered in a contest. But Tess's mother, Sue, doesn't want to spend the summer away from her daughter, and figures Tess is old enough to help out with the fishing. Candice gives Tess a parting gift -- a kitten who becomes a comforting companion.

At first, Tess is afraid of storms, rough waters, and sinking, and afraid of something happening to her mother. While on the boat, Tess experiences a great variety in weather, beautiful geography, and close encounters with dolphins and orca whales. But by the end of summer, Tess's skills have grown -- she learns to fish and navigate, and her confidence in the water has grown too.

Her new skills are tested when she helps rescue a boat in distress. After this climactic experience, it seems the ``bug" has caught hold of Tess. She is reluctant to see the summer end, and is already looking forward to next summer on the boat.

Padgett's prose style is articulate and unsentimental. She describes the fishing and the land and sea thoroughly. The language and metaphors used make this novel suitable for grades five and six. The map of the route taken at the beginning of books, and the glossary of nautical and fishing terms at the end will be appreciated by teachers and students alike. The scattered black-and-white illustrations by Amanda Forbis (who did the animation for the film) are charming and expressive. Little filmstrip-like images beneath the main pictures add extra detail.

Tess is a likeable and intelligent ten-year-old. She and her mother make strong female role models. And there are brief encounters with other women who could be seen as role models: Anne the lighthouse keeper; Christine the wildlife photographer; and Auntie Betty, a native elder.

The Reluctant Deckhand is likely to be of interest to boating people, or to those who have an interest in boating or live near the water. At times the inspiration seems to flag, and drama is lacking -- either between the characters and nature, or among the characters themselves. Tess is so reasonable and mature, and the conflicts with her mother are handled in such a civilized manner, that it's almost worth dissecting their conflict resolution techniques to make a sort of ``how-to" guide.

Still, this well-told tale has a kind of shimmering beauty. As Tess leaves her carefree summers of berry-picking and playing on the behind, she enters another, more mature stage of childhood. It is more self-aware stage, and entails more self-reliance, responsibility, and work, but still is fraught with possibilities for joy and beauty.

Highly recommended.

Leslie Millar is a substitute teacher and volunteer in Winnipeg schools.

Book Review

Notes Across the Aisle.

Edited by Peter Carver.
Saskatoon, SK: Thistledown Press, 1995. 187pp, paper, $9.95.
ISBN: 1-895449-45-6.

Grades 9 and Up / Ages 13 - 18.
Review by Grace Shaw.

****/4

excerpt:

It is usually the events which seem insignificant that have the most profound effects in life.
All my life, all my loves, it is she I search for on the streets, among the faces of strangers. And when I see black hair cascading like a waterfall, I take a second look.

WE CELEBRATE THISTLEDOWN'S second anthology of short stories for young adults. The success of the Blue Jean collection (1992) seemed to call for another national competition, from which the seventeen stories in Notes Across the Aisle were taken.

Some of the winning writers are as young as eighteen; for many, this is their first time in print. The plots are varied and diverse; the themes deal with relationships, angst, coming of age and making sense of our world; the settings range from ``a steamy Sri Lankan summer, wartime Halifax, the dinosaur badlands, a Northwest Company fort of 200 years ago, and a future when human contact thrives only by modem."

The characters all make their way through a complex world, though they are not perhaps as developed or memorable as those of the Canadian masters of the short stories like Valgardson or Munro.

We can only hope there will be a third volume.

Highly recommended.

Grace Shaw is a teacher at Vancouver Community College.

Book Review

Fear of Words: Censorship and the Public Libraries of Canada.

Alvin M. Schrader.
Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1995. 195pp, paper, $29.95.
ISBN: 0-8880202-74-3.

Professional / Post-Secondary.
Review by Maryleah Otto.

****/4

excerpt:

. . . the fear of words will never cease and the desire to censor them will never die.

. . .

Unless public librarians live the principles of intellectual freedom and access as agents of all of the body politic, through policies, procedures and integrity, they abdicate their claim to institutional prerogative and institutional autonomy

. . .

The evidence from this study suggest that public librarians as a community should be more consistent champions of the rights of children and young adults to have unqualified access to library materials. . . . age-related restrictions and other institutional barriers to access violate the ``social contract" for intellectual freedom that public library staff unofficially, if not officially, endorse. . . . How a balance can be achieved between social ideology that expects public librarians to protect children and the larger moral imperative to restrict the rights of minors, is and remains an unresolved -- and difficult issue.

THESE ARE SOME OF THE CONCLUSIONS that Alvin Shrader draws from his superbly crafted research study of censorship in Canadian public libraries:

This study, the first national project of its kind in the world, has attempted to identify the scope and nature of community pressures to censor materials housed in the nation's public libraries and to document the ways in which public librarians across the country responded to these pressures.
Shrader's credentials to undertake such a project are more than adequate. With a doctorate in library science from Indiana University, he has been a professor in 1982 in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta. He is a long-time member both of the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the Library Association of Alberta and of the Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom of the Canadian Library Association. He has also been on the Board or Directors of the Library Association of Alberta. Previous professional experience includes several years in Ontario.

In Part One of this study, Shrader explains that a review of the literature on censorship in Canadian public libraries revealed very little research into the kinds of community pressures that exist, how pervasive they are, or how often public librarians remove, or restrict access to, materials challenged.

In outlining the conceptual framework of the project, he notes several important earlier U.S. Studies, emphasizing the need for a precise distinction between censorship (``a presumption in favour of thought control") and selection (``a presumption in favour of liberty of thought"). Shrader approaches his work by examining three main aspects of the context in which censorship exists:
  1. political and constitutional factors
  2. social and community factors
  3. institutional factors
He then identifies and explores three stages in the censorial process:
  1. the occurrence itself
  2. its resolution or outcome
  3. its effect on subsequent responses.

Shrader gathered information nationally, in English and French, from a three-year period from 1985 through 1987. A questionnaire covered five main areas of inquiry:
  1. institutional characteristics
  2. access policies and practices related to intellectual freedom
  3. direct challenges to collections and their effects on access policies and practices
  4. covert censorship (deliberate theft or mutilation of materials)
  5. acquisition pressure (attempts to promote certain points of view or causes)
The study design included a checklist of thirty controversial materials based on the lists of challenged items identified in three previous publications about Canadian public library censorship incidents. Other design elements, limitations of the study, and the data analysis methods used are fully described in the text.

Part Two of Fear of Words is a detailed presentation of the findings uncovered by the exploration of the five main areas of interest outlined above. The hundreds of responses quoted reveal the multitude ways Canadian public librarians deal with issues related to access. These quotes also make fascinating reading!

Shrader's conclusions (suggested by the excerpts at the beginning of this review) include several other factors affecting censorship -- most importantly, those that operate at the level of the individual psyche. Shrader's plans for further research on these factors illustrate just how complex the issue is -- they involve insights from reader-response theory, social learning theory, and anthropology. Investigating them will require more complex research designs than the present one, but Shrader is confident their study will yield much enlightening information on censorial attitudes in general.

Included in the book are several bibliographies, an index, the survey questionnaires themselves, covering letters, various statements on intellectual freedom, the 1995 Book and Periodical Council Freedom to Read Week Reading List, and a list of materials challenged between 1985 and 1987. There are also thirty-three tables and figures to illustrate the data analysis.

Fear of Words is a landmark study that I hope will be read carefully by all public librarians in Canada. It exemplifies an unusually high level of research methodology in its attempt to uncover information and analyze data accurately. It is honest about its limitations.

The only reservation I have is that Shrader expresses his own personal view of the issue so passionately. One is always tempted to suspect that a researcher finds just what they want to find in any available data unless a scientific impartiality and objectivity has been rigorously applied.

The problems inherent in materials selection or rejection reach deep into the human psyche, and into a kaleidoscope of cultural, religious, political, and economic conditions. Public librarians will forever be caught between one man's meat and another's poison. Besides, values and tastes are always in flux. Ideologies hailed as true in one era or one region are taboo in others. Yet the concept of freedom -- not to be confused with license -- is dear to the human soul.

I believe Shrader is correct when he writes:
In the last resort, it is not the force of law but only the force of free intelligence that can save a people from its own folly. In this light, I believe it is better to err on the side of more access rather than on the side of less.
Shrader seems to believe that humanity can trust its innate potential for good, and that we are, finally, more inclined to embrace truth and justice than their opposites. I hope he's right.

This landmark study on the crucial issue of censorship deserves a careful reading by Canadian librarians in all field of practice.

Highly recommended.

Maryleah Otto is a former children's librarian in Toronto and London, Ontario, and the author of four published books for children. Her graduate work, apart from library science, dealt with the literature of modern romance languages.

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Book Review

``The Reluctant Deckhand"
Teacher's Guide for the Novel and Film.

Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press/National Film Board, 1995. 36pp, paper, 5.95.
ISBN: 1-895766-15-X.

Professional.
Review by Leslie Millar.

***1/2/4

THIS THIRTY-SIX-PAGE guide to reading and viewing The Reluctant Deckhand (the novel and film are also reviewed in this issue) was created by a team of educators and consultants. It points out the broad curricular connections that can be made between the book or film and language arts, social studies, science, math, and art classes. It states the big ideas in the novel and film -- like meeting challenges, and changing and growing as a result. The teacher's guide also describes several specific activities that can be done in class after reading or viewing and discussion.

The activities suggested are developed within four themes: The activities could be implemented within this theme structure or individually, as the teacher desires. Two black-line masters for animation and storyboard activity are included.

The themes and activities have been thoughtfully developed. Of the many suggestions in the guide, several are sure to be useful, or the source of inspiration for teachers or students to develop other ideas.

Recommended.

Leslie Millar is a substitute teacher and volunteer in Winnipeg schools.

Video Review

The Reluctant Deckhand.

Written and Directed by Jan Padgett. Illustrated by Amanda Forbis.

Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press/National Film Board, 1995.

Grades 3 - 6 / Ages 8 - 12.
Review by Leslie Millar.

***1/2/4

THE ANIMATED VERSION of The Reluctant Deckhand is a thirty-three minute film in six parts (the accompanying novel and teacher's guide are also reviewed in this issue). Each part, indicated by a new log entry, details significant event in Tess's summer.

The animation has the clunky cuteness of a moving watercolour. The reason is the ``cut-out" animation technique uses. The figures are drawn, painted, cut out, and re-attached with joints that are manipulated bit by bit under the camera to create movement. The result is deliberately two-dimensional and choppy.

A short documentary about the making of the film follows. In it we are introduced to the real Henry Bay, the boat that inspired the story. We meet author and director Jan Padgett, who describes the conception and execution of the idea in the film. We also meet designed and animator Amanda Forbis.

The animated film and documentary will be enjoyed by students eight to twelve years old. The documentary lends itself well to story-making and art-enrichment activities.

Recommended.

Leslie Millar is a substitute teacher and volunteer in Winnipeg schools.

Video Review

Run, Sockeye, Run: The Life Cycle of the Sockeye Salmon.

Vancouver: Insight and Sound Creations, 1995. 23 minutes, VHS, $??.??
Distributed by Moving Images Distribution.

Grades 4 - 10 / Ages 9 - 14.
Review by Janice Foster.

***/4

excerpt:

Okay, sockeye, listen up! The sooner we get started the sooner we'll be on our way . . .

SO BEGINS the award-winning documentary Run, Sockeye, Run. A computer-animated `Salmon Leader' coaches his `team' of Adam River Sockeye on their formidable journey up the Fraser River to their spawning grounds. The novel approach adds interest and variety to this depiction of the life-cycle of the salmon.

Run, Sockeye, Run uses appropriate vocabulary to accurately outline the different stages of the salmon's journey from the Pacific Ocean to the spawning grounds of the Adam River in British Columbia. The spectacular photography clearly shows the geography of the route (with map inserts to orient the viewer). The footage also provides an excellent portrayal of the dangers and enemies the fish face on their upstream adventure. Underwater close-ups offer valuable insights into spawning activities ranging from males battle for a mating opportunity to the wonders of egg hatching.

The `real-life' sequences are enhanced by narrated information and musical interludes. The film concludes in the same animated format with which it begins.

The video is well paced to both sustain viewer interest and retrieve information. The musical interludes prevent visual information powerfully without the need for narration; these pauses encourage the viewer to watch closely and make the video a good way to strengthen both visual and verbal skills.

And the computer-animated salmon `coach' is a clever technique, though it would be more effective if the tone of his dialogue varied more; as it is, it's not also easy to pull out the facts in his narration, especially where the information isn't obvious in the visuals. The map inserts, though useful, would be clearer if they were larger and better labelled.

But most of the footage is clear and crisp, and overall, Run, Sockeye, Run is an imaginative video well worth considering as a resource for educational collections.

Highly recommended as an introduction to or elaboration on topics such as life cycles or animal science studies.

Janice Foster is currently the teacher-librarian/enrichment facilitator at Oakenwald Elementary School in Winnipeg.

News -- Manitoba

Margaret Buffie Wins for The Dark Garden

AT THE MANITOBA LITERARY AWARDS April 27, Margaret Buffie won the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award for her Young Adult novel The Dark Garden (reviewed in CM vol. II, No. 26), also recently short-listed for the Ruth Schwartz Canadian Book Award.

Buffie has previously won the Young Adult Canadian Book Award for Who is Frances Rain, and was nominated for the Governor's General Award and the C.L.A. Book of the Year Award for her third novel, My Mother's Ghost.

This was the first year the Manitoba Literary Awards have included the Book for Young People Award. Also short-listed were Linda Holeman for Saying Goodbye, Carol Matas for The Primrose Path, Sheldon Oberman for The White Stone in the Castle Wall, and Diana Wieler for RanVan: A Worthy Opponent.

CM
Editor
Duncan Thornton
e-mail: cmeditor@mts.net

CM
Executive Assistant
Peter Tittenberger
e-mail: cm@mts.net

Copyright © 1996 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

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