mathgirl40's Canadian journey

DiscussãoCanadian Fiction/Non-Fiction Reading Challenge

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mathgirl40's Canadian journey

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1mathgirl40
Editado: Fev 20, 2011, 7:40 am

My Canadian journey:

Alberta - The Outlander by Gil Adamson
British Columbia - The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
Labrador - Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-century America by Robert Charles Wilson
Manitoba - The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy
New Brunswick - Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi by David Adams Richards
Newfoundland - Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia - The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, The Birth House by Ami McKay
Nunavut
Ontario - WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer
Prince Edward Island - A Body Surrounded by Water by Eric Wright
Quebec - The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
Saskatchewan - Small Beneath the Sky by Lorna Crozier
Yukon

My 11-year-old daughter's Canadian journey:

Alberta
British Columbia - Reading the Bones by Gina McMurchy-Barber, Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen
Labrador
Manitoba - Archeolojesters by Andreas Oertel
New Brunswick - Chocolate River Rescue by Jennifer McGrath Kent
Newfoundland - The Nine Live of Travis Keating by Jill Maclean
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia - Dear Canada: No Safe Harbour by Julie Lawson
Nunavut - Inuksuk Journey by Mary Wallace
Ontario - Peril at Pier Nine by Penny Draper
Prince Edward Island - Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Quebec
Saskatchewan - The Moon Children by Beverley Brenna, A Prairie as Wide as the Sea by Sarah Ellis
Yukon

2mathgirl40
Ago 31, 2009, 7:01 pm

I told my 10-year-old daughter about this challenge and she thought it would be fun to do it herself. So I've added her list here as well. Earlier this year, she did the Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch reading program, which features recently published Canadian books.

3Nickelini
Ago 31, 2009, 8:07 pm

What a great idea to include your daughter!

4starfishian
Ago 31, 2009, 8:38 pm

Fab idea, mathgirl!

5mathgirl40
Set 12, 2009, 8:22 am

I finished Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi by David Adams Richards. Once I realized the book was primarily about fly-fishing, I didn't think I'd like it so much, but I really did enjoy it! The author writes beautifully.

6cushlareads
Set 20, 2009, 2:51 am

Great that you're adding your daughter! I'll have to look for some new ideas - I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old.

7mathgirl40
Set 22, 2009, 9:14 pm

My daughter just finished Inuksuk Journey by Mary Wallace, for the Nunavut entry. I thought it'd be difficult to find a good Nunavut book, but we stumbled across this one at our local library.

8RidgewayGirl
Set 23, 2009, 8:56 am

You'll have to write a review once you've read it -- there's none on LT! But it does look interesting.

9mathgirl40
Editado: Set 24, 2009, 9:57 pm

I've read Inuksuk Journey myself now and I've added a review. I think I'll find a different adult book for my own Nunavut category. It seems like cheating to use the same book for both myself and my daughter. I'm tempted to do so, though, as it's so hard to find books set in Nunavut!

10mathgirl40
Out 27, 2009, 8:54 pm

I just finished The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy for my Manitoba selection. I didn't like it as much as some of her other books, but it was still enjoyable. I wonder how much of it is based on her own childhood.

11countrylife
Out 28, 2009, 10:20 am

10 - I've never read this author, but the one review for that book makes it seem as though I would enjoy it. Added to my list!

12mathgirl40
Out 28, 2009, 4:33 pm

> 11: Gabrielle Roy's most famous book is The Tin Flute. You might enjoy that too, but it'll be a Quebec selection rather than a Manitoba one, as it's set in Montreal.

13RidgewayGirl
Out 28, 2009, 8:26 pm

The Tin Flute is a book I reread every few years. It's one of my favorites.

14mathgirl40
Editado: Nov 28, 2009, 11:00 am

Kate and I read Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen and we both loved it. I added it to her BC category, though she'd already filled it. I left my own BC category open for an adult book.

Word Nerd is about a 13-year-old nerdy and bullied boy who gets involved in competitive Scrabble. It's been nominated for several Canadian awards. I added a review here.

15RidgewayGirl
Nov 28, 2009, 11:18 am

Excellent review, mathgirl40.

16mathgirl40
Nov 28, 2009, 6:15 pm

15: Thanks, RidgewayGirl!

17mathgirl40
Dez 3, 2009, 10:14 pm

I just filled my Quebec category by finishing The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. I listened to this on audiobook and it was great -- filled with atmosphere and intriguing characters.

18michellereads
Dez 4, 2009, 9:56 am

oooh, I LOVE audiobooks....my latest obsession. Easy to play in the car, and no eye strain!

19mathgirl40
Dez 19, 2009, 12:04 pm

18: I've recently gotten into audiobooks too. I discovered how to borrow eAudiobooks from my library and load them onto my iPod. The selection is not bad, even if they don't have everything I want, and you can't beat the price!

I've updated my daughter's list, as she just finished the classic Anne of Green Gables for her PEI entry. She is working on Anne of Avonlea now, the next in the series.

20Nickelini
Dez 19, 2009, 12:46 pm

I've recently gotten into audiobooks too. I discovered how to borrow eAudiobooks from my library and load them onto my iPod. The selection is not bad, even if they don't have everything I want, and you can't beat the price!

I do that too! Isn't it great?

21michellereads
Dez 20, 2009, 2:20 pm

I definitely need to learn how to load them! I have an old-fashioned CD walkman that I can use in the meantime. I haven't looked into our library's selection. Great idea!

22mathgirl40
Jan 16, 2010, 7:15 am

I finished The Jade Peony, from the Canada Reads list. As for my daughter, she is still stuck on PEI. She is working on book 7 from the Green Gables series.

23starfishian
Jan 16, 2010, 11:24 am

How did you like the Jade Peony, mathgirl? It has been on my wishlist for a while now...

24mathgirl40
Jan 16, 2010, 11:22 pm

23: I liked The Jade Peony very much, but that might be because so much about it was familiar to me. My parents are also Chinese immigrants, though they settled in Canada in a later generation (in the 60s). For the purposes of this group, I'd definitely recommend the book, as it gives a very good sense of what Vancouver was like (at least for the Chinese immigrants) in the 30's and 40's.

25Yells
Editado: Jan 31, 2010, 9:19 pm

Now see I didn't like Jade Peony but I read it awhile ago and really couldn't tell you why. I recently bought a secondhand copy so I could revisit it just to make sure. I quite like that type of book so I was surprised.

ETA - has your daughter tried any of the Dear Canada books? It's a series of historical fiction aimed at the pre-teen market. Dear Canada: Orphan at My Door is one I read last year and enjoyed. Each one is written as if it's the actual diary of a young girl who is growing up during a certain time. In this case, it's 1897 in Guelph Ontario and the family is expecting the arrival of a home girl.

Scholastic publishes them and there are quite a few out now.

26mathgirl40
Fev 20, 2010, 9:36 am

25: My daughter hasn't read any of the Dear Canada books yet, but they look like a series she'd enjoy. I've added the one you mention to my wishlist. Guelph is near our home, so she would enjoy the local references.

27mathgirl40
Fev 20, 2010, 9:39 am

My 10-year-old has added a book to her Newfoundland slot: The Nine Live of Travis Keating by Jill Maclean. (It's actually "Lives" not "Live", but as the original entry had a typo, the touchstone doesn't seem to work without it.) She wrote a book report on it for a school assignment, and I've added the review on her behalf here. This book is on the current Silver Birch Fiction list.

28mathgirl40
Abr 5, 2010, 9:27 pm

Just filled my PEI slot with A Body Surrounded by Water by Eric Wright.

29mathgirl40
Jun 7, 2010, 8:50 pm

I filled my Newfoundland spot with Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant.

My daughter is still reading lots of Canadian books, but none that can fill the missing spots on her list!

30Yells
Jun 7, 2010, 10:19 pm

Your daughter might enjoy the Dear Canada series put out by Scholastic. Each one is written like a diary of someone living through an important historical moment in Canadian history. Dear Canada: No Safe Harbour would be an interesting one for Nova Scotia and it deals with the Halifax Explosion. Or Dear Canada: Alone In an Untamed Land would be a good one for Quebec. And I think Dear Canada: Footsteps In the Snow takes place in the Northwest Territories.

Oops... looks like I already plugged them here. I seriously don't work for the publisher! I just like the books :)

31mathgirl40
Jun 7, 2010, 10:37 pm

Well, if you're plugging them twice, they must be *extra* good! :-)

I've been meaning to look these up for Kate, but she got side-tracked the past few months with the Silver Birch lists. She ended up reading every book on the fiction and non-fiction lists -- 20 in all! I thought that, for sure, one of them could be used to fill her empty slots, but that wasn't the case.

32Nickelini
Jun 7, 2010, 10:52 pm

My daughter read some of the Dear Canada series. She liked No Safe Harbour too, but her favourite was A Trail of Broken Dreams, which was about the Caribou gold rush. She also really liked If I Die Before I Wake about the 1919 flu epidemic. No Safe Harbour is by Julie Lawson, who has written a lot of other great books, and is a very nice person too (I've met her at a couple of different author events).

33mathgirl40
Jun 8, 2010, 9:03 pm

Thanks for the recommendations, Nickelini. I'll definitely look for these.

34mathgirl40
Jul 9, 2010, 5:52 pm

Bucketyell and Nickelini: I took your advice and found No Safe Harbour from the Dear Canada series for my daughter, to fill her Nova Scotia slot. She liked it very much.

35Yells
Jul 9, 2010, 8:53 pm

Yeah! I am glad she liked it. You might want to give it a go as well because they are quite well written. I really enjoyed the few that I have read. :)

36mathgirl40
Jul 26, 2010, 7:35 am

My daughter Kate just finished another Dear Canada book: A Prairie as Wide as the Sea by Sarah Ellis. She enjoyed this one as well. I'll have to pick up more of this series for her. She'd already filled her Saskatchewan slot last year, but I added this to the list.

37starfishian
Jul 26, 2010, 11:03 pm

The Dear Canada books sound great, but maybe a bit too old for my daughter. At roughly what age could one start reading them?

38Nickelini
Jul 27, 2010, 12:51 am

#36 - MathGirl--Sarah Ellis is one of my favourite children's authors. Do look for her other stuff. She's one of those authors I can read and forget that she's writing for kids (sometimes).

#37 - Starfishian--it depends on your child's reading ability. I just checked with my 13 yr old. She said she started reading them in grade 3, which was the year she also started reading Harry Potter. My other daughter, who is going into grade 5, hasn't tried them yet (or Harry Potter--she's into different books). If you think your daughter is too young, there's another series for slightly younger readers called the Canadian Girl series. Some of the same authors. We have two. 13 yr old just told me that Across the James Bay Bridge, by Julie Lawson was good, but Hobo Jungle by Dorothy Joan Harris was really boring ("even though it was set in Vancouver!"). By the way, she still reads the Dear Canada books once in a while for old time's sake.

39mathgirl40
Jul 27, 2010, 7:18 am

37: Scholastic puts these books in the 9-12 category, and this seems about right. My daughter is 11, and it was a fairly quick, easy read for her.

38: Thanks for the recommendation about Sarah Ellis. I'll have to look for more of her books.

I have to confess that I did not read the two Dear Canada books myself. It's not that they weren't appealing. It's just that I have so many books on my own TBR pile to get through that I can only read a fraction of Kate's (many) recommendations! I do hope to get to these one day, though. I loved Barometer Rising, also about the Halifax Explosion, when I'd read it a long time ago and was really intrigued by No Safe Harbour.

40starfishian
Jul 29, 2010, 1:13 am

Thank you, Nickelini & mathgirl! I think we have another couple of years to go (we only just started chapter books). I'm going to keep the series in the back of my mind, for certain.

41Nickelini
Jul 29, 2010, 2:02 am

Starfishian - You won't believe how fast time will fly by . . . you'll be into the Canadian Girls series in no time at all.

42starfishian
Jul 31, 2010, 8:44 pm

In the blink of an eye, no doubt! For now, "we" seem more entertained by the critically acclaimed and extremely weighty Bad Kitty Gets a Bath.

43RidgewayGirl
Ago 2, 2010, 10:58 am

Yep, that's a perennial favorite over here, too. It was fine the first time.

44mathgirl40
Ago 6, 2010, 10:49 am

42, 43: My kids are 11 and 15 now, so we're well past the picture-book stage, but it's great to be able to share books with the kids at any age! My 11-year-old and I run a mother-daughter book club, and it's loads of fun.

45mathgirl40
Set 1, 2010, 3:21 pm

I've filled my Labrador category with Julian Comstock: a Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson. This is only partly set in Labrador, but it will do until I can track down another Labrador book (which is not so easy to do).

46mathgirl40
Fev 20, 2011, 8:00 am

Just realized I've been shamefully neglecting this thread! I finished Small Beneath the Sky by Lorna Crozier last year, to fill my Saskatchewan category. I added a brief review here.

Also, my daughter finished The Archaeolojesters by Andreas Oertel, partly set in Manitoba, and she said she enjoyed it very much.