Three Book Reviews: John Early, William Wardill, and Wes Funk

"Tales of the Modern Nomad: Monks, Mushrooms & Other Misadventures"

by John Early

Published by Early Byrd Productions

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$26.99  ISBN 978-0-9952666-0-5

  

Rarely do I read a book that takes the top of my head off (in the best way), but Tales of the Modern Nomad-a candid travelogue and first book by Saskatoon backpacker John Early-did just that. Well-written, entertaining, illuminating, original, cheeky, and real-in that it features both positive and negative experiences-I read chapters of this book aloud to two visiting backpackers in their twenties and thirties, and they were relating and laughing right along. To quote the author's father: "You couldn't make this shit up if you tried."

Early's young, and many of the experiences described in this hefty, full-colour hardcover-with maps, photographs, anecdotes, trivia, poems, art, doodles, and quotes ranging from Eckhart Tolle to Charles Bukowski-may have special appeal for those who possess the desire to surf in Sayulita; zip-line between Laos' tropical rain forest treehouses; or, as Early recounts in the section titled "Down The Rabbit Hole," eat "Mystery Mushrooms from an Indonesian Road Stand," but as one who's backpacked and been to many of the locales he writes about (ie: Bali, Zürich, Bangkok, Čzesky Krumlov)-and I've blown out decades more candles than Early-I can vouch for the veracity and sentiment of the author's accounts (ie: nefarious taxi drivers in foreign countries; being astounded in Paris by those who approach Notre Dame just long enough to get a selfie, then carry on to the next Facebook-able landmark; or defaulting to Spanish whenever someone speaks to me in another language), and appreciated both reliving some of my own travels and vicariously experiencing ones I may never dare to take. Boating down the Amazon to participate in an ayahuasca ceremony deep in the jungle? Hitchhiking with a gypsy caravan in Central America? "The caravan crew consists of Goat, from Northern Oregon; his girlfriend Dancing Water, from Montreal, Blas, a dreadlocked backpacker from Argentina; Max, a Californian non-conformist Goat met at a Rainbow Gathering in Panama; and Chico, Goat's loyal dog he picked up in Mexico." (Oh, all right. Sure!)

As with all great travel writing, Early's tales-gleaned directly from his travel journals-feature the people he randomly meets along the way in hostels, jungles, on beaches, and, uncharacteristically for a backpacker, on a cruise ship (Early worked on one for six months).

The book's format, with its delightful mix of information-including both the extremely personal (receiving a questionable massage from a Thai monk) and hilarious trivia ("10 Ways to Say Poop in Japanese")-is one of its major charms. And this title contains far more than just backpacking smarts; it's saturated with life wisdom, ie: "traveling is in your head/as much as it's under your feet/Never stop being a traveler./And always life a life worth journaling."

I agree with Early that travelling is a great educator. We learn so much about others when we immerse ourselves in another culture-and perhaps put that camera or margarita down for a bit, and really get to know the locals-but moreover, we also learn invaluable lessons about ourselves. What a read, John Early. What a life! 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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"Muskrat Ramble"

by William Wardill

Published by DriverWorks Ink

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$14.99  ISBN 978-1-927570-34-0 

   

Eatonia, SK's William Wardill has been writing stories and poems for decades, and now the veteran historian, writer, diviner, and small-town Saskatchewan aficionado has penned his "swan song" collection of poetry, Muskrat Ramble, which includes previously published work, photographs, and, interestingly, brief, conversational-style introductions to many of the poems. The "almost autobiographical" and fictional poems (with "roots in reality") are straightforward narrative tributes to people, places, and pre-Facebook ways of life long behind us now. Readers will appreciate the poems' preambles: reading them is akin to hearing a writer present his or her work at a public reading. Many readers (including yours truly) will also appreciate the larger-than-usual print.  

Wardill has lived a rich life across his nine decades. He stretches back to his boyhood re: acknowledgement of an Alsask teacher for helping him to realize "that a little boy who liked to arrange words in patterns, paint pictures, and sing songs could he as useful in the world as the little boy who excelled in athletic competitions." At the other end of his life, in a poem titled "Homo Emeritus," he reflects that "Now there is time for peaceful nights/and waking dreams and building airy mansions/out of moonbeams."

The collection includes Wardill's first published poem: it appeared in Western People, a now long-gone supplement to The Western Producer, and is a tribute to a father and his trunk full of "Perfumed pipes and shaving soap/and polish for his patent leather shoes." The sense of longing is almost palpable. The poet writes of a wish to stand with the man "to watch the stout, black steamships eating blacker coal,/and lesser craft with sea-rimed sails, and, all around, the white gulls wheeling." A beautiful tribute to a man whose "span was over long ago." Other tribute poems include "Consolidation No. 2165, 1913-1961," about a steam locomotive, which stands out both for its details and for its touching personification of the train: "And they say as she passes a fallen-down village/where the station is missing and the people are gone,/her chime whistle wails in a loud, sobbing torment,/like the voice of a soul that can never go home." 

 

Many of the poems contain rhyming and repeated phrases, like song lyrics, and a few poems, ie: "By the River in the Winter, 1881" and "By the River in the Winter, 1885"), are dialogue poems. I felt the strongest piece was "In the Dugout, 1917," which is presented as a letter from a Canadian soldier to "My dearest Clara." In this visceral poem we read "Over the top is the sickly sweet smell of unburied/bodies. Over the top are the screams."

A fine example of the poet's range appears in "Nice Feed o' Nice Cockles," in which the poet emulates the working class vernacular of folks in County Durham: "You're yammerin' o' war. Will. Now the war's/done./Our folks are all safe now at 'ome, everyone one."       

This diverse, reflective "swan song" would be lovely to read beneath a summer sky, back "against a sun-warmed boulder." 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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"Frostbite"

by Wes Funk

Published by YNWP

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$19.95  ISBN 9-781927-756980

When Saskatoon's Wes Funk died in 2015 at age forty-six, he was well-known and admired in the local writing community. He'd self-published novels and a chapbook of poetry and short stories, hosted a weekly series, "Lit Happens," on Shaw TV, and mentored beginning writers. YNWP's posthumously released Funk's final book, Frostbite, which contains the novel of the same name, plus a novella-"Rocket of the Starship"-in one handsome package.  

Funk's set both stories in Saskatoon and there are no shortages of landmarks to help locate the worlds in which his protagonists-both with cool names: "Deck" from the novel; the novella features "Dare"-roam. Deck Hall, a recently fired accountant and recently separated forty-year-old, lives in City Park, and his estranged wife is a nurse at Saskatoon City Hospital. The Bessborough Hotel, Midtown Plaza, Broadway Bridge, the Senator, Amigo's Cantina and Diefenbaker Hill are locations that help set the stage for the aptly-named "Frostbite."

As the book opens, Deck has just finished his fourth bartending shift in a week, and he returns, wearily, to the Star Wars memorabilia and the companionship of his bulldog, Muffin, at his high-rise. Both the literal and metaphorical forecasts are grim: "Cold, cold and more cold!" Funk wrote of the prairie cold as one who knew it well. "Outside, the snowfall was turning into an all-out blizzard. In another hour, plows and snow-blowers would start to rumble down on the streets below. The machinery would probably wake him up."

Deck meets the character Blue in Kinsmen Park, a known night-time pick-up spot, and the pair form an unlikely friendship. Deck tells Blue: "I think this is what they call a midlife crisis, Blue. My wife booted me out, I'm unemployed again, and the other day I nailed some chick have my age. All I need is a red convertible and I'm set." Deck's other friend is neighbor Halo, a romance writer who lives across the hall in their shared apartment building … and appears ready for some romance of her own.

Clearly there was some overlapping between fact and fiction here. Funk's author photo shows him in a Star Wars jersey, so the "Luke Skywalker action figure," on Deck's nightstand, "Stormtroopers standing guard on the toilet tank," and the "life-sized Yoda" may indeed have belonged to the author, and these details help characterize the slightly eccentric protagonist. Both Deck and Dare share a love of well-organized comic shops.

What I valued most in these two slice-of-life stories is the "realness" they portray: from bartending details to the "wooden cut-outs of frolicking children" in Kinsmen park; from Deck's rural Saskatchewan parents' never-changing home (with its dusty-rose couch) and distinctive culture-"supper" at 5:30, news at 6:00, a "Kaiser club"-everything bears the distinct ring of truth. Deck and Dare, in their separate stories, face hardships and recover, as most of us do.  

I got wrapped up in both of Funk's bittersweet tales, and wish they hadn't ended, like their popular author's time here, so quickly.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Four Book Reviews: Karen Enns, Anne Campbell, Mika Lafond, and Dawn Dumont

"Cloud Physics"

by Karen Enns

Published by University of Regina Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$19.95  ISBN 9-780889-774612

   

  

She had me at "peonies of sound". She is Karen Enns, and the opening piece -and title poem - of her new poetry collection Cloud Physics, is refined and thoughtful, and it makes me ravenous for more.

A few poems in the first section have a dystopian edge, ie: in "Epilogue," "Nothing was questioned/after the last polar flares broke through,/and silence finally took over." Enns, however, never slips into melodrama, and often her pieces conclude quietly (yet profoundly). The aforementioned poem ends thus: "It was warm for a while/after the birds migrated east/in a single line." Yes!

I love the poet's use of understatement throughout the book, and her use of what I'll call "imaginings". She (or her subjects) ponder interesting "What if?" questions, ie: What if time worked in the opposite direction, "so we could live our lives from death to birth"? What would it be like to "bi-selve"? What if "middle syllables/were lost," and what if we are "made of what [we've] heard"? This last quote is from the list poem, "Ad Libitum," which concerns the diverse sounds that fill a life, from "barking dogs" to "blankets shifting, footsteps on the stairs,/a tractor coming down the tree row."

My sense is that Enns is hyper-attuned, particularly to sound - the sound of words, and the sounds of the world - and though there are no author bio notes in the book, it wouldn't surprise me to learn she's a musician as well as a poet. I'm also guessing she's a birder, for there's a veritable aviary of birds featured here, from owls to meadowlarks, and I'm particularly struck by her poetic facility with crows, "with their dark-knife forms," and their eyes that are "bright metal bits of judgement". The author also really looks, ie: into the back of the mailbox, "where a spider manages its web until a frost one night/leaves it curled and dried".      

Two poems in this collection are well worth the price of admission: "A Son's Story," about a father who wished to hear meadowlarks again before his passing, and "Solstice," about a group experience on a beach, and the moment when all realize that poetry's happening: they're living it. It's challenging to get this kind of piece right but Enns handles it like a master, and the "truth" uncovered echoes what the poet explores throughout the book: "We wouldn't live forever." ("We" reverberates because naturally we all own this truth.)  

I could say that the primary subject of these lyric poems is time and its passing. I could also say it is sound, or light, and that trains and flora feature often, but perhaps these are merely the elements that made the most impact on me. What I know with certainty is that this poet's marriage of language and intellect make for a most satisfying read, and I'll be turning to these provocative poems again and again for the singular beauty of lines like this: "All we can do is surrender to the bright complicity of birds". Karen Enns? More, please.  

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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"The Fabric of Day: New and Selected Poems"

by Anne Campbell

Published by Thistledown Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$20.00  ISBN 978-1-77187-130-3

   

I do love "New and Selected" poetry collections, and so it was with delight that I opened The Fabric of Day: New and Selected Poems by Regina's Anne Campbell, who has been making poetry and sharing it with appreciative readers since her first book, No Memory of a Move, was released in 1983. In a retrospective such as this readers can track a poet's evolution, and I was interested to read the new work: what's in Campbell's poetic gaze now?

In the book's introduction Campbell explains that the prairies and "time" have been her major concentrations across the decades. In the newest poems I see that the trials of aging - the poet was born in 1938 - are also receiving attention on the page, and always, there is the undertone of love that's missed, or love that might have been.

In the poem "Retiring, Gone Missing," she writes "It's a puzzle at this late stage, a nuisance,/really, feeling the self, one used to be/      gone" and later in this poem, "it's odd/being with the stranger   I am/                  becoming". Certainly aging is a hard business, but juxtaposed against poems with titles including "Anxiety," "Ennui" and "The Dark Side, Redux," we see the poet celebrating life's lighter moments. One piece begins with the great line "I'm considering getting to know Walter Matthau," and in another, Campbell recounts visiting her mother's seniors' complex and, noting the resident women doing jigsaw puzzles, the poet says to her sister: "'Shoot me if you see me doing that.'" Then, after a minor surgery, she finds herself doing a jigsaw puzzle.

From her first book we've seen Campbell control her poems' tempo via indentations, white space, one or two-line stanzas, and, often, one-word lines, and this has been a stylistic constant for her, though she also includes occasional prose poems, including "The Beginning," which starts with this lovely line: "I picked up a stone that day walking in the hills, it wasn't the first." This ability to slow the reader and give certain words or phrases extra attention complements the "zen" feeling of much of her work. The meditative quality is particularly apparent in short poems like "More Slowly Evolved," which begins with the image of the poet at her kitchen window, viewing birds "ferret    for the tiniest seeds" to "find    whatever's fallen". I also appreciate how Campbell writes about everyday subjects, like "reheated bacon on thin crisp toast," or tacking shelf-paper in a Lazy Susan.

   

I enjoyed these quiet, introspective poems, perhaps because, like me, Campbell lives in perpetual awe "at the mystery in which we find ourselves". Yes, it's all about the awe, whether it's the memory of pine scents, amber around one's neck, valley hills, "green and shining grasses," deer like ballerinas, philosophy, or the work of angels and artists. Time "gentles down" for all of us, but few have the talent or courage to effectively document how that feels in the heart. Campbell succinctly and eloquently delivers "the fabric" of these days.  

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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"nipê wânîn: my way back"

by Mika Lafond

Published by Thistledown Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$20.00  ISBN 978-1-77187-129-7

   

In her first poetry collection, nipê wânîn: my way back, Saskatoon writer and U of S educator Mika Lafond pays homage to her Cree heritage, the landscape that nurtured her as a child, and various family members-with particular gratitude expressed for grandmothers and great grandmothers-in heartfelt and easy-to-read poems presented in both English and Cree. As the book's title suggests, the poems tell a story of a woman's "way back" to the lessons her ancestors taught to her in their quiet ways. Lafond writes: "Words are spoken in hushed voices/their sacredness not to be shouted."

Lafond's a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, and, with a strong interest in education and the arts, Lafond and her cousin (Joi Arcand) initiated Kimiwan Zine as a venue for Indigenous visual artists and writers. A few of the poems in this book hint at some of the heart-breaking situations she's faced as a teacher and the difficult business of "[getting] through the walls" adolescent male students sometimes put up. One student is "always tired on cheque day" and though "winter is definitely here now-he still doesn't have a jacket".

The writer finds myriad connections between the natural and human worlds, ie: in the poem "elements," she writes that "teardrop/is the same shape as rain," and I was delighted to learn that in Cree, "fire" translates as "woman's heart". In "way back," I appreciated how stars are considered to be "the ones who have gone before," and this image (from that same poem) is terrific: "late at night they join hands-brilliant serpentine belt/in the northern sky/purple splashes on green-shawl upon skirt/great grandmothers". This is a unique way of seeing.

I enjoyed the poems in the second section, "niya/Me," where Lafond included more of the everyday details that make poetry come alive, ie: it's satisfying to know that the song spilling from the red truck's radio on a hot August day is "Big Yellow Taxi" – details like these make the work original and relatable – and I can hear the "constant patter against the plastic pail" while the poet and her family picked chokecherries with "pails belted to [their] waists".

We see the author's finesse with line breaks in "a letter to chief dan george": "it was a good day/to die." She turns back the hands of time and mixes things up, structure-wise, with the prose poem, "homebound," where the "loud claps of thunder applauded the passing storm". Personification-one of a writer's best tools-is at play again in "bird watching": "great bald eagle a tiny dot/weaving in the highest skies/blesses the day".

The poems in these 183-pages tell an interesting life story in snapshots, using colours, dialogue, images, and miniature poems-within-the-poems, like this: "nohkom smells of sage/and sweetgrass—/it may mean nothing now/but my heart will remember/the scent of smudge/in her braids". Poetry helps us remember those things that "may mean nothing now," but certainly will one day.  

Congratulations, Mika Lafond, and thank you for adding your voice to the collective music of Canadian poetry.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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 "Glass Beads"

by Dawn Dumont

Published by Thistledown Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$20.00  ISBN 978-1-77187-126-6

   

The cover image on Dawn Dumont's short story collection, Glass Beads, is an ideal visual metaphor for its content. The high-heeled Chuck Taylor sneakers embroidered with flowers that look like beadwork and a (notably faceless) woman in a First Nations' jingle dress suggest a contemporary twist on traditional First Nations' culture, and that's exactly what Dumont delivers. The book's twenty-three stories are real, relevant, and riveting, and Saskatoon's Dumont - an actor, comedian, newspaper columnist, and three-book author - was a "shoe in" to write these often hilarious interconnected stories about urban-Indigenous friends in the '90s and early 2000s. The tales are so credible-from the diction to the romantic disasters-one can easily believe the author, who hails from Okanese First Nation, is writing exactly what she knows.

This book's overwhelming success lies in its structure, realism, and its characterizations of four friends whose lives crackle with energy, humour, and heartache. All but a few stories are dated by month and year, from 1993 to 2008, and it's interesting to watch these characters both grow but also stay true to who they always were.

Nellie Gordon is the responsible one, and the majority of the Saskatoon-based book is told through her perspective. Razor-witted and ambitious, at university she's on the Native Student Council and earns a law degree. Nellie becomes the brains behind her friend Taz Mosquito's political aspirations: he expects to become Grand Chief. Taz is a "northerner": he speaks Cree, is "totally bush," and has "black-black hair and pale skin like old-timey vampires and a cocky confidence that comes from isolation and not knowing any better." He also has a severe drinking problem. Pretty and outwardly tough Julie Papequash is an eight-year-old running away from on-reserve foster parents when we first meet her; naïve Julie and confident Nellie become childhood and lifetime friends, though "Envy" was invisible Nellie's "knee-jerk response to all things Julie". (When Nellie applies for a waitressing job she tries to curl her hair "to emulate Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct-but every second she stood [there], her hair went from sexy murderer to electrocuted hedgehog".) Julie hooks up with Taz, and Nellie suffers through the years with Everett Kaiswatim: lackabout, womanizer, and "probably the worst drug dealer the city had ever seen". Everett moves from the Salvation Army into the home of a man who, two days later, "went over to his ex-girlfriend's house and shot her". This information's revealed so matter-of-factly, it offers readers a sense of how inner city "normalcy" differs greatly from what goes on in the 'burbs. Nellie joins a group that volunteers in Mexico, and Everett had "always meant to check where Mexico was on the map but never got around to it".  Nellie hopes not to get kidnapped; apart from her Mom, "her family weren't really the foundation-setting-up type".

Dumont has an ear for the real. I could hear the characters "ch," just as I remembered from my youth in Meadow Lake. I howled. I winced. I recognized. Hey, Canada? Please read Dawn Dumont.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Four book reviews: Regine Haensel; Margaret Cote; John D. Pihach; and Jonathan A. Allan, Cristina Santos and Adriana Spahr

“Child of Dragons”

Written by Regine Haensel

Published by Serimuse Books

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$14.95 ISBN 9-780993-903212

  

Saskatoon writer Regine Haensel recently released Child of Dragons, Book Two in her fantasy series, The Leather Book Tales. This ambitious publication follows her 2014 novel Queen of Fire, which was nominated for a High Plains Book Award. In the new novel we journey with restless sixteen-year-old Rowan as she searches for two missing children, is romantically pursued by two young men, and benefits from the protection of a foreign soldier with a penchant for making cryptic statements, like "There is no end to a circle … and when you stand at the centre you can see it whole" and "The moon rises in the evening, until it does not." There are numerous interesting characters in this hard-to-put-down tale, and the author does a splendid job of making each distinct and memorable with her keen gifts for dialogue and physical description.

The book's opening image depicts a small caravan of horse riders, oxen and wagons crossing a "dun-coloured land" near Aquila, City of Eagles, to Vatnborg, a city on a lake. Like all good writers, Haensel quickly moves from scenery to scene, and we learn that Rowan's saying good-bye to a father she's reconnected with after a long separation, the leader of the caravan is a woman named Ursallia, and a good-looking fellow traveler, Jernan - "He sits well on a horse" - has caught Rowan's eye. The story's told from Rowan's point of view, so when she's thinking about her past - her mother's death, Rowan's imprisonment in a castle with her father and younger brother, and the dark fact that she's killed a man - the back-story is seamlessly inserted.    

This is fantasy, so dragons, castles, legends, ravens, and ancient magic - including Rowan's bequeathed silver bracelet - are in grand supply. Late in the story we meet the soothsayer, Tristicus.

I'm impressed by how quickly I was drawn into Rowan's adventure. Whether I was shivering with her in the desert night's cold during the caravan, sailing toward an island ("the sail bulging with wind") to find the two children, or drinking yet another cup of "tisane" with her, I was there. Rowan, an herbalist and healer, has several opportunities to impart the benefits of bee balm, sage, coneflower and mint, for example, and it all seems credible and consistent with the plot. 

At one point the precocious heroine says "Such simple and common things we do while horrors go on in the world," and it's partly this deep empathy that makes her character so appealing. She also possesses a fantastic imagination, so at times even she's not sure if what she's "seeing" is a vision or just a young girl's fancy. "Am I dreaming?" she asks the wise Grandmother late in the book, and the woman answers, "Does it matter?"

Fantasy elements aside, this story strikes a very human chord in its exploration of family, and particularly, parents who've left their children, and how this affects those children for years to come. This is a fascinating book.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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“Nēnapohš Legends”

Narrated by Saulteaux Elders

Transcribed, Translated and Edited by Margaret Cote

Syllabics by Lynn Cote, Glossary by Arok Wolvengrey

Published by University of Regina Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$19.95  ISBN 978-0-88977-219-9

   

Nēnapohš Legends, Memoir 2 in the First Nations Language Readers features seven traditional Salteaux stories I'm happy to have been introduced to. As explained by Margaret Cote and Arok Wolvengrey, these language texts have been used to teach Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwe) in classrooms at First Nations University of Canada in Regina, and prior to this they existed exclusively as oral stories shared between generations.

The central character is Nēnapohš (pronounced NAY nuh bohsh), the "'trickster' or culture-hero" in the Saulteaux tradition. Cote First Nation Elders Andrew Keewatin, John F. Cote, and Cote's daughter, Margaret Cote, a retired Assistant Professor of Salteaux Language Studies, are to be congratulated for preserving these stories via sharing them both orally and in this text. Aside from the fun and imaginative bilingual tales, Nēnapohš Legends includes a Saulteaux syllabary, an extensive Salteaux-English glossary, and detailed ink drawings by Denny Morrison, a Salteaux artist from Ochapowace First Nation.

The first story, "When the Earth was Flooded and How Nēnapohš Recreated It," shares many aspects with the Noah's Ark story, though here God is "Great Spirit," the Noah figure is Nēnapohš, and the ark is "a big raft" which saves its builder and "some of his animal brothers," like beaver, otter, and muskrat, who is responsible for diving and returning with the handful of dirt that Nēnapohš blew on to recreate the world. Wolverine and wolf also play major roles. The final line - "That's as far as it goes for now!" – gives the story that storytelling flavour, and indeed, all of the tales end similarly.     

Most of these very short mythological stories begin with the main character "out walking around". Soon he gets bored, or hungry, or mischievous, and something dramatic happens. The one-page legend "Nēnapohš and the Owl” provides an explanation as to why the owl can turn its head around. The brave owl was attacking the protagonist as he walked through the forest, then Nēnapohš "got a good hold of the owl's head" and broke his neck. In another story, "Nēnapohš and the Geese," readers learn why Geese always fly in a "V" formation.   

Humour's especially evident in "Nēnapohš Makes Red Willows". Here sly Nēnapohš is roasting ducks on a fire and instructs his own "rear-end" to stay on watch for predators while he sleeps. When wolves appear, "his rear-end let out a loud fart to wake him up," but when hunters later arrive and quietly eat the ducks, Nēnapohš isn't warned, and his rear-end is punished by having to sit on a "red-hot rock".

Nēnapohš is simultaneously portrayed as playful, dangerous, clever, and dim-witted, ie: at one point he thinks he's eating dried meat left by his grandmother on the snow, when really he's so hungry and dazed he's been eating his own scabs. Chickadee teasingly sings the truth, and "That's as far as it goes".

This University of Regina Press book squarely hits the mark, both as a teaching tool and an entertaining read, and Morrison's welcome illustrations are worthy of frames.

     

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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“Mudeater: An American Buffalo Hunter and the Surrender of Louis Riel”

by John D. Pihach

Published by University of Regina Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$27.95  ISBN 9-780889-774582   

It's significant when an illustrious individual appropriates an ancestry, ie: Archie Delaney reinventing himself as Grey Owl. Frontiersman Irvin Mudeater had Grey Owl beat: Mudeater switched back and forth between Indian and European ancestry each time he crossed the 49th Parallel. Born to a Wyandot Chief in Kansas, Mudeater's story encompasses buffalo hunting, stage coach driving, the Civil War, and criminal activity that saw him flee to Canada in 1882 and become "Robert Armstrong," the white man who settled in Prince Albert and was credited (with two others) for bringing Louis Riel into custody in 1885.

Yorkton writer John D. Pihach became fascinated with Mudeater/Armstrong's Wild West and Canadian stories after learning that his neighbor was the great-grandson of the famous man, and that Armstrong had written an accessible and unpublished memoir. Considering Armstrong's storytelling penchant, "some of his claims relating to certain historical events appear unconvincing," but Pihach believes the "savage nature" of his "Indian" encounters are reliable. The book includes the memoir, photographs, and reports concerning Riel by reporters and others.

Mudeater's great-grandfather was found as a starving and abandoned Caucasian child by a party of Wyandots; the boy was eating riverbank mud to survive. The Wynadot's adopted him and christened him Mud Eater. Irvin Mudeater's father was politically active, serving as a longtime Wynadot chief and council member who helped establish Kansas, and led his beleaguered nation from Kansas to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Interestingly, there's no mention of Mudeater's own Indian ancestry in his memoirs, thus avoiding a conflict of cultural interest when he aided in Riel's arrest.

Mudeater's spectacular experiences included nearly losing his life to Cheyenne warriors while driving a freight wagon over the Sante Fe Trail; "[practicing] scalping on dead bodies" after a battle; joining Buffalo Bill's crew to supply meat for railroad workers; making pets of an eagle and panther; and killing a man "while on a drunken spree" in Wallace, Kansas.

In 1883 Mudeater was living in Prince Albert, captivating folks with his Wild West tales (including the killing of 126 buffalo in one day), and transporting settlers from Qu'Appelle to Prince Albert. During the 1885 conflict he became a chief scout for General Middleton, then a hero upon Riel's capture. Post-1885,  Armstrong became a family man but kept things colourful re: shenanigans that included shooting the toe off a man, and returning to live in the US with two of his daughters before retirement in Calgary, then a final return to the US.  

     

Mudeater's sometimes rough and often boastful memoir ("at the age of fifteen years, I had a man's experience and I had almost said a man's strength") and the articles and oral accounts concerning him sketch a captivating portrait of the pioneer, but Pihach admits that much of the hot-tempered hero's life remains a mystery. Anyone who enjoys tales of the Wild West and/or the Riel Rebellion – and wishes to hear them straight from the horse's mouth - will find much to chew on in this entertaining book.   

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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“Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)Significance of the Hymen”

Edited by Jonathan A. Allan, Cristina Santos and Adriana Spahr

Published by University of Regina Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$27.95  ISBN 9-780889-774230   

Until I read Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)Significance of the Hymen, I never knew that viragos are Latinas who assume "'male' traits and [transgress] popularly accepted gender roles.'" I didn't know that sexual abstinence in Stephenie Meyer's popular Twilight series is a subject of academic study, nor was I aware of the sketchy business of virginity testing as a literary motif in both medieval romance novels and contemporary English Orientalist romance literature. The trio of editors for this illuminating eight-essay collection by University of Regina Press invite readers to consider the myriad political, social, cultural, and literary complexities concerning the "utter messiness" of virginity.

Firstly, the editors tackle with the difficulty of a singular definition of "virginity," and point to subjective and objective meanings, and the notion that the hymen is not always "the signifier of virginity," (boys and queers lose their virginity, too). The editors and writers of this text "go beyond the hymen" in their considerations of virginity, and this makes for an especially provocative treatise. They also look at perceptions around losing one's virginity, ie: at what age does it become embarrassing to remain "intact"?

Virginity is a serious subject, but one need only read the section titles to ascertain that the editors also have good fun with their disparate material. Part 1 is titled "Too Much Pain for Such Little Reward," and the essays in Part 4 appear under the title "F*ck: They Entrapped Us In Social Issues And Politics".

The first essay, by researcher Amy Burge, examines virginity testing both historically and in literature, comparing medieval romance approaches to those in contemporary romance literature. Historical tests included the ability to carry water in a sieve, and how loudly-and for what length of time-one urinated, while folk stories and medieval romances included magical proofs, ie: "a harp that plays out of tune when a non-virgin approaches." Burge explains that the problems with virginity testing include veracity and the "patriarchal structures" that make virginity testing an "almost exclusively female discourse."

It's interesting that the editors have selected contributors with disparate credentials, ie: Gibson Ncube earned a PhD (in French and francophone literatures) in South Africa, three have connections to Brock University, and Jodi McAlister researches the histories of love, sex, romance, and pop culture, and is linked to Macquarie University in Sydney. The latter notes that contemporary romance novels are largely written by and for women, and "the hymen is regularly represented," but the pain associated with virginity loss is becoming less of a "gory" emphasis than it was in previous texts (in which blood and passing out was frequently featured), and female pleasure is receiving more emphasis. 

 

From the Virgin Mary to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, from British director Derek Jarman's experimental 1976 film Sebastiane to HBO's True Blood vampire series that unsettles "socially conservative ideologies, such as female virginity and sexuality," Virgin Envy delivers a rip-roaring ride (bad pun?) through the ins and outs (again?), perceptions and misperceptions of virginity now and then, here and there.           

  

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Three Book Reviews: Leilei Chen; Curtis Collins, Blair Fornwald, Wendy Peart - Editors: DAG Volumes: No 1 (2012); Lisa Driver

“Re-Orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-Cultural Understanding”

By Leilei Chen

Published by University of Regina Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$80.00  ISBN 9-780889-774407   

  

University of Alberta professor and writer Leilei Chen was born and raised in China, but admits she'd always held an idealized vision of Canada. When a doctoral scholarship brought her to Edmonton, that vision was shattered by Canada's social problems and historical racism – even the weather didn't measure up to her red-leafed dreams. Canadian realities made her consider her homeland and how the "seemingly antithetical" countries actually shared many similarities. She credits her travels for her "more nuanced and critical vision" of both countries. In Re-Orienting China, Chen examines books by six contemporary travel writers on post-1949 China, weighing in on their work and ways of understanding "otherness" with a critical eye, particularly when she senses an us vs. them divide.

                                                         

Chen states a lack of scholarship re: travel literature about China, and she addresses the issue of subjectivity in the genre, concluding that travel writing is "ideologically loaded." In her exhaustive reading she found that "women writers who travelled in Communist China" were more inclined to "sensitivity, self-reflection, and comparative visions of home and abroad." Her focus is on "the process of cultural translation," and she maintains that one simultaneously learns about and transforms "self" while travelling. "I look for the connections and the commonalities … and examine the transformations that result from [travellers'] interactions with that foreign place."

Two of the six writers Chen studies are Canadian, and Jan Wong – readers may recognize her from the Globe and Mail – is among them. Wong's book Red China Blues (1996) examines her time as a Canadian student at Beijing University during China's Cultural Revolution. She thought the Communist system would bestow "freedom and equality on every member of the society," but in actuality she found her time in China difficult, overwhelming and "personally traumatic." Her university roommate, she learned, was "assigned to spy on her."

American Peter Hessler wrote about his two-year experiences in Fuling as a Peace Corps volunteer: he determined that it was important to learn Chinese if he was to understand the culture and make friendships. Canadian scientist Jock Tuzo Wilson had his stereotypes challenged in Peking, and says American mass media pre-shaped his opinions.

Based on Chen's commentary, the book I'd be most interested in reading is anthropologist Hill Gates' book, Looking for Chengdu: A Woman's Adventure in China. She writes authentically as an American woman who makes many mistakes along the way, and she even ponders abandoning her career focus on China.

Though much of Re-Orienting China concern's Chen's academic analyses, I also learned facts about Chinese culture, ie: eating all the food on your plate indicates to a host that you're still hungry, and you'll be served again, and that the Chinese only reluctantly identify themselves on the phone.   

This book's important because, as Chen says, travellers are the "translator[s] of culture," and if we want to have meaningful dialogues across cultures in this increasingly globalized society we live in, it's wise to understand, through various perspectives, how we're all in this world together.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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 “DAG Volumes: No. 1 (2012)"

Editors Dr. Curtis Collins, Blair Fornwald, Wendy Peart

Published by Dunlop Art Gallery

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$60.00  ISSN: 1929-9214

The Dunlop Art Gallery is a department of the Regina Public Library, thus it's fitting that Library Director and CEO Jeff Barber provided the foreword to DAG Volumes: No. 1 (2012), a limited-edition hardcover celebrating seventeen insightful essays by eleven contributors, and 130 full-colour photographs that are the next best thing to visiting the DAG in person. The exhibition retrospective features work from DAG's Central Gallery, its Sherwood Village location, and in situ art.   

As this comprehensive volume of the gallery's 2012 exhibitions and events was released a handful of years ago, a little Googling enlightened me that then-director Dr. Curtis Collins now heads The Yukon School of Visual Arts (Dawson City), but I turn to his introduction for words on DAG's 50th anniversary – the reason for this first in a prospective series of books. "Such a feat of longevity in Canada, by any cultural institution, should be duly noted." Agreed!

Collins laments the fact that many show catalogues never get read and  "continue to pile up across the country," and thus he writes hopefully that each copy in the 350 print-run of this book will be sold at the end of 2013. Mission accomplished? I don't know, but I'm elated to have my hands on a copy of this glorious publication, as I find it incredibly interesting to discover the why and how of an individual's art-making, as well as viewing the finished products. Reading the essayists' thoughts on the work is like having my own personal guide walking around the gallery with me to enhance my experience.

The opening essay, written by Linda Jansma, concerns the retrospective of art by Shelagh Keeley, an accomplished Canadian who works on paper and produces wall drawings around the world. As with many of the other artists represented here, the photographs include gallery shots, so readers can contemplate the art as it was presented at DAG. "[Keeley's] drawings take the form of language," Jansma poetically writes, "spreading over the [steel] panels like words over a page."    

Dr. Curtis Collins' engaging essay on the multi-media exhibition Darwin's Nose, by artist Trevor Gould, includes movie (ie: Planet of the Apes) and American-Iraqi military conflict references to elucidate ideas around this Charles Darwin/orangutan-inspired show. Aside from watercolours and sculpture, Gould produced a video of Toronto Metro Zoo orangutans interacting (or not) with his sculptural elements. "The artist was able to elicit a range of emotions from visitors to the Darwin's Nose exhibition, in confirmation of the orangutans' role as an ideal stand-in for the emblematic joy and angst of humankind," Collins writes.

Art enriches us. From Susan Shantz's whimsical frog pots to Terrance Houle's landscape photography that "[reinforces] the notion of ongoing colonial possession." From Robin Lambert's relational art that explores "how we seek and create social connections" to Daryl Vocat's bold prints, often "liberated" from Boy Scout handbooks. From "uncanny" dance performances to botany-inspired watercolours, this beautiful book underscores what many already understand: creating art is a kind of genius. All hail the artists.  

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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“Leap!: How to Overcome Doubt, Fear, And Grief & Choose The Path Of Joy"

By Lisa Driver

Published by DriverWorks Ink

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$19.95  ISBN 978-192757033-3

When I review a self-help book, I'm interested in knowing the author's story. Is he or she writing based on personal experience? If so, I'm immediately more invested. The combination of practical advice and personal revelation is precisely what writer Lisa Driver delivers in her second book, and its long subtitle provides  a summary of what readers are in for: advice on ways to "Overcome Doubt, Fear, And Grief [And] Choose The Path of Joy."  

Driver wears multiple hats. The Regina-born writer is a "certified Angel Therapist, Advanced Angel Tarot and oracle card reader, Medium, and Reiki Practitioner," and in 2016 she became a new mother. In this ninety-six page softcover she conversationally discusses her decision to leave the financial security of traditional employment and follow her dream to focus exclusively on her business, Above 540, which serves to inspire others "to the joy and wonder that exists around them, and [help] them step into their power" via readings and spiritually-based teaching and healing. Setting intentions, meditating, creating awareness, setting boundaries, practicing gratitude, journaling, and gaining clarity re: what one wants are all part of Driver's recipe for more joy.  

The book also balances two disparate events in the author's life: her sixty-one-year-old father's death, and the birth of her daughter. Advice on improving one's own happiness is woven through these stories, and several meditation-style exercises are included, ie: using deep breathing to "fill you up with energy," and then imagining a dazzling light filling your body. "With this shield of light surrounding you, you are always safe and connected to the Divine." 

The "Divine" here is also inclusively named "God" and "the Universe". Driver subscribes to "The Law of Attraction" ("like attracts like" and "what you focus on, expands"). She and her business partner, Carla, teach a vibrational scale that "associates numbers with certain emotions." Driver says "The Law of Attraction" responds to the "vibrations we emit every day" - the higher the vibrational number, "the more powerful and positive the emotion."

Resiliency is critical in this life, and when the author/healer learns that her beloved father has a "fist-sized" cancerous mass in his abdomen, her spiritual beliefs and coping skills help her navigate through the hell of his Stage IV colon cancer. His diagnosis "kicked me in the butt and helped move me forward," she writes. Sadly and ironically, the day she learns - via phone call in a Tim Horton's restaurant - that her father's cancer has spread is the same day her much-awaited pregnancy is confirmed. "Life goes on," her father sagely tells her.   

This book serves as a reminder that living well and joyfully is our own responsibility, and regardless of our circumstances, it's completely up to us to make the necessary changes that ensure we remain on a positive track. Readers will take away what they need to from Driver's story, but for me, it was the statement that "The only moment we know we have is this one." Yes. Better make it great. 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Four Book Reviews: Jordan, Kehler, McCrosky, Burton

“Been in the Storm So Long"

Written by Terry Jordan

Published by Coteau Books

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$21.95  ISBN 9-781550-506877

I've long considered Terry Jordan to be a masterful writer, but if there's any justice in the literary universe, his latest novel - the epic and historical Been in the Storm So Long - should earn him national award nominations. This captivating story centres on the sometimes discordant rhythms of family and community, the restless and hungry Atlantic, and the music that scores and changes lives. The mesmerizing tale moves with lyricism and grace, transporting readers from a small Nova Scotia fishing village to New Orleans.

Protagonist John Healy is "just another sickly Irish infant begun in Sligo," whose father moves the family to Canada for a brighter future. Jordan's characters are imaginative storytellers and dreamers, some with peculiar gifts (ie: John has "the ability to listen to clouds"), and they've brought their superstitions across the pond. "There was sorcery everywhere on the water; be wary," a young John is warned, "and it was left at that." When a whale beaches on a shoal and the curious come to inspect (and slaughter) it, John's mother claims that "Pure grief'd be the cause of that," and wonders "How much sorrow does it take to fill the likes of a poor thing its size." From then on, John dreams of becoming a whaler.

 

Jordan deftly creates atmosphere. Odette, a gifted violinist from childhood (and John's future wife), plays her music from the hills above the village, competing with sea birds. "At times, on the hill, she walked in a fog so calm and thick she could turn and still see the path where the movement of her legs and body had made a cloudy stir." Odette's dream is to see the world and "experience music that was not her own." A third significant character, Daniel Burke, was tragically orphaned as a teen and thus moves in with Odette's family. Daniel dreams of Odette.

The text is rife with foreshadowing, though the story's so broad and rich, one would need to return to the beginning to thread all the clues together. On each page the author wields his pen like a poet who knows the secret to mesmerizing readers. Here Jordan describes the all-important weather: "It snowed the sad spring day they sailed, in Halifax, too, the hopeful first morning they arrived in Canada. The air was shaggy with it …"

The tale transports us across borders, generations and cultures. Here's a gem from a sweaty New Orleans' dance hall scene: "Shadow shapes – all alphabets of arms and legs – jumped to the music, every face dark-skinned except for his." Another fine line, concerning John and his precocious son, Gabriel, as they pull in their fish net: "Line upon layer of fish had spilled onto the sand, head to tail to head to tail all the same direction inland, lying there obedient as dogs and so uniformly configured they seemed like the scales on their own dying sides."

This is a storm-tossed and heart-swelling sea of a book. You should experience it.    

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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“Goodbye Stress, Hello Life!”

by Allan Kehler

Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$15.95  ISBN 978-1-927756-53-9

Stress: every person deals with some amount of it. Some turn to vices (drugs, alcoholism, over-eating); some become angry, fearful, or depressed; many become physically ill; and fortunate others view stress as a challenge to be dealt with in positive ways (ie: changing routines, practicing mindfulness, exercising). If stress is threatening to sink you, reading Saskatonian Allan Kehler's latest book could be a swell start to swimming out of it.

Kehler is a public presenter with a wealth of experience, both professional (addictions counsellor, clinical case manager, and college instructor) and personal (mental health and addiction issues) that fuel his authority on stress and living a healthier life. The blurb on Goodbye Stress, Hello Life! is a strong motivator for any potential readers: [Kehler] empowers you to take an honest look at what lies beneath your stressors, and provides the tools to heal through a holistic approach. You will be inspired to stop existing and start living …"

What I appreciate most about this book is the great and diverse analogies Kehler employs, ie: he talks about the body's "sympathetic system" acting like a gas pedal during a stressful event. This is the "fight or flight" response: in times of stress, we tend to either jam the gas (flight) or hit the brake (fight). (Doing nothing is another option.) Among balanced individuals, a natural ebb and flow exists between these reactions, but one can become "stuck" on either response, and this is where addictions and other negative choices may kick in.

Another analogy concerns the teachings of a turtle … the turtle "teaches us the importance of going within" and, in this fast-paced and instant gratification-society, "to slow down." When we truly look inside ourselves, Kehler maintains we "will find all of [our] answers," and slowing allows us to be silent and listen to our "gut" for "strong and accurate information." Agreed. I took a Mindfulness class recently, and the instructor spoke of people having two brains: the gut brain and the intellectual brain, and said that the deepest thinkers think very little. Instead, they go still and wait for the "gut feeling," which is a much more reliable brain.

Kehler's text is peppered with interesting statistics, ie: "One study revealed that 75 to 90 percent of all doctors' office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints (Goldberg, 2007)." Learning to deal effectively with stress could be beneficial at so many levels, from reducing doctor's visits for ulcers and fatigue to extending lives that ended too early from stress-influenced diseases like cancer, diabetes and stroke.

The author discusses remedies for workplace stress, ie: time management and progressive muscle relaxation; the importance of not only talking about one's pain but also "feel[ing] your feelings; and the lessons we can learn from children. He says "A sense of child-like wonder manifests itself when you build a tree fort or engage in a game of tag." Again, I find myself agreeing: only yesterday, I went skating … and even tried a few spins.  

 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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 “Lifting Weights”

by Judy McCrosky

Published by Thistledown Press

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$18.95  ISBN 978-1-77187-105-1

   

Saskatoon's Judy McCrosky has a reputation for pushing the limits. As a multi-genre writer she's authored an eclectic repertoire of material, including literary short stories, sci-fi and fantasy, non-fiction, and even (under a pseudonym) a Silhouette Romance novel. In her latest short fiction collection, Lifting Weights, McCrosky asks us to step slightly outside the borders of reality and spend a few hours in unusual worlds that may be closer than we think.

This imaginative ten-story collection features a wide range of plots, from the moving "Shelter," about a distraught mother navigating both her brain-injured son's care and the return of her estranged husband, to a tale about a lonely pathologist, Andrea, who finds a "disgustingly cute" hamster in her home and soon has sixty-one furry new animal friends. This story makes parallel statements about the earth's ecology (the shrinking ozone layer), and men's inability to see beyond the surface of appearance when considering a partner. Andrea finds a warm community among her female, quilter friends, but when she goes to a party she has to "wear a dress of cute hamsters to be seen by men."

  

The crowning story is "Death TV". There's a strong science fiction trend in movies (and Netflix TV series) currently, and I could easily see "Death TV" produced as a "Black Mirror" episode. The story concerns Perry, a photojournalist who is the "acknowledged expert on anything to do with the Death TV Network," which is every iota as grim as it sounds. As the story opens, Perry's sitting in a bar with a friend watching a TV screen: "… a man, wrinkled face peaceful, rolled his eyes toward the camera, and breathed his last. Perry reached for another handful of potato chips and munched on them, watching as the show switched to another deadbed scene." The more gruesome the death scene - ie: motorcycle accidents, deaths on the series Gladiators - the more potential TV viewers. Sadly, this does not seem far-fetched.

Perry stays tuned to accident calls and races on his motorcycle to be first to photograph the deaths. In this future world – again, it seems frighteningly nearby – he breathes fresh air through an "Airomatic" (oxygen tank connected to his motorcycle). "Darwin laws" have made mandatory helmet-wearing a thing of the past: "New laws left people free to make their own choices, and that was the sign of a civilized society." How brutal has civilization become? When a train-car collision call comes in, Perry considers what he may find. "Maybe the vehicle hit by the train would be more than just a single car. Maybe it would be a school bus." Dying children, he thinks "would be good TV."

Symbolism and contrast are major features in McCrosky's unique work, and in "Death TV" the public's hunger for death scenes is balanced against the life of a gentle mortician whose passion is caring for monarch butterflies. What happens when an associate producer from Death TV arrives at his door? Oh, you should really find out.     

  

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

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 “Road Allowance Kitten”

Written by Wilfred Burton, Illustrated by Christina Johns, Translated by Norman Fleury

Published by Gabriel Dumont Institute

Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

$15.00  ISBN 978-1-926795-72-0

This bilingual children's picture book - with the green-and-yellow-eyed, plot-important kitten on the cover – gently tells a true and unpleasant story in prairie history: the poverty, hardship and displacement of the Road Allowance Métis. Like it sounds - and as explained in the back-notes - a road allowance is "a strip of [government-owned] land adjoining a parcel of surveyed land … set aside in case roads will be built in the future."

One need not know the historical truth to appreciate this well-delivered story about family and friendship, sharing, and both the joys and hardships of living a basic lifestyle, but it bears a reminder. After the 1885 Resistance, numerous Métis displaced from their traditional homes and land used scrap materials to build new, often uninsulated and tar paper-roofed shacks on road allowances. They worked for local farmers (ie: clearing fields of rocks and trees), and picked Seneca root and berries, grew gardens, trapped and hunted (though a 1939 law made year-round and unlicensed trapping and hunting illegal, and expensive fines resulted). "Squatters" don't pay tax, and their children, therefore, were not allowed to attend school. The government began relocating (aka "evicting") the Road Allowance people in the 1930s, and Burton's story concerns the 1949 displacement of Métis from the Lestock area to Green Lake. It's a story he'd heard told, in slightly different form, by three women.        

The author does a lovely job of unobtrusively painting a realistic picture of the lives of the Métis characters, complete with jigging, sashes, and bannock in the grub box. Cousins and best friends Rosie and Madeline crack ice in the ditches, play a game called Canny Can, and chase "flittering butterflies and nectar-seeking bumblebees." The girls discover a calico kitten "in a dusty Christmas orange box under a pile of rubble," and proceed to share the beloved pet.

It's a happy, if simple, existence for the children, but when "strange men in suits from town" arrive, their families are given just a few days' notice that they'll have to move "way up north in the bush". Rosie's father tries to put a positive spin on it: "'They promised us our own land. There are lots of trees to build a log house. There'll be good fishing in the lakes and good hunting in the bush. Maybe even a school for you!'" Will the kitten go with them?

The colourful illustrations tell their own stories, ie: clothes drying over a barbed wire fence; beaded moccasins and a homemade quilt; a wagon transporting families' entire, boxed-up lives to the train station. The softcover comes with its own soundtrack - the story's read in English by Wilfred Burton; Michif narration's by Norman Fleury- and includes a glossary, map, and even instructions for Canny Can.

Road Allowance Kitten tells an important story that prairie children may not learn in school, but should. "This was their home. The only home they knew. The home they loved." How tragic that it should all go up, literally, in smoke.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM