Fitzhenry & Whiteside

Newsletter
Winter 2010

Welcome to the Winter 2010 Fitzhenry & Whiteside Newsletter!

Greener Grass, by Caroline Pignat was the winner of
The Governor General's Literary Award
Children’s Literature — Text category!
  

The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada
presenting the Governor's General award to Caroline Pignat
   

Ontario's Old Growth Forests

Michael Henry and Peter Quinby

Ontario's old growth forests are fantastical and mysterious, but who knows where to find one. Most people in this province live within an hour's drive of an old growth forest, but do not know it. The ecology of these stands is engrossing. Fire scars on these trees, for example, provide an indisputable record of forest fire activity in Ontario. Small hemlock saplings, over 100 years old, have been growing at infinitesimal rates, waiting for a gap to open in the forest canopy.
 

Who would have thought that dwarf cedar trees growing on the Niagara Escarpment could live to be nearly 2000 years old. Or that the small bonsai cedars lining the shorelines of the Canadian shield measure their ages in centuries. Old pine trees in Temagami are often over 10 storeys tall, but these are young sprouts compared to trees of yesteryear, which were as much as 20 storeys high.

Beginner's Guide to Minerals and Rocks

Joel Grice

Beginner's Guide to Minerals and Rocks is the most comprehensive, full-colour guide to rocks and minerals for beginner rock hounds all over the world.

As curator of minerals at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Joel Grice has brought the museum's collection to world-class status through astute purchases and annual collecting trips all over the world. Joel brings an unequalled enthusiasm and love of geology to this, his second popularization book.

As we learn more and more about our country’s natural resources, it becomes that much more important that Beginners Guide to Minerals and Rocks be added to our bookshelves.

Portraits of an Era:
The Aerial Photography of Howdy McPhail

Bill Waiser
Photography by H D. McPhail

An astounding collection of aerial photographs of farms, villages, and communities large and small from Ontario to British Columbia-Thunder Bay to Victoria-in the 1950s and 1960s. This book is perfect for the nostalgia and gift market, history and aviation buffs, and those interested in photography. The never before published collection is unique for its immeasurable historic value.
 

What really distinguishes Howdy's work is the simple artistry of each composition. His aerials are not in any sense generic, or for that matter, sterile. Even though he was both flying the plane and using a handheld camera, his photographs are amazingly sharp. They are also surprisingly detailed, especially given the distance from the subject, and this textual richness provides a window to the material culture of the period. Howdy had a keen sense of the landscape and tried to capture the rhythm and patterns of daily life by including people and their activities in the scenes whenever possible.

Fairy Tales in the Classroom

Veronika Martenova Charles

This ground breaking book by renowned children’s author Veronika Charles provides teachers in the early grades with the background and practical approaches they need to maximize the potential of traditional tales with their students.

Charles outlines the contributions to our understanding of the fairy tale genre by Bettelheim, Favat, Rodari and Jung and then builds on the pioneering work of Vladimir Propp to create an easy to use symbol system which guides students to tell - orally, pictorially and in writing - their own stories based on archetypes

that are fully developed in the book. Her approach has been tested in numerous classrooms with wonderful and often surprising results.

Long Powwow Nights

All Ages

David Bouchard and Pam Aleekuk
Illustrated by Leonard Paul
Music by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Children's Non-Fiction / Native North American / People and Places - Canada

The Powwow is a time-honoured Native American custom. It is a celebration of life and spirituality, a remembrance of traditions, uniting a people through dance and ritual.

Long Powwow Nights takes you on a wonderful journey, honouring these mystical dancers who keep their traditions alive through dance and song. In its poetic verses, David Bouchard skillfully narrates the story of a mother’s dedication to her roots and her efforts to impress upon her child the importance of culture and identity.

Internationally revered Native American artist, Leonard Paul, brings the story alive with his beautiful renditions of powwow dancers, warriors, and stunning landscape.

The book is accompanied by a CD, which includes music by internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter, Buffy Sainte- Marie. It is bilingual in English and Mi'kmaq and is also available in French and Mi'kmaq as Nuits de pow-wow.

The Secret of Your Name

Ages 4 to 8

David Bouchard
Illustrated by Dennis J. Weber
Music by John Arcand

Children's Non-Fiction / Native North American / People and Places - Canada

Canada's three most well known and respected Métis artists collaborate in this heart wrenching telling of what it means to be Métis. Best selling, award winning Métis poet David Bouchard, once again makes books and culture available to all ages in The Secret of Your Name.

Bouchard's heartfelt story is illustrated by Canada's most prominent Métis artist Dennis Weber. Included on the accompanying CD, with reading in English and Michif, is the Red River Jig performed by acclaimed Master Métis Fiddler John Arcand. The book is also available in French and Michif as Le Secret de ton Nom.
  

Tumbleweed Skies

Valerie Sherrard

Ages 18 to 11
Juvenile Fiction / Family / Multi-generations / Self-Esteem and Self-Reliance / Historical

The moment Ellie and her father pull up in front of her Grandmother Acklebee’s farm in Weybolt, Saskatchewan, Ellie knows the place doesn’t want her. And it’s the last place she wants to be! But Ellie has no choice. Her father was laid off from the mill in Moose Jaw, and he’s been taken on by the Marvelous Cookware Company as a salesman, a job that will take him clear across the province and back. The road is no place for a nine-year-old, but leaving Ellie with her grandmother is definitely a last resort, and Ellie is devastated.

Ellie doesn’t know her grandmother, who angrily blames her son-in-law and granddaughter for her daughter’s death. And although her Uncle Roger is a kind man, Ellie is quickly cowed by the old woman, who shows her

no kindness. Determined to survive the situation with her dignity intact, Ellie isn’t about to show her grandmother that she can be hurt.  

Set on the Canadian prairies of the mid-fifties, Tumbleweed Skies is a moving story of isolation, loneliness, and one family’s journey to heal itself.

Sila's Revenge

Jamie Bastedo

Ages 19 to 12
Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Emotions & Feelings

Eighteen-year-old Ashley Anowiak is an eco-warrior who is prepared to go to any lengths to bring to the world’s attention the plight of Planet Earth. She's already burned down the office of the local oil company. Now she’s ready to move out of her own Arctic community and into the international spotlight.

Ashley is part of a group called the Dream Drummers, who have been invited to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Here the adventure only begins, as she and her group of friends are pirated off to Australia by an embittered former environmentalist bent on executing a mysterious cataclysmic gesture which will endanger everyone.
  

It’s at this moment that Ashley and the Dream Drummers are called to perform on the massive Scorched Earth Stage, in front of an audience of half a million, and a television audience of half the world’s population.  

The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy

Jill MacLean

Ages 12+
Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Emotions & Feelings / Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance / Bullying

An alcoholic mother, a distracted father, a best friend who spends all his time with his new “girlfriend,” and three relentless schoolyard bullies: Prinny Murphy’s past, present, and future certainly are “tense.” Adding to her misery, she is in grade six and still can’t read well enough to escape from remedial lessons with the dour Mrs. Dooks. But when a kindly substitute teacher introduces her to LaVaughn’s inner-city world in the free verse novel, Make Lemonade, Prinny discovers that life can be full of possibilities—and poetry.

Released in November and already on
Resource Links Best Books of 2009 list

Living Outside the Lines

Lesley Choyce

Ages 13+
Teen Fiction / Science Fiction

Nigel is a 16-year-old high school student who writes a class assignment about a world in which teenagers become the leading actors in society, politically, economically, socially and medically. Unexpectedly, a publisher expresses interest, the book is published, and very quickly Nigel becomes an unwitting celebrity, subject to praise and sometimes violent opposition.

Nigel’s a loner, not a social animal, and to his surprise a mysterious new classmate fastens onto him - and strongly encourages him to complete his novel. Where she’s from is unknown, but Michelle is beautiful and intelligent and as it turns out, from the future, and the book Nigel’s written has become in her time a guidebook for the youth of her day.

Complicating Nigel’s life is the fact that Michelle has to return to her own time—and it’s left to him to decide whether he must say goodbye to her forever or else join her in the future. If he does, he can never return to his own world, in a time where teenagers remain outside the realms of power and control.

Classic Lesley Choyce, Living Outside the Lines is a fast-paced, edgy novel that continually challenges readers on the meanings of human life, power, control and love.  

Hockey Talk
Ages 14+

John Goldner
Illustrated by Ted Heeley

Juvenile Non-Fiction / Reference / Sports & Recreation / Hockey

“He shoots, he scores!”

Hockey has a language unique to the game that has developed over the past hundred years. The patter of play-by-play and colour commentators shapes how the fans understand and relate to the game. Hockey Talk introduces young readers – both seasoned hockey enthusiasts and novices alike – to the unique terminology of hockey with over 150 terms, clear explanations, an illustrated cast of characters, and sidebars of fun facts. Short profiles of ten influential commentators, including Don Cherry, Danny Gallivan, Foster Hewitt, and Mike Lange, highlight their contributions to the language of this great winter sport.

Come and Learn With Me:
Éwo, séh Kedįdįh  

Sheyenne Jumbo and Mindy Willett
Photography by Tessa Macintosh

Ages 8 to 14
Juvenile Non-Fiction / Polar Regions / Native Canadian

Nine-year-old Sheyenne lives in Sambaa K’e, Northwest Territories - that’s Trout Lake in English. Come learn with her as she takes you on a journey to her community in the fall, the season of moose.

This is the fourth book in the popular series “The Land Is Our Storybook” and features the Dehcho region of the Dene.

Tim Horton:
From Stanley Cups to Coffee Cups

Don Quinlan

Ages 8+
Juvenile Non-Fiction / Biography / Sports

From his childhood in the hard-scrabble Ontario north, to the rinks of St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, to the NHL and entrepreneurial success, Tim Horton worked hard - and played hard - his entire life. The tough defenseman with the bullet-hard slap shot helped the Leafs to win four Stanley Cups. Before his tragic and untimely death in a car accident at the age of 44, he also established a chain of donut shops that has become an enduring Canadian icon. Tim Horton’s story of hard work and perseverance will inspire young hockey players and donut fans alike.
  

The book is in full colour with archival photographs, statistics, and illustrations throughout.

Yum! Yum!!

Joanne Fitzgerald

Ages 3 to 5
Juvenile Fiction / Imagination and Play

New in Board Book format
   

This little piggy went to market, and he's not alone in this baker's dozen of traditional nursery rhymes set at a farmer's market. There are lots of other folk who have their own comestible business to attend to: Tommy Tucker, Jack Sprat, Miss Muffet, Peter Piper-even the little guy who eats his peas with honey.

Joanne Fitzgerald creates a world of animal characters with the same charm and bounce as her latest bestseller, This is Me and Where I Am. A grand, lip-smacking collection for little ones.
  

●  Quill and Quire's Best Picture Books of the Year 2007
●  Resource Link's "Best of 2008" List

When the Horses Ride By:
Children in the Times of War

Eloise Greenfield
Illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist

Ages 7 to 11
Dreams & Aspirations / Historical / Multiethnic / Overcoming Obstacles / War

New Edition
   

Wars have occurred throughout history, in all parts of the world, and they continue today. In spite of the hardship and suffering of wartime, children often find ways to see beauty and hope — in the natural world, in the love of family and friends, and in the ordinary activities of childhood. Through these graceful and eloquent poems, written from the child's perspective, readers will experience this resilience, this optimism, and understand that it is possible to get through difficult and unsettling times while holding onto one's hopes and dreams for a better, more peaceful future.
  

●  Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) "Choices" Award Winner
●  International Reading Association Notable Books for a Global Society Award Winner
●  Myers Outstanding Book Award, Honorable Mention

The Nine Lives of Travis Keating

Jill MacLean

Ages 9 to 12
Juvenile Fiction / Death and Dying / Social Issues / Bullying

New Cover
   

After his mother's death, Travis Keating and his father move to Ratchet, Newfoundland, to start a new life. Some life. Travis soon discovers that only a few oddballs show any interest in him: Cole, a talker who soon makes himself scarce; Hector, a strange kid whose ears stick out; and Prinny, a girl as scraggly as her skinny ponytail. Nobody you can really call a friend. And then there's Hud, the toughest, nastiest bully in school, who hates "townies" and promises to make Travis's life an utter misery. But Travis doesn't care. He's got his "funeral face," a tight mask that gives away nothing and allows him to hide his feelings. Funeral face comes in handy, especially with parents and other adults who think they know what you're feeling every minute of the day.

The Nine Lives of Travis Keating is a moving story about coping with grief.

But more than that, it's about belonging, learning to be a friend, and finding bravery in the most unexpected of places.

●  CLA Children's Book of the Year Award shortlist, 2009
●  Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature Nominee, 2009
●  2009 KIND Children's Honour Book
●  OLA's Silver Birch Fiction nominee 2010
●  Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice, 2009 «Starred Choice
●  On Resource Link's "Best of 2008" List

Focus on Flies

Norma Dixon

Ages 8 to 12
Juvenile Non-Fiction / Animals / Insects

Despite its horrible habits, the house fly is an astonishing creature. It has survived for millions of years, outlived the fiercest dinosaurs, and has adapted to life in almost every habitat on Earth. With its huge compound eyes, the house fly sees everywhere at once. And with its ability to fly, flip over, and then walk upside down, it escapes even the craftiest predators.

Filled with fascinating facts, essential information, engaging activities, and full-colour photographs and illustrations, Focus on Flies takes readers inside the world of the house fly.

●  Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch Express Nominee, 2010
●  On Resource Links Best Books of 2009 list

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