No comments about How I Became a Kid From a Baby.

No comments about Coming Home: Saskatchewan Remembered.

No comments about Ernest Thompson Seton, Founder of the Woodcraft Movement 1860-1946: Apostle of Indian Wisdom and Pioneer Ecologist.

No comments about A World Under Sentence: John Richardson and the Interior.

No comments about The Best Man for the Job: Joe Fratesi and the Politics of Sault Ste. Marie.

No comments about Tommy Douglas: Dream No Little Dream.

1 comments about Voices of the Left Behind: Project Roots and the Canadian War Children of World War II.

1. After World War II Canada welcomed over 65,000 War Brides of Canadian Armed Services personnel. Many had happy married lives and some did not. We have all heard their stories; sometimes the storytellers were among our own families and friends.
   But what about the 23,000 women, many of them teenagers, who were not so lucky, who bore children and were abandoned by their (often married or bigamous) lovers when the war was over? The attitude of the Canadian authorities was that illegitimate children of servicemen were not their problem; the soldier was posted elsewhere and requests for financial assistance were denied.
   
   This book opens the door on these hidden and tragic stories that were kept out of sight and out of mind for too long. It contains 50 simple narratives, many written by the now aging children themselves about their heart-wrenching experiences growing in a world that all too often despised and mistreated them for being illegitimate, and about their attempts to find their Canadian roots. Many of the war children still search in vain; their fathers are long since dead. The most poignant stories are those of fathers who returned from Canada to marry their sweethearts and were rejected by them. Yet there are happy endings for some children who discovered and were welcomed by half siblings half a world away.
   
   There is a nice balance of stories: British children, Dutch and German children, adopted children, children of war brides whose marriages failed, children of Canadian Servicewomen.
   
   My one complaint is that the book is too short. Twice as many stories would have made a greater impact. I saw many other, unresolved, stories on the authors' website which unfortunately did not appear here.
   Have the Kleenix box handy when you read this book.

1 comments about Dear Nan: Letters of Emily Carr, Nan Cheney, and Humphrey Toms.

1. As a long time "fan" of the art of Canada's Emily Carr, I was anxious to read more of her writings. Through these letters to "friends", we, the reader, are given another side of Emily Carr. So much has been written about her irascible personality as she grew older; her intolerance, her feistiness. But in these letters I heard echoes of loneliness, insecurity and the fear of aging and growing sick that we all share about our own futures. I am not sure she would have liked having these letters published but I think reading these letters can give an insight that genius is not always confident or happy...that each of her paintings was like a child that she wanted everyone to love and understand. We read about her daily struggle to find a place to live, to relate to people, to just survive. This is what we read in "Dear Nan". The book saddened me that it was obvious that Emily Carr died alone with no one near her for comfort. It made me question the quality of her friends, and if they were truly friends. I think every reader of this book will examine their own lives, be they artists or just human beings because this book is really about friendship.

No comments about Raincoast Chronicles 16: Time & Tide: A History of Telegraph Cove (Raincoast Chronicles).

No comments about Creative Canada; A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Creative and Performing Artists..