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GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD/CHILDREN'S LITERATURE(THE CANADA COUNCIL)
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THE ROOSTER'S GIFTPAM CONRAD
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When ten chicks are hatched one day in a brand-new chicken coop, the farmer's wife feeds them, watches them with care, and wonders if the rooster has "the gift". Young Rooster doesn't know what "the gift" is, but proud in the knowledge that he is different from his sisters, feels he's got it. When the urge to crow comes upon him early one morning and he causes the sun to rise, he understands his gift and develops into a very cocky rooster indeed. Until the day he oversleeps.... The splendid illustrations capture the detail of the barnyard, the emotions of the rooster and the chicks, and the radiance of the dawn.
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IN FLANDERS FIELDS: THE STORY OF THE POEM BY JOHN McCRAELINDA GRANFIELD
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One of the best-loved poems of World War I, "In Flanders Fields", was written by Dr. John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer who treated the wounded and buried the dead along the front lines. In the midst of mind-numbing horror and devastation, he wrote the simple, guileless words which, even today, inspire images not only of loss and destruction, but also of hope and renewal. In celebrating the poem (not war) and the man who wrote it, the author and illustrator have created a thoughtful, informative and exquisite work of art which introduces children to the subject of war with restraint and sensitivity.
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DANIEL'S STORYCAROL MATAS
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As Daniel and his family are transported by train from their comfortable home in Frankfurt, Germany to the filthy and overcrowded ghetto in Lodz, Poland, Daniel looks at old family photos and wonders what went wrong. It is 1941 and Daniel is a Jewish teenager. This account of the Holocaust, as seen through his eyes, takes the reader from pre-war harassment and hardship in Frankfurt to the abhorrent living conditions of the Lodz ghetto, to the atrocities of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and finally to liberation at war's end. Throughout it all Daniel is downtrodden but not defeated and he survives to tell his story, Daniel's Story, that it may not be forgotten, that it may never happen again.
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BRINGING UP BEAUTYSYLVIA McNICOLL
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When Elizabeth Kerr's mother persuades the family to foster Beauty, a puppy going into guide-dog training, it begins as just another one of her family projects. But after Beauty's arrival in early September, most of the responsibility for her becomes Elizabeth's. Beauty causes lots of problems but she is always there for Elizabeth: when her father is downsized, when her sister Debra moves out, and when Elizabeth finds her first boyfriend and loses her best friend. The constant support helps Elizabeth through her 13th year, but eventually Beauty must leave.... This is a funny, fast-paced account of contemporary family life.
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THE FABULOUS SONGDON GILLMOR
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Born into a musical family little Frederic is named after that musical virtuoso Frederic Chopin. His doting mother, Mrs. Pipkin, thinks he is beautiful and, more importantly, musical. But no matter what instrument he tries, he seems to come up flat until the moment he attends a concert and falls under the spell of the conductor. The wooden spoon which he has carried with him since infancy becomes his baton and... a star is born. Music pours out of every illustration, discordantly at first, melodically in the final pages, as Frederic finds his niche and conducts the Pipkin Family Orchestra in his wonderfully fabulous song.
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DISCOVERING THE ICEMAN: WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO FIND A 5,300-YEAR- OLD MUMMY?SHELLEY TANAKA
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In September 1991 two hikers, taking a shortcut over a glacier in the Alps, found the remains of the oldest, best preserved human body ever found. The first part of this book describes that discovery and explains its significance for archaeologists and others. The second and longest portion of the book is a fictionalized account, based on the scientific evidence, of the kind of life that this "Iceman" may have lived some 5300 years ago. The brief concluding section emphasizes the importance of the ongoing scientific investigation to modern civilization. Illustrative material on almost every page conveys a wealth of information and contributes significantly to the allure of the book.
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UNCLE RONALDBRIAN DOYLE
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At 112 years of age, Mickey McGuire cannot remember the names of his nurses or what he ate for lunch. He can, however, recall "in vivid detail" the events of November 1895, when he and his mother fled from his abusive father. Sent to stay with Uncle Ronald, a gentle giant of a man, who lived north of Ottawa in the village of Low, Mickey wasn't even afraid when the army invaded. Freed temporarily from the fear of his father's violence, he was secure, for the first time in his childhood existence, in the loving embrace of his mother's cockamamie family. This bitter-sweet "memoir" is told with the humour and wisdom of a 100-year-old perspective.
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THE DUST BOWLDAVID BOOTH
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The drought, which is worrying Matthew's dad, reminds his grandfather of the dirty thirties when nothing - not the blazing sun, the dry, parched wind, or the clouds of grasshoppers - could take away the love which he and Matthew's grandmother felt for the land. Surrounded by photographs of his mother and grandmother and by the memories of a family which has lived on the farm for more than 50 years, Matthew worries that his father will now have to sell it. Full-page illustrations which take the reader into the recent past reinforce the textual message about the influence of past events on present-day values and attitudes.
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HIS BANNER OVER MEJEAN LITTLE
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Jean Little has taken little details, family anecdotes and day-to-day events remembered from her mother's childhood and shaped them into an interesting and informative novel about an earlier era. Spanning two decades at the beginning of the century, the story recounts how Gorrie Gauld and her brothers and sisters are raised in Canada by aunts and uncles while their parents fulfill their life's work as missionaries in Taiwan. Despite the pain of separation the children thrive. Theirs is a life founded on strong family values, religious commitment, love and laughter. This is a story about that commitment rendered unpreachingly and with restraint, so that both story and subject matter are accessible to today's young readers.
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TO DANCE AT THE PALAIS ROYALEJANET McNAUGHTON
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Aggie knows that when she turns 17 on February 15, 1928, she must leave everything that is dear to her in the coal mining town of Loughlinter, Scotland - her large family, Davy (her young man), and Mrs. MacDougall (the kindly widow for whom she works) - to seek work as a domestic servant in Toronto, Canada. The money she sends home will finance the family's only chance to escape the dust, drudgery, and disease endemic to the coal pits. A colourful and authentic portrait of life on both sides of the Atlantic emerges in this coming-of-age novel about an engaging young woman seeking a new life for herself and her family in Canada in the early part of the 20th century.
