Eh

I'm still reeling from the Sleepover fallout, so this year for Canada Day I'm just going to share another of my essential book lists.. This one is, naturally, my Canadian Literature list.

Way back when I first started filling up my bookshelves with board books, I started to notice that my own country was woefully underrepresented on those shelves. Not because there are not many wonderful Canadian authors and illustrators out there, but because when you live next to a media giant like the United States, much of your culture tends to get sucked into their gravitational pull unless you make a conscious effort to avoid that fate. So I started making a conscious effort, promising myself and my Diva Baby that at the very least every July 1 would see the addition of some Canadian content to our shelves.

1. Marc Tetro--He's more an iconic Canadian Artist than a board book writer, but I consider these a real find. The illustrations are wonderfully Canadian, and both The Ladies have grooved on the simple text and concepts in their time. Where Are You From Little Goose? has been a particular favourite through the years.
2. Everybody's gotta own some Robert Munsch (We're going to see him in October. Are you jealous? You should be.)
3. Alligator Pie and Garbage Delight by Dennis Lee--wonderfully silly poetry that's just right for the preschooler set, but not painful for the person who has to read it to them.
4. The Stella and Sam books by Marie Louise Gay--Whimsical art, magical explanations, and a truly beautiful sibling relationship. They are sort of like Max and Ruby, if Max weren't a jerk and Ruby wasn't an insufferable prig. These books are filled with gentle magic.
5. Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gillman--rollicking text, fun situations that any young child can relate to., and great art with little surprises hidden inside; basically everything a picture book should be.
6. The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service--one of the best ballads ever.
7. Jacob Two Two by Mordecai Richler--The Hooded Fang is probably the best one, but they're all fun. They are silly without being ridiculous, and capture the melancholy of always being the youngest without ever condescending to their audience. Richler wrote The Hooded Fang for his own children, and the love he feels shines through the story.
8. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery--I don't think you can really be a girl--certainly not a bookish kind of girl--and not have been friends with Anne Shirley growing up. Anne is the Canadian Laura Ingalls Wilder. Diva Girl is getting these tomorrow and I can't wait for her to meet Anne. We're going to PEI this summer, and I'm just as excited to see Green Gables as she is.
9. Booky by Bernice Thurman Hunter--there are 3 books in this series: That Scatterbrain Booky, With Love From Booky, and As Ever Booky--chronicling growing up in Depression Era Toronto. Booky oftentimes gets overshadowed by Anne, but she deserves her own pride of place.
10. The MacDonald Hall Series by Gordon Korman. Korman's written a lot of great stuff (including last year's Canada Day book review), but the MacDonald Hall Books stand out for a few reasons: They are great zany fun, for one thing, and unabashedly Canadian for another. When I was growing up, I think that these were the first contemporary novels I ever read that were set in Canada. It's also laugh out loud funny (Try Who Is Bugs Potter as well; that one is pee your pants funny)
11. The Secret world of Og by Pierre Burton--another children's classic written by one of our most iconic writers for his own kids. It's simply magical.
12. Some of the Kinder Planets & Lord of the Fries by Tim Wynne Jones--excellent, thought provoking short stories for young adult readers.
13. The Guests of War Trilogy by Kit Pearson--excellent World War II fiction for kids, from a Canadian Perspective.
14. The Thrid Magic by Welwyn Wilton Katz--she's from my hometown and she writes excellent pseudohistorical fantasy.
15. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay--this may be the best fantasy trilogy of all time. If not, it's certainly in the top three.
16. Anything by Margaret Atwood
17. The Manawaka Cycle by Margaret Laurence--The Stone Angel (the bane of a generation of senior English students) is simply brilliant; the craft alone is awe inspiring. And The Diviners is quite possibly my favourite novel ever.
18. Goodnight Desdemona (Goodmorning Juliette) by Anne Marie Macdonald--a rollicking good time through two of Shakespeare's most famous plays, with a female twist.
19. The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies--another Senior English Classic. I saw Davies read from Fifth Business when I was at university, and it was electric. He died shortly afterwards, and the voice of Canadian Literature got a bit quieter for a while.
20. Anything by Timothy Findley I saw Findley read as well. He also died shortly after that. And I stopped going to author readings (but I didn't stop reading.)

This is by no means a comprehensive list. You'll notice, for example, that Farley Mowat, W.O Mitchell, and Alice Munro aren't on it. They bore me, that's why. Wheat and small towns and endless nature just really aren't my thing. And it's my list. Most of these authors also have many other wonderful stories to their credit--for example, Mordecai Richler has a rich body of work that extends well beyond Jacob Two Two, who is actually more of an aberration in his career, and Atwood writes fun, tongue twisty picture books. There are also great kids picture books about Terry Fox, Flanders Fields, The Alphabet, our national anthem and flag (and we have them all). Like I said, it's just a list of the books I want to make sure The Ladies are exposed to, not a list of the only Canadian Lit that will ever be on our shelves.

Happy Canada Day, eh!

Comments

Moi, j'aime bien les livres de Christiane Duchesne (une montrealaise) pour les petits. "Poussiere sur la ville" et "La Petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes" sont formidables, mas pas du tout appropriees pour les enfants.

Hi and Happy Canada Day (although it's almost over, isn't it?

Happy Canada day!! We'll see you here in PEI this summer- Love the book list!!

Wow, great list. And yes, Anne of Green Gables is a wonderful series, oh how I wanted to be adopted by her aunt and uncle!