The Piper of Shadonia by Linda Smith Published by Coteau Books Review by Tavish Bell $14.95 ISBN 9781550505160 The Piper of Shadonia by Linda Smith is an excellent book for teenage readers who like adventure and fiction. When I first got this book, I was dubious. “I’m supposed to read a book about songs and music?” I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, since I prefer books laden with adventure. I was wrong. The Piper of Shadonia is about a boy who gets a pipe with magical powers. It starts out amazing and ends with tons of fun. Linda Smith’s story is good all the way through and hooks you on the very first page. You will never get bored of this book. In fact, you won’t want to put it down. Ever. The Piper of Shadonia has a wonderful storyline and Linda Smith has a great, engaging writing style. The characters are very interesting; each one is unique. The book presents an interesting way of looking at things. I found that when I read it for the first time, the message seemed to be “you don’t have to be a big, buff, tough, warrior to be powerful.” That message…

Cyclone! The Regina Tornado of 1912 by Warren James and Carly Reimer Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Michelle Shaw $14.95 ISBN 9 781894 431712 One hundred years after the legendary tornado of 1912 left the city of Regina devastated, tornadoes are once again touching down in Saskatchewan. So it’s not surprising that I was a little reluctant to pick up Regina author Warren James’s latest book! Warren James is a storyteller with a passion for history and folklore. Cyclone! The Regina Tornado of 1912 is a carefully researched picture book with an old silent movie feel. It’s simply written and filled with vivid details which give a sense of the magnitude and devastation of the tornado. Children will especially appreciate the numerous detailed images which his words conjure up, such as the fact that the switchboard at the Telephone Exchange literally fell into the basement with the operators still in their chairs. He also relates how the tornado sucked up tons of water, a canoe and two boys from Wascana Lake. Although the book is obviously aimed at young children, its appeal is far broader. At the back of the book are four pages of detailed notes…

Angel of Thanksgiving by Henry Ripplinger, Published by Pio-Seelos Books Review by Gail Jansen-Kesslar $21.95 ISBN 9 780986 542473 While Angel of Thanksgiving, the third in Henry Ripplinger’s proposed five-part Angelic Letters Series, still revolves around the separation of star-crossed lovers Henry and Jenny and their doomed romance, unlike the feelings evoked by the past two books, this time Ripplinger leaves the reader feeling torn about what the fateful outcome of the two should ultimately be. With the introduction of a whole new set of characters, from Henry’s wife, the lovely and serene Julean who we briefly met in Book Two, to the bright and cheerful household staff that are more like family to Jenny than employees, the parallel lives of Henry and Jenny are showcased over a vast period of time as they grow and mature and ultimately become parents themselves. And as always, deeply woven throughout the story, are the life lessons that Ripplinger releases with expert timing. Much as David Chilton created the story of a thrifty barber who doled out financial advice to individuals at different periods in their financial lives in his Canadian bestseller The Wealthy Barber, so too has Ripplinger created a story that…

A Book of Great Worth by Dave Margoshes Published by Coteau Books Review by Michelle Shaw $18.95 ISBN 9 781550 504767 On the surface, award-winning Saskatchewan-based author Dave Margoshes’s latest offering is a beautifully written collection of biographical stories about his father’s life. Except that the stories are fiction. Although based, says Margoshes, on “a seed of truth” and imbued with “the persona and personality of [my] father”, they are all fiction. The result is a selection of carefully crafted tales, written over a number of years, which relate various incidents in his father’s life. Margoshes says he “worked hard, with the stories’ structure and a sort of old-fashioned expository style, to make them feel like memoir — like truth…[he] also worked hard to imbue these stories with a tension created by that unstated question of how the narrator came to know not just the stories, in their broad strokes, but the fine details.” He succeeded. At first I was consciously trying to work out what was true but I soon found myself enveloped in the stories. Most of the book is set in New York City in the early decades of the twentieth century. Margoshes crafts an almost sensory…