SaskBooks Reviews

H is for Home: A Saskatchewan Alphabet”by Amber AntymniukPublished by Blow Creative ArtsReview by Amanda Zimmerman$22.00 ISBN 9781999546205 H is for Home is another adorably presented tale from the author of the debut children’s book Grandpa’s Garage! Amber Antyminuk’s next story again draws inspiration from her rural upbringing on an acreage outside of Tisdale, a community in the northeastern part of Saskatchewan. Now making her home in the bustling city of Saskatoon, she revisits her childhood with enthusiasm, an enthusiasm clearly shown in both her writing style and artistic abilities. Stating herself that all good Saskatchewan stories are formed “where a highway meets an unmarked grid road”, the personal experience she shares adds credibility to her work and all readers fortunate enough to live in one of the prairie provinces will thoroughly enjoy the adventure she shares. In H is for Home: A Saskatchewan Alphabet, our author visits all twenty-six letters of the English alphabet with a single image representing each one. In every pair of letters, readers find an easy rhyme and careful notice is given to the amount of syllables. There are only a few pages where the syllable number doesn’t match but these rare instances don’t detract…

Baby Rollercoaster: The Unspoken Secret Sorrow of Infertilityby Janice ColvenPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.99 ISBN 9-781989-078587 I’ve just had the pleasure of reading the well-written, beautifully designed, highly personal and informative book by teacher/ranch wife/writer Janice Colven about her lifelong yearning to be a mother and her seven-year journey on the rollercoaster that is infertility. Throughout the candid, 207-page story, Colven uses the extended metaphor of a rollercoaster to parallel the ups and downs she and her husband experienced during this painful time, and the book’s title—Baby Rollercoaster: The Unspoken Secret Sorrow of Infertility—reflects their hopeful highs and heart-breaking lows. Colven writes that she’s always dreamed of becoming a mother. As a child she “loved baby dolls and everything that went with them,” and her “loving and nurturing spirit” even extended to the prairie girl wrapping a dead gopher “in a soft, pink blanket” and strolling it as one would a baby. Later she practised her maternal skills on younger siblings. “We buy the map to motherhood and have the trip planned down to the smallest detail,” she writes. In her introduction Colven shares that she wrote this “for the women who are walking the same…

Fun on the Farm 3: True Tales of Farm Life!Compiled and edited by Deana J. DriverPublished by DriverWorks InkReview by Michelle Shaw$17.95 ISBN 9781927570630 Growing up on a farm on the Canadian prairies is a unique experience, especially in the days before cellphones and GPS. In Fun on the Farm 3, 20 prairie writers, including Mary Harelkin Bishop and Deana Driver, share some of their treasured memories. The book is full of all kinds of fascinating stories. There are tales of pet calves, malevolent bulls, and piglets like Arnold who was pushed around in a doll carriage. Laurie Lynn Muirhead shares the story of her brother plucking the feathers off the turkeys’ butts to make wings so he could fly. There are stories of learning to drive, usually before the driver could see over the dashboard, and the annual spring ritual of picking rocks in the fields before and after seeding. As Brad Hauber puts it … “This job was made specifically with farm kids in mind.” Mary Harelkin Bishop tells of the time her three-year old brother got stuck in the mud – literally – in the middle of the soggy, muddy garden one very wet spring, and Marilyn…