Trees Against the Wind: The Birth of Prairie Shelterbeltsby William R. SchroederPublished by Nature SaskatchewanReview by Sandy Bonny$29.95 ISBN 9780921104377 My grandmother was born in 1921 in a dry, a treeless Saskatchewan railway town remembered despairingly, after her Scottish family relocated to Vancouver, as “a hell hole” (apologies, Tugaske!). 60 years and two generations later, my parents’ work brought them back to Saskatchewan to raise my sisters and I in Saskatoon where our favourite route home wound under Spadina’s leafy arbor, our “Tunnel of Trees.” I knew these urban elms had been planted. The shelterbelts framing point perspective along the highway signaled human engineering to me, too. But, before reading William Schroeder’s Trees Against the Wind, I vastly underestimated the scale and intentionality of the tree-planting initiatives that transformed the prairies between my grandmother’s childhood and my own. Operating 1901-2013, Canada’s “Prairie Shelterbelt Program” (PSP) distributed 600 million trees to farms in the “New West” to increase agricultural resilience by buffering wind, stabilizing soil, and managing moisture. A Scottish forester, Norman Mackenzie Ross, directed the program’s start from an Experimental Farm at Indian Head, SK. Ross’s selection and cultivation of cold- and drought-tolerant tree species is detailed engagingly by Schroeder,…

Hauntedby Ruth ChorneyPublished by 7SpringsBooksReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$25.00 ISBN 9780993975790 Ruth Chorney’s Saskatchewan-set novel, Haunted, transports readers to interesting places—geographical and otherwise—and it’s just the kind of book that makes me wish more Saskatchewan people would read the good literature that’s being produced within their own province. This engaging story’s set in the rural community of “Deer Creek, population 1242” in the northeastern part of the province, where moose roam, a hoodie is called a “bunnyhug,” and the local Co-op’s where you’ll meet neighbours, friends and the resident hermit/bootlegger. It’s a book about starting over, and accepting the kindness of neighbours. It’s also about generations of family, guilt, and doing what needs to be done. And it’s Saskatchewan, so the weather also gets its share of ink. There are elements of the supernatural in this mostly realistic story, and like that other writer (Stephen King) who also combines realism and the supernatural to great effect, Chorney scores the right balance between making her characters and situations appear credible—ie: protagonist Marny’s husband needs work, so it’s off to the potash mine he goes—and also preparing us for the suspension of disbelief that’s required when Marny’s four-year-old sees auras and entities,…

Crash Harrison: Tales of a Bomber Pilot Who Defied Deathby Deana J. DriverPublished by DriverWorks InkReview by Keith Foster$24.95 ISBN 9781927570821 There is a reason Reginald Wilfred Harrison earned the nickname “Crash.” He was in four bombers that crashed – first as co-pilot on a training mission; the last three as pilot. Amazingly, he survived all four. In Crash Harrison: Tales of a Bomber Pilot Who Defied Death, Deana Driver tells the story of Harrison’s experiences as a Canadian bomber pilot during World War II. Or rather, she lets him tell his story in his own words. It’s like he’s sitting right there beside you, telling his tales. Harrison developed an interest in flying at an early age, watching Harvard training planes flying overhead at his family farm near Finnie, SK. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and said that one of his proudest moments was when his commanding officer pinned the Pilot Wings badge on him. On reaching England in 1944, Harrison trained on Wellington and Halifax bombers. Following that, he was posted to the Canadian 431 Iroquois Squadron, which was called the Jinx Squadron. It suffered the highest loss rate in all of Bomber Command. Harrison’s…

Colour Me Saskatchewan – A Colouring Book For Kids and Adults Alikeby Maria DaghPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Miriam Körner$ 24.95 ISBN 9781778690242 Being a children’s writer and illustrator myself, I always love coming across books illustrated by Saskatchewan artists. Colour Me Saskatchewan is no exception. Maria Dagh’s illustrations are animated and fun-filled. The joy is written on the faces of her big-eyed children’s characters as they explore the cities, parks and tourist attractions that Saskatchewan has to offer. Dedicated to her daughters Freya and Saga, this colouring book takes readers across the province from the Legislative Building in Regina to Saskatchewan’s 100,000 lakes and waterways. Smiling children engage in kid’s play throughout the seasons from building a snowman or playing on purple sand beaches in Candle Lake. With the same joy, the children in this book also drive tractors, fly crop dusters and oversee a potash mine informing readers about the economic principles of this province. Colouring pages with swaying cattails and dancing dragonflies, smiling saskatoon berries, perching burrowing owls and large-footed lynx pay homage to the natural world of this province. Short one to two sentence fun facts accompany each of the colouring pages in the…

Prince Prickly Spineby Tekeyla Friday, Illustrated by James WarwoodPublished by Tekeyla Friday Studios PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$11.99 ISBN 9781777241841 How in the world did she come up with this? That was my initial reaction to the multi-talented Tekeyla Friday’s enchanting chapter book, Prince Prickly Spine. Its royalty, dragon, castles and jousting make it medieval. The futuristic “Pizza Pads” (for playing music) and Pizza Palms (like cellphones, they’re used for calls and texting, but also feature a “pepperoni-flavoured keypad” and are pizza-shaped) give it a sci-fi touch. And the fact that the story’s protagonist is a kid who’d rather be playing video games than keeping his room tidy, exercising or “paying attention to [his] tutor” gives it a very “contemporary kid” feel. And I haven’t even mentioned the prince’s fairy godfather, Joe Troll, who frequently screws up wishes, but then “Nowadays in Medievaldom, anyone could apply to be a fairy godparent, as long as they had a pixie spark”. The Swift Current author delivers a strong dose of humour, and that works in every genre. Friday, who is also a stop motion animation and claymation artist, clearly has a wonderful imagination and knows just what juvenile readers appreciate in a…

The Winter Happiness Challengeby Denise LeducPublished by Lilac Arch PressReview by Michelle Shaw$22.99 ISBN 9781998872077 Depression can be a nagging companion over the winter months, so I grabbed this little book with great anticipation. To my delight, I found it provided a carefully curated toolbox to help readers through the cold and sometimes dreary months of winter. The book grew out of a Facebook group that Denise Leduc started one November a few years ago, when she noticed that several people around her were going through a tough time. “I thought it might be fun to do some weekly challenges to bring some simple pleasures and joy to our daily rounds. I had been rereading some books on hygge [a Scandinavian term that evokes cozy, comforting and contented living, often through simple pleasures] and I thought we could explore various Scandinavian concepts to get us through the cold, snowy Canadian months.” The original members of the group invited others and before Denise knew it, more than 100 people from all over Canada, the United States and England had joined. The group proved to be such an encouragement for herself and the other members that Denise began to conceive the idea…