Ways to Go: Rediscovering Travel as told through Two Himalaya Adventures – 1971 and 2023Edited by Bob Henderson and Torbjørn YdegaardPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$29.95 ISBN 9781778690549 In most mountaineering exploits that I’ve read or heard about, the point always seems to be about reaching the summit – and the blood, sweat and tears involved to get there. Ways to Go explores a completely different approach. How can we travel more intentionally and responsibly with less impact on the world around us? The book is shaped around a particular journey. In 1971, three Norwegian mountaineers – Arne Næss, Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng, and Nils Faarlund – embarked on an expedition to the Sherpa community of Beding, Nepal, located in the Rolwaling Valley near the sacred mountain of Tseringma. The men were scholars, philosophers and activists and their perspective was vastly different to most of the mountaineers of their day. They weren’t interested in simply forging ahead to reach the summit of a sacred mountain regardless of the wishes of the local community. They had a more focused, thoughtful approach – and they decided theirs would be an anti-expedition. Ways to Go explores the development of eco-mountaineering and…

We are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Traditionby Sarah HernandezPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$39.95 ISBN 9780889779181 In We are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition, American academic Sarah Hernandez (Sicangu Lakota) examines the colonial dismantling of Dakota, Nakota and Lakota intellectual traditions, including “star knowledge through oral storytelling.” She writes that when missionaries arrived in the early nineteenth century, the “linguistic [colonization]” began. Hernandez teaches Native American literature and is the director for the Institute for American Indian Research at the University of New Mexico. She states that “missionary translations of the Dakota language set a dangerous precedent that denigrated Oceti Sakowin star knowledge and supplanted [their] tribal land narratives with new settler-colonial land narratives that ensured that many of our people converted to Christianity and assimilated to the American nation.” Missionaries learned the Dakota language and printed bilingual Dakota-English newspapers which contained “misinterpretation[s] of Dakota origin narratives” and essentially “delegitimize[d] the Oceti Sakowin’s intellectual traditions”—and Christians replaced them with their own. These settler-colonials subsequently “stripped the Dakota nation of 35 million acres of land” and forced them onto a “ten-mile-wide reservation” in Minnesota. Hernandez frequently makes…

Courage and a Castle: A Tribute to a Remarkable Womanby W.J. KoczkaPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Sally Meadows$24.99 ISBN 9781990863950 I can’t imagine a more meaningful tribute to a parent than chronicling their life story in a published book so that many can benefit from their wisdom and grace. Author W.J. Koczka does exactly that, with respect, gratitude, honour, humour, and above all, love, in her new book Courage and a Castle, a memoir of her years with her remarkable mother, Mary. Koczka does an admirable job detailing the resilience and steadfastness (“courage”) with which her mother navigated life’s many challenges. The “castle” referenced is none other than Saskatoon’s own Delta Bessborough, where Mary built her career, providing not only income and stability for her family, but also where her children learned about the value of hard work and the importance of being dedicated to whatever work is at hand. Courage and a Castle is also a story of Mary’s deep faith, rooted in a devastating event early in her marriage that changed the course of her life forever. Koczka lovingly shares how Mary navigated trials without complaint or lament, all while raising six children and working full time…

Walking Together: The Future of Indigenous Child Welfare on the PrairiesEdited by Jason Albert, Dorothy Badry, Don Fuchs, et al.Published by University of Regina PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $39.95 ISBN 9780889778900 This fascinating book touches on so many topics. Walking Together begins by diving into why it is such a struggle for so many families to access services for their children. We then get right into Bill C-92, the connection between FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) and colonization, and the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care. We learn about the importance of supporting Indigenous child welfare workers as well as how Indigenous people are making changes in the welfare systems for their children.  As I went through the chapters, I loved the constant reinforcement that one of the ways forward for Indigenous children is with culture and a sense of belonging through Indigenous stories and traditions. We need to remember the past while we look toward the future.  I value books that don’t steer away from tough issues. Life blows sometimes and reality can be harsh. So even though it was uncomfortable, I appreciated reading about topics such as the forced sterilization of Indigenous girls and women. As we dove into the…

GreenWritten and illustrated by Zachari LoganPublished by Radiant PressReview by Shelley A. Leedah$25.00 ISBN 9781998926251 In reading visual artist and poet Zachari Logan’s art/poetry hybrid collection,Green, I was struck by the recurring motif of seeing, and Logan’s recurrentinclusion of the natural world’s diverse creatures and plants. Awe and wonder areintegral elements in this innovative work, a fact that Logan asserts in hisilluminating introduction, which concludes: “[this work] is, ultimately, anexploration of my own enchantment with the world …”. The title also reflectsLogan’s artwork in this collection: the fifty-one pages of drawings—mostly ofleaves, branches and blossoms, and all done “in green ink, pen andpencil”—were completed in a sketchbook he purchased in Venice. Logan’s a well-known Regina, SK artist with a global curriculum vitae. Indeed,prairie gophers, “old wasps and potato bugs” are comfortably juxtaposed againstthe “turtles of Morningside Park” viewed at New York’s “East 96 th Street” and“Vitosha Boulevard’s/bulging trees in Sofia”. Logan was invited to exhibit his workin Bulgaria, and references Bulgarian painter Zlatyu Boyadzhiev (the “̒BulgarianBruegel’”) as well as Caravaggio, El Greco and Canada’s Tom Thomson in thissuperb collection. While employing a range of poetic styles, most of these reflective poems arewritten in free verse and many are narrative, including…

The Real Story of Winnie the Poohby Bob FriedrichPublished by Last Mountain PublishersReview by Sally Meadows$19.95 ISBN 9780995962613 Did you know that the inspiration for the beloved literary character Winnie-the-Pooh was a real-life bear named Winnie who was a mascot for a Canadian infantry brigade sent overseas duringWorld War I? Or that there was a real-life boy named Christopher Robin (the son of A.A. Milne,the creator of the Winnie-the-Pooh series) who met the real-life Winnie at the London Zoo? Orthat Winnie was in fact female, not male? The new children’s book The Real Story of Winnie thePooh dishes up all the details leading up to the creation of the the iconic Pooh Bear characterwho has charmed millions worldwide since the first book in the series was published in 1926. Author Bob Friedrich has successfully woven actual historical events into an imaginative storytold mostly from Winnie’s perspective that will delight and enlighten children and those whoread to them. Beginning with the young veterinarian Harry’s encounter with Winnie at anOntario train station, the reader rides along with Winnie on her remarkable journey from anorphaned cub to the famous “playing bear” at one of the most historically important zoos in theworld. Friedrich’s story…

A Home for Hairyby Maureen Ulrich, Illustrated by Brenda BlackburnPublished by Flatlands PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.99 ISBN 9781069113511 What I know about Saskatchewan’s Maureen Ulrich is that she understands how to engage readers, her genres and subject matter are varied, and her children’s picture books—ie: Sam and the Big Bridge, which I previously reviewed—are delightfully heartwarming. Ulrich, a former teacher, recently released another moving story for young readers. A Home for Hairy is a softcover featuring a foul-breathed cat (Hairy) with low self-esteem, and Alison, a busy healthcare worker and weekend-warrior (aka adventurer) who takes a chance on fostering the scruffy-looking feline at the animal shelter, and welcomes him into her life. Though Hairy’s weekdays are spent inside young Alison’s brick apartment building while she’s at work or reading medical texts and crashing, exhausted on her couch (the illustration for this page shows her asleep on her couch with phone in hand, kitty litter escaping the cat box, and household chores undone), he enjoys “watching the world go by” from his windowsill perch, and during the weekends he and Alison get up to outdoor adventures like hiking, canoeing, and, when winter blows in, snow-boarding. These are daring and questionable…

What Shade of Brown?by John Brady McDonaldPublished by Radiant PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $20.00 ISBN 9781998926282 What Shade of Brown? is what I call a ‘pocket book’ as it’s small enough to tuck into your bag or pocket. It’s seventy-eight pages long so it’s not very thick. But wow, does it ever pack a punch!  This book of poetry is made up of thirty-five poems. Each and every one of them is dynamic. The poems delve into the struggles McDonald has lived through as a light skinned person who toggles between two groups; undermined by the settler-colonial society and not accepted as an Indigenous person in lands that feel strange to him. The poems are unforgettable – readers are immersed in the struggles that are McDonald’s reality. The poems cover a wide range of topics from mourning a misspent youth, the joys of rain, admitting you drink too much coffee, the early days of Covid, struggles with insomnia, concepts of race, and dozens more. I especially enjoyed the poems that are nature focused as I strongly believe, like McDonald does, that nature is an impressive beast. It’s hard for me to pick a favourite poem – that’s like asking which of…

No Straight Linesby Ruth ChorneyPublished by 7SpringsBooksReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$25.00 ISBN 9781738323531 Chalk it up to interesting and relatable characters, dynamic plots, and rural settings so viscerally described, you can taste the prairie soil on your teeth: Kelvington, SK writer Ruth Chorney’s latest book, the contemporary mystery No Straight Lines, is another winner. From the police interrogation of protagonist Ingrid that opens the story—a clever device for providing readers with relevant background information—to the satisfying epilogue, I was quickly entranced by this novel—the author’s fourth—set in fictional Kettlebank in northeastern Saskatchewan. Ben Franklin’s credited for saying “nothing is certain except death and taxes,” and while there’s no mention of taxes in this beguiling mystery, death veritably abounds. First Person narrator, Ingrid, is on “extended compassionate leave” from her kitchen designer career in Toronto. Born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, the twenty-something returns to Kettlebank after her father, a farmer, is found dead in his hayfield “on the shady side of the baler”. Ingrid, “a home-town star who made good,” fled Saskatchewan two days after her beloved brother Eric’s funeral: he was killed in a questionable car accident six years earlier, and she’s not been back since. In Toronto, her…

Kimeto’s Journeyby Maureen UlrichPublished by Flatlands PressReview by Sally Meadows$17.99 ISBN 9781778296574 While watching over his family’s cattle grazing on Kenyan rangelands, eleven-year-old Kimeto spots a leather strap hanging from an acacia tree, a sure sign of a poacher’s snare. The next morning on their way to school, he and his two younger sisters come across the carcass of a large elephant. Splashing noises nearby lead them to a baby elephant struggling to escape the muddy red waters of a steep-sided well. Despite the potential danger to himself, Kimeto slips in to help. As he comforts the baby elephant, he begins to bond with her. When two park rangers finally arrive, the three of them manage to rescue the elephant calf. What will happen to her next? Has Kimeto made her life better–or worse? The bulk of this middle grade (ages 8-14) coming-of-age novel documents Kimeto’s journey to the wildlife sanctuary in Nairobi to find out the little elephant’s fate. Along the way, the reader is given a fascinating glimpse into the Kenyan cultural landscape. The juxtaposition of the traditional way of life of the rural Maasai against modern-day perils in the big city makes a compelling story as it…