Cathedral of Stars: A Memoir of Home & Faith on the Moveby Gloria EngelPublished by YNWPReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9781988783901 Cathedral of Stars: A Memoir of Home & Faith on the Move by SK-born Gloria Engel is utterly fascinating. The stories about her peripatetic life—and constant faith—as a linguist with Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics is indeed hard to put down. The intrepid author asks and adeptly answers this question: “How can you find a sense of belonging in home and church when you’re constantly on the move?” Much of this global zinger of a book takes place in Guatemala, and Engel paints a colourful portrait of the family’s authentic experiences there. Now in her eighties, the joy-filled wife, mother of four boys, linguist, writer and dancer (a verboten activity re: her strict Lutheran upbringing) experienced “forty-five changes of residence in five countries,” before settling in Biggar, SK. The anecdotes about her resourceful family and rural SK upbringing (no indoor plumbing; folks said her father “could hold machinery together with macaroni”) are compelling, but the Guatemalan accounts left me gasping. First came linguistics training at the University of North Dakota. Orientation sessions took place…

My Daughter’s Heartby Kim JaskenPublished by Your Nickle’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$24.95 ISBN 9781778690167 Spring of 2020 was a strange and frightening time for everyone. For the Jasken family, the uncertainty of the early days of the pandemic were exacerbated when their eleven-year-old daughter suddenly collapsed, and they discovered the cause was heart failure. Dealing with a desperately ill child in a world where everything has changed brings a new level of fear. Sierra was initially treated at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) but was soon transferred by plane to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton for more specialized care. Kim Jasken’s account of their family’s experience is detailed and absorbing. Her sometimes wry descriptions allow you to live through the exultant highs as well as the moments of utter despair when it all seems too much. She describes each situation so clearly that you ride the emotional roller coaster with her. I related to the story on two levels. On the one hand it’s a harrowing story of a family’s health crisis. But it’s also a specific moment in time in Saskatoon. I could relate to the school closures, stocking up…

The Gnomes of Boundary Bogby Audrey GartnerIllustrated by Sheila KasickPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$24.95 ISBN 9781778690181 It was the gorgeous cover that captivated me first, but the gnomes quickly drew me into their magical world. The Gnomes of Boundary Bog is a wonderful collection of stories by first time Saskatchewan author Audrey Gartner. Almost every chapter of the book is told from the perspective of a different gnome which gives the book an almost kaleidoscopic feel as you gradually get a fuller picture of the Quire, which is what the community is called. I love books that are set in actual physical places that children can explore. Boundary Bog where the Quire is, is a real place in Prince Albert National Park, in Saskatchewan. You can even walk the Boundary Bog Trail (although it’s closed to the public, at present, due to a revitalisation project). Children can tangibly discover for themselves the details of the world in which the story is set and that makes such a difference to their experience. Gartner has done a wonderful job of world building. She uses concrete details to create a world that the reader can clearly visualize. For instance,…

Always Another Riverby Daryl SexsmithPublished by YNWPReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9781778690143 Prince Albert, SK-raised Darryl Sexmith is an avid canoe-tripper and former United Church minister who’s built his community­—wherever he’s lived—around his passion for wilderness canoeing and the fellowship group canoe-tripping naturally inspires. Reading Always Another River, his well-written, chronologically-told collection of canoe stories—he’s completed over seventy-five trips and “hasn’t hung up his paddle yet”—stirred fond memories of my own canoeing experiences. It’s a Canadian thing, eh. The nineteen chapters are mostly titled by location, and it’s evident that Sexsmith’s playground has predominantly been the rivers (and lakes) of northern Saskatchewan, but his lifetime of paddling expeditions also includes the far north. He’s a former executive director of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s (CPAWS) Northwest Territories chapter, and in that role he canoed the South Nahanni and Mackenzie rivers to promote conservation. He also participated in the 2008 David Thompson Brigade, paddling six-person voyageur canoes from Alberta to Ontario “to commemorate Thompson’s historic trip of 1808,” a journey also heralded in 1967 with the Centennial Canoe Pageant. How interesting to read about the grueling paddling across Manitoba’s massive lakes (with high winds and just five-minute breaks every hour),…

Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing LandscapeEdited by Bob Henderson and Sean BlenkinsopPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$29.95 ISBN 978-1-988783-81-9 This beautifully-bound anthology of 21 essays written by paddlers and edited by educators—and intrepid canoeists and guides—Bob Henderson (ON) and Sean Blenkinsop (BC) deserves a much longer review than this 500-word assessment. In short: it’s extraordinary. Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing Landscape contains a wealth of thought-provoking essays on the rivers, lakes, and oceans the diverse contributors have navigated via canoe or kayak—often in groups but sometimes solo—and it examines the paddlers’ interior worlds as they contemplate being present; history; culture; relationships with plants, animals and other creatures; Indigenous Canada (land and territorial acknowledgements and “Settler Responsibilities” are included); ecology; climate change; and, as Bruce Cockburn contributes in his Foreword, the “soul-expanding space” where one can get “a glimpse of the world as it was made.” Maps, black and white photos, and the editors’ numerous “Suggested Reading” lists are superb accompaniments to the layered essays. Henderson has previously published books on heritage travel and outdoor life, and Blenkinsop, a professor at Simon Fraser University who writes about “wild pedagogies” and “ecologizing education,” agree that as…

Neighbours Helping Neighbours: The Story of Good Neighbours Food Centreby Wilmer FroesePublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch$24.95 ISBN 9781778690150  I love books that started out as a passion project as the author’s enthusiasm shows through in the words. That is clearly the case with Neighbours Helping Neighbours. In a world filled with negativity and news channels that promote doom and gloom, Neighbours Helping Neighbours is a breath of sunshine. It gave me long-term warm fuzzies. The story of the Good Neighbours Food Centre reaffirmed to me that there is still so much good in this world. People who care are out there.  This book shares an inspiring success story that took place in Rosthern, a small town located halfway between Saskatoon and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The community banded together to create a food bank for people who lived with food insecurity. The author, Wilmer Froese, shared the initial planning of the food bank with two other community-minded people. Their vision statement was simple: to give food to people who need it. They opened in September 2011, operating one day a week at the local senior centre before upgrading to a standalone building. They faced some huge obstacles over the following years…

Saskatchewan Dirt: A Pandemic Quest for Connectionby Bev LundahlPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch$24.95 ISBN 9781778690129 We all know you should never judge a book by its cover, but I made that mistake initially with Saskatchewan Dirt. Based on the title, I assumed this book would be about a farmer’s search for ways to connect with others during the height of Covid. Wrong! It’s a “genealogical and geographical pursuit of the early connections between settlers and Indigenous people in southeast Saskatchewan.” This book unfolds in a creative way. Basically, the author and her road trip sidekick, Georgina, hit the highways and back roads of Saskatchewan to uncover the history of the settlers and Indigenous people of that region. (I loved that they spent plenty of time in the Estevan area, my stomping grounds.) Between and after the two road trips they took, the research continued via Zoom meetings and deep dives into the Internet. The details Lundahl unearthed add to the depths of this work. In addition to the genealogical aspects, the residential schools atrocity takes up a portion of the book. (She even touches on Pope Francis’s apology in 2022 for the Catholic church’s role in the history…

The Foxholes at the Borders of Sofa Cushionsby Counce BramptonPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781988783994 They say it’s about the journey, not the reward. In the literary world, the reward might be considered the publication of a book. For Saskatoon poet Counce Brampton, a “quiet observer of life” who’s lived most of his adulthood in a group home (as a result of OCD and other mental health issues), my sense is that it’s always been about the journey, yet his first poetry collection, The Foxholes at the Borders of Sofa Cushions, has been published, and it opens with a generous introduction by his friend and mentor, internationally-revered writer Yann Martel. Martel began meeting with Brampton when the former was serving as writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library twenty years ago. The Life of Pi author quickly gleaned that Brampton wasn’t seeking “editorial guidance but affirmation and validation”. Martel continues to provide that today, and explains that “This book is the result of a wish to safeguard what is essentially Counce Brampton’s life work, the mark he will leave”. Interestingly, the poems appear next to images of their first incarnations, handprinted in Brampton’s coiled notebook….

Seagull Island: kiyāsko-miniscikosby Myles H. Charles and Miriam KörnerPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$22.95 ISBN 9781778690105 Seagull Island: kiyāsko-miniscikos is a beautiful children’s book that celebrates traditional life and blends English and Cree to create a captivating tale of family and their deep connection to nature. One morning Luke’s grandfather wakes him up and tells him they are going for a boat ride for the day – to Seagull Island! When they get there, they see lots and lots of nesting seagulls. Carefully Luke’s mosōm and his kohkom show him how to gather the eggs. Finally, when their pail is full, they thank the seagulls for the eggs and set off. They stop at a nearby island to boil the eggs and have some BLT – bannock, lard and tea. Then it’s home to share the rest of the eggs. Miriam Körner’s illustrations are glorious. The pictures fill most of the double pages which gives the reader a chance to immerse themselves in the visuals of the story. There is lots of attention to detail so children can find the butterflies and count the fish and spot the different types of birds. The 24 page, hard-covered book…

Nature’s Apprentices: The Magic of the Peatlandsby Elizabeth Bekolay, illustrated by Jennifer Lynn BeckerPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$19.95 ISBN 9781778690020 Every so often you come across a book that so inspires you that you want to eagerly hand it out to as many people as possible. This is a book about the importance of the peatlands, which are a type of wetland. It’s a book that’s packed full of fascinating facts and educational resources. But it’s the story — a beautiful blend of ecology, fantasy and the joy of childhood adventures — that draws you in and enchants you. Johnny and Marty are two brothers who spend time with their mother, a biologist, up north every summer in a cabin in the boreal forest. Friends nearby have a daughter Willow, who is about the same age as the boys and the three children love roaming the forest. Willow is fascinated with learning about different types of plants and frequently stops to draw one in her notebook. One day on one of their adventures they hear a flute playing a very old and beautiful melody and the children fall asleep. When they wake up, they discover they…