The Spirit of Saskatchewan A C E L E B R A T I O N O F B O O K S A Resource for Teachers, Teacher-Librarians, & Librarians. www.bookawards.sk.ca/sklitcatalogue.pdf The Spirit of Saskatchewan Celebrating Saskatchewan Books This catalogue is a celebration of Saskatchewan literature and a Centennial gift to our province’s teachers, teacher-librarians, and librarians. The product of a special collaboration among a number of provincial literary and educational organizations, the catalogue includes about 100 of the best books written by Saskatchewan authors in recent years. We encourage you to browse these pages, marvel at the breadth and depth of Saskatchewan writing, share these books with your friends and colleagues, and promote them to your students and library patrons. In these pages you will find books listed Book Awards (ones which fall into our cate- contents in categories based on the age of the reader: gories of Secondary and Post-Secondary) in Elementary Level (Kindergarten to Grade 5), those five years than we had space for in this Middle Level (Grades 6 to 9), Secondary catalogue. Regretfully, this meant that only Elementary Level . .1 Level (Grades 10 to 12), Post-Secondary Level, some of those titles could be included. We and General Reference. These are not rigid called on a panel of curriculum experts from Middle Level Section . .8 categories. At the end of each section you will Saskatchewan Learning to recommend choic- find a list of books that are appropriate for es in these categories. On the other hand, in Secondary Level . .17 that age level, but are annotated in a different order to fill the first two sections (the Ele- category. mentary and Middle Levels), we extended Post Secondary . .28 Each title in this catalogue has met a the criteria for children and young adult titles Catalogue design by Duncan Campbell. high standard: it has been a finalist for a back to 1993, the first year the Book Awards Reference Section . .34 Cover photos courtesy of David McLennan, Regina, Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan Book Award. In other words, were presented. a recognized jury identified the book as one The book annotations comprise a short Index by Title . .35 This catalogue is a joint project of the Saskatchewan Book Awards, of the best in its genre written by a description of the content, a reference (if ap- the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, the Saskatchewan Publishers Group, Saskatchewan author in the year it was pub- propriate) to the Saskatchewan curriculum, Index by level . .36 the Saskatchewan Library Association, and Saskatchewan Learning. lished. Each book listed here was in-print a list of awards for which the book was a and available for purchase in 2005. In addi- finalist or which it won, and bibliographic tion, with only a few exceptions every book information. Distributor Drectory . .37 found in the first three categories has been This catalogue is a joint project of the recommended for use in schools by Sask- Saskatchewan Book Awards, the Saskatch- atchewan Learning. ewan Writers Guild, the Saskatchewan Pub- This material was gathered for a cata- lishers Group, the Saskatchewan Library logue that would include approximately 100 Association, and Saskatchewan Learning. The publishers would like to acknowledge the financial assistance of: titles grouped roughly equally into the first Financial assistance was received from the Saskatchewan Centennial Community Initiative Fund, Database Directories, four categories and drawn from Book Award SaskatchewanCentennial Community Ini- Saskatchewan Arts Board, Sask Culture, Saskatchewan Lotteries finalists from the years 2000 to 2005. How- tiatives Fund and the organizations whose ever, there were many more finalists for adult names appear on the opposite page. An on-line version of this catalogue can be viewed at: http://www.bookawards.sk.ca/sklitcatalogue.pdf s p i r i t o f s a s k a t c h e w a n — i ELEMENTARY LEVEL Bay Girl The Bone Talker Born to be a Cowgirl: by Betty Fitzpatrick (Dorion) by Shelley A. Leedahl; A Spirited Ride Illustrated by Bill Slavin Through the Old West ISBN 1-55050-132-1, by Candace Savage 1 1 $6.95, 5 ⁄4 x 7 ⁄2, 136 pages, paperback, 1998 ISBN 0-88995-214-0, $9.95, 11 x 9, Coteau Books (FHW) 32 pages, paperback, reprinted 2005 ISBN 1-553-65191-X, $12.95, 8 x 8, Fitzhenry & Whiteside Publishing (FHW) 64 pages, paperback, 2001 Eleven-year-old Patsy travels up the New- Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group (HCP) foundland coast in 1962 to visit her Gran Shelley Leedahl has written a touching story and Uncle Wish in the outport of Shoal of an old woman, once active and adventur- Girl power isn’t just a nineties phenome- Harbour. Learning to row a dinghy and ous, “whose life had wound down like a non. It was alive and well in the heyday of helping out on her uncle’s fishing dory give clock.” Her neighbours decide to try to make the American West, when cowgirls roamed Patsy a new sense of pride and self-reliance. her happy again, but no one succeeds until a the range as bronco busters and rodeo rid- But Shoal Harbour is scheduled to be shut young child hands her two small pieces of ers. Archival photographs and period illus- down. It’s part of an actual plan the New- cloth. She accepts the cloth and begins to trations along with poignant and feisty foundland government put into effect in sew a quilt. The quilt grows until it becomes first-person recollections tell the stories of the early 1960s to close the outports and the texture and the pattern of prairie life hardship, risk, and achievement, highlight- move all the people in them away from itself. Please note that small print is used for ing this extraordinary historical time and homes that their families had inhabited for all but the first line of each page. Teachers the high-spirited girls who rose to its chal- generations. It looks as though a way of life may want to share this orally with students as lenges. Some of these young women made a she’s recently come to love may be ending, they may find it difficult to read. name for themselves with their talent with just as Patsy is on her way to becoming a horses and guns. In an energetic and easy- real Bay Girl. Saskatchewan Learning has recommended to-read text, Savage paints the cowgirl as this book to support the following curricu- someone who makes her own decisions and • Winner SBA Children’s Literature (1998) lum: English Language Arts (Grades 4 and does what she wants to do—a role model • SBA Publishing in Education (1998) Finalist 5, Contexts – Personal and Philosophical; for girls today. Social, Cultural, and Historical). Saskatchewan Learning has recommended • Rocky Mountain Book Award (2002) this book to support the following curricu- Finalist lum: Social Studies (Grade 5, Units 1 and 2; • Winner Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Initiative – Gender Equity). Year Children’s Book (U.S.) (2000) • Alberta Children’s Title of the Year (2000) • Rocky Mountain Book Award (2001) Finalist Finalist • SBA Book of the Year (2001) Finalist • CLA Children’s Book of the Year (2000) • SBA City of Saskatoon Book Award (2001) Finalist Finalist • SBA Book of the Year (2000) Finalist • Recommended by Saskatchewan Learning • SBA Children’s Literature (2000) Finalist • Recommended by Saskatchewan Learning s p i r i t o f s a s k a t c h e w a n —1 ELEMENTARY LEVEL ELEMENTARY LEVEL The Bulrush Changes Digging Canadian Dinosaur Breakout Dinosaur Hideout From Far and Wide: Helps the Pond by Penny Condon Dinosaurs by Judith Silverthorne by Judith Silverthorne A Canadian Citizenship by Ken Carriere by Rebecca L Grambo; Scrapbook 1 1 1 1 1 ISBN 0-920915-43-4, $7.95, 8 ⁄2 x 7, Illustrated by Dianna Bonder ISBN 1-55050-294-8, $7.95, 5 ⁄4 x 7 ⁄2, ISBN 1-55050-226-3, $7.95, 5 ⁄4 x 7 ⁄2, by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet; 3 ISBN 0-920915-65-5, $19.95, 8 ⁄4 x 11, 20 pages, paperback, 1999 208 pages, paperback, 2004 192 pages, paperback, 2003 Illustrated by Song Nan Zhang 33 pages, paperback, 2002 Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) ISBN 1-55285-395-0, $16.95, 8 x 9, 64 Coteau Books (FHW) Coteau Books (FHW) 1 Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) pages, paperback, 2004 ISBN 0-88776-443-6, $22.99, 11 x 8 ⁄4, Traditional knowledge is explored and cele- Whitecap Books (FIR) A sequel to Dinosaur Hideout, this novel Winner of the 2003 Saskatchewan Book 24 pages, hardcover, 2000 Ken Carriere’s The Bulrush Helps the Pond is brated in this delightful story. Kona, a focuses on Daniel, a 12-year-old boy living Award for Children’s Literature, this novel Tundra Books (ULS) an elegantly written book in Swampy Cree Métis child, undergoes a personal journey Many of the most amazing dinosaurs on in southwest Saskatchewan who is keenly describes a young farm boy’s dream of and English. This book provides readers of by learning that the changing seasons close- Earth lived in what is now Canada. Nova interested in science and palaeontology. becoming a paleontologist. Searching for Xiao Ling Li is a Grade 6 student who, all ages with a better appreciation of the ly interact with her emotions. The Gather- Scotia claims some of the oldest dinosaur Daniel and his neighbour, old man Peder- dinosaur bones and dreaming in his secret along with the rest of her family, is about to diversity and fragility of the prairie wetland ing Spirit, who teaches her about accepting bones; dinosaur footprints have been found son, are trying to enhance the local farm hideout help Daniel escape the family’s ten- become a Canadian citizen.