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CM . . .
. Volume IX Number 8. . . . December 13, 2002
excerpt: Alphabetical Railway Towns Look carefully at the names of towns on the Prairies and you might notice something really interesting. There are strings of towns whose names are in alphabetical order. One alphabetical string starts with Arona (in Manitoba) and goes to Zeneta (in Saskatchewan). Another begins with Atwater and goes to Zelma (both in Saskatchewan). These places were once stations on the railways that crossed the prairies. Many stations have since disappeared, however, leaving gaps in the alphabet. How many kids' books on Canadian geographical facts and historical events have been published? Who knows? Let's just say there are lots; there will likely be lots more in the near future. Having read and reviewed lots of them, I can say lots of them are too similar to distinguish. Thankfully, however, Only In Canada is unique. This is one book that will be staying in my library. Sorry, I'm not donating it to the school or to the Canadian Studies teachers. And my reason for keeping it is not just because its cartoon narrators are the delightful Canada Goose and Canada Moose, but rather because the creators have researched a remarkable number of little known fascinating facts and anecdotes illuminating our nation's biological, physical, cultural and historical heritage. Without ignoring Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, its focus is centered on the western provinces and Arctic regions, a boon to elementary school history and geography teachers in these regions. The chapter titles attest to the author's sideways glance at our heritage. Geography is exiting stuff, including remarkable photographs of meteor impact creators, in "Amazing facts about How Canada Was Bashed, Pummelled, Scrunched, and Scraped into the Shape it's in Today." "Weather Weirdness" introduces us to the wettest, hottest, snowiest, windiest and hailstone-iest places in Canada. There is no shortage of odd, obnoxious and outlandish animals in "Naturally and Wildly Canadian." Who knew that camels were used as pack animals during British Columbia's nineteenth century gold rush? Students will be agog when they learn about Canadian strongmen, robbers, inventors, including Winnipeg's Harry Wasylyk, who invented the green garbage bag, and our odd national penchant for giant roadside statues of turtles, catfish porcupines, and oil cans, in the chapter "So You think Canadians Are Boring? Ha!" Only in Canada is a really fun book. Teachers will get a lot of mileage (I suppose kilometerage would be the correct Canadian term?) introducing their students to these obscure but fascinating notions of our nation. Highly Recommended. Ian Stewart teaches at David Livingstone School in Winnipeg School Division. He enjoys the natural anarchism of early years classrooms and is a confirmed obscurantist.
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