Marjorie: Too Afraid To Cry. A Home Child Experience by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2012 $30.00 / 9781459703391 * Marjorie: Her War Years. A British Home Child in Canada by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2018 $30.00 / 9781459741669 * Both books reviewed by Sylvia Crooks First published December 26, 2018 * …
Read more #454 The home children of Cowichan
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 $29.95 / 9781771622004 Reviewed by David Milward * Darrel McLeod’s Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age has won the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. From Treaty Eight territory at Smith, Alberta, McLeod studied French literature and education at…
Read more #422 A tale of trauma and achievement
The Age of Walter Gage: How One Canadian Shaped the Lives of Thousands by Shelley Fralic [Vancouver]: The Friends of Walter Gage, 2018 $24.99 / 9780994932938 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Sept. 17, 2018 * People familiar with UBC will know the Walter Gage Towers near the heart of the campus, three 17-storey student…
Read more #378 Love affair with UBC
Against the Current: The Remarkable Life of Agnes Deans Cameron by Cathy Converse Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2018 $30.00 / 9781771512701 Reviewed by Charlene Porsild First published Aug. 26, 2018 * Agnes Deans Cameron (1863-1912) was an educator, writer, reformer, and traveller who made her own way in a rapidly changing world. For more than a…
Read more #352 Teacher, traveller, troublemaker
First published Aug. 15, 2018. The Cure for Death by Lightning: A Play Adapted from the Novel by Gail Anderson-Dargatz by Daryl Cloran Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $18.95 / 9781772012057 * Talker’s Town and The Girl who Swam Forever: Two Plays by Nelson Gray and Marie Clements Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $18.95 / 9781772012019 Reviewed by Ginny…
Read more #344 Three curative plays of B.C.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House Canada), 2018 $34.95 / 9780345816023 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Feb. 23, 2018 * Controversial University of Toronto psychologist and cultural critic Jordan Peterson, condemned by Maclean’s as “the stupid man’s smart person,” has spoken to…
Read more #251 The stupid man’s smart person?
Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts its History by J.R. (Jim) Miller Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017. $39.95 / 9781487502188 Reviewed by Andrew Woolford First published Dec. 23, 2017 * Projects of justice and reconciliation in a national context are never straightforward affairs. Governments do not wake up one day and decide to deal…
Read more #228 Reconciliation dances & divides
First published Dec. 16, 2017. REVIEW: What We Learned: Two Generations Reflect on Tsimshian Education and the Day Schools by Helen Raptis with members of the Tsimshian Nation: Mildred Roberts, Wally Miller, Sam Lockerby, Verna Inkster, Clifford Bolton, Harvey Wing, Charlotte Guno, Don Roberts Junior, Steve Roberts, Richard Roberts, Carol Sam, and Jim Roberts. Vancouver:…
Read more #222 Tsimshian Day Schools revisited
Edges of Empire: A Documentary by Rhodri Jones (Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe) Vancouver: Rarebit Press, 2017 $20.00 / 9780994941237 Reviewed by Julian Wake First published Nov. 23, 2017 * Born in 1946, Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London and came to Canada to teach art history at McGill in…
Read more #208 An intellectual journey
MEMOIR: Lill’s Story: Reminiscences of a Country Schoolteacher by Lillian Emerson Edited by Mary Novik and Ned Young First published Nov. 4, 2017 * We are delighted to present these memoirs of Lillian Emerson (1913-2003), a Vancouver Island teacher in the 1930s who became the mother of award-winning novelist Mary Novik. Born in Victoria to…
Read more #194 Lill Emerson: Raincoast educator
Commemorating Canada: History, Heritage, and Memory, 1850s-1990s by Cecilia Morgan Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016 $26.95 / 9781442610613 Reviewed by Mike Starr First published October 4, 2017 * Cecilia Morgan’s Commemorating Canada is a good place to start when examining the role of historical commemoration in Canada. The book is part of the Themes in…
Read more #177 Monumental tasks
Medicine Unbundled: A Journey Through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care by Gary Geddes Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $22.95 / 9781772031645 Reviewed by Mary-Ellen Kelm First published April 4, 2017 * Harold Cardinal’s assessment of Canada’s Indigenous policy in 1969 as “a thinly disguised programme of extermination” in The Unjust Society is born out almost…
Read more #114 From apartheid to resurgence
Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival by Bev Sellars Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889229723 Reviewed by Caroline Woodward First published November 24, 2016 * Editor’s note: as happens occasionally at The Ormsby Review, a happy mixup occurs and we end up with two reviews of the same book. For our second review…
Read more #48 From Soda Creek to best seller
In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth & Reconciliation by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail Victoria: Brindle & Glass (TouchWood Editions), 2016 $19.95 / 9781927366448 Reviewed by J.R. (Jim) Miller First published November 19, 2016 * When asked in September 2016 how he thought the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was being received, former…
Read more #46 Crafting a lasting reconciliation