Lesson Planning

For decades, "scooping up" (taking) Indigenous chldren from their families for placement in foster homes or adoption, was commonplace. this is the story of one of those 20,000 children.

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration Award-winning artist Matt James takes the iconic song "Northwest Passage" by legendary Canadian songwriter and singer Stan Rogers and tells the dramatic story of the search for the elusive route through the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific, which for hundreds of years and once again today, nations, explorers and commercial interests have dreamt of conquering, often with tragic consequences. For hundreds of years explorers attempted to find the Northwest Passage - a route through Canada's northern waters to the Pacific Ocean and Asia. Others attempted to find a land route. Many hundreds of men perished in the attempt, until finally, in 1906, Roald Amundsen completed the voyage by ship. Today global warming has brought interest in the passage back to a fever pitch as nations contend with each other over its control and future uses. The historic search inspired Canadian folk musician Stan Rogers to write "Northwest Passage", a song that has become a widely known favorite since its 1981 release. It describes Stan's own journey overland as he contemplates the arduous journeys of some of the explorers, including Kelsey, Mackenzie, Thompson and especially Franklin. The song is moving and haunting, a paean to the adventurous spirit of the explorers and to the beauty of the vast land and icy seas. The lyrics are accompanied by the striking paintings of multiple award-winning artist Matt James. Matt brings a unique vision to the song and the history behind it, providing commentary on the Franklin expedition and its failure to heed the wisdom of Inuit living in the North. The book also contains the music for the song (as well as a final verse that was never recorded), maps, a timeline of Arctic exploration, mini-biographies and portraits of the principal explorers, and suggestions for further reading. Following on the success of Canadian Railroad Trilogy, this is another beautiful book in which a memorable song illuminates a fascinating history that has taken on new resonance today.

This book is an illustrated history of the wartime internment of Japanese Canadian residents of British Columbia. At the time when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japanese Canadians numbered well over 20,000. From the first arrivals in the late nineteenth century, they had taken up work in many parts of BC, established communities, and become part of the Canadian society even though theyfaced racism and prejudice in many forms. With war came wartime hysteria. Japanese Canadian residents of BC were rounded up, their homes and property seized, and forced to move to internment camps with inadequate housing, water, and food. Men and older boys went to road camps while some families ended up on farms where they were essentially slave labour. Eventually, after years of pressure, the Canadian government admitted that the internment was wrong and apologized for it. This book uses a wide range of historical photographs, documents, and images of museum artefacts to tell the story of the internment. The impact of these events is underscored by first-person narrative from five Japanese Canadians who were themselves youths at the time their families were forced to move to the camps.