Pioneer Kids

Canadian Flyer Adventures #6

by Frieda Wishinsky, Dean Griffiths (Illustrator)

What was life like for the early settlers of the wide-open prairies? With a rub on their magic sled's logo, Emily and Matt take a trip to the early 1900's to find out. They visit a one-room school house and a real sod house, help a new friend stand up to a bully, and are rescued from a raging prairie fire!

Genres: Childrens

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[CanadianReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

School age kids Matt and Emily travel by magic sled to the Canadian prairies of 1910. They attend school for a day at a one-room school house and witness the racism of one boy, Luke, who is of Anglo-Saxon heritage towards a Ukrainian boy, Stefan, who struggles with English. The magic that takes Emily and Matt back in time allows them to communicate with Stefan, the Ukrainian boy, who shows them the lovely pysanky (Easter egg) his mother crafted. When Stefan saves bully Luke's horse from a barn fire, accidentally started when Luke was smoking out back, all is conveniently resolved.

Wishinsky's approach to early settler history is rather surprising. She focuses on a group less commonly depicted in children's literature that concerns early European settlement in Canada: the Ukrainians. While this makes her contribution rather unique, her book unfortunately doesn't convey as much historical information about the period as it might have. Author's notes at the end do go part of the way to fill in some details, but not far enough to satisfy me. I felt that this early chapter book fell short of its mark.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canadian historical fiction for ages 7+