The Massey Murder

Starting the summer off with some true, patriot love, I finished Charlotte Gray's The Massey Murder this afternoon.  It's not a typical title that I would choose, but I wanted to read it because:
a) Ever since Charlotte Gray demo'ed her razor-sharp wit and debating skills during CBC's Canada Reads 2013 debates, I've been promising myself I would read something of hers
b) It's non-fiction.  My literary conscience tells me I need to read more of that.
c) It's KW's "One Book, One Community" selection for this year and the book nerd in me needs to be a part of these kinds of things.

So it turns out that Gray had every right to be critical of the books in the Canada Reads competition.  She can write.  Not only that, but she gives narrative to history that makes it more accessible for readers like me who are all about the story.

She also gives a voice to the voiceless in this book.  Subtitled, "A Maid, Her Master and the Trial That Shocked a Country," this book offers best guesses as to what really happened when Bert Massey was shot by his maid when entering his house one February evening in Toronto, 1915.  Gray highlights how Carrie's (the maid's) voice was hardly needed or given consideration in a male-dominated, morally-motivated and class-driven society.

I like this quote: "Servants are everywhere and nowhere in history.  Carrie and women like her worked too hard to have any energy left for writing diaries or letters, and if any of them did manage to scribble down something, it has probably been lost.  When a youngster like Carrie went into service, she walked into the shadows." (p. 90)

Gray does an excellent job of putting Carrie Davies' story in context.  She provides background on the famous Massey family, the Toronto newspaper wars, class divisions, and Canada's place in WWI, which gives the story significance not only in the changing tides of 1915, but also today.

My one complaint about the book is that is the writing seems to mellow or loosen by the end.  Initial chapters give the impression that the book is leading to something greater and more powerful at the end.  But maybe that was intentional.  I'll have to think on that a little longer.

Anyway, it's definitely worth reading and if anybody wants to join me at the September 2014 author visits where this book will be discussed, do let me know. ;)

#bookaday 10: Reflecting on Choices and Change

For me, books are frequently tied to geography.  If it happens to be a novel where the author takes great pains to describe the setting, then there's that geography, yes.  But today I'm thinking more about where I'm reading than the places I'm reading about.  For example, I still vividly remember reading Thomas King's Green Grass, Running Water while rolling through Alberta's rocky mountains in a Greyhound bus 10 years ago.  I remember taking the train from Ottawa to Kingston with Margaret Atwood's Alias, Grace.  The Lonely Polygamist kept me company through the mountains and deserts of Utah.

On the last few days of our recent trip to Germany, we spent some time in the beautiful countryside of Batten-Wurtemburg and I carried around Ron Berger's An Ethic of Excellence to enjoy in bits and pieces during our explorations.  An Ethic of Excellence is about as close to required reading as I'm gonna get this summer: I joined a Big Ideas committee at school and my principal bought us each a copy of this book to read over the holidays.

Normally when I read books for professional development, I have to be pretty intentional about pausing to reflect.  I pull out a notebook or a pack of sticky-notes as a reminder to slow down and think critically about what I'm reading.  However, when you're hiking through the peace and quiet of a park in the Black Forest on a Monday afternoon, there's nothing forced about it.  The internal dialogue just sort of...begins.

An Ethic of Excellence was on my mind as we pulled into the parking lot at the base of Wasserfälle Allerheiligen (All Saints Waterfalls).  Perhaps I was looking for something to distract myself from the oodles of staircases ahead.  Most likely it was a combination of that and the fact that, despite its slim size and conversational tone, An Ethic of Excellence is dense with intensity and inspiration--more tightly packed than my carry-on luggage.

Wasserfälle Allerheiligen: Stairs, stairs, and more stairs.

Berger's book is a manifesto: he urges educators to make some significant changes in how they approach, value, and think about learning tasks and assessment in the classroom.  He writes passionately about the advantages of taking an integrative, project-based approach to learning.  He calls for a shift in school culture and a transformation of teacher and student roles.  As I started the climb, I started to think about change in my profession and to consider our choices in how we respond to it.

We do have choices when it comes to responding to change.  I found them quite analogous to the choices I got to make that day.

1.  We can choose to ignore change and let others do the exploring.  We can choose to wait at the point of departure, while others embark on the journey and wait for them to bring us news of their discoveries.

2.  We can choose to forge ahead blindly.  We can put our heads down and thoughtlessly follow the trail laid out for us, putting one foot in front of the other without looking up until we reach the destination.  Granted, choosing this approach means there's no time for rest, no time to pause and check the map.  We might reach the top, but we might be so tired when we get there that we'll miss the point of the journey.

3.  We can head off the trail, impulsively blazing a path that is completely our own.  Don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place for trailblazing, but there's a certain amount of wilderness know-how required before this is truly a wise move.  Most likely, if we move in this way, there's a good chance we might get lost, confused, discouraged and there's also a pretty good chance we're going solo--no one is going with us, and no one is going to follow.

4. We can choose to savour the journey, pausing to rest, reflect, and take in the scenery as we pass by  We can linger and notice the details, take photographs to preserve memories of our favourite parts, check in with the map to determine our progress, listen to the sounds around us, take it all in.

We can take time to leave trail markers for those who will take this climb after us, small signs of encouragement along the way.

This was not a climb up Everest.  This was just a significantly steep climb, straight up, on a hot July afternoon.  Every opportunity for change is not a drastic one.  "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," but so does a journey of one mile.

How will you choose to travel?

More Canadiana in Germany (#bookaday 9)

Reading makes you nicer.  In case you were looking for another great reason to savour a quality piece of fiction this summer, there it is.  You can read this Time editorial if you want to know the details.  The editorial also covers "carnal versus spiritual reading."  (And yes, typically reading a novel would fall into the latter category.)  We are becoming a society that does too much reading for information's sake and not enough reading for enjoyment's sake.  As a Primary teacher and lover of fiction, this freaks me right out.  Like the environmental citizen who drives a Prius or buys only organic just to do his/her part, I decided to up my ratio of spiritual to carnal reading this summer, just to do what I can to counteract the depletion of love for literature in our society.

I just had to figure out a way to work the carnal vs. spiritual thing into a post about Linden MacIntyre's The Bishop's Man, the latest novel to entertain my brain.  The book is about a Canadian Catholic priest who specializes in keeping the notorious "sins of the Fathers" out of the spotlight.  (Ah? You see the spiritual vs. carnal connection now?)  This novel won the 2009 Giller Prize. And yes, it's CBC's Linden MacIntyre who co-hosts the fifth estate.  So basically you're looking at a low-risk investment here if you're after a good read.  Guaranteed return on your time, folks.

What I thoroughly enjoyed about MacIntyre's writing was his ability to capture thought patterns.  He brings the reader in, out and through narrator Father McAskill's layers of memories and creates a collage of detail that allows the reader to understand McAskill's past and present as one complicated, organic whole.

The language is beautiful as well.  MacIntyre is able to call attention to words through protagonist Father MacAskill's love of of them.  The story is anchored in Canadian geography and explores themes of family, community and masked identity.

I stood in the hotel room bathroom to finish this one.  (It was late.  My husband needed sleep and I needed light to get through the last few chapters.)  It's that good.  Five out of five stars for this spiritual read.

bookaday 7: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

So there's been a bit of a gap in my #bookaday attempt, but yesterday was my first official day of summer holidays, so let's consider my earlier blog entries to be appetizers before the summer feast!

Yesterday was an All About Me day.  Between naps and shopping, I pulled a book off the shelf and got to reading.  My first selection of summer?  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

This is an underdog story about an aboriginal teen from the Spokane reserve who makes the decision to attend school off the reserve and struggles with his identity as he straddles two worlds.  Written with humour and stark honesty, I think this book would be a hit with any teenager.  I caught a tiny bit of a CBC radio program while driving around the other day and this book was being used as a class text (high school? university?  I'm not sure).  I think this book would be a great addition to a course syllabus, or great for a young adult book club.  (It's a National Book Award winner, so clearly I'm not the only one who thinks it's amazing!)

Four out of five stars for this one.  Beautiful language and creative illustrations.  (I'm holding back one star because the sports glory stories--this time it's basketball--are always a little bit corny for me.)

#bookaday 6: Memoirs of a Goldfish

I've slacked for a few days.  Report cards, and then a weekend mini-cation, and then report cards got in the way.  This #bookaday is actually from yesterday.  I read Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian aloud to my Grade 1 class before we began writing our own memoirs on our year together.

My students thought it was HILARIOUS.  (And I have to say, about half the jokes went right over their heads!)  They especially loved the last page ("Ew!  They're dating!").

A solid 4-star book.  A quick google search shows that there are plenty of ideas out there for how to use this one in the classroom!

#bookaday 5: Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping

I love Mélanie Watt.  So does every Grade One student I know.  I've just updated myself on Scaredy Squirrel's latest adventure, Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping and now I've got some great ideas for using this text to review many text forms we covered this school year --from maps to charts to labelled diagrams to procedural texts!

Leaving this one out on my dining room table to lesson plan for next week!  FIVE out of FIVE *S*T*A*R*s!

#bookaday 4: Marshall Armstrong is New to Our School

A few books came from amazon today!  In the package was Marshall Armstrong Is New To Our School by David Mackintosh.  Gorgeous artwork and a quirky main character--seems what I look for in a novel is pretty much the same as what I look for in a picture book!

I'll be pulling this one out early next school year to talk about building friendships and finding out that we have things in common with people who may seem very different than us.

#bookaday Day 3: The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas

Who doesn't love a good fractured fairy tale?  I just read this one aloud to my husband (my prince) in the kitchen (our favourite place in our palace)!

This takes the Princess and The Pea and gives it a bit of girl power.  Best lines....
"But I'm not a real princess."  
"You'll be an UNREAL princess!"

Four out of five...only 'cause there's room for a little more girl power. ;)

Too Much Happiness By Alice Munro

More from the author who writes about the "dull, simple, amazing and unfathomable -- deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum."

If I had to sum up this book in just two words, I would choose "bleak" and "addictive."  Nobody writes a story like Munro, and while this isn't my favourite short story collection by her, a book by Alice Munro is a guaranteed good read.  I was surprised to read several with male protagonists in this collection.

The Observer has a few in-depth articles on Munro, including a 2009 review of this book.

Purchased at: Booksmarts, K-W's own version of The Book Vault.
Started: Friday, May 25
Finished: Monday, June 11

Sign Language Fun In the Early Childhood Classroom

Okay, I'm caving and starting the #BookADay challenge early.  Today I'm reading Sign Language Fun In The Early Childhood Classroom.  I picked this one up for a dollar at the Elora book sale.  Looks like I got a good deal.  In addition to sign language, this book has a lot of great ideas for teaching vocabulary--from feelings to weather to "likes."  Why not include a little sign language?  It's a valuable skill and I'm thinking it could help some of those kinesthetic learners. I'm going to bookmark this one as a reference for September!