Almost twenty-five years ago, when The Story of Canada was new, the CBC's annual Christmas radio panel on best books for kids was already an institution. They reviewed a lot of books, but each of the three panelists was invited to come in with one special book they particularly wanted to talk about.
That year for the first and maybe only time ever, all three came in with the same book. It was The Story of Canada that they had all chosen -- in itself, as nice a review as we ever got (and we did get nice ones).
This year they are still doing the Christmas kid's book panel, with some of the same panellists, no less. And they were nice enough to celebrate the return of the new updated Story of Canada. You can listen to the whole panel here, if there's a child or teen still on your list.
And I'll wrap up The Story of Canada series I had been doing here with one last excerpt, from the epilogue, "Northern Voyages":
Perhaps our children's children will see a Canadian land as fresh and beautiful and full of dreams as the land the First Nations knew a hundred centuries ago. There are northern passages, still uncrossed. We should heed the message that David Kawapit, the young Cree leader of the Journey of Nishiyuu, and his companions brought to Ottawa in the winter of 2013. On snowshoes, towing their supplies behind them, they walked to Ottawa to say: "This land, the earth, the rivers, the winds, the mountains, the clouds and all of creation, we are the true keepers of and will continue to do so until time on earth is over."
So it's a great Christmas gift -- and it's the CBC Radio Children's book panel that says so. Thanks, Michelle Landsberg and Ken Setterington.
