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    KIDS WRITE 4 KIDS WRITING CONTEST

    March 19, 2026 - By 

    I am exited about a contest I am going to enter, it is called Kids Write 4 Kids (or KW4K for short) and is about selling books written by children and donating the money to charities all over Canada. The competition is for kids in grades 4-8, they also have to be enrolled in Canadian schools.  Here are some quick facts: These are some classic books with less than 5000 words: Year Title Author Estimated Word Count 1812 Hansel and Gretel The Brothers Grimm ~3,000 1843 The Ugly Duckling Hans Christian Andersen ~3,500 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix…

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    WINNIE THE POOH: The unique writing of author A.A.Milne

    January 15, 2025 - By 

    One reason why I really like WINNIE THE POOH is because A.A.Milne writes from a child’s viewpoint, which makes it ten times funnier! I often find myself laughing out loud at a dialogue when my little sister -who is still learning to read- catches me and asks, “What’s so funny? Read to me!!!” So then I read the part to her and she laughs too! One of my favorite characters is an owl, named Wol, he likes explaining complicated things, in a way ones “with very little brain” might not understand. =) This is a part which I like a…

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    The Black Stallion

    August 13, 2024 - By 

    I am enjoying reading the book the black stallion by Walter Farley and it was about the relationship between a boy and a beautiful wild stallion. They first met on board a ship called Drake and the horse was very wild. Could Alec get even close enough to build a bond? Alec knew that the stallion would never be truly broken, then there was a storm! Alec found himself and the Black stuck on an island. There, the relationship between the Black and Alec grew until Alec could ride the Black. Imagine Alec’s shock when the shelter Alec had built…

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    A Friendship and a Lesson in Evaluating Information

    April 30, 2019 - By 

    One story in the book The Sextant by David Barrie, especially captivated me. The qualities of the two principal men in particular deserve mention. Do you notice any additional character traits that you admire? Joshua : Would you like to know about another two friends? Tina : Yes! Who are they? Joshua : They are two Englishmen. One is named Sir Ernest Shackleton and the other is Frank Worsley. Tina : Those are nice names. How did they become friends? Joshua : They liked each other when they met in London, England, in the spring of 1914, but they really…

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    The Great Stone House

    December 4, 2018 - By 

    May you enjoy a short discussion, based on four chapters of Farley Mowat’s Lost in the Barrens: No Man’s Land, The Rapid, Alone n the Wilderness, The Great Stone House. Joshua : Two boys. Jamie was from Toronto. Awasin lives in northern Canada. Tina : How did they become friends? Joshua : Jamie moved to northern Canada. The two became neighbours, then friends. As they played and worked together, Jamie learned a lot from Awasin. When they were on a hunt with a group, they were assigned to stay behind with two other men. Jamie and Awasin became impatient and left. First,…

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    Leaving Toronto for northern Canada in the 1940s

    November 1, 2018 - By 

    I enjoyed my first book review here. Now, I am enjoying the book Lost In The Barrens by Farley Mowat, published by McClelland & Stewart. Jamie was a young person who left Toronto “to take up a new life in the subarctic forests of northern Canada.” He met his uncle, Angus, who was confident that Jamie would love his new rugged life, and he was proved correct, as Jamie became fascinated by the country from the very first few weeks of travelling in it. I like how their meeting is described, especially what Aungus said to the young man: “I’m thinking you’ll…

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    The island of Quadra and Vancouver

    September 4, 2018 - By 

    A book review I have been reading a fascinating book about European navigators who charted many continents and oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific. The name of the book is Sextant, by David Barrie, published by HarperCollins. One such interesting explorer was the English man named George Vancouver. One of his goals was to map large sections of the western North American continent. He sailed in the years 1791 – 1795, spending his summers in Hawaii. Sounds like a nice assignment. One episode in his journey of tedious map-work stands out, when the captain visited a Spanish settlement in Nootka…