Earth-Friendly Buildings author Etta Kaner’s background as a teacher helps her understand which facts are appealing to young readers.
However, Hey Canada! has well-done maps, features that Earth-Friendly Buildings could have used to help readers situate its dykes and domes.īoth authors have polished their skills through the publication of numerous non-fiction titles - which is evident in both their writing and their selection of facts. In the text next to the shiny, eye-catching image of London’s pickle-shaped Swiss Re tower in Earth-Friendly Buildings, readers learn that the building has no parking spaces for cars, “But it has lots of parking for bicycles!” Most of the photographs in Hey Canada! are small or murky and, therefore, miss an opportunity to hook readers or give clear pictorial information.
Again, ‘mixing it up’ is the theme of the books, and drawings are interspersed with photographs. Their characters also beam at readers from comic-strip-style chapterettes (“Fortress Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, 1745” in Hey Canada! and “The Locks of the Rideau Canal” in Earth-Friendly Buildings). The themes of sibling / cousin rivalry offer fun fodder galore to talented illustrators Milan Pavlovic (Hey Canada!) and Stephen MacEachern (Earth-Friendly Buildings). Visuals are key to amping up the cool factor in each book. Corry’s mom suggests one of the super interesting challenges as readers are urged to test “the strongest pier shape for a bridge.” Gran in Hey Canada! lists things for her grandchildren, as well as readers, to observe as they visit each province and territory. In Earth-Friendly Buildings, Corry’s younger brother, Riley “The Factoid Finder,” spouts speech bubbles that insist readers “Listen to this!” The adults have their roles, too. Cal, “The Official Fact Dispenser” in Hey Canada!, Tweets his impressions of haggis and dulse.
Both books offer quick facts - knowledge nuggets from the data-loving male characters. Shifting the role of information downloader from character to character keeps the books fresh and fast moving. Corry, the narrator of Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More: The Eco-Journal of Corry Lapont, creates a global postcard scrapbook about the fascinating structures she has researched, supported by her engineer parents and playfully encouraged by her younger brother. In Hey Canada!, nine-year old Alice journals on a netbook as she crosses our nation with her jesting Gran, her cousin Cal and his mischievous hamster. In Hey Canada! and Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More: The Eco-Journal of Corry Lapont, the books’ young female narrators set out on fact-finding journeys with interesting similarities. Two new non-fiction titles have fictional narrative threads that make the books bubble with excitement. Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More: The Eco-Journal of Corry Lapont
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