scholarly journals The Deakin Review Celebrates a Significant Milestone

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Good Time ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Similar Content ◽  
The University ◽  
To Receive

Dear Readers,We have reached an important milestone now that the Deakin Review is in its third year of publication. To wit, we have published well over 200 reviews, our readership continues to grow, and we’ve been delighted to receive so many compliments about the overall quality and appeal of our online content.For the entire month of September 2013, we displayed two full-scale exhibitions of Deakin books in the Humanities and Social Sciences and Coutts Education Libraries at the University of Alberta. We relished this opportunity to show more than 100 books, accompanied by excerpts from the corresponding reviews, to the campus community, which further raised the profile of our quarterly journal. In fact, many students have since asked about opportunities to submit book reviews to our editors for consideration.As many of you know, the Deakin Review was originally conceived as an in-house publication that would publish content from our own librarians and support staff, but we now believe that this is a good time to expand our pool of reviewers to ensure that our journal continues to grow and thrive. So, if you are thinking of submitting a review, please contact me by email and I’ll be pleased to review the submission process with you. Our editorial team will still be comprised of librarians from the University of Alberta Libraries—a unique point of distinction that sets us apart from other journals with similar content—but we will begin accepting well-written reviews of recently published children’s books from anyone, effective immediately.In other news, we recently decided that the Deakin Review should transition to a peer-reviewed journal within 18 months. This means that we’ll continue to publish thoughtful and well-written book reviews just as we have been doing, but in due course we’ll also include a peer-reviewed article in each issue about practitioner, cultural, or social issues relating to children’s books (e.g., how children’s books are used in the classroom; readers’ advisory services offered by YA librarians; language development rates for young children who use multimedia e-books). We’re looking forward to publishing excellent scholarship in these areas, so please contact our content editors if you would like to submit a paper for peer review and we’ll be pleased to discuss whether your paper meets the criteria for publication in our journal.It’s exciting to consider that we aspire to peer-reviewed status, which would mean that our content would be indexed by full-text scholarly databases for multidisciplinary research. Clearly, this is an ideal time to contribute to the growth and success of our journal, but rest assured that we will continue to help readers select children’s books by looking for excellence in writing, design, and illustration. Our main focus is, and always will be, to handpick the books that will appeal to children, young adults, and all those interested in children’s books.Enjoy our new issue!Best wishes,Robert DesmaraisManaging Editor

scholarly journals Our Last Issue

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais
Keyword(s):  
Junior High School ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Current Form ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Children's Stories ◽  
The University

Dear Readers, After publishing our beloved journal for nearly ten years, the time has come for us to publish a final issue of the Deakin Review in its current form. We hope it will enjoy a second life at a later date under the auspices of another group at the University of Alberta. On behalf of the editorial team, I would like to thank all of our book reviewers for their hard work and dedication. Your reviews were always a joy to read and were it not for your invaluable contributions, the journal would not have been a success for so many years. It’s amazing to think that our large team of reviewers included people united not only by their keen interest in children’s books but also by family bonds. Indeed, we regularly received reviews from people who are related to each other, like Kirk MacLeod and his daughters Lorisia and Kaia MacLeod, who all share a wonderfully infectious enthusiasm for children’s literature and libraries. We also benefited from the support of prolific reviewers like Leslie Aitken and Sandy Campbell. Remarkably, since our very first issue, Sandy introduced many new librarians, family members, and others who have a love of childrens' books to review for the Deakin Review.   Fortunately, our journal always benefited from the support of a highly capable team of editors. Accordingly, I would like to thank my fellow editors, Kim Frail, Debbie Feisst, Janice Kung, and Denis Lacroix, for volunteering their services so generously. They always carried out their work with tremendous enthusiasm and collegiality. I am also grateful to all of our former editors, including David Sulz, Hanne Pearce, Allison Sivak, and Cam Laforest, for their help and encouragement. Over the years, I had opportunities to interview some fascinating authors who shared wonderful insights about their work for the enjoyment of our readership. Our journal also benefited greatly from the contributions of colleagues like Lynne Wiltse and Joanne de Groot who gave their students opportunities to write reviews of contemporary children’s books and have them published in the Deakin Review. Other UofA colleagues wrote guest editorials and reviews for special issues. In one of our special issues, we were proud to partner with teachers from Ben Calf Robe - St. Clare Elementary/Junior High School who asked their students to submit book reviews for a class assignment during READ IN Week. Thanks are due as well to our namesake, Dr Andrea Deakin, who has been an inspiration to us all for her lifelong enthusiasm for children’s stories. I am grateful to Margaret Law for introducing me to Andrea so many years ago. I reserve special thanks for you, our devoted readers, for taking a lively interest in our journal and the books we reviewed. I sincerely hope that your passion for children’s books continues to flourish and grow. Please take good care of yourselves, especially during these trying times, and may you always draw comfort from good books, family, and friendships. All the best, Robert Desmarais, Managing Editor  

scholarly journals Deakin Announcements

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Resource Selection ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Publishing Program ◽  
Scholarly Article ◽  
Faculty Of Education

Dear Deakin Readers,I hope you enjoyed a restful and happy holiday! Our editorial team met recently to develop a publishing plan for the coming year and we would like to communicate some important news. To keep everyone in the loop about our editorial plans and related activities, we will update our readers with an annual report, which we intend to publish at the end of each volume year. Thus, our first report will be published later this summer. On the matter of peer-reviewed issues, the editorial team will continue to solicit articles for review, so please consider contacting us if you are interested in writing a practitioner-themed scholarly article about children’s books (e.g., building a children’s science library; developing a young adult publishing program; writing picture books about children with disabilities; etc.). We intend to publish our second peer-reviewed article later this year, following on the success of our first peer-reviewed article in last year’s health issue (Vol. 4, No. 2).Finally, the April publication (Vol. 4, No. 4) will be a special double issue reserved for University of Alberta graduate students who are studying children’s literature, resource selection, and evaluation of children’s books in the Faculty of Education. We look forward to reading their thoughtful opinions and recommendations! In the meantime, we have recommended many good books to help you ward off the winter doldrums. Enjoy!Best wishes,Robert Desmarais, Managing Editor

scholarly journals Aluniq: and her friend, Buster by A. Pingo

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
Elementary Level ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The University ◽  
To Receive

Pingo, Anna.  Aluniq:  and her friend, Buster. Illus. Karleen Green. Inuvilauit Settlement Region, 2016.This is a simple story about separation of loved ones, a common, but none-the-less painful necessity in many remote communities. Aluniq is a little girl who lives with her Norwegian grandparents at the Qunngilaat Reindeer Station in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Aluniq has a pet reindeer calf named Buster. She has lived with her grandparents from birth because her mother has been away for years for tuberculosis treatment. Now that her mother is well and back in Tuktuuyaqtuuq, Aluniq must go to live with her parents, hundreds of kilometers away from the Station. But “Aluniq [is] frightened as she [doesn’t] know who these people [are].” Her grandparents are very sad to be separated from her and she is sad to be separated from them and from Buster. Although Aluniq does not recognize it at the time, this is also a story of reunion and of putting things right. Her parents are happy to have her return. This simple, but realistic story highlights the fact that many families in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and other remote parts of Canada have been disrupted when people have had to leave home to receive medical treatment. It is clearly written and readable at an upper elementary level. Karleen Green’s drawings are rustic and unsophisticated, but are delightfully representative of the Inuit world and accessible to children. Available in English, as well as all three Inuvialuktun dialects, these books are appropriate for elementary school and public libraries and any collection of Canadian children’s literature.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.  

scholarly journals Tales from the Tundra: A Collection of Inuit Stories by I. Kaslik

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Publishing Company ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Traditional Technique ◽  
Internal Dialogue ◽  
The University

Kaslik, Ibi. Tales from the Tundra: A Collection of Inuit Stories. Illus. Anthony Brennan. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2010. Print. Inhabit Media is an Inuit-owned, independent publishing company that “aims to promote and preserve the stories, knowledge, and talent of northern Canada.”  This collection of five traditional Inuit stories from different regions in Nunavut is one of their most recent offerings.  Three of the stories tell of how specific animals came into being.  One tells how the raven and loon came to look the way they do and the fifth, The Owl and the Siksik, is a typical story of outwitting the enemy. Anthony Brennan’s illustrations have a two-dimensional fantasy quality to them that is more reminiscent of cartoons or Japanese anime than of traditional Inuit art.  Many of the creatures are outlined in black and then filled with solid colour.  While the backgrounds are usually ice-blue, and there are pastel colours in the images, many of the main parts of the drawings are black, giving the book an overall ominous look. While these stories are described in the forward as “contemporary retellings”, Kaslik’s voice is similar to that of an elder telling stories and her style is traditional.  The language is simple and direct, occasionally incorporating Inuit words.  Animals are anthropomorphized.  They do the same sorts of things that humans do and have human emotions and foibles.  For example, in “The Raven and The Loon”, the two birds sew clothes for each other.   When Raven thinks that Loon is sewing too slowly, she reacts impatiently: “Please, sew faster!” impatient Raven pleaded.” Kaslik also uses internal dialogue, another traditional technique, to allow the reader to listen to the characters reasoning out their actions. For example, “Siksiks often go in and out of their dens,” thought the owl, believing himself to be very clever.  “Today I will find a siksik den and wait there until I see one.” There are few children’s books of Inuit mythology available, and fewer that have the authenticity of being published by an Inuit publishing house.  Overall, this volume is a small, but welcome addition to the field, through which many children will be able to learn about the mythology of the Inuit.  For public and school libraries everywhere. Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

At the Heart of It: Dene dzó t’áré by R. Taniton & M. Willett

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Book Series ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Bear Lake ◽  
The People ◽  
The University

Taniton, Raymond and Mindy Willett.  At the Heart of It: Dene dzó t’áré.  Markham, On:  Fifth   House, 2011.  Print. Indigenous author Raymond Taniton is a member of The Sahtugot’ine, or the “people of Great Bear Lake”.  In At the Heart of It, Taniton invites readers into his world.  We meet his family, see the Sahtu Region where he lives, meet the elders in the community, learn how to make a traditional hand drum, learn some games and read some of the stories.  The stories are particularly important. This book is the most recent in Fifth House’s “The Land is Our Story Book” series, all co-authored by writer Mindy Willett. Taniton concludes this volume by saying, “The land is our storybook. It is our school, our library, our church. It is where we learn our stories and where we discover who we are as true Dene people. The land is at the heart of it all”.  And in this book Taniton and Willett do succeed in helping us to understand “the land”. This is a picture book, an educational book and a celebration of what it means to be Satugot’ine. Tessa Macintosh’s photographs are used throughout. The top of each page has a border image of the beaded toes of twenty-one moccasins. Often a large image will form the background of a page with text and other images superimposed.  For example, for the story “The Lake is the Boss”, the background is an image which looks out through the mouth of a cave.  The story is about a giant wolf that lived in the cave. The text, along with smaller images of the island that the wolf became when he turned to stone, is superimposed on the cave photograph.  The images and text, taken together, form many lessons for young people.  The stories provide metaphorical and philosophical lessons, but the book also provides practical lessons, such as the illustrated steps to making a drum.  As a whole, the book celebrates Raymond Taniton’s family, the Sahtugot’ine people and their way of life.   Highly recommended for elementary school and public libraries. Highly Recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals On the Shoulder of a Giant: an Inuit Folktale by N. Christopher

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Bowhead Whale ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Quality Work ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Christopher, Neil.  On the Shoulder of a Giant:  an Inuit Folktale. Iqualuit:  Inhabit Media, 2015. Print.This is another in a series of works designed by Neil Christopher, one of the founders of Inhabit Media, to preserve traditional Inuit stories.  In this book he retells a story, which is known in various forms all across the Arctic, of a giant who adopts a hunter as his son.  This giant, named Inukpak,  is one of the inukpasugjuit or “great giants” of Inuit stories.  Inukpak is so big that he can walk across the Arctic in “just a few days” and when he stands in the sea the water "never come[s] up past his knees". He is so big that he thinks that the hunter is a lost child, so he adopts him and carries him on his shoulder.This is a simple retelling, designed to teach about the mythical giants and to explain why the story is found in many cultures across the Canadian Arctic.  However, it also models a big person/small person relationship in which small people do not correct or talk back to big people.  Children will relate to the hunter, who is treated as a child and because the story is told from the hunter's perspective.  The giant sometimes doesn't recognize the impact of his own actions.  For example when he runs back to shore, he creates waves that swamp the hunter, but the giant thinks the hunter has been playing in the water.  "The hunter wanted to tell the giant that he had not been playing in the water.  He also wanted to explain to Inukpak that he had caught a bowhead whale, not a sculpin.  But, once again, the little hunter did not want to argue with a giant, so he just said, 'Okay.' "This is mainly a picture book. The illustrations run over two-page spreads with text over-printed on them.  Jim Nelson does a good job of presenting the difference in size between the giant and the human.  Inukpak is presented as a happy fellow, with black shaggy hair and a full beard.  Children will be amused by the giant picking up a polar bear by the scruff of its neck, like a kitten. The images are realistic and the backgrounds are lovely representations of Arctic landscapes. Overall, this is an enjoyable and high-quality work that should be included in elementary school libraries, public libraries and libraries specializing in Arctic children’s books.Highly Recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals Mingan: my village

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Writing Workshop ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Art Collections ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
The Village

Mingan:  my village. Illus. Rogé. Trans. Solange Messier.  Markham, ON:  Fifth House Publishers, 2014.  Print.This is one of the most unusual Canadian Indigenous children’s books to have been published recently.  It is an art book composed of fifteen of illustrator Rogé's portraits of Innu children from the village of Mingan (“Ekuantshit” in the Innu-aimun language) on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The images are accompanied by fifteen poems written by the children.  Each of the portraits covers an 8.5 X 14’ page and is an almost life-sized likeness painted from a photograph.  The images are mainly sepia tones with some orange, blue and red highlights.  These portraits will allow children elsewhere in the world to see what an Innu child looks like. The poems are the result of a poetry writing workshop led by Laurel Morali and Rita Mestokosho at Mingan.  They are also published in the back of the book in Innu-aimun.  The works are simple, unsophisticated and present a child’s view of the world.  Nature and grandparents figure prominently in the works.   For example:                        In the wind's light, the pain of the heart                        The blue river                        When I listen                        I have a memory of my grandfather                        He tells me he is well                        This comforts me                        I know he protects me                        That he watches me                        I cry when he is not beside me                                                                       Sabrina                       Overall this is a striking work that could fit both in to art collections and children’s libraries as well as those collecting Canadian Indigenous materials. Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

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