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Anne Renaud sent us this interesting info. about her new book that is a Children's Book about the Irish & Grosse Ile____________________________________________________________________________________
I am a writer of children's books. The following link will provide with some information on my writing background.
http://www.canscaip.org/bios/renauda.html
Attached (follows) is a fact sheet on my latest children's book which is on Grosse ?le and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada. This book will be launched in Montreal on May 24 in both English and French. I am also attaching a book review which will appear in the May issue of Nuacht, the community newsletter of Montreal's St.Patrick?s Society.
Should you wish to obtain additional information, please feel free to communicate with me at your earliest convenience.
Best,
Anne Renaud
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Book Information
LOBSTER PRESS ? SPRING 2007
Island of Hope and Sorrow:
The Story of Grosse ?le
Author: Anne Renaud
ISBN-10: 1-897073-54-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-897073-54-4
Format: Hardcover Category: Nonfiction
Trim Size: 8.25? x 10.75? Age Range: 8 +
Price: $18.95 Page Count: 24
Also available in French entitled:
La Grosse-?le: Terre de chagrin et d?espoir
The award-winning children?s author of A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival traces the history of Grosse ?le and of the island?s role in the building of Canada.
Description: From 1832 to 1937 more than four million people sailed across the Atlantic to the port of Quebec with the dream of creating better lives for themselves in the New World. During this period, a tiny island called Grosse ?le, located fifty kilometres downstream from the port, served as a quarantine station. Its mission was to prevent ship passengers from spreading diseases to the mainland. This is the story of the island, which served both as gateway and graveyard for thousands of people, and of the caring island workers who welcomed them to its shores.
Author Information: Anne Renaud lives in Westmount, Qu?bec, and is a descendant of English, Irish, and French immigrants. Through the course of her research for this book, she discovered that the ship on which her grandmother sailed to Canada in 1907 had made a stop at Grosse ?le before the family settled in Richmond, Quebec. Anne's first children's book, A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival, was shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association?s Silver Birch Award, the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award, and the Red Cedar Book Award.
Praise for Anne Renaud's first book, A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival:
?Reading this book is the next best thing to visiting a war museum for learning about World War II.?
- Canadian Teacher Magazine, Winter 2004
?...a great supplement for students studying Canada?s role in World War II and the symbols and festivals which are part of our Canadian heritage. This book should be in every school and public library.? - Resource Links, February 2005
?Renaud has summed up many years of complicated events in a few pages and an easy-to-read timeline ... will entice readers ...? - CM: Canadian Review of Materials, Dec. 2005
For additional information please contact: Stephanie Hindley, Director of Sales and Marketing
Lobster Press Ltd. Tel: (514) 904-1100, ext. 103
marketing@lobsterpress.com www.lobsterpress.com
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Book Review
Island of Hope and Sorrow:
The Story of Grosse ?le
By Anne Renaud
Lobster Press, 24 pages, $18.95
Reviewed by Anne Forrest
Where was Anne Renaud when I was teaching history? Her latest book, Island of Hope and Sorrow, is an absolute treasure. Written for young readers aged eight or older, this work tells the compelling story of the development of Grosse ?le, which was a quarantine island from 1832 to 1937.
For anyone not familiar with the unimaginable suffering experienced by 19th century immigrants to Canada, Island of Hope and Sorrow presents the facts in an attractive and informative fashion. Each page in this 24-page publication is carefully crafted and organized. There is an abundance of beautiful illustrations, the work of Aries Cheung, and colour is used most effectively: lavender, peach and several shades of blue serve as backgrounds upon which text and graphics are thoughtfully superimposed.
One feature that I particularly appreciated was the ?History Notes? sidebars that provided important details, elaborating in simple words on a reference in the text. For example: ?Asiatic cholera? is a disease that people catch from drinking water or eating food that carries the cholera bacteria. Symptoms include spasms, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to sever dehydration and death.?
Maps help the reader pinpoint a few of the places mentioned in this history. For many children ? and some adults ? these are very useful in establishing precise locations of the lands left behind by the immigrants and of Grosse ?le itself. Explanatory notes accompany each map. As well as identifying places, Renaud provides two time lines, one each for the 19th and 20th centuries, on which important events are recorded. For example: ?1845-1849, Potato crops in Ireland are destroyed by blight,? and ?1929, Stock market crashes.?
An incredible amount of research has gone into the production of this little book. In addition to Cheung?s delightful illustrations, there are pictures from such sources as Parks Canada, Library & Archives Canada, and The Illustrated London News Picture Library. Old photographs and reproductions of posters and other relevant historical documents are arranged attractively on the pages. Renaud relied heavily on material relating to the Jeanie Johnston, both the original vessel and the replica ship, which visited Canada in 2003.
The content and formatting of the text work well together. Sentences are varied in structure and the language is simple but not childish. Broken down into eleven sections, most of which fill a double-page spread, the book opens with ?The Timber Trade,? moves on through ?Summer of Sorrow? and ?The 20th Century,? concluding with ?Legacy.? Regular typeface is used for the text itself, bold for the ?History Notes? and the time lines, and smaller-sized italics for the graphics.
I now have a fuller understanding of why Grosse ?le is so meaningful to the descendants of the early immigrants. Island of Hope and Sorrow is a book I strongly recommend as required reading for history teachers and students of all ages.
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