Hey Canada! Blog Tour

Hey Canada! by Vivien Bowers and illustrations by Milan Pavlovic

Publisher: Tundra

Published: May 8, 2012

Pages: 72

Received: for honest review and blog tour stop

BUY NOW: Amazon | Chapters-Indigo | Book Depository

Gran has decided that she is taking nine-year-old Alice and eight-year-old Cal on a road trip across Canada “before she’s old and creaky.” With a sparkling combination of poems, silly songs, tweets and blogs, the trio records the trip for readers everywhere to share. Starting in St. John’s Newfoundland, where they have a “find-it” list that includes a moose and an iceberg and going all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the gang in Hey Canada! offers a delightful way to learn about vast, varied, and surprising Canada.

The book combines narrative, poems, photos, comics about historical events such as the battle at Fortress Louisburg, maps (including provincial flags, birds, and flowers), in a lively, easily accessible format. Not only great fun to read, this is a valuable resource for young Canadians and for visitors across the country.

Hey Canada! is a really great book for pre-teens (aged 7-10). I loved how it guided your across the country like a hand written journal with tidbits of information on each province, souvenirs, photos and easy to understand history of our great country. 

I was surprised with some of the great information that I did not already know about Canada and I've added some of the stops as places to visit sometime. For example, I have a fascination with BIG THINGS (think the Big Nickel in Sundbury, ON or the Big Pineapple in Australia) and was excited to see that there is a BIG GOOSE in Wawa, ON. 

And I did not know that there was a Royal Canadian Mint in Manitoba. I thought there was only one in Ottawa. I seriously should have known that given my profession, but it either slipped my mind or I never really knew. The Mint even has a great Kids Section on their website - I looked it up to check out some neat stuff about coins after reading Hey Canada! Did you know a coin collector is called a numismatist?

The illustrations are comical and fun - even the little comic strips of Cal's History lessons were fun and enjoyable while learning a bit of history. You can also find Cal on Twitter and follow the journey across Canada.

I think anyone who reads this book will learn a little something from the pages and I believe Hey Canada! is a great read for parents and children to discover together. It's been a lot of fun to read on my own, but I'm pretty sure that if I had read it with my nieces we might have had a lot of laughs, good conversations about the places and probably looked up more info on animals and museums. 

GIVEAWAY

Tundra books is hosting a giveaway for a copy of Hey Canada! via Goodreads and it ends June 27th, so you better hurry if you want to enter for a chance at your very own copy! (Open to US and CANADA only). 

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About the Author:

Vivien Bowers was born in Vancouver, Canada, and was a grade five teacher. She has been a freelance writer for more than twenty-five years, writing elementary and secondary school materials, as well as non-fiction books and magazine articles for both adults and children. She has garnered many awards for her work, including the Canadian Science Association "Science in Socity" journalism award, the Red Cedar Book Award, the Hackmatack Children's Choice Award, and the BC Book Prize. Bowers has two grown sons and lives at the base of the mountains outside Nelson, BC.

About the Illustrator:

Milan Pavlovic holds a Master's degree in illustration and is an award-winning illustrator for children. His work has been regularly published in Europe, in forms of children's and educational books, kid's reviews, daily newspapers and comic magazines.