Hey Canada! Travel through pages from coast to coast!

Hey Canada!
Author: Vivien Bowers
Illustrations:  Milan Pavlovic
Publisher:  Tundra Books, a division of Random House
Pages:  72
Format:  Hardcover
Ages:  Children 7-10 years
Genre:  Children's books/non-fiction/history
ISBN 978-1-77049-255-4
Release date:  May 8, 2012

I am writing this review of Hey Canada! on a small island on the west coast. I have lived in the Yukon, in Alberta, and across B.C. When my two sons were 7 and 9 years old, we were lucky enough to be able to travel across Canada for a whole year. I had not written many books back then, but if I had, I would have wanted to write the book that Vivien Bowers has just created. Illustrated by Milan Pavlovic, Hey Canada! is an interesting, upbeat book that is not only chock full of information, photos and great illustrations - it is FUN to read!

9 year old Alice and her cousin Cal accompany their Gran on this coast to coast trip. In each province, the kids have to find a number of things and readers can search right along. Through blogs and tweets, the three characters share their journey. From cod in Newfoundland to dinosaurs in Alberta, from PEI’s red sand to Nunavut’s throat singing, the book touches on all things Canadian.

Comic strip pages with historical U-Turns, text boxes with additional facts, even side bars on how their hamster is doing on the trip, keep the story moving along and fun to read. Nice, too, to see the same amount of information dedicated to the territories as to the provinces, making this truly a complete trip across Canada.

A great family read for Canada Day!


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